Alt 92.3

[TheBigA]

So, if what you say is true, then Music Choice is the number one music app.. however, it is not.

It's a curated playlist that's mostly available through cable TV. That's mostly how people know it. They aren't as aggressive in marketing their service as Spotify or Pandora. They'd probably be more successful if their business model wasn't stuck in the 80s. But you could say the same thing about OTA radio.

Tell me a popular music app that is built around live & local DJs. There isn't one.

 

[Mediafrog+]

It's a curated playlist that's mostly available through cable TV. That's mostly how people know it. They aren't as aggressive in marketing their service as Spotify or Pandora. They'd probably be more successful if their business model wasn't stuck in the 80s.

Love the "stuck in the 80s" comment. From a technical perspective Music Choice was a digital update and progression from the various analogue "Cable FM" services that popped up in the late 1970s/early 80s, such as Music in the Air, Ray-tel Cable Radio, the WFMT and KKGO satellite delivered superstations, as well as locally produced options.

 

[TheBigA]

Love the "stuck in the 80s" comment.

Not meant as a negative. I have several friends who work there.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Well you can't listen to Music Choice on your smart speaker. I can't even play them on Sonos even though I'm still a cable subscriber, and that platform plays just about everything including SiriusXM which also requires a subscription. So whatever decade they're stuck in, it's definitely not the 2020s.

 

[dcowboy7]

I love music choice.
Just music no idiot djs.
& their country station "today country" is actually better than the siriusxm country station "the highway" cause TC plays the hits just like a pop top 40 station does.
The highway meanwhile plays too many maybe future hits.

 

[CTListener]

I love music choice.
Just music no idiot djs.
& their country station "today country" is actually better than the siriusxm country station "the highway" cause TC plays the hits just like a pop top 40 station does.
The highway meanwhile plays too many maybe future hits.

The Highway has an agenda, to break new artists who will take country in a more adventurous direction than the bro country rut it's been in for much of this millennium. SiriusXM definitely needs a more mainstream hit country channel.

 

[TheBigA]

The Highway has an agenda, to break new artists who will take country in a more adventurous direction than the bro country rut it's been in for much of this millennium.

The funny part is that SiriusXM is directly responsible for most of the "bro country" stars today. They broke Florida Georgia Line and Cole Swindell. Without The Highway, neither of those acts would have careers.

 

[John Waywoods]

It's a curated playlist that's mostly available through cable TV. That's mostly how people know it. They aren't as aggressive in marketing their service as Spotify or Pandora. They'd probably be more successful if their business model wasn't stuck in the 80s. But you could say the same thing about OTA radio.

Tell me a popular music app that is built around live & local DJs. There isn't one.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not criticizing Music Choice as I use the app often when reading a book. Also, I did not reference live and local DJs, I referenced situations where the on-air person is allowed to let their personalities add to the program. Also, I am not referencing morning show. A good example is SXM 70s with Jaybaugh and Alt Nation with Kennedy.

 

[TheBigA]

I referenced situations where the on-air person is allowed to let their personalities add to the program.

The role of the DJ has greatly diminished because the artists don't need a translator any more. In the 80s and 90s, artists needed someone explain who and what they are. Today, the smart artists can do it themselves in social media. Artists are becoming their own DJs. It's really changed the media environment. You have Nikki Stix, Alice Cooper, and many more hosting radio shows. The DJs become superfluous compared to the information you get directly from artists. That's what WNYL should look into.

 

[CTListener]

The role of the DJ has greatly diminished because the artists don't need a translator any more. In the 80s and 90s, artists needed someone explain who and what they are. Today, the smart artists can do it themselves in social media. Artists are becoming their own DJs. It's really changed the media environment. You have Nikki Stix, Alice Cooper, and many more hosting radio shows. The DJs become superfluous compared to the information you get directly from artists. That's what WNYL should look into.

I know SiriusXM doesn't reveal any audience figures, but I'd be curious as the the bang per buck it's getting out of the artist-curated channels it's added in the past few years. Do listeners prefer recorded snippets from Garth Brooks every few songs on his own channel (which plays artists other than Garth 3 out of every 4 songs, on average) to the generic voicetracked blah-blah that his songs on Prime Country get?

 

[TheBigA]

I know SiriusXM doesn't reveal any audience figures, but I'd be curious as the the bang per buck it's getting out of the artist-curated channels it's added in the past few years.

I think they do the artist channels for prestige. Money and prestige, in that order. The artist shows are the kind of specialty shows you used to hear on FM 30 years ago. That's the influence of Lee Abrams. People may not listen to those shows all the time, but they know they're there. They can listen if they want to. Most of the time, they just want the candy, not the meat. But what's missing from Alt92.3 is the sense of community that fans used to have with their music. That the people at the radio station are living the same life that the fans and the artists are living. It's all one life. Radio programmers need to think about that every now and then.

 

[Least]

I love music choice.
Just music no idiot djs.
& their country station "today country" is actually better than the siriusxm country station "the highway" cause TC plays the hits just like a pop top 40 station does.
The highway meanwhile plays too many maybe future hits.

Personal disdain for country music aside, the Top 40 presentation doesn't always speak to all people. Some people want a Deep Cuts presentation. Some people want to see unknown bands/artists. Some people want a wide shallow pool of past hits. In my areas of preference, I prefer SiriusXM to Music Choice because they do cover most of those options. I'm also one who gets burnt out hearing a "new hit" four to five times within an hour to two hour listening period.

 

[MVB13]

None of these recent posts have anything to do with Alt 92.3. I will say I noticed many changes.

 

[CTListener]

The funny part is that SiriusXM is directly responsible for most of the "bro country" stars today. They broke Florida Georgia Line and Cole Swindell. Without The Highway, neither of those acts would have careers.

And those two acts still get played today. But in the past couple of years, it's been obvious that their muscle is being put behind female artists as well as male artists who break the mold. Not that I haven't heard Swindell falling for those "red lips workin' on a White Claw" and promising her "You'nna wake up my shirt" often on The Highway over the past nine months (at least). It's just that there are songs being played by artists/producers who don't take such a paint-by-numbers approach to creating a hit.

 

[MarkW]

Change I've noticed at many of the Audacy alternative stations, which were implemented on or near the same day at all stations:
- No more "Two Minute Promise" (Seattle still has it though)
- Much greater representation of music from the 90's & 00's (good move, in my opinion)
- A bit more in the way of guitar-driven alternative music (also a good move, in my opinion).

Their stations still seem to largely if not entirely avoid artists such as Rage Against The Machine, Korn and System of a Down.

I've yet to hear Alice in Chains or Nine Inch Nails on 98.7 in Detroit outside of the Sunday morning "Post Modern" show. Does WNYL play these artists? Some of Audacy's Alt stations do now include one or both of those artists in regular music rotation.

 

[BJSteigner]

Change I've noticed at many of the Audacy alternative stations, which were implemented on or near the same day at all stations:
- No more "Two Minute Promise" (Seattle still has it though)
- Much greater representation of music from the 90's & 00's (good move, in my opinion)
- A bit more in the way of guitar-driven alternative music (also a good move, in my opinion).

Their stations still seem to largely if not entirely avoid artists such as Rage Against The Machine, Korn and System of a Down.

I've yet to hear Alice in Chains or Nine Inch Nails on 98.7 in Detroit outside of the Sunday morning "Post Modern" show. Does WNYL play these artists? Some of Audacy's Alt stations do now include one or both of those artists in regular music rotation.

What other bands could have a rotated spin on Alternative Rock Radio???

 

[Least]

The problem with doing that for too long is that Alt will suffer the same fate as modern rock. Unless declaring yourself as Classic Alternative, you're going to cut yourself off from the younger audience. Specifically, knowing that the younger generation is going more rhythmic, and Alternative is a wide genre that includes rhythmic artists/bands. The 90s and 00s are too far overplayed across the country, under the guise of "modern." Eventually, they will need to discover the new dominant sound, flip format, or declare themselves as "Classic." Within the next ten to fifteen years, the younger side of the 90s and 00s key audience will age out of the coveted demos.

 

[CTListener]

The problem with doing that for too long is that Alt will suffer the same fate as modern rock. Unless declaring yourself as Classic Alternative, you're going to cut yourself off from the younger audience. Specifically, knowing that the younger generation is going more rhythmic, and Alternative is a wide genre that includes rhythmic artists/bands. The 90s and 00s are too far overplayed across the country, under the guise of "modern." Eventually, they will need to discover the new dominant sound, flip format, or declare themselves as "Classic." Within the next ten to fifteen years, the younger side of the 90s and 00s key audience will age out of the coveted demos.

At some point, maybe before mid-decade, will the shift to rhythmic pretty much kill off whatever guitar rock is left in the format, or will the kids who've been won over by the street-level, gut-level "keepin' it real" anger of rap still be willing to tolerate guitar rock when it comes on or will they just abandon alt for a pure urban format?

 

[dcowboy7]

Personal disdain for country music aside, the Top 40 presentation doesn't always speak to all people. Some people want a Deep Cuts presentation. Some people want to see unknown bands/artists. Some people want a wide shallow pool of past hits. In my areas of preference, I prefer SiriusXM to Music Choice because they do cover most of those options. I'm also one who gets burnt out hearing a "new hit" four to five times within an hour to two hour listening period.

But thats what the "side" channels are for....the main top 40 channel should be the hits.
I never get how some people dont like an entire genre of music.
Like im not a rap fan but i do like some songs like "O.P.P", "in da club", "astronaut in the ocean" etc.
& its a blurry line cause my cuz says she doesnt like country but she likes "fancy like" by clay walker.
I told her but that was a #1 country song....funny.

 

[CTListener]

& its a blurry line cause my cuz says she doesnt like country but she likes "fancy like" by clay walker.
I told her but that was a #1 country song....funny.

Walker Hayes, not Clay Walker. Clay Walker's got to be in his 50s by now, too old to be doing country/rap songs like "Fancy Like."