Perhaps some eyes would benefit from a wider perspective?
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Alt 92.3 Music Changes
- Thread starter MVB13
- Start date
Although a new discussion to this format in this market, if people scanned the Radio Discussions boards, they would find that this has been discussed adnoseum regarding Alternative and Current Rock. David and I had a heated exchange almost two years ago concerning the flip of WAAF Boston to K-Love (a heated exchange that I think I was still right...by the way 😉😆). Saying that someone is lying isn't saying that they are inherently a liar!!! That's it, I'm enraged again!!! 🤣
All joking aside (it truly is water under the bridge, and if I can't laugh at myself, then I have no right to laugh at anyone else), my take then and still now is that in order for a genre of music to thrive into the future, there needs to be a chance taken with the modern sound. For Grunge to work, someone had to take a chance with it. Yet, keep in mind the conditions of the time. There wasn't streaming. There wasn't internet radio, there wasn't SiriusXM. There wasn't iTunes. In order to amass a collection like I have on my phone, you needed to drop thousands of dollars on records, cassettes, or CDs. The biggest variable to note is that of the stations who took these chances, they were owned by small companies or independent owners. We didn't hear a CBS station breaking Nirvana. On the East Coast, they were broken in on independent owned WFNX in Boston. There are outliers who broke in on corporate owned stations, such as Godsmack on WAAF and Sublime on KROQ, but they are just that...outliers.
I do theorize that the more we rely on 20 to 30 year old songs to carry a station advertised as "new," "modern," or "current," the worse it is for the genre. But one thing that was said to me from people like Dave and Big A holds true. It isn't corporate radio's mission to break in new bands/artists/song. I say "genre." Corprate radio isn't focused on "genre." They're focused on "format." As they say, it's up to the record companies to promote "genre."
The thing to keep in mind is that who will break the new songs and help grow the genre will be radio station A (owned by mom and pop company with their focus on a local push to get local advertising). Radio station B owned by Audacy/iHeart/Beasley/etc is about gaining the most return from ads. If a chimpanzee screeching into the microphone gets enough listeners who will increase sales in Pepsi, Pep Boys, and Pringles, then 92.3 will be 24/7 chimpanzee screeching. Then if it's a huge hit and a money draw, you'll watch 100.3 flip to orangutan grunts and growls. "O100 has more orangutan than the other station."
Where I agree with the argument about the importance of new music to keep a genre prospering, big corporate radio will always go with tests. When the tests show no dominant sound, they will always revert back to the last dominant sound in the genre, should that fit the format they are trying to lure advertisers into buying.
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Perhaps the music industry should take note.
If it’s rappers like Donald Glover, or underground R&B artists like Kamuu, the more the merrier! If it’s artists like Kid Laroi or Machine Gun Kelly, I’d be reaching for the preset buttons as fast as humanly possible.
While I can appreciate that these artists are attempting to branch out into a different genre, I think it’s been a massive failure in the eyes of alternative music fans.
I agree with the recent decision of the Audacy alternative stations to lean more heavily on gold tracks. I advocated for such a move many months back.
Will the playlist refinements prove to be too little, too late? Time will tell.
Mornings were a definite major problem spot on the stations that carried Cane and Corey. That gamble failed. Will be interesting to see if Audacy can dig itself out of that hole. I'm skeptical and believe several of Audacy's existing alternative stations will flip to something else before 2022 is done. WINS will absolutely land on analog FM at some point; the only question is, "how soon?". Could be weeks, months or a few years from now.
Will the playlist refinements prove to be too little, too late? Time will tell.
Mornings were a definite major problem spot on the stations that carried Cane and Corey. That gamble failed. Will be interesting to see if Audacy can dig itself out of that hole. I'm skeptical and believe several of Audacy's existing alternative stations will flip to something else before 2022 is done. WINS will absolutely land on analog FM at some point; the only question is, "how soon?". Could be weeks, months or a few years from now.
Here in Australia, hip hop was championed be the local Alternative network, Triple J. Hip Hop fits nicely with the overall sound of the network. Australian artist The Kid Laroi was embraced by Triple J early, and was one of this years most popular artists world wide. I still maintain that the format is meant to be genre diverse.
House Of Pain, Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Moby, Sneaker Pimps, White Town, Eminem (Much to his ire) are a few examples of Non or not always Rock artists that were or are still staples of that format. Puff Daddy did a Rock version of It’s All About The Benjamins with Dave Grohl and Rob Zombie in 2000. Always was a genre bending format except it went through phases. In the 80s, Early 90s with Grunge, Mid 90s with Post Grunge and what led to the creation of the Modern AC format. Late 90s with Nu Metal and Ska. 2000s with leftover nu metal and later emo. 2010s with synth and bands like Cage The Elephant and Kings Of Leon. It evolves. The golds just tend to stick around with the new music which is not really a new practice. Unfortunately there is not much good new music being released and younger listeners are finding new ways to listen. Top-40 has the same problem. There are good songs being played on Alternative right now, just not enough of them. A lot of them wound up on Top-40.
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Just look at past alt charts. There are plenty of alt songs in the last 5 years that can be played that are a good fit rather than incessantly playing the same tired out old hits from the 90s. I seriously doubt there are people that want to hear the same dozen songs every day from the 90s years on end in endless rotation that can keep this station afloat.
It seems however that it is in fact the strategy which is doomed for failure and when it gets scrapped I am sure people will blame the genre like they always do. Instead of blaming it on repeating the same failed mistakes and wondering why the results are the same.
IDK, maybe the entire PPM sample is based on 12 half wits that want to hear the same 12 songs from the 90s over and over.
They research and test the entire libraries. That’s how radio works in most markets. Some rely on it more than others. Major markets it’s almost certain that everything that is done is based on heavy song testing, callout. In Sacramento they used to do it live on the air by have listeners text in during songs. The song would literally stop in progress if it tested bad enough.
The currents and more recent golds that test well are the ones that are played. It’s not a new practice.
Audacy was trying to go after a younger demo by focusing on newer music. More golds, more potential 25-54s, more familiar, less tune outs.
In general, not always but in general people stop looking for new music around the age of 30 and start listening to what they grew up with. That’s why Classic Rock is so popular. There are some new songs that might test well with these people, and chances are some stations are playing those new songs along with the golds.
90s? Maybe not, as there is too much crossover with a part of the format of WAXQ. However, blend some 80s into there (Depeche Mode, The Cure, Duran Duran, etc) and maybe we the an origin of a thriving Classic Alternative format. Successful Classic Rock stations include the 70s to the 90s. The stations billed as Classic Rock and have a 90s centric focus, not so much.
Exactly! Alternative as a genre is anything to goes against the norms of a traditional genre. Problem is the United States is that we allowed Alternative to be synonymous with Alt-Rock for the last 30 years. Fans of Alternative in the 80s had much dismay to that.
Triple J is awesome. It's been one of my top streaming presets for years but I'll admit I've switched over to some other favorites lately. Thanks for reminding me to get back to them again, though. Discovered a lot of great music from that station.
Which makes me wonder about the following situation.
"Happier Than Ever" sounds different from a typical pop song because of its irregular structure. An alternative station that, like the original WLIR during the 1980s, dared to be different would actually play this song. But, apparently, the alternative stations in the present day aren't so daring.
Why? How is that better or more on-brand than "Alt"? If anything, that is less cool for the intended audience. "Radio" has perception problems.
What happened was that NDA was originally the pushed Eilish single. It stumbled on pop but continued to gain steadily on Alt when Happier Than Ever exploded on streaming services and TikTok. Eilish’s team opted to leave NDA alone on Alt but yanked NDA from pop to push Happier Than Ever there.
I suspect the Alt push for Happier Than Ever starts early next year since NDA is done there.
"Radio 104.1" has been the branding of Hartford's alt station, WMRQ, since 2009. Its (meaningless, beauty pageant, only for non-radio simpletons to discuss) ratings the last three books have been 3.3, 3.9 and 3.6. Not sure how different branding would help. That's the kind of listenership an alt station should be happy with in these dying days of rock, right?
You are a very, very condescending person and talking down to people on Christmas Eve of all days says more about you than it does the person you’re replying to.
On a technical basis you are correct but you do not have to phrase things in such a way. This smugness is what drives me crazy about this forum in spite of its useful information.
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