What is kroq gonna do?

[hotpatrick2004]

Kroq can't seem to catch a break. They are not doin well against kroq in the overall numbers but looking inside the numbers could tell a different story. I bet woody show does better then stryker and klein. They should never have blown up mornings like they did on kroq.

Not having kevin weatherly programming or Kevin and bean mornings holding the station together is taking a toll. I noticed as soon as mike kaplan aka mike the show killer left alt 98.7 there ratings have risen. And as soon as he joined kroq as pd there numbers have fallen but stabilized a bit. They say show killer has failed up. The Woody show says that.

Time will tell.

Opinions...

 

[TheBigA]

Audacy has three stations in the Top 5. No big rush. This is a project, and alternative takes time.

Weatherly allowed the station to get lazy and tired. It will take time to get the excitement up again.

 

[davideduardo]

Weatherly allowed the station to get lazy and tired. It will take time to get the excitement up again.

And management allowed the whole station to be propelled by a disintegrating morning show.

 

[davideduardo]

They should never have blown up mornings like they did on kroq.

The morning show self-destructed. Half of the team retired, the other half could not keep the numbers up and the whole station disintigrated.

Not having kevin weatherly programming or Kevin and bean mornings holding the station together is taking a toll.

Weatherly let the disintigrating morning show decline to horrible numbers. The rest of the day, without both Bean and Kevin loyalty had no strength.

 

[MarkW]

100% agree with you guys regarding Weatherly. I began questioning his decision making two or three years prior to that becoming en vogue.

 

[Brian Bowers]

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong:
-for decades, air talent (along with a well thought out music playlist) builds a loyal audience
-the audience, energetically and compassionately, relates, and forms a bond
-suddenly, that same air talent is either dismissed, fired, or forced to resign, and the playlist is no longer what it used to be
-most then are surprised that listeners have tuned out, or have gone away completely

As some of us may have trouble adjusting to this cycle, 98% of the time, it is the evolution of radio. The pie is being sliced way too thin these days, and there's probably nothing that can be done about the fading radio audience (or demo, that advertisers no longer want). There were some very creative days of radio, and some of us who can remember, will always treasure those memories. Gone are the most creative days of competive mom and pop owned radio stations, vs the big boys. Admit it, corporate conglomeration, greed and debt, have ruined radio.

 

[davideduardo]

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong:
-for decades, air talent (along with a well thought out music playlist) builds a loyal audience
-the audience, energetically and compassionately, relates, and forms a bond
-suddenly, that same air talent is either dismissed, fired, or forced to resign, and the playlist is no longer what it used to be

Or part of a morning team resigns, and the remaining member can't hold the audience.

-most then are surprised that listeners have tuned out, or have gone away completely

If a station like KROQ is sustained by the morning show, and that show disintegrates, the whole tent collapses.

 

[TheBigA]

Admit it, corporate conglomeration, greed and debt, have ruined radio.

Are you saying CBS wasn't a big corporation? When you're talking about music radio, great music makes great radio. And the opposite is also true.

What happened is the music changed. At one time, LA had a very active and organized alternative music community, and the station was embedded with that community. As music tastes splintered, the community splintered, making it harder for a single radio station to attract a consensus audience. All of a sudden a local musician and her producer brother created a huge explosion that completely replaced the music that had been popular before. Then the pandemic hit, shutting down music events and opportunities for the radio station to once again interact with the music community.

So we're towards the end of that cycle, and now it's time for the station to organize some local music events. The music community itself is in disarray, so radio can't depend on the community to help.

 

[hotpatrick2004]

What do y'all think of stryker and klein for a morning show? I thought they were great in afternoons mornings not so much. I think the woody show on alt is much better.

I do miss kroq's rock of the 90s weekends they would have occasionally. But I do like how alt 98.7 has emo weekends occasionally. And on kroq's Sunday mornings post modern I wish they would dig deeper it's the same old alt songs from years past.

 

[Dingeadio]

I agree. I say it's better to hear them in the afternoon as well. They got that vibe that we need late of the day.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

What happened is the music changed. At one time, LA had a very active and organized alternative music community, and the station was embedded with that community. As music tastes splintered, the community splintered, making it harder for a single radio station to attract a consensus audience. All of a sudden a local musician and her producer brother created a huge explosion that completely replaced the music that had been popular before. Then the pandemic hit, shutting down music events and opportunities for the radio station to once again interact with the music community.

So we're towards the end of that cycle, and now it's time for the station to organize some local music events. The music community itself is in disarray, so radio can't depend on the community to help.

So you are saying music stations can't pick great songs that people will like and create programming worth listening to unless there is interaction with the music community? Nonsense. With a captive audience, there was no time like the pandemic for radio to get back in touch with its consumer*, the listener and super-serve them. It is true that some artists held up their releases until the pandemic is over and they have a better opportunity to support their album. Here is an idea - go identify another act then. This may involve homework.

Frankly, I don't listen to commercial radio very much any more, but when I did during the pandemic, what I heard was a lot of schlock that made me want to turn it off. I don't want to hear some tired act singing with acoustic guitars for us some dopey song they just came up with over an internet line from their basement telling us how hard the pandemic has been on them. A lot of people people lost their livelihoods over this, they wanted to turn to radio for something uplifting, what they got in a lot of cases was a drag. Maybe radio could have tried to do something fun to lighten the mood a bit. That is what we come to radio for - entertainment.

And radio should never depend on the "music community" for help. If you get it, fine. But counting on that when your station and your jobs are at stake makes no sense.

* I know the real customer is the advertiser, not the listner, but my point stands anyway. With all of this social networking stuff going on, people are now starting to catch on to the fact that if you are not the paying for a service, you are the product, not the customer. It has always been such, just now more people are starting to get it.

 

[TheBigA]

So you are saying music stations can't pick great songs that people will like and create programming worth listening to unless there is interaction with the music community?

Did I say that? No. I was asked about why KROQ is not as successful now as it was 25 years ago. Back then the music was different. The role radio played was different too. You had someone like Rodney Bingenheimer who was a music insider. That kind of person was part of why KROQ was successful in its day.

With a captive audience, there was no time like the pandemic for radio to get back in touch with its consumer*, the listener and super-serve them.

Get back in touch without touching them. That's another thing that's changed. There is no captive audience. Back then listeners depended on radio to act as intermediary between the musicians and them. No more. No captive audience because everyone makes their own playlist and lives in their own silo.

And radio should never depend on the "music community" for help.

There have been some fantastic movies recently about the LA music scene in the 60s and 70s. Movies about the Laurel Canyon creative community, and how all of those musicians went on to influence an entire generation. Radio was embedded into that community then as it was in the alternative community in the 90s. Now, it's a lot more diffuse. It's hard for radio to attract a mass audience when everyone is doing their own thing. I stick with what I said: Great music makes great radio. That's what people want to hear. Right now, the new alternative music is not so great. So its not a surprise that a radio station that's playing new alternative isn't getting a 5 share.

I think it would be instructive to look to Seattle. For years, they had a community radio station called KEXP. It stumbled along with a 1 share. In the last few months, this small non-commercial radio station has become the #1 station in the 18-49 demo. What changed? If you get the answer to that question, you might find the answer to what KROQ should do.

 

[macattack]

What do y'all think of stryker and klein for a morning show? I thought they were great in afternoons mornings not so much. I think the woody show on alt is much better.

I do miss kroq's rock of the 90s weekends they would have occasionally. But I do like how alt 98.7 has emo weekends occasionally. And on kroq's Sunday mornings post modern I wish they would dig deeper it's the same old alt songs from years past.

Post-Modern plays on all Audacy stations it's not a KROQ program at all. The reason why it plays the same old alt songs from years past is because Audacy phased all of those songs out; you will not hear them on the regular playlist. Other Alts keep many of those songs on their regular playlist (so they have to dig deeper for special retro blocks) but Audacy does not.

They don't have to dig deeper if 98% of classic Alt tracks are gone from the regular playlist, they can just play the biggest hits for a few hours and call it a day.

 

[TheBigA]

Audacy phased all of those songs out; you will not hear them on the regular playlist. Other Alts keep many of those songs on their regular playlist (so they have to dig deeper for special retro blocks) but Audacy does not.

That's the idea. They decided it was time to move on from being a classic alt station and go completely in another direction.

The Audacy country stations (like KSON in San Diego or KFRG in San Bernardino) run a 90s show Sunday morning. Same thing. They don't play 90s during the week. Just Sunday morning.

 

[macattack]

I think it would be instructive to look to Seattle. For years, they had a community radio station called KEXP. It stumbled along with a 1 share. In the last few months, this small non-commercial radio station has become the #1 station in the 18-49 demo. What changed? If you get the answer to that question, you might find the answer to what KROQ should do.

Yeah it's called "KNDD went completely to sh*t". It's pretty logical that they picked up KNDD listeners when they play more KNDD classics (and more new music, with a wider variety of said new music) than KNDD at this point.

KEXP is doing so well right now that they quietly backed off their vow to phase rock music off of the playlist by this time. They know better than to look the gift horse in the mouth.

 

[TheBigA]

Yeah it's called "KNDD went completely to sh*t". It's pretty logical that they picked up KNDD listeners when they play more KNDD classics (and more new music, with a wider variety of said new music) than KNDD at this point.

Which gets back to something I've said about the alternative format: Perhaps it's better as a non-commercial format, where the listeners pay for the station rather than advertisers. Typically non-coms go for the older audiences with AAA (adult alternative). But this station went in the other direction, and Nielsen indicates that the bulk of their audience is between ages of 30 and 40.

 

[Delete My Account]

I wasn't aware KEXP had "vowed" to phase out rock. They did commit to a more inclusive and diverse lineup of DJs and music, but they clearly expressed a continued mission to expose all of the best new music across genres.

 

[macattack]

That's the idea. They decided it was time to move on from being a classic alt station and go completely in another direction.

The Audacy country stations (like KSON in San Diego or KFRG in San Bernardino) run a 90s show Sunday morning. Same thing. They don't play 90s during the week. Just Sunday morning.

While Weatherly was stuck in the past which had already hurt KROQ's ratings a ton, I think dumping all of the old songs right away was a mistake - especially since Zoomers show indications of not being biased against old songs as much as previous generations. I think a more graceful phaseout probably would have worked, but doing a cold turkey flip to a pseudo-CHR was a poor call. KROQ still hasn't been able to get back to the numbers they had during Weatherly's final months.

I wasn't aware KEXP had "vowed" to phase out rock. They did commit to a more inclusive and diverse lineup of DJs and music, but they clearly expressed a continued mission to expose all of the best new music across genres.

They were originally going to go further than that but backed off.

 

[TheBigA]

I think a more graceful phaseout probably would have worked, but doing a cold turkey flip to a pseudo-CHR was a poor call.

It seems like they were trying to phase in more new stuff, but it was such a clash, plus the older listeners hated the new stuff.

 

[Delete My Account]

Can you provide a citation for the assertion that KEXP was going to "remove" rock from its playlist?