Buffalo & Rochester September '22 trends

[Buddy Shula]

I agree. It started with WHN in New York City in the 70s, that had success playing a lot of pop country by Kenny Rogers and Olivia Newton John. It continued in the 80s with Eddie Rabbitt and even more Kenny Rogers. Sylvia had a big #1 with the pop song Nobody. Crystal Gayle was nowhere near as country as her older sister.

Plus remember that Strait & Travis were marketed as pretty boys, not only as traditionalists. Had either of them been overweight or bald, I doubt they'd have been as popular.

Crystal Gayle was huge in the mid-upper 80's. "don't it make my brown eye blue "Taking in your sleep" - of course she was not on the caliber of her sister, but she was in the mid-later 80's

Totally disagree with your observation on Randy and George. Randy was not exactly a GQ model. Even see the Kentucky Headhunters? True country fans do not give a shit what the artists look like. They like the meanings of the songs.

With country, it's all about the lyrics. They are common people and they relate to common people. Country songs are stories.

 

[Buddy Shula]

And Prime Country plays more than Strait and Travis. It plays Shania Twain, Brooks and Dunn, Kentucky Headhunters, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lonestar ... none of whom conform to Buddy's idea of what classic country should sound like. I happen to like a lot of Zac Brown's music, and think Sam Hunt is a talented songwriter but his music is not intended for grumpy guys in their late 60s like me -- it's what they call "boyfriend country," for 25-44 women (and even teenage girls). The thing is, since country has become a mass-appeal radio format, it's never been even close to 100 percent traditional. Memories are selective in that regard. You remember George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," you'd rather forget Cledus Maggard's "White Knight."

Wrong....in my format Brooks and Dunn, Kentucky hunters, mary Chapin Carpenter, Alan Jackson, KT Oslin, Steve Wariner Travis Tritt, Lonestar would all be included.

They are are classic country hitmakers. The audience wound be more narrow, but who cares, its getting narrow everywhere. This population of country fans is very underserved. Especially in rural areas.

 

[Buddy Shula]

And Prime Country plays more than Strait and Travis. It plays Shania Twain, Brooks and Dunn, Kentucky Headhunters, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lonestar ... none of whom conform to Buddy's idea of what classic country should sound like. I happen to like a lot of Zac Brown's music, and think Sam Hunt is a talented songwriter but his music is not intended for grumpy guys in their late 60s like me -- it's what they call "boyfriend country," for 25-44 women (and even teenage girls). The thing is, since country has become a mass-appeal radio format, it's never been even close to 100 percent traditional. Memories are selective in that regard. You remember George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," you'd rather forget Cledus Maggard's "White Knight."

There is country western, and there is gold-based country, Cledus fits the latter

 

[TheBigA]

Totally disagree with your observation on Randy and George. Randy was not exactly a GQ model.

Say what you want. GQ did pictorials on both of them. Sex sells, and their appearance was used to sell them.

Crystal Gayle was huge in the mid-upper 80's. "don't it make my brown eye blue "Taking in your sleep" - of course she was not on the caliber of her sister, but she was in the mid-later 80's

Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue was released in 1977 and was written by a pop writer and was a pop #1 as well as country #

 

[tbolt909]

With country, it's all about the lyrics. They are common people and they relate to common people. Country songs are stories.

It depends on the artist. Much of it is redneck noise.
Mark Knopfler, Bob Dylan, Springsteen, and many more are master storytellers. You won't find Radio stations playing their stuff very often.

There's all kinds of genres that commercial Radio ignores. It's not just the Country artists you're talking about...

 

[CTListener]

It depends on the artist. Much of it is redneck noise.
Mark Knopfler, Bob Dylan, Springsteen, and many more are master storytellers. You won't find Radio stations playing their stuff very often.

There's all kinds of genres that commercial Radio ignores. It's not just the Country artists you're talking about...

Randy Travis and George Strait sang standard country love and heartbreak songs, not detailed story-songs like Knopfler, Springsteen and, to bring the discussion back to country music, Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins used to sing. Most of the "redneck noise" on today's country radio is, when stripped to its essence, love songs and heartbreak songs, only with trucks and whiskey inserted for appeal to the younger core audience that the genre has and is trying to grow.

 

[davideduardo]

It depends on the artist. Much of it is redneck noise.

And to me, much alternative rock is "alienated white boy noise".

Doing the unusual for a person in their 30's, I became a country fan. I'll pay $600 for good seats to see Garth Brooks and welcome Dwight Yoacam and Alan Jacson to local venues just like I do for FGL or Miranda Lambert. So to me, coming from suburban Cleveland, that is neither noise nor particularly redneck, either.

Mark Knopfler, Bob Dylan, Springsteen, and many more are master storytellers. You won't find Radio stations playing their stuff very often.

I saw Bob Dylan at the famous "Desert Trip" 5 years ago. Everyone around us... who had spent a minimum of $600 to see the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters, and The Who thought that Dylan was dull, boring and had zero connection with the audience.

There's all kinds of genres that commercial Radio ignores. It's not just the Country artists you're talking about...

You can't believe how many kinds of music, songs and artists have been researched over and over and over There is no potentially successful genre or blend sitting out there waiting to be discovered.

While there have been lots of format variants over the years, count the "new" music formats since the 50's... not very many.

1951 started it with Top 40. R&B followed as stations dropped network programming. So did country. The old network stations often became MOR as they dropped soaps and drama. The end of the 60's gave us Beautiful Music, a refinement of soft instrumentals

The late 70's found album rock, which gave us AOR and other variants but none of those was anything but a derivative. 70's brought us Chicken Rock, later called AC. And the old Top 40 lists gave us oldies. For a while, we got disco as a format.

A decade later Beautiful Music gave us Smooth Jazz, and later we got Urban AC, which was really a derivative of Urban (which was a new name for R&B) with the same songs, just older. And Adult Hits was just a broader blend of oldies with a specific genre focus.

Hip hop is a derivative of Urban as are most "unique" newer formats. Even the various Spanish language formats heard in the US are derivatives of traditional Latin American formats... only two truly original Latin formats have been created in the US in the last 50 years, "all salsa" (WZNT) and Spanish adult hits (KRCD).

Yet we've all gone through multiple perceptual tests and focus groups and the like to try to find a formula or blend that will make a difference. There are not, though, "all kinds of genres" that have not been discovered or exploited.

 

[CTListener]

And to me, much alternative rock is "alienated white boy noise".

Front-runner for Post of the Year.

 

[CTListener]

I saw Bob Dylan at the famous "Desert Trip" 5 years ago. Everyone around us... who had spent a minimum of $600 to see the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters, and The Who thought that Dylan was dull, boring and had zero connection with the audience.

To be fair, Dylan's voice has been little more than a nasal buzz for at least the past 20 years, and many of his songs are best appreciated when sung by others. And no one goes to a Dylan gig expecting connection with the guy on the stage, in much the same way Van Morrison's fans aren't outraged when their hero spends the entire set with his back to them. In contrast, Mick Jagger, Pete Townsend and Paul McCartney are entertainers as well as musicians.

 

[Buddy Shula]

It depends on the artist. Much of it is redneck noise.
Mark Knopfler, Bob Dylan, Springsteen, and many more are master storytellers. You won't find Radio stations playing their stuff very often.

There's all kinds of genres that commercial Radio ignores. It's not just the Country artists you're talking about...

I was talking about country only

 

[tbolt909]

David is being disingenuous as always. He knows very well that many artists are ignored by commercial Radio. Dylan has had great concerts and some bad ones. Lots of artists have off nights. That's different from a studio record anyway.

As for the Country Crooners, the old joke still applies-- "What do you get when play a Country record backwards?
Answer -- You get your wife, job, and dog back.
Everyone has their own musical tastes. Modern Country is pretty vapid stuff...

 

[RadioGuy1864]

How powerful is the station in watts and who owns it.

Seems like a pretty endeavor for a small company

Stingray owns over 100 stations in Canada, hardly a small company.

 

[davideduardo]

Stingray owns over 100 stations in Canada, hardly a small company.

Stingray is a premium provider of curated direct-to-consumer and B2B services, including audio television channels, over 100 radio stations, SVOD content, 4K UHD television channels, karaoke products, digital signage, in-store music, and music apps.

Stingray

Stingray is the world leading music service provider offering the best music for every moment: discover Stingray Music, Karaoke, and more!

www.stingray.com

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Stingray was basically the "Music Choice" of Canada, running the music channels on cable TV. They expanded and got into terrestrial radio. Canada's media and telecom landscape is horribly concentrated and another competitor was desperately needed. I've heard Stingray is a good one.

 

[four4rock]

Wrong....in my format Brooks and Dunn, Kentucky hunters, mary Chapin Carpenter, Alan Jackson, KT Oslin, Steve Wariner Travis Tritt, Lonestar would all be included.

They are are classic country hitmakers. The audience wound be more narrow, but who cares, its getting narrow everywhere. This population of country fans is very underserved. Especially in rural areas.

Completely agree. To me, I would gobble up a station that was centered on, say, 90's country. Notice I said "centered"... not "delineated". Maybe something along the lines of 70%-ish 90's-ish, 15%-ish pre-90's. 15%-ish post-90's. I'd not be foolish enough to think this conceptual station would break every ratings record known to man. But it seems to me that it'd return solid, endurable, and profitable results.

 

[ckg279]

How powerful is the station in watts and who owns it.

Seems like a pretty endeavor for a small company

CHBM(boom 97.3)is listed at 28.9 kW; their transmitter is on the CN Tower-that's why it comes into the Buffalo market decently. It's owned by Stingray Radio(formerly known as Newcap Radio), which is the second largest radio group behind Bell Media.

 

[ckg279]

Stingray owns over 100 stations in Canada, hardly a small company.

Yep-only Bell Media owns more. They also own 2 TV stations in Alberta.

 

[ckg279]

What Boom 97.3 does is exactely how that format should be executed. And Toronto is a big, multi-cultural city, for those reading this outside the market.

The weird thing is there's ANOTHER station using the Boom positioner: CJOT(boom 99.7)in Ottawa. It uses the same logo as Boom 97.3, but Corus owns CJOT. (Stingray has a presence in the market, owning CILV(Live 88.5)and CIHT(Hot 89.9).) Ottawa's Boom uses the same general formula of using well-known radio folks(with a couple of them having put in time in the GTA market: Colleen Rusholme, who's worked at CILQ(Q107), Energy 95.3 in Hamilton as well as Toronto's Boom...and then there's Jon "Gonzo" Mark(who did 3 stints at 97.7 HTZ FM, as well as working at Q 107).