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94.7 is changing formats today

I see that as an unproven declaration. I suspect that they aren't happy with the flip to "an urban format," not because what it is being flipped to, but rather a flip from what they preferred.

If they flipped from classic hip-hop to Spanish language tropical music, I would suspect that the listeners who wanted classic hip-hop would be upset. I would suspect that they would be upset because what they preferred was taken away, not because it provided a station to the Latinx community.

Again, you're making a declaration without anything to support said claim; other than anecdotal evidence and generalized perceived connection between other cultural issues and this individual situation.
Notice how most of the listeners of NY Country 94.7 were Trump supporters and anti vaxxers you do the math.
 
Bizzle's claim that Country listeners are particularly annoyed that New York's Country flipped to an urban format is ridiculous. Whenever any station changes formats, there are angry comments online from former listeners. Inevitably there are nasty remarks about the new format, whatever it may be.
 
Bizzle's claim that Country listeners are particularly annoyed that New York's Country flipped to an urban format is ridiculous.

It's also completely made up. As is his view that the station's former listeners were Trump supporters.
 
Notice how most of the listeners of NY Country 94.7 were Trump supporters and anti vaxxers you do the math.
I'm from the Boston area, and our last modern rock station was sold to EMF about two years ago. Were there people who were angry that the rock station went away? Sure. The same as there are country music fans who are upset that country music went away from what is now WXBK. But the fans here were mad that the music they liked went away. They could have replaced it the cats meowing jingle bells 24/7 and they would have the same reaction. It's the same with the country music fans who's preferred station was flipped to classic hip-hop. Audacy could have flipped it to conservative talk, and they would still be equally upset.

I think you're making a rash generalization comparing country music listeners in the New York market to absolute Trump supporters, giving that you have either an assumption or anecdote to back that up.

To me, you're identifying a cultural/societal issue and applying it something where it hasn't been proven to be applicable. Your equation is the same as saying "I almost drown at the beach. There is water at the beach. Therefore, if I take a bath, I'm going to drown." Could that be? It could in some situations, but to say that 10 times out of 10 I will drown is illogical. That's the same as saying that all country music fans are Trump supporters who dislike Black people is equally illogical.

And just for the record, I'm from a city with two country stations and two R&B/Hip-Hop stations. In 10 times out of 10, I'd put on either of the two R&B/Hip-Hop stations over either of the two country stations. The two types of music I can't stand are Pop and Country.
 
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Notice how most of the listeners of NY Country 94.7 were Trump supporters and anti vaxxers you do the math.
I take offense to this. I wrote many of the replies to this column. I am a registered democrat, Anti-Trump. My family and I are fully vaccinated, I live on Long Island and often listened to NASH!
 
94.7 is ID'ing on the Audacy web site and their HD Radio text as WXBK, and Wikipedia claims the new call letters "became effective on November 1st", but according to the FCC's database, they're still officially WNSH.
 
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94.7 is ID'ing on the Audacy web site and their HD Radio text as WXBK, and Wikipedia claims the new call letters "became effective on November 1st", but according to the FCC's database, they're still officially WNSH.
The FCC isn't updating the public releases of its database until the NCE filing window is over on Nov. 10. The proper filing was made to change calls, and the station is legitimately WXBK now.

 
I take offense to this. I wrote many of the replies to this column. I am a registered democrat, Anti-Trump. My family and I are fully vaccinated, I live on Long Island and often listened to NASH!
Same here, lifelong Dem (although I gnash my teeth over the party's excesses frequently), been a country fan since the mid-'70s. Do some of my favorite singers' politics differ from mine? Sure. Do some of my favorite singers' social views differ from mine? Sure. If they're not singing about politics or society but rather about love and heartbreak and drinking and cheating, I'm still a fan. I don't cancel art.
 
the cats meowing jingle bells 24/7
Is that a thing we can do? 😜 Remember the old Meow Mix commercial which entirely consisted of cats singing? It took me several days to get that one unstuck from my head when it first came out, so catchy!
 
Is that a thing we can do? 😜 Remember the old Meow Mix commercial which entirely consisted of cats singing? It took me several days to get that one unstuck from my head when it first came out, so catchy!
Dang it! Now you got that stuck in my head. "I want chicken. I want liver..."
 
Same here, lifelong Dem (although I gnash my teeth over the party's excesses frequently), been a country fan since the mid-'70s. Do some of my favorite singers' politics differ from mine? Sure. Do some of my favorite singers' social views differ from mine? Sure. If they're not singing about politics or society but rather about love and heartbreak and drinking and cheating, I'm still a fan. I don't cancel art.
I think country always kinda got a bit of a bum rap because it was very much everyman in form and approach, especially in the “countrypolitan” era. And a lot of the stereotypes about the format’s listenership are themselves out of place. But it’s long been ingrained and may have been worsened as music genres fragmented further and further in the 80s and 90s.
 
Honestly though, leave a major metropolitan area like New York, and Country music thrives. That's much to my personal taste's disagreement. Country doesn't do well in New York, but it thrives in the South. Although I can't speak for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, DC, or other larger markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, it does well in Boston, and (I believe) it has a steady foothold in Buffalo. I know it has a presence in markets like Detroit. Honestly, my observation is that it's thriving more than modern-rock and Alternative. I use it as my mile marker of what the rock industry should do to grow in popularity again. Country put an emphasis on current bands and artists. Rock mostly fizzled out of that due to a lack of consensus in what is considered popular.

I find the view of Country music radio based on its value in New York to be the equivalent of not seeing the forest through the trees.
 
But is WNSH's failure proof that Country music's hard swing towards sounding like hip-hop with a Southern twang isn't actually winning over any urban audiences?
 
But is WNSH's failure proof that Country music's hard swing towards sounding like hip-hop with a Southern twang isn't actually winning over any urban audiences?

Country music generally isn't tested against an African-American audience. While some in the Southwest might be a little different due to the size of the Hispanic population, most country stations' listening audiences are between 80 and 90% white and have been pretty much forever. Unless things have changed recently, even in Memphis, the two full-market country stations have audiences that are roughly 85% white.
 
Country rap was more an acknowledgment that younger white country fans were also listening to hip-hop than an effort to market country music to a black audience. White audiences have enjoyed various genres of African American music for many, many years. For various reasons -- the historic oppressor/oppressed relationship among them -- the reverse has never been as common. I had a black roommate my freshman year in college. I loved his soul and jazz records -- Marvin Gaye, Sarah Vaughn, etc. -- but he never reacted positively to the Cat Stevens, Fairport Convention and Marshall Tucker Band coming out of my side of the dorm room.
 
But is WNSH's failure proof that Country music's hard swing towards sounding like hip-hop with a Southern twang isn't actually winning over any urban audiences?

That's a complicated statement, because the country format has been underperforming this year nationally, not just in urban areas.
 
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