94.7 The Block

[Least]

As for news, 92.3 seems like a safer bet than 94.7 for a flip - Alt is a fad format that's quickly running out of steam. I don't think Alt on 92.3 has a year left, personally.

As Big A, David, and other insiders have pointed out, the issue with Alt is that there isn't a dominant sound as of now. In the 80s, it was New Wave. In the 90s, it was Grunge. My personal take is that Alternative in its purest form isn't a corporate friendly format. It's strongest appeal in the 80s and 90s was on stations that had smaller (independent) owners. It's a genre that's meant to appeal to the younger crowd and go against the system. Bands like Nirvana got their big break on small stations like WFNX in Boston.

Today's radio ownership structure doesn't fit with that idea of Alternative. I see the same with Rock and Rap/Hip-Hop. What helps Rap/Hip-Hop is that it's rhythmic centric. The yong generation of today rather hear beats to a guitar solo, much to a disagreement with my personal taste. Pop and Country are more the corporate friendly formats (today). Obviously the Wayland Jennings outlaw country of its time, wasn't.

 

[CTListener]

Today's radio ownership structure doesn't fit with that idea of Alternative. I see the same with Rock and Rap/Hip-Hop. Pop and Country are more the corporate friendly formats (today). Obviously the Wayland Jennings outlaw country of its time, wasn't.

The "outlaw" sound of Waylon Jennings and others became a major part of commercial, corporate country music radio in the '70s and its popularity continued into the '80s. Waylon is a core artist on classic country stations today.

 

[Least]

The "outlaw" sound of Waylon Jennings and others became a major part of commercial, corporate country music radio in the '70s and its popularity continued into the '80s. Waylon is a core artist on classic country stations today.

True. I was referring to the time in which he was performing. It's the same as how the whole East Coast vs West Coast Rap scene was "outlaw" in the 90s, but is now a staple of Throwback stations.

 

[victorres43]

Today's radio ownership structure doesn't fit with that idea of Alternative. I see the same with Rock and Rap/Hip-Hop. What helps Rap/Hip-Hop is that it's rhythmic centric. The yong generation of today rather hear beats to a guitar solo, much to a disagreement with my personal taste. Pop and Country are more the corporate friendly formats (today). Obviously the Wayland Jennings outlaw country of its time, wasn't.

And since New York and San Francisco aren't friendly towards country music, you are left with different variations of pop radio.

(Miami is also less receptive towards country, but Miami instead has several stations playing reggaeton, salsa, etc.)

 

[MikeyD]

Classic hip hop has come and gone in many markets but a few have had some success namely WBMX Chicago. The Block's playlist is very tight. I listen to the station and enjoy the format but there's obvious burn out factor with a limited Playlist. Perhaps a reason why numbers have been going down and not up. Seems hard to believe Audacy doesn't know what they're doing but so far doesn't seem like their heart is in it. It's early yet and we'll see if they hire talent and do some tweaking. Maybe marketing after the holidays..who knows.

Totally agree. I am a sample size of n=1, but I have burnt out of 94.7. However, I have moved to re-discovering some deeper hip hop classics that 94.7 seems to miss (Scenario, Deja Vu, Method Man, Biggie beyond "Juicy" to name a few)

 

[Kent]

There is the difference. Entercom, home officed in Bala, should have seen how Jerry's attention to the format, research and client services made the station have about a 2 power ratio. What they should have done is paid him exceedingly well to "supersize" his techniques to the cluster and to the whole company.

Jerry Lee also didn't have multiple stations in the same market that he felt the need to protect. He was able to program WBEB without regard to how it would affect anyone else.

Not that you'll see anything change or that going back to the future is a good strategy for radio, but sometimes there's something to be said for only doing one thing and doing it extremely well.

 

[Least]

And since New York and San Francisco aren't friendly towards country music, you are left with different variations of pop radio.

(Miami is also less receptive towards country, but Miami instead has several stations playing reggaeton, salsa, etc.)

Exactly. Same point I made about news on FM not being a slam dunk in New York, just because they moved news to FM in Los Angeles.

Keep in mind that listener taste is subjective, changing over time. Boston used to be a hot bed for rock and Alternative. Plenty of bands formed in the city, yet it can't sustain an active rock or alternative outlet, today.

 

[AceBiscuits]

Is The Block a temporary format? Prediction, Alt to 94.7, WINS to 92.3. Alt would probably do better on 94.7, even if it's not a total NYC coverage.

This prediction is definitely false now. Skip Dillard has been hired to program the station, per RadioInsight.

This move alone shows that Audacy plans to invest in this format. Skip knows the music, and has the potential to make this format work. Regarding the music mix, I think it will change in time, especially now with an actual PD running the station.

 

[Marcos_C]

Skip Dillard has been hired to program the station, per RadioInsight.

This move alone shows that Audacy plans to invest in this format. Skip knows the music, and has the potential to make this format work. Regarding the music mix, I think it will change in time, especially now with an actual PD running the station.

I hope this means that 94.7 The Block will expand its playlist to include classic hip hop songs from the 1980s.

 

[TheBigA]

Guyton's not as big a star as Aldean or Underwood -- or Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Luke Combs or Miranda Lambert, for that matter. Neither are the other black performers mentioned by TheBigA -- yet.

There's a difference between "inclusion" and "domination." There is no guarantee that anyone in the music world will become a dominant figure in the genre. But the post was talking about inclusion, which means having a seat at the table. The point is to at least give a broader range of people a seat. That's admirable, and I don't see it happening at all in alternative rock.

 

[AceBiscuits]

I hope this means that 94.7 The Block will expand its playlist to include classic hip hop songs from the 1980s.

To me, that's a no brainer, but time will tell.

 

[victorres43]

There's a difference between "inclusion" and "domination." There is no guarantee that anyone in the music world will become a dominant figure in the genre. But the post was talking about inclusion, which means having a seat at the table. The point is to at least give a broader range of people a seat. That's admirable, and I don't see it happening at all in alternative rock.

It's not "domination" any more than the fact that Jason Aldean and Morgan Wallen both remain hugely popular (and admired) among music listeners amid racial controversies.

 

[Jeffrey]

A lot of the music heard on the new 94.7 could be heard on WKTU or WBLS, or Hot 97. The format flip was unnesscary. NYC radio is missing a rock station and a country station despite being the nations largest radio market

it's not about what the market is missing. It's about what sells.

 

[Jeffrey]

To me, that's a no brainer, but time will tell.

me too but I'm not in the age group or demo they're going after. I doubt will hear any 80s hip hop on the Block.

 

[MikeyD]

me too but I'm not in the age group or demo they're going after. I doubt will hear any 80s hip hop on the Block.

Any 80s would probably be limited. I could see adding anthem/crossover songs like Rapper's Delight, Push It, Pump up the Volume; but I wouldn't expect lesser known but popular songs like The Breaks or Don't Believe the Hype.

 

[erwin33]

Some NYC rap acts from back in the day, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, Mantronix should be great to hear in the mix 90's and zero's. Mind you LL Cool J and Melle Mel perform in Central Park last summer in that NYC welcome back concert.

 

[TheBigA]

It's not "domination" any more than the fact that Jason Aldean and Morgan Wallen both remain hugely popular (and admired) among music listeners amid racial controversies.

Absolutely, further proof that you can't force something or someone to be popular, and it demonstrates the courage Guyton and others have for at least making a case for inclusion. There isn't as much courage in other genres.

 

[ZantennaG1]

20 years from now fm will probably be brokered programming, religious, some ethnic and some spoken word or sports.
Technology will kill terrestrial radio eventually. It's a slow drip imo

I hate to admit it, but even though FM solved noise problems and static, and has great sound quality, people find it to be not enough. No amount of AM, FM, or Sirius XM will satisfy people who are about instant gratification who can just make their own playlists. Also, ironically enough, there is a lot of industrial noise on 91.3 FM on my side of town near some restaurants that blocks out a Laramie station on the frequency. Ah well, so much for noise-resistance.

Norway shut down their FM signals a few years back. Many European nations seldom utilize AM/MW radio. If news radio moves to FM, NYC won't be unique in this regard. (Although the AM signal sometimes helps during emergencies in far-out areas.)

But yes, I also do lament the likes of K-Love supplanting many spots on the dial. And on top of that, they had to kill off WPLJ to do this. (Granted, WPLJ's ratings weren't stellar, but it's not like they are as bad as those of WNYL or the old WNSH.) Many cities have it worse than NYC, though, when it comes to choices on the dial.

That reminds me, European countries still hang on to Longwave even though the Average American probably considered it dead by the 1930's and 40's. So let's do play a game: How long do you think the BBC will stay on 198khz "4"? And how about Polskie on 225 or RDL on 234? As for Medium-wave, I still find it to be alive, but for practical purposes, most people have moved on.

One of the issues that has not been discussed in the aftermath of the KNX move to FM is the double-barreled deficiency of AM signals in most US metro areas: signal and noise.

While KNX does not have a deficient signal, most of its band-mates in the LA metro and everywhere else do.

In the Top 100 markets, there are 1748 stations within the Metro Survey Areas. However, less than 170 have a 5 mV/m signal over at least 80% of the metro day and night. That is less than an average of 2 "good" signals per market. Some have a couple more, some have none at all.

When FM started being broadly viable around 1970, most FMs upgraded to their maximum facility which, if a class B or C, covered pretty much the whole radio market day or night. Each market had ten or more such full signals on FM.

Since 1970, population has spread out more and more in most metro areas. The existing AMs have become less and less able to cover the full market.

And then there is the issue of noise produced by florescent lights, dimmers, computers, wall warts and all kinds of other devices. While 5 mV/m was a great signal decades ago, and even a 2 mV/m could be listenable, today the ITU says that AM needs 15 mV/m to overcome urban noise. Even if we consider 10 mV/m adequate in most places, that means that there are truly only a few dozen AM stations that actually cover their entire market day and night.

If you look at the Nielsen numbers, in the "average" market there is under 10% listening to AM, and most of that is by people over 55. That means that most under-55 AM listening is confined to things like having the only sports station on AM, having no ethnic programming on FM, or niche formats such as religious denomination based formats.

For all practical purposes, AM is dead, although a few wounded still wander around on the battlefield.

Fun fact: I decided to go to an old car wash and a brand-new car wash in my city, and with the new one, all the Am stations do disappear under a cloud of noise, but KVAM recovers pretty quick, followed by KGAB. I totally get the noise issue, but at the same time, it's not every intersection that causes noise, just a few particular ones. So vehicles with a whip antenna suffer a little bit because of this, but on my directional radios, I can null out the noise easily enough. I get that most formats on AM nowadays appeal to older folks, and thus the sense that AM will age out, but if these broadcasters want to save their brand, they just have to revitalize it to any youth left on the AM band. And hey, since they are appealing to older folks right now, run an ad campaign at them to introduce AM at a young age.

 

[ZantennaG1]

So people who like Contemporary Christian or other religious formats are not deserving of getting radio service of their liking?

No. It's the point that they buy stations to create a network of stations that are literally the same station. They have a monopoly.

You both have a point. IMO, religious service should start at a local level, and before all else, stay AT the local level. Then if this can't be done, it's time to bring in an expert like the EMF, or Salem, or Crawford to run the programming. I do feel like Bizzle is annoyed that EMF (K-Love and Air1) seems to run national cookie-cutter programming that doesn't cater to the specific market. At least, like David has said on another post, they do have family-like prayer lines and all that jazz which is good, but Christians in NYC are only getting the boilerplate from Rocklin, CA, or Nashville, TN. That's good enough for some, I listen to both occasionally because that's what I was looking for right then and there, but isn't it nice to know that your neighborhood is putting on show for the kids, or is organizing a food drive, or if you need some shelter, oh look there's one right down the street and they'll help you up again.

 

[ZantennaG1]

While 5 mV/m was a great signal decades ago, and even a 2 mV/m could be listenable

Um... what? This may just be me, however that sounds quite picky of those folks, no offense. I'd bet KOA only puts a 1.0 mV/m signal into Cheyenne, and KHOW an 0.6. It does sound staticky at times, but on most radios, they are still good to listen to when you're away from the noise. Oh well, I too prefer a stronger signal that isn't susceptible to noise when I can find one, but for nighttime skywave, I don't exactly get to pick and choose signal strength. (Although, KRVN can pull a 2.5 mV/m signal while KFAB, KSTP, KXEL, and even WBBM can pull a 2.0 at times)