Maybe it doesn't work in Seattle and they might change it to something else like "Uniquely Seattle" or "Seattle's Album Rock" or something that is commonly used on AAA stations.
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KPNW played “Bad Habits” by Ed Sheeran.
- Thread starter Cobra14
- Start date
KEXP arguably is the same hodge-podge that KCMU was, although they've got more money to play with.
"Where the Music Matters" is at least a 35+ year old slogan. KCMU had it in the late 1980s, and the slogan pre-dated the switch from alternative to alternative/variety. So it's a heritage thing. The motto has become part of the brand. But it's taken over 30 years for it to work. KEXP is its own animal.
As for KPNW's format, sure, it isn't focused. That was part of the appeal, according to those who developed it. As for it being "Alternative', the word alternative is flexible. In the mid to late 1990s "Alternative" was actually Mainstream. The artists being played on "Alternative" stations were all million sellers, with their tracks being top of the charts. How was that really "Alternative"? Alternative to what? It's just a word, a format name, and you yourself have stated earlier in other threads about Alternative that the Alternative format itself isn't focused, which is one of its weaknesses.
So why couldn't KPNW adopt the slogan? It looks as if it's one unfocused format against another one.
Because playing old 60s rock songs is not alternative. It's 60s rock. They could do a variation on the Mix brand: "From the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and today." That would cover it factually.
They can call it anything they want, but it won't change the fact that it's a mess. And it won't get people to listen.
Probably cause it would result in copyright claims so they can't do that since KEXP already has the slogan.
Beatles, Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon are not alternative. There are some 80s alternative artists like Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, and Dead or Alive which they may sometimes play.
I live in Chicago and I think WXRT is very well done. The music, the talent, the presentation... it's all perfect AAA in my opinion and definitely agree that KPNW should be looking to XRT for inspiration.
Their branding is "Chicago's Finest Rock Station." Nowhere do they say "alternative."
Perhaps that's the way KPNW should go: Focus on QUALITY, not genre: "Seattle's FINEST music station." How about that?
It's fun sitting here watching people lose their mind over a song on a radio station, that by it's very nature has little or no musical boundries. This might yet get a run...
That could possibly help in defining what KPNW is to a potential listener. Mentioning “music discovery” isn’t bad either, and that’s been used by other successful radio stations. I get that the format is ambiguous, though that’s technically the nature of AAA.
Perhaps Hubbard is already working on a tweak in the branding.
It seems a bit disingenuous to promote "music discovery" when 960 songs in your playlist are old, and only 30-35 are current.
Perhaps some millennials are discovering the Mamas & the Papas for the first time. But most people know they broke up over 50 years ago, and three of them are dead.
Lately you seem a bit pessimistic about KPNW-FM's chances of success. If it were your station, what would you do?
OK, Depeche Mode were mainstream only abroad in the '80s, so I guess you could have called them alternative until "Personal Jesus" broke here in 1990. But how in the world could Tears for Fears and Dead or Alive have been "alternative" in any way back then when both had huge mainstream CHR chart hits?
I've said many times that the playlist is too large and unfocused. I'd start there.
Which history has shown has generally been a problem with the AAA format.
I think CHR mixed in new wave and alternative back then too though they also mixed in hard rock unlike what they do today.
Talk about a schizophrenic format; was in Reno NV this past weekend and was punching around on the rental car radio. There was this one station that branded itself as EZ-104.1 "Your favorites from the 60's through the 2000's". And it really was covering that gamut, to the point of sounding unfocused and just weird. That's too many decades of music to provide decent TSL In a quarter hour they literally jumped around between all those time spans. Several opportunities for tuning away.
♬ "Ahhh-Rooba, Jamaica, Ooooh I wanna take ya/Bermuda, Bahama, C'mon pretty mama......" ♬
Like that "What Was I Made For" Billie Eilish (2023) into "World Destruction" Afrika Bambaataa feat. John Lydon (1984) segue I heard on some college station driving out of Portland.
Never has a segue summed up 2023 so succinctly.....
I don't think Click is ever coming back to Seattle. Especially on 98.9
Oh good Lord.
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