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WAAF
- Thread starter CassChopper96
- Start date
Let's just be honest. Lyndon Byers quit on air due to his disdain of the direction of WAAF. That says two things. One, there are ideas/possible plans for tweaks in the station. Two, WAAF is on nobody's radar as no media outlet (outside of Hill on his WEEI show) or fans addressed the fact that a long time personality on the station quit and walked out mid-show. I assume that Byers wasn't happy as a former Bruins player not being moved over to WEEI with Hill, and being moved to afternoons where it is more music than show. Still, the station is on nobody's radar, and personalities are quitting mid-shift.
There have been 82 comments in this thread, and perhaps four of them mentioned personalities. The audience for this format doesn't appear to care much about personalities. They just want to hear their personal playlist.
Here's an article from the NY Times about the alternative station there:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/arts/music/rock-radio.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
The station is on nobody's radar because much of the music it plays is on the radar of far fewer listeners in the target demo (white, male, 25-44) with each passing year. This has been a rhythmic decade, and the popularity of rhythmic genres is blurring or erasing old racial/ethnic demographic lines, if not rubbing them out completely, especially among young audiences.
I hypothesize that to only be because what the music and radio industry forces down people's throats for new music. If the only new music played involved the didgeridoo, that would be the music that all young people listen to. I've said it countless times, and still reject the notion of the data collected that others reference. New music is either rhythmic or country, therefore that's what people listen to. Play more new rock, and in time a listenership will grow.
You decry that radio forces music "down peoples throats," yet that's what you seem to want them to do here with new rock.
Rock, especially rock with a hard edge, has been declining for the entire millennium. Not only is the fan base shrinking, it is hopelessly fragmented. There are subgenres, sub-subgenres and sub-sub-subgeners of current/active/hard rock with fans who whine, stamp their feet and curse the "consultants" when they hear something on the radio that doesn't meet their ultra-narrow standard for what "good" rock is. Country and rhythmic formats work on radio because there's enough consensus music being produced to satisfy a large percentage of the potential audience. The outliers who want subgenres of country or hip-hop are easily ignored. Radio can't afford that approach with current rock. Softer bands still have a shot on AC formats, but there is almost no consensus on aggressive harder rock, and as said before, many millennials abandoned rock as teens when they found urban sounds more "real" and rebellious-sounding than rock, which had been around so long that it all sounded like (ugh) "dad's music."
And truthfully, some of the rock-based bands and artists who saw there was no future in rock music have taken their songs and talents to country, because as Ken Burns has shown in his PBS series, there's a tradition of rock-based country, starting with Ernest Tubb, then Waylon Jennings, then Tim McGraw, and now Jason Aldean.
Radio, to the greater extent, does not create taste, it tracks it.
That is why stations do research to see what songs people like and dislike, and use. That information makes the framework for new music decisions, too.
Rock has forgotten how to create taste. Radio can play a part, but because the genre is so fragmented, it's not as easy as it once was. These days it takes hard work to influence taste. Here's a question: When was the last time you heard a new rock band visiting a radio station? It happens all the time in other formats.
Having freshly turned 44 would just comment that I haven't tuned in to a rock station since 104.1 WBCN turned over to 98.5. (10 years ago) I do like some country on occasion though.
I am from Chicago, I can't comment on WAAF's personalities (or any personalities on any Boston station) simply because I don't live there. I only started giving WAAF attention due to this thread, typically I listen to KPNT (via app), WXRT, and KRBZ (also via app) for my music fix... or WIIL(via app)/WRXQ for the harder stuff. I can tell you what I think of Laurie from WKQX, or Donny from KPNT, Uncle Freak from WRXQ, or Lazlo and his gang of blabbering idiots on KRBZ if you so desire however.
I would have to listen for weeks to present any informed comments on the talent from WAAF.
I think what Least means is that other formats are way more aggressive with pushing new music while rock formats are being too cautious. Which is something I think has some merit.
Perhaps that's because other formats have aggressive record label promotion staffs who shepherd new music and new artists to radio and beyond, while that process has broken down in the rock format. There is a process and a procedure by which new music gets played. That's how it happens in other formats. That's how it used to work in rock. It doesn't any more. That's a record label problem. As I said, when was the last time you heard a new artist visit a radio station? It happens all the time in the pop and country radio world.
What I see is a view on the part of record labels that new rock artists can simply take their music directly to the people by themselves, and they don't need other intermediaries to push their music. You can see the results this is having.
Correct, if anything, the record labels being the most aggressive right now are the indie labels. Rise, Epitaph, Sumerian, Hopeless, etc. are having unprecedented results pushing their artists onto rock and alternative radio right now, in many cases outperforming major label bands (what's left of them).
Major labels have become apathetic to the format and it is showing with the complete lack of crossover this decade (and no matter how aggressive an indie label gets it's an uphill battle to be taken seriously by a pop or AC format). Unless, of course, it is something akin to Bastille or modern Panic At the Disco which can barely be called rock or alternative.
The last guitar-driven rock song that charged thru pop was the one hit wonder "Come With Me Now" by Kongos, which peaked at #31 on the Hot 100. That was back in 2014, and itself came after a five year gap after Shinedown's surprise success with "Second Chance". If rock is dead, radio and the labels killed it.
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Don't blame radio. This is completely a record label issue.
Added disincentive for the labels: rock is not selling (downloads, streams, physical) in most of the rest of the world. In particular, Latin America has moved away from rock, where many cities used to be on the tours of the bigger names.
And radio has dropped the music because it just does not get audience any longer.
Example: in Buenos Aires there used to be around 30 FM shares for rock stations. Now there are 5 to 6 shares.
A bigger problem is rock isn't drawing. This weekend was supposed to be the River City RockFest in San Antonio, and it was cancelled due to low ticket sales. There's another festival this weekend in Tennessee called The Pilgrimage Festival, and if you look at the artists, it isn't strictly rock. The headliners are the Foo Fighters, but they also have country star Keith Urban, and Americana artists. These festivals are where the new acts will get new fans, and if those festivals are either going away or diversifying beyond rock, its not good for the growth of the genre.
https://pilgrimagefestival.com/
When did this occur? Seems to have gotten no press?
That goes back to my entire point. So you denounce my point, then support it? I'm scratching my head. The labels force out new music from certain formats more than others, and FM radio only focuses on new music from certain formats. I love how radio people refuses to acknowledge where they are somewhat guilty in the topic at hand.
Maybe you don't understand but we don't make money by playing music. The record labels and the artists do. They are the ones who have a vested interest in pushing certain artists or music, not us. We sell advertising. That's it. So it's really up to the labels or the artists to do the work to promote their music. There is no law requiring us to play rock music or new music or any music at all. What I've noticed is some artists don't seem to want to do the work required to get their music to the people. They seem content playing to whatever audiences they have, and aren't aiming to become any bigger. If that's the case, what's our motivation?
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