I've noticed that ALT 98.7's playlist has started mirroring KROQ's. I have a contact at Entercom who also told me the format shift has really helped increase TSL. They did not give me exact numbers, but is it possible that the format shift from Alternative Rock to Pop and 2 Minute Promise has started to have an impact in LA?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KYSR Sounding More Like KROQ?
- Thread starter radiojomo
- Start date
There is a headline in tomorrow's Jerry Del Colliano's Inside Music Media: "Entercom To Rethink Alt Rock"
The insiders believe the switch to a national approach is not working and that changes have to come due to bad billing in most markets and lack of events and non-traditional spot revenue.
Field has not done a stellar job with his country efforts, either... starting with the morbid Camel in Phoenix.
The insiders believe the switch to a national approach is not working and that changes have to come due to bad billing in most markets and lack of events and non-traditional spot revenue.
Field has not done a stellar job with his country efforts, either... starting with the morbid Camel in Phoenix.
And it will continue as such due to the pandemic. No concerts at all.
Maybe the clue is in the headline. There's no Rock in Entercom's version of Alt, and it's boring. Some of us have been saying that on this forum for a while now.
From what I've heard the format captain at Entercom firmly believes rock is dead and the only way the Alternative format can survive is by becoming a broad appeal pop format. He is also deliberately trying to expedite the departure of veteran and rock artists from the format by ordering his stations to not play said artists no matter what the demand says.
I've listened to some Entercom Alt post-consolidation and it's a cold, impersonal, and dreary listen. There is no opportunity to relax and enjoy the music because the "two minute promise" is constantly breaking in. The DJs I have heard sound more uninspired, fake, and clearly pre-recorded than the worst iHeart DJ I have ever dealt with. WNYL especially is just exhausting from a spiritual level, they are not hiding how miserable of an environment Entercom must be to work there; or how little they enjoy the songs they're being forced to spin.
What took him so long?
Here's how this works: This is a job. Like most people, he's evaluated based on his success. It really doesn't matter what he believes. If all his stations are dropping, and this keeps heading in this direction, he will get fired. If on the other hand things magically turn around by April, he'll get a raise.
You are absolutely correct. I did not say that this would not be the case for the record. I may disagree with it but if things turn around he's a genius and he'll deserve that raise.
Exactly. Been dead since the Clinton administration. In other news he should be catching up on, he will need to ensure all of his organization's operating systems are Y2K compliant.
The (corporate radio) Alternative format needed a shake up to drag it into the 21st century, and Mike Kaplin was the man who did it. Unlike a lot of people on this board, I favor musical diversity in the format. The format by nature is musical genre fluid. As for Entercom, when I saw that they had introduced the 2 minute promise, I knew it was a short term measure. I imagine that with the economy the way it is/was, the lack of revenue drove the decisions. Also, killing off a lot of local talent, to be replaced by generic voicetracked network talent, wasn't going to work. I've listened to a few Entercom Alt stations since the rollout of syndicated voicetracks, and I sense that there is no connection with the audience. I wonder if the launch of ALT 98.7 in Detroit, and the talk of local talent, was a hint at what's to come for the other stations.
Kaplan's "Alt" is the opposite of diverse. It's narrowly focused on alt pop.
In Alternative's heyday, stations would play everything from say, Cranberries (pop) to White Zombie (rock) to Radiohead (quintessential alternative). That's what diversity actually sounds like, and what made the format so compelling
Today you've just got number crunchers running what used to be a format for the musically adventurous. Their goal is play it safe and it will fail because that's the antithesis of what the format should be.
I heard the same exact thing said 20 years ago. There have always been number crunchers involved. People want to get paid. The difference was back then, the record labels and artists took an active role in promoting their music to radio. Today, they just throw their music at the internet and wait for people to discover it. This is their music. They need to become more active in its presentation. If the format fails at radio, the station just changes format. But what happens to the music when it loses a vehicle to reach an audience?
Sure, but there used to be a better balance between them and the creative side. So many of the brilliant music minds along with talented airstaff are gone due to budget cuts but the same doesn't seem to be true among the executive ranks of these companies.
We're down to the big three music companies controlling the whole music industry now. More than anything that's probably what has narrowed the quality and diversity of music. And consolidation in the radio industry has narrowed it even further.
Yes, everyone moved to the internet for music discovery and it's no wonder why. There's still a great opportunity for radio to do music discovery right but I don't believe we're going to see it from these players.
The number of currents has increased at KROQ so they are providing more music discovery now than they were five years ago. It hasn't paid off in the ratings. Perhaps the audience really isn't as interested in music discovery as people think.
Maybe KROQ is playing the wrong currents.
The winds seem to be shifting to the rise of alt-soul as well as general rock revival. KROQ and the rest of Entercom pay lip service to alt-soul at best and ignore rock revival. Maybe that's not the wisest choice. We'll see.
It's never radio's fault for what it puts out on the airwaves. "The labels simply won't do our jobs for us, how are we to put on a quality product using our own judgement unless they tell us first?"
It's a partnership. Or it's supposed to be. They share in the benefits. Shouldn't they be involved?
You are responsible for what goes out over your station.
When the station dies because of neglect, all of the station personnel lose their jobs; no one who works for the label does. Why should you be giving them so much influence when clearly they do not have as much skin in the game as you?
- Status