Entercom's alternative experiment not a success?

[chrocket87]

Well, it looks like the iHeart stations are getting on board with “Beggin” too. It’s kind of interesting to see a new artist with two songs moving up the charts at the same time, though my guess is “Slave” will stall out soon.

“Beggin” is a legitimate hit and it fits the sound of Alternative better, so I don’t blame programmers for striking while it’s hot.

 

[TheBigA]

It’s crazy if KROQ still hasn’t added “I Wanna Be Your Slave.” Open your ears.

Actually it's on KYSR. Beggin' is #2 current on KROQ. Not playing Slave yet.

I haven't heard the edit for Slave yet. He says the F word pretty loud several times in the song.

 

[macattack]

Actually it's on KYSR. Beggin' is #2 current on KROQ. Not playing Slave yet.

I haven't heard the edit for Slave yet. He says the F word pretty loud several times in the song.

The edit changes the F-bomb to "really" a couple of times, but the "f-ing monster searching for redemption" line gets the curse muted instead of re-recorded.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Actually it's on KYSR. Beggin' is #2 current on KROQ. Not playing Slave yet.

I haven't heard the edit for Slave yet. He says the F word pretty loud several times in the song.

A station with the letters KROQ shouldn't be playing anything that isn't rock.

Who's doing active rock in LA, if anyone?

 

[victorres43]

A station with the letters KROQ shouldn't be playing anything that isn't rock.

Who's doing active rock in LA, if anyone?

Is active rock really a bankable format at this point? I know in Houston, the "alternative" station 94.5 The Buzz is successful by playing the likes of Staind, Puddle of Mudd, Disturbed, and Creed ad nauseum, but that is the exception rather than the rule.

Neither active rock nor alternative rock have a wealth of insanely popular new material to play, and it shows in the ratings of stations nationwide, particularly in major cities (with only a few exceptions). Heck, even Boston isn't really a rock market anymore, and they used to have rock stations up and down the dial! (Think WFNX, WAAF, and WBCN) Atlanta and Miami aren't very hospitable towards rock, either.


With that being said, rebranding KROQ won't help ratings, even if the rebranding may seem accurate for the music they play. KROQ skid through the past decade playing lots of pop-sounding indie, even if they didn't sit near the top of the ratings.

 

[chrocket87]

So, my wife and I are in SoCal for our annual baseball stadium trips and I put both “Alt” and KROQ on. To my surprise, KROQ played the new Foo Fighters “Making A Fire” twice within a 4 hour span! The gold material sounded good on both stations- I heard Incubus “Anna Molly” on the radio for the first time in YEARS on 98.7. I was pleasantly surprised by my sampling while braving the traffic.

 

[tall_guy1]

A station with the letters KROQ shouldn't be playing anything that isn't rock.

Who's doing active rock in LA, if anyone?

They no longer pronounce it "K-rock" though. It's "K-R-O-Q" now.

 

[vchimpanzee]

They no longer pronounce it "K-rock" though. It's "K-R-O-Q" now.

My opinion is that the letters should go to a station that actually plays rock and calls it Rock.

 

[TheBigA]

My opinion is that the letters should go to a station that actually plays rock and calls it Rock.

What's "rock?"

 

[vchimpanzee]

It’s crazy if KROQ still hasn’t added “I Wanna Be Your Slave.” Open your ears. The song is a hit for Alternative.

Even my wife and kids who don’t like most Alternative like the song. That’s because it’s basically a pop song with a rock sound. Just play it and stop overthinking things.

I was supporting this view.

 

[MarkW]

I've noticed some music changes on low rated Alt 98.7 in Detroit over the past week. Heavier songs & artists from the 90's and early 2K's have found their way into regular rotation. Examples: "Comedown" by Bush. "American Idiot" by Green Day. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" by Smashing Pumpkins. All great additions.

Also hearing more Linkin Park, an artist the station should've been playing frequently from day one. Just goes to show the incompetence behind the Audacy "Alt" brain trust...

Although the recent and long overdue music tweaks are nice, unfortunately:
- the new product the station plays continues to mostly suck and is much too wimpy for the Metro Detroit market
- the clutter between songs is extremely annoying. I don't need a 20 second promo announcing a commercial break in front of every single commercial break.
- the morning show is garbage (Kane had difficulty mustering a 1.0 share when he did mornings at Go 96.3 in Minneapolis) and the afternoon show belongs on a talk station.
- the horribly implemented automation system cuts off the last few seconds of every song immediately preceding the commercial break intro.
- I'd rather have fewer commercial breaks an hour and somewhat longer breaks than the short but highly frequent breaks.

 

[chrocket87]

Mark, I couldn’t agree more with your last point. Like I said in my last post, I did a lot of flipping between KROQ and Alt and it seemed after four or five songs, here come the “Two Minute Promise” sweepers. It seemed like they were constantly going to break.

They obviously ran the same programming in San Diego, but I only listened to Alt 94.9 briefly before switching to 91x for the rest of my vacation. The five minute breaks were worth it for better music and knowing I’ve got a bit of time with nonstop music when the break ends.

 

[MarkW]

Can't say I blame ya; 91X is an outstanding station.

 

[TheBigA]

Another alternative format brand manager has resigned:

Radio Industry News, New Music, Music Promotion, Radio Station Song Charts

All Access offers the latest radio industry news and music news, music promotions for record companies new music, radio station song charts, and much more. AllAccess.com has been serving the radio and music industry since 1995, always bringing you the highest quality content with...

www.allaccess.com

This follows several other resignations or reassignments from the format in LA, Chicago, and other markets.

 

[CTListener]

Another alternative format brand manager has resigned:

Radio Industry News, New Music, Music Promotion, Radio Station Song Charts

All Access offers the latest radio industry news and music news, music promotions for record companies new music, radio station song charts, and much more. AllAccess.com has been serving the radio and music industry since 1995, always bringing you the highest quality content with...

www.allaccess.com

This follows several other resignations or reassignments from the format in LA, Chicago, and other markets.

Foreshadowing the deep-sixing of the alt format, or indicating some sort of epiphany reached that harder, guitar-driven, female-repellent music is, and always has been, the only way to go -- and that new managers who agree are being sought and will be deployed to those markets as soon as possible?

 

[macattack]

Foreshadowing the deep-sixing of the alt format, or indicating some sort of epiphany reached that harder, guitar-driven, female-repellent music is, and always has been, the only way to go -- and that new managers who agree are being sought and will be deployed to those markets as soon as possible?

I suspect deep-sixing in some markets. KVIL is doing really, really badly and Bailey was the one pushing the buttons (such as they are) there.

Bailey judging by her Hot Pick history was one of two brand managers who had any taste for guitar-driven alternative rock (the other being Andy Hawk of KKDO), so I don't think this relates to your other theory.

Alternative in Dallas was never going to work with the pop lean. It needed to lean AAA or lean Active to have any shot.

 

[tall_guy1]

Foreshadowing the deep-sixing of the alt format, or indicating some sort of epiphany reached that harder, guitar-driven, female-repellent music is, and always has been, the only way to go -- and that new managers who agree are being sought and will be deployed to those markets as soon as possible?

They already moved away from the alt-pop though. Most of the Audacy alts play a lot of guitar-driven well-worn favorites these days like Smashing Pumpkins and Linkin Park.

 

[macattack]

They already moved away from the alt-pop though. Most of the Audacy alts play a lot of guitar-driven well-worn favorites these days like Smashing Pumpkins and Linkin Park.

Their currents and recurrents are still predominantly alt-pop but the gold tracks are guitar stuff. I think they're trying a different strategy to get the alt-pop stuff to go down better.

They have also added a small selection of bog standard Alt artists; WALK THE MOON, Vance Joy, Cold War Kids. Imagine Dragons kinda counts at this point too.

It's how Kaplan used to program in the late 90's and 00's.

 

[MarkW]

That is a good synopsis, macattack.

I would like to mention the increased spins to "guitar-driven well-worn favorites," to use tall_guy1's description, began happening only recently (within the last 2 or 3 weeks in the case of my home market).

I completely agree with you that it appears to be an attempt to make the alt-pop currents & recurrents "go down better."

The Dallas-Ft. Worth station suffers from the same malady as the Detroit station: "The Church of Lazlo" in afternoon drive. I think both stations will have a difficult time improving their ratings so long as that programming remains in place. Listeners to the format don't want to hear some old guy bloviating about boring topics in lieu of music.

 

[tall_guy1]

That is a good synopsis, macattack.

I would like to mention the increased spins to "guitar-driven well-worn favorites," to use tall_guy1's description, began happening only recently (within the last 2 or 3 weeks in the case of my home market).

I completely agree with you that it appears to be an attempt to make the alt-pop currents & recurrents "go down better."

The Dallas-Ft. Worth station suffers from the same malady as the Detroit station: "The Church of Lazlo" in afternoon drive. I think both stations will have a difficult time improving their ratings so long as that programming remains in place. Listeners to the format don't want to hear some old guy bloviating about boring topics in lieu of music.

It did alright in Kansas City, but that was when it was a local talk show. They'd also open new music mail and have local listeners see if they liked it. It should go back to being a KC-only show, because I don't think the syndication thing is working out for them.