That's about right.
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99 X Is Back
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
That's about right.
Tuesday they played “I Kissed a Girl” by Jill Sobule from the fall of 1993. Haven’t heard that since I was a senior in High School. I remember the video had heavy rotation on MTV. The wide variety of classic alternative hits is what is making 99X sound great. You never know what they’ll play next. Maybe they could add a few more Organic X songs into the regular playlist - but I’m not complaining about the current playlist. Having most of the original DJs back is great too. Makes it truly authentic. Hope it survives and continues to thrive in the ratings. Would hate to ever see it go away.
You're right about that, but even then, is there not a local scene or anyone in Atlanta who loves any of that kind of music?
Also, Alt Rock still exists as a sound, hell, I feel a lot of the songs on the mediabase charts are more guitar driven than they were in 2020. Even then, altpop is still a subgenre of alternative, so it fits the format whether you like it or not.
Is altpop or modern rock not allowed it's own format of fm radio? Why does everything only have to be classics just because alt rock was at its peak in times before I existed? I love that stuff but there's nothing wrong with playing pop rock, indie pop, altpop, whatever just as long as you mix in a lot of rock stuff going on too, either from classic artists like Foo Fighters or whatever or a newer band like say, Manchester Orchestra, IDLES, Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, Hippo Campus, Squid, Yves Tumor, there's a lot of bands out there that fit what alternative rock used to stand for in the 90s that could fit with audiences, it's just worth giving them a platform, engage with audiences, idk, something that could help pave a new future for the format that isn't just poppier stuff or gold based stuff.
Let me say this again: Radio companies are NOT in the music distribution business. That's not their role. The only reason they play music is because they hope it will attract an audience that they can sell to advertisers. If it doesn't serve that purpose, it doesn't get played.
However, that only applies to commercial radio stations. Non-commercial stations have a different purpose, and so they play music for different reasons. This is why I say most alternative rock is best suited for non-commercial radio. The problem here is that those stations are mostly funded by listeners, not advertisers. Also those stations are increasingly getting purchased by religious organizations, so there are fewer of them available to play non-religious music.
But there are no rules or laws about formats or music. There are no rules against certain formats, but at the same time, there are no rules requiring those formats. That's why there is a lot of music being made that doesn't get played on the radio.
Even non-com has to appeal to contributors and program underwriters.
WABE would go back to classical and drop NPR if that's what their donors wanted.
WABE (and similar stations across the country) call themselves "listener supported." What they leave out is that they are also advertiser supported. They do not run 30-second spots; they run 15-second "underwriter mentions." But they have an aggressive sales staff that sells these mentions.
The FCC does not allow the spots to contain certain verbiage but has become more lenient as federal funding has decreased. For example, ads cannot say, "Come to our anniversary sale." Yet they can say, "Support for WABE comes from Haverty's Furniture, which is holding their anniversary sale from Friday through Wednesday." Seems a bit silly.
As you know, stations that do not subscribe to Nielsen Audio are not shown in the public ratings. But of course WABE's ratings are shown. They pay a lot for those ratings, and the purpose has nothing to do with listener contributions.
Now, back to 99X!
Have to agree with you on this and I don’t always agree with you. 99X blows most out of the water when it comes to deep cuts. Just listen to the retroplex at lunch if you doubt. But will this succeed long term? Sadly, I doubt it. Deep cuts and obscurities on commercial radio just doesn’t fly long term. And uncharted new music really doesn’t work either - Which is alternative. Again, as I said before - Us music fanatics are a rare exception and we don’t represent the general public.
Advertisers and underwriters are NOT the same thing, because for one thing, advertisements list prices and underwriters aren’t allowed to. When I was on an LPFM station, the underwriters were places like the city zoo, etc. This is an explanation of more distinctions between advertising and underwriting:
You're correct that there are things that cannot be said in underwriting mentions. As mentioned in my post, underwriting mentions cannot outright ask listeners to attend an event, and as the article you linked states, cannot compare a business to others or list prices.Advertisers and underwriters are NOT the same thing, because for one thing, advertisements list prices and underwriters aren’t allowed to. When I was on an LPFM station, the underwriters were places like the city zoo, etc. This is an explanation of more distinctions between advertising and underwriting:
But you're missing my point. Stations such as WABE promote themselves as "listener supported," which is only partly true. They have aggressive sales operations. And though your LPFM station's underwriters were places like the city zoo, I have been very assertively pitched for Willy's Mexicano Grill, for example, and a bank.
If you don't like it, why do you keep listening to those stations?
Well, I didn't say I listen to WABE, nor did I say I don't like it. But since you brought it up, I actually do listen. And I do like it.
That has nothing to do with what I posted. I was just responding to comments made in this thread that stations such as WABE are totally supported by listeners and other donors.
The percentage of listener support varies from station to station. The membership money is the basis for the government money. So there is a motivation to attract membership money, and interact with that membership. The programming at these stations is built around attracting membership. Once that's established, then they look at filling in the budget gaps with local business underwriters. I'm not aware of a public non-com station that's changed programming because of local business. It begins with what the membership wants. In the markets I watch, music programming has been replaced with more news and talk because of declining listener support for the music programming.
Back to alternative, if you look at non-commercial AAA stations such as WXPN or WUMB or KEXP, they are all fiercely supportive of their music formats. They aren't going to flip to news or some other format because of underwriting. On the other hand, they expect a dedicated membership base that financially supports their music format. Alternative fans think they can get what they want for free. That's not going to happen. Alternative fans have to organize and coalesce around something in the genre that they all agree on. Right now, that appears to be classics. Once we get to current music, the audience splits into a bunch of smaller sub-groups, and that's not good for funding any kind of radio station.
You're kind of mixing apples and oranges. I was responding to comments about major NPR-type public stations. There's quite a difference between WXPN and WHYY, between WUMB and WBUR, and between KEXP and KUOW. Do WXPN, WUMB and KEXP even have a paid sales staff? I would think WXPN and WUMB are funded by a combination of their schools and donations, and KEXP by donations.
And then I brought this back to alternative music, because this thread is about 99X, not WABE. KEXP has what they call a "development" staff. They go after what they call "sponsorship:"
Sponsor KEXP
www.kexp.org
So yes, there are paid people who are seeking out funding beyond membership. How much funding does WABE receive from Atlanta BOE? I would guess not much. That's quite often the case with university owned stations like WXPN and WUMB. The schools might provide space in their buildings, but the operating budget comes from the station through fundraising from listeners, grants, foundations, and sponsorship.
WABE is owned by the Atlanta Board of Education, but it's a completely different animal from WXPN and WUMB. WABE is a major NPR affiliate.
I can assure you that no one at WABE thinks of selling underwriting mentions as "filling in the budget gaps with local business underwriters."
So is WXPN. They produce programs that NPR distributes. And they get sponsorship from car manufacturers like Subaru:
People here talk about alternative music on the radio, and getting this kind of sponsorship is how that music grows.
I am enjoying the old MTV Liquid Television (season 2/fall 1992) clips (Bobby and Billy & the Specialists) played during the Steve show. He used to play these during the initial 99X era.
I’m reading online from Rodney Ho that Jill Melançon will be coming back to 99X. Planet Jill. More great news for 99X. Also reading that Toucher and Rich have split up and ended their show up in Boston. Toucher is staying in Boston but Rich’s future is uncertain. Maybe he will come back to 99X as well.
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