I always thought this was a great format it’s a break from traditional radio. However it seems like only the commercial AAA stations do well KBCO,WXRT do well while many other AAA stations are at the very bottom of the ratings pack
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- Thread starter CassChopper96
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Because the audience for the format tends to be older than WPHT. I once did some research and found the average listener to AAA is 66 years old.
But the folks at WXPN do very well with it. For that reason I doubt you'll ever see a commercial station with that format in Philadelphia.
Perhaps because a break from traditional radio faces steep odds when it’s on traditional radio and has to live with traditional radio’s realities.
What is the source of your research? AAA formats usually feature new music, 90s artists, and Classic Alternative. The demos would be younger than Classic Rock, Classic Hits or News Talk formats.
AAA is a niche format. It's not expected to be #1. That doesn't mean it can't be viable. Look at all the failing Alternative formats that are aimed at 18-34 year olds. The product is garbage. The millennials don't care about it.
AAA requires effort in programming. That's too much to ask from today's corporate Radio. It also requires relationship selling which is too much to ask from the sales department...
Baby boomers who think they're not mired in nostalgia the way oldies fans are, because they're seeking out new music. But the new music they're finding is done in styles most appreciated by baby boomers. To most of today's 30- to 45-year-olds, the acts played on AAA radio just sound old, even the ones that feature younger musicians. Nathaniel Rateliff is a perfect example. If you liked Gary US Bonds or early Springsteen, you probably like Rateliff. But listeners whose youth was full of grunge and early hip-hop aren't going to appreciate him.
There are a decent number of alternative stations that are doing okay
The source of my research was the statistics from the stations themselves. Yes they play new music. There are a lot of boomers who want to hear new music. They want to hear new music by artists they know, not tired old hits from the past. The only format that does this is AAA or Americana.
I thought it was interesting that the only station that attempted to recreate Woodstock for the 50th was WXPN. That sound tell you something about their audience. But most of the time they play new music by new artists.
Yes. In the bigger markets, the top dollar buys are often made on programatic platforms where supply and demand set prices and there is no face to face selling at all.
Which is why most AAA stations are non-commercial. They get their money from the listeners, not advertisers. That's the right way to do it.
Have you been following the format lately? It seems like a lot of AAA stations are trying to appeal to people who grew up on Alternative, but are increasingly becoming alienated by the current state of the format. Which would mean people in their 30s and 40s. I myself am 34, and am at a crossroads where Alternative is losing me, while AAA is becoming more and more to my tastes. Though with that said, WXPN does seem a little more "traditional" AAA compared to some other stations.
I have no local reference point for AAA, as neither Hartford nor New Haven has ever had a commercial on noncommercial station try the format. Most of our noncomm stations are either block-programmed, news and talk, or classical/jazz. I was thinking of WUMB Boston and a channel I used to listen to on SiriusXM, The Loft, which has since been taken off the satellites and exiled to online-only with no staffing. WUMB leans Americana, while The Loft was adventurous to a degree but also would give heavy exposure to late-career releases by people like Warren Zevon, Neil Young, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen, whose mainstream-format radio days were behind them. I'll have to check out WXPN online sometime. I'm 64, by the way.
THere is no greater example of this than WXRT, which was the ultimate stereotypical "Boomer" AAA station for eons and was the final holdout of its kind, before finally giving up in 2017 and added 80's, 90's and 00's alternative rock to the playlist (while not removing the 60/70's AOR and soft fare entirely) which managed to get them out of a ratings hole. It's weird to hear a station that will play Bruce Hornsby, Foster the People, INXS, Creedence Clearwater Revival,and Green Day all within the same playlist, but I think they make it work pretty well.
I am suspicious that AAA is going to evolve into being the new "Modern Rock" and absorb the active-and-AAA-leaning alts into it, while the rest will go completely pop. We'll see, especially as the early 2020s should bring trend changes.
If I remember correctly, XRT's audience is mostly 55+ today.
I worked for a cluster in a college town that had a AAA about 20 years ago. At the time, its median listening age was 39. It's still AAA and has about the same audience it did then. It’s a 55+ station now, too.
Even when it was solidly a 25-54 station, it was a tough sell. It got a few agency buys due to the money demo numbers, but local businesses had a lot of perceptions about the audience that numbers didn’t change. They either really wanted to buy the station or couldn’t be talked into it under any circumstance. Plus, the audience was more averse to stopsets. So, we scheduled two breaks instead of 3, like we did on our sister stations, (and for a shorter duration) and always tried to get back to the music sweep before our AC station and the country station across town went into breaks.
I worked for a cluster in a college town that had a AAA about 20 years ago. At the time, its median listening age was 39. It's still AAA and has about the same audience it did then. It’s a 55+ station now, too.
Even when it was solidly a 25-54 station, it was a tough sell. It got a few agency buys due to the money demo numbers, but local businesses had a lot of perceptions about the audience that numbers didn’t change. They either really wanted to buy the station or couldn’t be talked into it under any circumstance. Plus, the audience was more averse to stopsets. So, we scheduled two breaks instead of 3, like we did on our sister stations, (and for a shorter duration) and always tried to get back to the music sweep before our AC station and the country station across town went into breaks.
That's actually the biggest problem with the format. The older the audience, the more they complain about commercials. Which, once again, why it makes a better noncom format. Of course there they complain about the hourly sponsor IDs and the fundraisers. Always complaining.
It also has the musical elitist factor -- the snarky hipster listener who, even when under 55, is still cynical about advertising and unlikely to bite on a sales pitch of any kind.
At least it doesn't have the factor working against it that helped make classical untenable as a commercial format: the carping of the audiophiles, whose home listening experience isn't hampered by the bandwidth and processing of FM.
You should check out "The Current" a noncom station from Minneapolis/St Paul the program director is former pd of y100 and WDRE Jim McQuinn it has a WXPN feel with some WDRE roots mixed in, a little more edgy than WXPN, nice station!
Thanks for the suggestion. Listening now to The Current. I like it. What's the story with them? Do they have a frequency? I don't see one mentioned on the website. Jade (the current on-air host), sounds very together. She verbalizes her thoughts very well. In the few breaks I heard, I don't think I heard her stumble over any words. That already gains points in my book.
As far as I know their on air frequency is 89.3 fm in Minneapolis/St Paul but I'm not exactly sure since I'm here in Philadelphia but that is what it says on the website and their Facebook page, they are a part of Minnesota Public Radio
MPR has this website that shows their stations: https://www.mpr.org/listen/stations/
Last July I was in Minnesota, and listened to The Current in Duluth, Twin Cities, and Rochester over the air, and once I entered Iowa used the app. Mainlined into my bloodstream would be a more accurate term. I like how this station is programmed. Their weekly shows are archived, including local music shows for both the twin cities and Duluth. I really dislike terrestrial radio, but love this station.
A personal favorite show of mine is "Time Machine Tuesdays," where the host features a specific year in music. For a AAA station, they have gone back as far as the late 1950's. The host doesn't pick the usual suspects for songs from a specific year either.
I forgot that radio could still be this good.
Last July I was in Minnesota, and listened to The Current in Duluth, Twin Cities, and Rochester over the air, and once I entered Iowa used the app. Mainlined into my bloodstream would be a more accurate term. I like how this station is programmed. Their weekly shows are archived, including local music shows for both the twin cities and Duluth. I really dislike terrestrial radio, but love this station.
A personal favorite show of mine is "Time Machine Tuesdays," where the host features a specific year in music. For a AAA station, they have gone back as far as the late 1950's. The host doesn't pick the usual suspects for songs from a specific year either.
I forgot that radio could still be this good.
That's great! I hope you not only listen, but you also are a member! Because this station would not exist were it not for its members.
You do not have to live in the state of Minnesota to be a member of Minnesota Public Radio.
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