I know they were horrible in 2020. They were great back in 2017 when they launched and in 2018.
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Entercom's alternative experiment not a success?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
Makes you wonder what changed, right? What could have caused the ratings to collapse from 2018-19, and never recover?
Change in the music scene? I have no clue. 🤷
The ratings were never "great." There were periods shortly after launch and then maybe a year later where they were decent, but never great.
I think the audience was excited to have Alternative back, and then after they realized how mediocre the station was (especially the Cane & Corey morning show) they tuned out.
I think the audience was excited to have Alternative back, and then after they realized how mediocre the station was (especially the Cane & Corey morning show) they tuned out.
Ross Mahoney
Ross Mahoney returns to Audacy as Regional VP of Alternative Programming, overseeing KXTE Las Vegas, KRBZ Kansas City, WQMP Orlando, and WRXL Richmond. Mahoney previously programmed KXTE from 2016 to
Ross Mahoney is Joining as Regional VP of the alternative format at Audacy.
Some of Audacy's stations, such as KROQ and WDZH, are doing "A to Z" this weekend.
It's amazing to me how small their libraries are compared to, say, the classic rock stations that do A to Z. WDZH started theirs at 10a ET yesterday morning and is already halfway through the catalog (current song is "Miserable" by Lit).
Usually, it takes classic rock stations around here about a week, sometimes longer, to complete an A to Z airing.
It's amazing to me how small their libraries are compared to, say, the classic rock stations that do A to Z. WDZH started theirs at 10a ET yesterday morning and is already halfway through the catalog (current song is "Miserable" by Lit).
Usually, it takes classic rock stations around here about a week, sometimes longer, to complete an A to Z airing.
The period of time they draw on is about half as long.
Seems to me like any A to Z program on an alternative station would be a risky bet because so many songs fade away quickly after they first show up. Classic rock or classic hits is immune to this problem, as pretty much everyone will remember most of the songs in their library.
Many classic rock stations play material from the early 70's to mid 90's these days. Many alternative stations play material from the Seattle grunge era (early 90's) to today, with a few choice older cuts (e.g. Beastie Boys) thrown in for good measure. So, total number of years featured in regularly played material is about the same.
That being said, I definitely would agree that classic rock possesses a significantly higher number of playable songs, but it appears WDZH will likely wrap up its A to Z marathon at about the 36 hour mark. That seems excessively short. Compare that to classic rock, where such marathons often take up to a full week. Should there be a duration disparity? Sure. Should the disparity be that wide? In my view, probably not.
The KROQ and WDZH marathons seem to be playing very little post grunge, little if any Lillith Fair era material, and in the case of WDZH, nearly zero industrial rock (I saw a couple Nine Inch Nails songs - nothing further) and no alternative metal.
I was far more impressed by the A to Z playlist featured on 91X in San Diego earlier this year. Usually, stations do A to Z to showcase the depth of their music catalogs. 91X definitely succeeded in that regard. In the case of KROQ and WDZH, I'm underwhelmed.
I will say the all 90's weekends currently airing on three of Cumulus' alternative stations - each with substantially different playlists - are much more to my personal liking. Check out WZRH New Orleans, WEDG Buffalo and KCJK Kansas City. I really like the changes Jason Ginty has made to WZRH in New Orleans.
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I see the Lilith Fair stuff as more AAA than alternative. It appeals to a different audience.
Thanksgiving is also a longer weekend than Labor Day.
When classic rock WDRC-FM Hartford was still classic hits (early 2010s), they did a Christmas/New Year A to Z that at its peak went on for 10 days and included every Christmas title in the library as well as the rock, pop and soul. "Winter Wonderland" didn't get played until after New Year's Day. But here's the catch -- only about 800 of those songs they played during that gimmick were heard regularly on the station. Some never got a single spin at any other time; they were just in the library. I don't know how if the other A to Z stations mentioned here did the same thing, but I have a feeling they did. Nine days' worth of classic rock tracks is way more than any classic rock station I've ever heard has had in the everyday playlist.
Good point. Maybe Audacy should just pick a more convenient weekend for A-Z.
Totally agree, but my local Alt Rock station played a fair amount of Sarah Mac, Tori Amos and Fiona Apple alongside Pearl Jam and Green Day. But they were the only game in town...
Somewhere in the late 90s, Sarah stopped charting alt and switched to AC.
A lot of the Lilith artists were big at Alternative at the time. Liz Phair, Fiona Apple, Tracy Bonham, Luscious Jackson...even Jewel who famously got broken by Michael Halloran at 91X in San Diego.
One of the things that made Alternative so compelling back than was that it was not just a grunge format, and not a bunch of whiney alt-pop like the stuff that dominated the recent "Alt" stations under Mike Kaplan. At the risk of bringing up an overused radio term, there was real 'variety' in the format back then, everything from rock and grunge to trip-hop, alt-pop and the Lilith Fair singer-songwriter women.
That said, Lilith Fair artists were typically well represented at Modern AC, which was just being discussed in another thread recently -- as in, whatever happened to it?
As I said in the previous post, it came to an end in the late 90s. Some formats evolve for various reasons, depending on the state of the music, and the audience it attracts. Last year people in the country format noticed that a big chunk of the men left the format for some reason. This year, I notice some new artists who spent some time in alternative and hip hop. By the summer, the men have returned. It could be that the Lilith artists were chasing away some of the traditional alt audience. I don't have to tell you that the alternative format is not what it was. What they appear to be trying to figure out is what mix of music will work with the current audience.
It all comes back to the challenge of, as has been stated here already, how to program for a format that even in its hay day had different variations. And now trying to do that 20 plus years later. You certainly can’t cookie cutter this type of thing and mass distribute it. So because of that it’s no surprise low budget corporate radio is having a tough time.
This is all shadowed though by the caveat that radio is in trouble because it chased younger listeners away for so many years. Now things are getting urgent and they are scrambling for solutions as those younger listeners age and new younger listeners come of age.
This is all shadowed though by the caveat that radio is in trouble because it chased younger listeners away for so many years. Now things are getting urgent and they are scrambling for solutions as those younger listeners age and new younger listeners come of age.
What are you talking about? What music would younger listeners have listened to if it was on the radio? Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers, and Miley Cyrus got loads of radio airplay.
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