Less is more

MANILA, Philippines - When 105.1 Crossover started 14 years ago, all they wanted was to give Filipino music lovers relaxing jazz and R&B music.

The station’s top honcho, Louie Villar, recalls that their thrust was in response to the horrendous traffic jams in the metro back then.

“We wanted to give motorists access to soothing music they could hear in the background while they’re in transit. When you’re trapped in traffic, the last thing you want to hear is loud, annoying music,” says he.

Through word-of-mouth, people, mostly young professionals, began to tune in to the station even at work, at home and during down time.

Indeed, what was grounded on quiet, created one of the loudest noises.  

“They liked that we played songs by such artists as Al Jarreau, George Benson and Swing Out Sister. They liked it that the music stayed in the background but are melodic enough for them to sing along if they choose,” says he.      

 Although 105.1 Crossover benefited from people’s stress, it was not without a price.

“We made a niche and to maintain that niche, we have to be consistent. Even when the station began making headway in listenership, we stayed true to our target market. We made a decision to keep this market, rather than expand and compromise the music,” says Villar.     

True to its thrust, 105.1 Crossover does not have DJs hosting their programs.

“The thing with having a DJ is the tendency for his program to become personality-centered. It’s human nature to love hearing your own voice and all that talk inadvertently eats up the time that could’ve been used playing music,” explains Villar.

Lest it’s misconstrued that all the station offers is therapy or mere alternative to pop stations, Villar points out that the primary reason 105.1 Crossover became a hit is because of the music.

Coming from a family who owned and ran one of the country’s first recording label, Villar Records, the man certainly knows how to wield the strengths and work around the weaknesses of the system.   

“Everything we play is carefully selected. The arrangement, the lyrics, the artist...all have to meet our standards before these are broadcast. If the playlist of pop stations are based on Top 40, ours is on quality,” says he who claims to source many of their materials from abroad, way before they are made available in local shelves.

The decision to stick to their guns paid off. Soon, people were taking to the “cool” sound and began referring to it as “crossover” music — a testament to successful branding.

The music Crossover played eventually gave birth to a series of CDs that not only turned Gold, but Platinum, too. Being a musician, Villar has his pulse on what works for the Filipino music lovers which he applied accordingly in finalizing the track list for every Crossover CD.

That is, most of the songs are remakes and talk about love.

“Filipinos are romantic and sentimental. Give them music that caters to these two points and you have a hit,” says he.

The station also ventured into producing concerts. Some of their biggest shows featured international artists David Benoit at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), Bobby Caldwell at the Araneta Coliseum and recently, Basia.

But it was the concerts headlined by local artists that cemented the station’s reputation in the scene.

“Our local artists love the kind of concerts we offer them to hold because they are given the chance to experiment with the repertoire. They are able to show off the other side of their musicality, even as their fans discover a new facet to these artists,” says Villar.

105.1 Crossover was also the only radio station that broadcast news that’s culled from CNN. Nowadays, the station’s news items come straight from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).

Typical of the station’s image, 105.1 Crossover celebrates its 14th year by coming up with more of the same.

“More big and pocket concerts, more programs with music that crossover to different genres such as soul and ‘80s music, and, of course, more music that bridge the generation gap,” says Villar.

Indeed, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

And 14 years of Crossover success has surely proven that sometimes less is more.    

(Watch out for Crossovers’ upcoming project The Spinners live at the Araneta Coliseum on March 26 and March 27 at Waterfront Cebu. The Spinners is the group behind such great love songs like Couldn’t Be We’re Falling In Love, I Don’t Wanna Lose You, Neither One of Us, among others.)