Talk about bad days. I get stranded in Omaha after a great day with the Nebraska Broadcasters Association (more on this in a future post), the stock market goes down another gazillion points, Delta screws up my return trip to Detroit, and then I open my email Friday morning to read this lovely headline in Radio Ink:
The Dying Rock Format
(When did Radio Ink start screaming and hyping like my local TV news station?)
Apparently following the deaths of WYSP and WHTQ – both to spoken word rebroadcasts of already existing AM news and sports stations – the luminaries at Radio Ink have concluded that Rock – or as they called it “The Music You Grew Up With” – is fading away.
Geez – I thought you guys viewed yourselves as part of the solution rather than the problem. Headlines like these are guaranteed to upset a number of already uptight GMs and their higher-ups as much as their sinking stock portfolios. And they’ll motivate media buyers to call their Rock account executives and jam them even harder on rates. Not good, and worse, it’s much ado about nothing.
To be fair, August has been as tough a month for Rock-related formats as it has been for the Dow. As we know, high-profile stations like WRXP and Q101 both were Merlinized. To be fairer, neither of those stations had seen bona fide success in years, and in the case of RXP, ever. And Cleveland’s WKRK, after having a number of PPM months near or at the top of the 18-34 Adult ranker, bit the dust for the more opportune Sports-Talk format that CBS does so well.
So, is Rock truly on the brink? Is the format – and I guess we’re talking Rock, Classic Rock, Alternative, Triple A, and all their derivatives – in trouble and moving toward the same fate that befell Smooth Jazz? For more than two decades, Rock has been the most highly fragmentable of all formats. If you would have told me back in the mid-‘80s when, along with Tom Bender, I came up with the Classic Rock format that there would be a number of different permutations, I wouldn’t have believed it. But Classic Hits in the early days, thanks to Gary Guthrie and stations like KLH in Milwaukee, and later Classic Rock That Rocks a few years later showed that this format could be sliced and diced.
So in many markets, we’ve ended up with four or even five Rock-formatted stations. In fact, that’s still the case today in Denver, San Diego, Seattle, and many others which are still “over-rocked.” You’re not going to find markets where there are three or four Country, All News, Talk, or Hip-Hop stations. But in Rock radio, it’s been this way for a long time. That puts pressure on all these stations, and inevitably there are going to be drop-outs.
So, when something new and exciting comes along – and in the past, it’s been everything from Jammin’ Oldies to Jack – these tertiary Rock stations (and weaker stations in other formats) are going to be the first to go. Frankly, that’s what YSP was about. It fought the good fight but was a “spoiler station,” designed more to ding Greater Media’s MMR and MGK than it was to be a winner on its own. Stern and Bonaduce are already engaged in one of those mindless WWE debates about whose impact was bigger, but when WIP’s ratings took a hit, there was no question that YSP would be the one to take the bullet. Is that an indictment of Rock or is it more about a broadcaster opportunistically using its assets wisely? This time around, the victim was a Rock station.
But if Rock is dead, you’re going to have to explain that to Greater Media in Detroit and Philly where their two Rock stations are usually Top 5 25-54 adults – and often higher. Or to Simmons, whose Alternative X96 in Salt Lake City is a perennial #1 just about everywhere you look. Or to Entercom in markets like Sacramento, Kansas City, Portland, New Orleans, and of course, Seattle where their Rock-formatted stations are always among the market winners.
There’s not enough room here to list all the markets where Rock formats rule or are among the leaders with 25-54 adults. And now that I’m thinking about it, how about all those AC stations in many large and medium markets struggling to crack the top five in those all important 25-54 adult rankers? Just sayin’.
So, Radio Ink, go pick on Walt Sabo, Cumulus, or the FCC for a while.
Rock radio is the least of the industry’s problems.
But don’t let ME be the lone storyteller here. If you program, manage, own, or are on the air at a winning Rock station in Boston, Boise, or Bakersfield, step up today and let Radio Ink know about how this headline and article fits into your view of the state of Rock.
P.S. And to also set the record straight as the trades report on spoken word debuts that were once Rock formats, consider these flips to talk and sports that have been conveniently forgotten:
- The Ticket (Detroit) – Hot Talk
- KCBS (San Francisco) – Oldies
- The Fan (Minneapolis) – Conservative Talk
- The Game (San Francisco) – Country
- The Fanatic (Philadelphia) – AC/Jazz
- WSB-FM (Atlanta) – Hip-Hop
- WTOP-FM (Washington, DC) – Classical
- KIRO-FM (Seattle) – Oldies
- KRLD-FM (Dallas) – Talk
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Rock in it’s various genres is very much alive in many markets as Fred correctly points out. Think Ed was just stirring the pot for reaction, unless next week he declares Top 40 is dying on the vine.
Thanks for the note, Paul. Top 40 could be next!
Right On, Fred! WONE-FM, Akron has ruled the roost with Adults 25-54 for most of the past two years….and has consistently been a top five station for most of its 26 years. Maybe Ed’s next article will be about the comeback fo the 8-track tape deck.
Biv, thanks for chiming in. Rock is at the top of the food chain in the Great Midwest. Thanks again.
I seem to remember R.I.P. announcements of Top 40 (early 80s) and Oldies (late 2000s), among other less-than-prophetic predictions through the decades. I recall the AM band was also ready for the radio scrap heap.
Trends and formats come and go but there’s always room for a well-programmed, properly positioned radio station. There are lousy rock formatted stations around the country that perhaps deserve to die but that can be said of any format. But, if there’s an opening in the market for the music AND it’s programmed with intelligence, commitment and undying passion, it can be wildly successful. As always…go big or go home. It’s usually up to us.
Thanks, J.J. Appreciate the thought. It IS about doing great radio. As you look at ratings rankers in market after market, Rock and Classic Rock stations are frequently among the leaders in some of them. In others, not so much. But in aggregate, the format (and again, we’re talking about several different Rock-based formats) is healhty.
Entercom’s CEO, David Field weighed in on this story and his thoughts are below:
Last week, in the wake of the CBS flip of WYSP to Sports, you ran a story essentially declaring that rock radio was dying, or at least in significant decline. Respectfully, I think the story was dead wrong and needs to be corrected.
You cited WYSP and a small handful of recent rock stations that have been eliminated to make room for spoken word FM brands. However, you failed to mention the significant number of stations in other formats that have also been eliminated for the same reason. In fact, the evidence shows that the only thing these stations had in common was that they were weak performers.
For the record, here are a number of other recent format flips that demonstrate my point:
Our new sports station in San Francisco, The Game, was country
When we launched KMBZ-FM, we terminated an AC
In fact, we added an additional rock station this year when we put K-Fox on a full San Francisco signal
As for other groups:
WTOP-FM was classical
o WSB-FM was hip hop
o KIRO-FM was oldies/classic hits
o The Ticket/Detroit was hot talk
And The Fanatic here is Philly was AC/Jazz.
Furthermore, rock stations are thriving in many, many markets. A significant number of classic rock stations, active rock stations, AAA stations and alternative stations are market leaders in 25-54 and 18-34 demos. And many markets support more rock stations than AC, country, CHR or any other format.
The fact is that rock radio is generally thriving and I would hate to see false perceptions take hold.
Rock radio is far from dead. The Classic Rock station, yes “The Music You Grew Up With” that I program in Detroit WCSX, just had a 16 week run at #2 in the market 25-54 adults, the #1 Music station! CSX has spent 13 of the last 14 months in the Top 5 25-54. And our sister station WRIF iq always right up there in the top 5 as well. This format is healthy and has many years to go as a viable format. There are many more of the same stories in markets all across America. Thanks Fred for setting the record straight!
Brent, you’re a great example of a programmer who always finds ways to make the music interesting, local, and irrelevant. Your success in Dallas, Nashville, Grand Rapids, Lansing, and now Detroit is proof positive that you’re one of the best out there. Thanks for leading the charge.
Fred
Thank you for setting the record straight with the facts!
There is too much hard work going on in the walls of many radio stations in America for the format to be minimized.
Let’s Rock!
Buzz
Buzz, it all a matter of energy and enthusiasm & your work at Greater Media in Rock/Classic Rock/Alternative has helped keep these formats vital. Thanks for tkaing the time to weigh in on this topic.
Thanks, Fred, for sticking up for Rock. Throughout most of 2011, Alternative Rock WBOS/Radio 92.9 in Boston has been #3 A18-34 (with the exception of the Bruins Stanley Cup run.) That means after Pop music, Rock is the 2nd biggest music format in Boston. Clearly not dead. With all the negative press radio seems to get, I wonder why we are trying to drum up our own.
Thanks for the note, Ken. WBOS is a great example of Alternative scoring big numbers on the East Coast. Meanwhile, Boston is a great example of a market that supports Rock – WROR, WZLX, WBOS, WFNX, WAAF, WXRV, not to mention stations like WODS and WMKK. And several are consistently Top 10 or better – including Greater Media’s WBOS and WROR. Boston Rocks!
ROCK is alive and kickin’ in the Dirty South, Fred. I am proud to work with 2 dominant ROCKERS in Greenville-Spartanburg, SC (BTW, also owned by Entercom).
ROCK 101-WROQ (Classic Rock) finished 2010 #2 persons 25-54 for the year and far and away, #1 Men 25-54. While our Active Rocker, 93.3-The Planet finished #2 persons 18-34 and a wildly dominant #1 Men 18-34.
We hang our heads in shame, wallowing in the despair of kicking much ass.
ROQ on!!!
Mark, thanks for the reinforcement. Your two Rock stations have led the market for years. Many look at the South as a challenging environment for Rock and Classic Rock – but Greenville/Spartanburg, along with Charlotte, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and many others are proof positive that from Skynyrd to Shinedown, Rock continues to rule. Thanks again.
Thank you Fred! There is no denying that Rock is thriving here in Philadelphia even with the the YSP flip!
Nancy
Philly is a great rock town and while it loses a storied Rock station in YSP, the total shares from MGK, MMR, and RFF suggest the format is alive and well. Thanks for your thoughts and support.
Rock may not be dying, but it is not as healthy as many would hope it would be. I see the problem as two fold. First of all, much of the music that is being released by major labels is music that sounds like it fits on the radio. To me, that is a recipe for disaster. There is lots of good music being made that never sees the light of day because it is on smaller labels that don’t have the resources to push it. It still takes money.The indie labels just don’t have it. Many of the Program Directors are too busy to talk to promotion people, or people they don’t know. So, they don’t get promoted on a lot of good music that goes by the wayside.
Secondly, the rotations on newer music is so slow that everytime a new act is played on the radio it is a liability. When I was at MTV we introduced something called “Hip Clip of the Week”. It was a way we found to play something we thought was very good, very often. It got familiar quickly and became an asset rather than a negative every time we played it. To my mind, something like this would benefit the radio stations, band as well as the future of the format. There would be some new interesting music showing up that would get familiar quickly.
Finally,there is a huge untapped market out there. For lack of a better term let’s call it called ALT Folk. Bands like Amos Lee, Fleet Foxes, Carolina, Chocolate Drops and many, many more. Great music, with demos that literally run from 20 to 65. It is hugely popular amongst the NPR crowd, but also among many young people. The average person never heard of any of these bands, with the exception of Mumford and Sons. If this music got more exposure, it could be the new mainstream rock format. New bands, great music, great imaging and an active audience. 60,000 people showed up at the Newport Folk Festival last month. Sold out. Practically none of the artists on the bill receive any serious airplay. What would happen if a powerful radio station would be able to play this music. I think the demos would sell fantastically and it would be the most vital thing to hit rock-oriented radio since the punk rock movement, or grunge. Something to think about.
Jim, thanks for weighing in and the thoughtful response. You speak with great insight about the systemic problems that conspire against the exposure of new music, from the labels to the changing ways in which radio is programmed. At one time, many hoped that HD2 channels could be those “radio sandboxes” that could provide beta tests for new music and new formats. Sadly, things did not evolve that way, and pleasing Wall Street on the one hand and programming to PPM on the other has put more chips on the table. Thanks for again for taking the itme and giving us food for thought.
Classic Rock thriving in New Orleans…Bayou 95.7 posted the best numbers in its history in Spring 11. #1M25-54 all major dayparts.
Andy, and you’ve won in a market where you’d think that Classic Rock might be challenged by a very diverse population and the Katrina event. Great music (and great radio) thrive in markets from New Orleans to Anchorage. Thanks for telling the Bayou side of the story and congrats on all your successes.
Fred, thank you for setting the record straight. Buzz said it very well on Friday, and again today. Look around. Smart radio brothers above, and others across the country making certain that Rock radio is very much alive, and healthy, in many cases the market leader.
Formats flip. All formats. Opportunities are seized. Go wonder.
Silly trade magazine. When it bleeds it leads only works for the 6:00 news. And when something bleeds.
Dave Richards
Vice President / Programming
Entercom / Seattle
99.9 KISW / Celebrating 40 Years of Rock
Well said from one of Rock Radio’s finest programmers – period paragraph.
Thanks, Dave, for perspective from a guy who’s had incredible success in every Rock-based format.
If you notice, most of these stations that are being mentioned as still being successful with Rock have one major thing in common. Consistency!
The stations that are dying are the ones that put all their eggs into the basket of a syndicated morning show and then tweaked their music and presentation to attempt to match that personality at the expense of the entire brand.
When Stern left CBS for Sirius at the end of 2005, there were 25 CBS O&O’s carrying Howard’s show until the very end. Of those, only 5 remain with the same format they had with Stern. It’s not Rock stations that are dying, its stations that put all of their eggs into one basket.
WHTQ Orlando did the same thing, only with Bubba The Love Sponge instead of Howard. They blew up their Classic Rock format this past February and shifted to Active Rock to better suit the Bubba audience. Six months later the format is gone completely.
The successful rockers have fit their morning shows into their brands, not vice versa.
If Howard is saying that he killed WYSP, he’s correct. Only because CBS let Howard completely overshadow the rest of the station at the expense of that brand.
Lance, you only need to look at KISW in Seattle as proof of what you’re saying. The started with a great brand, and have improved their entire station with the addition of B. J. Shea replacing Howard in the morning, as well as The Men’s Room in afternoons. They are a lifestyle station, not a jukebox. And their personalities complement their music – and vice-versa. Thanks for the comment.
I’m not going to say as much as some of the people who have left comments but did want to leave something here. I’ve worked on rock-formatted stations more than any other in my radio career; some good, some bad but the listeners always have so much passion for the music and if that never goes away then neither will rock-formatted radio.
Dave, the P-word is the key to Rock’s success – from Presley to Pearl Jam. Thanks for the thought.
KUFO in Portland, Oregon, was flipped from Active Rock to All Talk just a few months ago. Active Rock is a format that Portland needs and now doesn’t have.
It’s weird the way that works in some markets – voids and holes open up & broadcasters don’t always fill them in-step with consumer demand. Alternative fans are saying the same thing in Chicago & NYC. Didn’t they call it “Butt Rock” in Portland? Thanks for chiming in, Tara.
((“You’re not going to find markets where there are three or four Country, All News, Talk, or Hip-Hop stations.”))
For clarification, in Kansas City, we have three country stations, all in the top ten, none of them in danger of attrition. Topeka has four country stations. So does Wichita. So do many central/midwestern markets.
For any format, success requires good people, good presentation, and giving the listener a reason to return.
Good pooints all, and you’re right. It’s market by market. Our Keith Cunningham now lives in Salt Lake City where there are 6 Rock-formatted stations. Thanks for commenting.
Fred – Great response to the Radio INK/Ed Ryan opinion. Here in the comments you can see many the examples of rock success stories will no doubt go on an on here. Perhaps we should take a look at the ratings for Rock. I did a breakout of the top 20 markets from the Fall of 2007 to the May 2011 PPM monthly reports in my blog
https://davelangeradio.blogspot.com/2011/07/rock-is-not-dying.html
12+ shares for all rock outlets in the top 20 markets are up 18% from Fall 2007!!!
Yes some markets are a bit overcrowded in Rock and right now the music spotlight is clearly on Pop/Dance/Rap/Rhythmic and young country. But that spotlight does move around the stage.
Keep rockin!!!
Thanks, Dave, for confusing this issue with actual facts! Seriously, you are a great observer of the biz with a great resume in Rock radio. (And you worked for US!) Thanks for contributing to this conversation.
Reno, Nevada- two country stations, two sports stations, two CHR stations, three AC stations, three news/talk stations and SEVEN ROCK STATIONS!
If “Rock is Dead”- someone forgot to tell the radio owners here in Reno!
Yup, another example of Rock fragmentation to the third power. Jave, you know how to work in a crowded environment & do it well. Thanks for chiming in.
“the report of my illness grew out of his illness, the report of my death is an exaggeration” MARK TWAIN… Says it all really.
Yes, and this Mark Twain thing comes up every few years. I think the naysayers often miss the business reasons behind these changes. Too often, stations have ratings that are competitive (and we’re talking all formats here) fail to have the sales enthusiasm necessary to market them. The entire medium is experiencing this problem. Dave Martin’s comments go the heart of that issue.
Exactly. And regardless of format, the teams inside the brands have to work a lot more innnovatively to cut through and get the traction many of those brand positions are capable of and deserve.
That’s exactly what happened in Athens, GA five years ago. Bulldog 100.1 (nee Bulldog 103.7) was flipped to Power 100.1, a Top 40 station, not because of ratings, but because the sales department felt they could sell more ads as a Top 40 station than they could as a Rock station. This was about a year and a half after 99X in Atlanta bit the dust in favor of a signal transfer to Q100, also a Top 40 station.
That left people in Athens with just two rock stations left: Project 9-6-1 (Active Rock) and 92.9 Dave FM (Adult Alternative), both of which bit the dust within weeks of each other in 2012. At least there was ample warning about Dave FM’s demise, but lots of people were blindsided by the death of Project 9-6-1.
At the end of 2007, people in Athens had four rock stations to listen to: 92.9 Dave FM, Project 9-6-1, 99X and Bulldog 103.7 (later Bulldog 100.1). At the end of 2012? Zero. Project, 99X and Bulldog were all dumped for Top 40, and Dave FM was dumped for Sports Talk. It’s reached the point where a non-commercial, low-power FM station had to step in to fill the void. Bulldog 93.3 is an all-purpose rock station that went on the air in February, and I definitely enjoy having it, but I can’t hear it any more than 10 to 15 miles from the city.
By the way, I have nothing against Top 40 radio necessarily. The format is much better now than it was 10 years ago. In fact, when I’m my truck and I’m not listening to Bulldog 93.3, I’m typically listening to Power 100 or Star 94. I just think it’s strange that I can hear four Top 40 stations loud and clear where I live, but also went for a good year and a half without even one rock station. The silver lining is, the death of Project 9-6-1 enabled me to find 98.9 The Rock in Kansas City, which I stream pretty regularly when I’m on my computer.
Speaking of Active Rock, I think one thing that would greatly help the format is to include more “forgotten” hard rock and heavy metal bands in the mix, like Ministry, King’s X, Dream Theater, etc., and also to do some deeper and heavier cuts of the more famous bands. (Using Nine Inch Nails as an example, include “Wish” and “The Perfect Drug” with “Head Like A Hole” and “Closer.”) If Alternative is going in the “indie pop” direction and catering to the 15-34 crowd, and Classic Rock continues to cater to the 45+ crowd, then maybe Active Rock should go in a heavier direction while also catering more to the 25-54 crowd. Play the heavy stuff from the ’80s, ’90s and today.
Bravos, Fred. Thanks for taking on this canard. Perspective is worth 10 IQ points, so said Gary Hamel. Let’s put this issue into perspective: the dead meme makes good copy and has for decades. From Variety pronouncing the entire medium gone “Radio is Dead” a 1949 piece about stars of the day migrating their acts to TV, to the demise of music radio on AM written by Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue in his now famous 1967 Rolling Stone article “AM Radio Is Dead and Its Rotting Corpse Is Stinking Up the Airwaves,” to the modern day sport of declaring specific formats past their best used by dates and, coming full circle, the present, ongoing over/under betting on the expiration date of terrestrial radio. Cue Don Henley “It’s interesting when people die. Give us dirty laundry.”
While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, none of us are afforded the convenience of our own facts.
Two points.
In 1947, perhaps the peak of radio’s so called Golden Era, a CE Hooper survey found 82 of 100 Americans listened to radio. Today, Arbitron data indicates that number is north of 90 of 100. Consumption remains healthy and competitive.
The bigger issue here is, as is too often the case, being overlooked. Format changes, no matter the logic or efficacy, are business remedies. The disease or injury being financial. As long as we are held hostage to transactional (i.e., the ranker mindset of push-print-and-buy) stations that produce the right metric will prevail while those that do not will be subject to a death sentence. The tie-breaker is typically the productivity of the sales organization. Please allow me to suggest the one format most deserving industry attention these days is the format used by our sales teams.
WRXP and WKQX serve as a good examples. WRXP managed to deliver a cume of over two million, WKQX posted a cume of about one million. Both happened to be rock music stations that were unable to produce the time spent to achieve a competitive AQH ranker position. It seems reasonable to suggest both stations failed in generating the revenue needed to survive. Moreover, the real story is not the death of their respective music formats but rather the stations’ new ownership imagining a greater business potential in spoken word.
Dave, as always you bring great perspective to this discussion. It IS a canard, and observors often miss the motivations behind format changes. I spoke with Steve Knopper, a Rolling Stone reporter when Merlin terminated RXP and KQX. I suggested to him that the impetus for these changes had more to do with Merlin’s desire to try spoken word on FM than an aversion to Rock formats. As you correctly point out, these moves to talk/sports on FM are indeed business decisions, which is why these new stations come from a variety of different formats. And by the way, where’s that “bubbleheaded bleached blonde” when you really need her? Thanks for contributing.
This is such a wonderful conversation going on here Fred; thank you for being the spark. Dave- your had me with “Give us dirty laundry”, in my opinion that was all the explanation needed, and the alpha & omega of this Issue.
Deliberately misguided and foolish writing from our own industry pubs breaks my heart, and is incredibly damaging. Thanks Radio INK.
I still come back to a position of “If your station went dark tomorrow, how many angry fans would swarm to complain, and miss you like crazy.” Creating a Radio brand with a unique story to tell, that resonates with listeners, is not limited by format.
Obviously there is a strategic (financial) factor at play when it comes to killing a format- but if you’ve put value and effort into creating a Radio brand worth caring about… and still can’t sell it… then your issue isn’t the format, and listeners’ tastes are a lousy patsy.
Are you structured for sales first, or for delivering a remarkable experience to your customers? It’s real tough to demand results from the former if you haven’t been able to deliver on the latter. Thanks for continuing to be awesome Fred, and Dave.
Jaime, you have hit the proverbial nail on the head. It has always been less about formats than it is about approach, commitment, and execution. In the early days of Classic Rock, some of my client stations were far from stellar. They jumped into the format because it was hot and because there was a promise of instant ratings. But there wasn’t always commitment from the top. Thus, you could always sense a lack of passion which led to the end product being a nice collection of songs, without much value to an audience or a community. This is why this talk about scalable radio as the consolidation march continues 25 years later suggests that some companies will miss the mark when it comes to creating viable brands that matter. Thanks again for contributing to this conversation and for reading our blog.
In your list, you forgot that two years ago, the legendary WBCN here in Boston was flipped, part of a shuffle station owner CBS Radio pulled off.
Hot AC-formatted WBMX moved to WBCN’s old spot on the dial, while WBMX’s old spot on the dial was taken by an all-sports station, WBZ-FM (also known as “98.5, The Sports Hub”).
And there have been rumors ever since then—which I’ve been hearing again in recent weeks—that Entercom may soon move it’s all-sports WEEI to the FM dial, which would most likely mean the demise of WAAF which is—-you guessed it—-a long-standing rock station.
Entercom may have one reason to consider moving WEEI to FM: WBZ-FM had a strong Spring in the ratings (probably because it is the radio home of the Boston Bruins hockey team, which won the Stanley Cup for the first time in almost four decades; WBZ-FM may also have a strong Fall book since it carries New England Patriots football games).
Were WEEI to move to FM, it might happen either at the start of Oxctober (to coincide with the beginning of post season play for the Boston red Sox baseball team, which WEEI carries) or next Spring (to coincide with the start of thwe 2012 baseball season).
Correct on BCN and the frequency shift with BMX. As for those other rumors, if anything happens it will be driven by a business decision that is format agnostic. It’s a message to all cluster programmers that to be the lowest-rated station in the group is always a liability and a reason to watch your back. Thanks for the comment.
Well this may not be the complete response you’d hope for but ….I still listen…it’s just that I listen mostly to Sirius XM and most often find myself with Pat St John on Deep Tracks and Jam On and from time to time Classic Rewind and another classic rock station. So, the format certainly isn’t dying in my opinion and I’m listening. I’m just listening to satellite.
So THAT’S where you’ve been. It is challenging for broadcast stations to go deep and do it consistently. And those of us who have programmed know that deeper tracks are very personal. If “Disraeli Gears” was a big deal in your dorm, it still has resonance today. If not, you’re listening to Doug-FM. Thanks for joining this conversation, Mike, and hopefully we’ll get you back someday.
I’ll end my day by saying Ed Ryan’s favorite song is very likely to be “Muskrat Love” by C & T.
He admits he doesn’t like the format in any form. But I think we can all get along 🙂
Virgil, we CAN all get along. (Actually, I was thinking “Feelings.”)
Hi Fred,
Thanks for the eloquent defense of the rock format! Here’s another station that flipped to sports from a non-rock format you can add to the list to bolster your case:
Hubbard’s WXOS St. Louis…now Sports as 101 ESPN, it was formerly Hot AC WMVN (Movin’ 101.1). The flip was 1/1/09
The good news is that in pronouncing Rock’s death, Ed was paving the way for others to wish it “Happy Birthday”!
Yes, and what a celebration it has been. It has been gratifying to hear from so many people over the past 24 hours. Thanks, rock radio community, for stepping up.
Fred, so true about the energy and enthusiasm, when Buzz and I relaunched WMGK in Philly, the passion and excitement inside the building that spring and summer was incredible. Look at a market like Memphis, the rock station there is kicking butt.(in a market that’s 50-60% Urban) I think Ed needs to spend some time in the halls of those great stations in Detroit Rock City or Philly.
Steve Richards
Program Director
WRMF-FM
West Palm Beach
Steve, thanks for the perspective. You guys built something in Philly that is still very viable today. MGK is a station that combines great music with wonderful, in-the-know, and passionate DJs, and a commitment to the community. It can be done anywhere, but it certainly isn’t being done everywhere. When clients ask me why a station in the same format in another market is seemingly doing better, there are lots of reasons that have little to do with the library of songs they play. It is not about Selector, PPM rules, or how much money we can save by voicetracking a couple of “airshifts.” It IS about buiilding brands and franchises. Those stations always find a way to beat back new competitiors while creating something special in their markets that fans connect with. Thanks for adding a strong comment to this very LONG string.
Rock and Roll is not dead. It is just that some corporations don’t want to deal with having to work for their money. They want some simple talk radio jockeys to rile people up to keep their station bringing in money. The vast majority of us got tired of the same old songs day after day with the lack of playing all the songs that are missing. And then someone came along and filed the void. It’s called Jack FM https://www.997jackfm.com at 99.7 on the dial so you could take away 96.5 WHTQ and put it on Hybrid Delivery where most of us don’t hear it. But we will find something else that is better. Jack FM rocks!
A satisfied customer! We have always said that in radio, there’s something for everybody. While broadcast radio may not serve every taste, I’m glad it’s serving yours. Thanks for writing.