Alt 92.3

[MarkW]

Sounds like the audience had become too old and too male. Once again, these are sales decisions.

It was the wrong decision. The station was billing $20 million a year. That is a lot of money in year 2000. They were outbilling WLUP (as a point of comparison) by a 2:1 margin.

Q101 spent close to the next 15 years trying to find proper footing after blowing up the formula that worked.

 

[TheBigA]

Kevan Kenney and Bryce at night actually are national.

Depends on what you mean by "national." How many cities? Chicago? Philadelphia? Atlanta?

 

[tall_guy1]

Depends on what you mean by "national." How many cities? Chicago? Philadelphia? Atlanta?

15 cities at night. Pretty much every audacy alternative plays their night show, music and all, while daytime hosts are regionalized.

 

[TheBigA]

15 cities at night. Pretty much every audacy alternative plays their night show, music and all, while daytime hosts are regionalized.

But that doesn't make it national. It's just more than local, which is what a lot of companies do.

They're not offering this show to stations owned by other companies. The Woody Show is carried by other companies.

 

[wibgradio99]

alt 96.5 hd3 was pretty good, more cutting edge, but they removed it months ago, maybe they should of revamped it and put it on the main signal, could not sink any lower then what they are doing now for a lower cost.

 

[mjb1124]

Personally, I wasn't a fan of the Active-lite era of the early 2000's, nor am I a fan of the current TikTok pseudo-indie pop era. I found the format to be at a happy medium between the two extremes around 2010-13. But all of this discussion of what the format should be goes back to the question of whether the concept of "Alternative" is viable at all. There are numerous different factions of "Alternative" fans as others have said, and again I question whether the term means anything at all to Generation Z.

 

[tall_guy1]

Personally, I wasn't a fan of the Active-lite era of the early 2000's, nor am I a fan of the current TikTok pseudo-indie pop era. I found the format to be at a happy medium between the two extremes around 2010-13. But all of this discussion of what the format should be goes back to the question of whether the concept of "Alternative" is viable at all. There are numerous different factions of "Alternative" fans as others have said, and again I question whether the term means anything at all to Generation Z.

2013 didn't start the TikTok pop alt though. It moved from active-lite to indie pop/rock (like Tegan and Sara) to the current iteration around 2017.

 

[MVB13]

Kevan Kenney would be perfect as a host for the morning show.

 

[MarkW]

Kane/Cane isn't bad, but his over-caffeinated flunky co-host needs to be thrown out the window.

 

[promixcuous]

Personally, I wasn't a fan of the Active-lite era of the early 2000's, nor am I a fan of the current TikTok pseudo-indie pop era. I found the format to be at a happy medium between the two extremes around 2010-13. But all of this discussion of what the format should be goes back to the question of whether the concept of "Alternative" is viable at all. There are numerous different factions of "Alternative" fans as others have said, and again I question whether the term means anything at all to Generation Z.

I think it comes down to songwriting. I don't mind the sound of alternative over the last ten years. But, for me, memorable, meaningful songs have been few and far between. The problem with Rock in general over the last 20 years has been a dearth of really good songs, and with the exception of elements of EDM, dubstep, and trap, not much aesthetic movement to be excited about. Pop has fared better.

 

[TheBigA]

The problem with Rock in general over the last 20 years has been a dearth of really good songs,

Exactly. Meanwhile other formats have really concentrated on delivering songs that connect. That's why rock is losing to other formats.

This may be hard for rock stars to accept, but maybe it's time to enlist outside songwriters. Specialists. Experts. That may be the only way to save the genre. It seems to be working everywhere else. At least invite one professional to the session.

 

[ksradiogeek]

Yuck.



Succeeding and WWCD do not belong in the same sentence. WWCD is a financially-strapped also ran that has mostly had terrible ratings for many years that couldn't afford to continue to pay tower rent to the owner of 102.5.



Stations such as WKQX, KROQ and WNNX had record high or near record high ratings when they focused on such material. I definitely am not saying that formula should be followed by most such stations today, but your claim that the music drove away listeners in large number at the time is false.

Know what drove away Q101's ratings in the early 2K's? The hire of a CHR/Pop PD (Tim Richards) to replace Dave Richards. Dave Richards had the station firing on all cylinders. Tim Richards drove it into the ground, and then the person who succeeded him drove it 200 feet into the ground. Tim Richards removed much of the harder rock material the station had been playing and backfilled it with a bunch of warmed over Modern AC product. The station was rewarded with a nearly 40% drop in AQH share.

Saying ‘yuck’ to Crowded House, Erasure, and Pet Shop Boys is a sin to alt purists. New wave was THE sound of alternative prior to Kurt and the crew from Aberdeen breaking on the scene. And it’s an era that, while I did grow up on some of it, has largely been ridiculed and quietly discarded to the annals of music history. To me, it’s unfortunate, but I digress.

As a longtime advocate of alternative, I’ve always been intrigued to see how the genre/format’s pendulum has swung over the decades. Punk, new wave, grunge, post grunge, rap rock, indie, and whatever defines this current iteration.

Music and tastes change over time, Mark. While I love the 90s, I and the alt format can’t just keep living in the past. Have to keep moving forward in order to survive. Maybe the grunge sound will come back in 10 years, since everything has seemingly been rehashed.

(And while you constantly complain about how Audacy’s doing the format, you have to give props to WWCD’s owner for still trying to keep some vain of indie operated radio alive in market 36, long after consolidation where they could’ve just cashed out to Jacor or whomever and flipped it. Yeah, it’s off center, but if the listeners support the advertisers and there’s enough $ in the bank for the owner, good for them. I’ll keep supporting it.)

 

[macattack]

Exactly. Meanwhile other formats have really concentrated on delivering songs that connect. That's why rock is losing to other formats.

This may be hard for rock stars to accept, but maybe it's time to enlist outside songwriters. Specialists. Experts. That may be the only way to save the genre. It seems to be working everywhere else. At least invite one professional to the session.

You say this while "Beggin" is the fastest-charging song on the pop charts, while "A-OK" is hot on its heels, and while Machine Gun Kelly, Halsey, Willow Smith, and Sueco have outright changed their genres to rock. MGK, Sueco, and Willow all got on the Hot 100 with close to zero pop airplay for recent singles; btw.

While Halsey did hire outside songwriters, they were Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails; not exactly anyone's idea of professional pop songwriters. Twenty One Pilots is also on track to score a minor hit with new wave-y "Saturday" which is noticeably guitar-driven.

Rock is starting to come back and it's only a matter of time before radio realizes it too.

 

[TheBigA]

While Halsey did hire outside songwriters, they were Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails; not exactly anyone's idea of professional pop songwriters.

I wasn't suggesting they bring in pop songwriters. Just specialists in the art of crafting songs that might bring more depth to the genre. You'd be surprised at how this can be done. Trent is a great example. His melody formed the basis of the huge cross-genre smash "Old Town Road."

 

[macattack]

I wasn't suggesting they bring in pop songwriters. Just specialists in the art of crafting songs that might bring more depth to the genre. You'd be surprised at how this can be done. Trent is a great example. His melody formed the basis of the huge cross-genre smash "Old Town Road."

I wasn't suggesting you were.

 

[p_herring]

As someone who grew up in Southwestern CT, I was always frustrated that K-Rock was the most conservative "modern" rocker of the bunch, especially since they were essentially an Active Rock station with some modern rock imaging and playing more currents. It was nice to have LIR as an alternative for the more AC-leaning Alt cuts but I digress.

Alt 92.3 is an interesting proposition to me because, while I know the alternative format has always aimed at younger people, it seems to generally be targeted on folks my age (37) and possibly a little younger embracing their tastes from the mid 90's-00's while gently nudging them to explore new music that may align with their current tastes. The over-embrace, in my opinion, of the Tik Tok hip hop/pop/indie hybrid is probably going to be a tough sell on most 20/30-somethings but Audacy seems comitted to it so hope it works for them. What's funny about 92.3 nowadays is when they throw in, say, The Offspring in their current mix it almost sounds too jarring compared to the lighter-sounding music. Dare I say that Alt 92.3 is perhaps on the LIGHTER side of the alt mix which is ironic since 92.3 K-Rock was always on the heavier side.

Agreed that the constant reminds of the 2 minute promise are annoying. It's also hilarious that Cane is back in this station as his late 90's/early 00's presentation doesn't always line up with the younger more "woke" hosts, especially since he's a Trump guy.

 

[Radio-Bored-Op]

Any chance Entercom/Audacy
( still Entercom to me ) just sells off the
Alt stations as one package deal ?

In Buffalo, WLKK Alt-107.7 flipped to country
and instead of Alt rock fetching a 1 share;
Country music will be yielding the low ratings
and spending money trying to fix, flip or stay with a struggling format.

- My thoughts would be dump these stations and use the benefit of the sale to reduce debt company wide.

thoughts
?

 

[Radio-Bored-Op]

"I listen to Kane and (whomever) in the morning religiously!" said absolutely no one ever.

The music is mediocre, the clutter and frequency of music interruptions is ultra annoying, and the morning show is junk.

The old New Rock 101.9, which was a placeholder station run out of a closet following the failure of FM News 101.9, earned better ratings than Alt 92.3 - and for good reason.

my first impression of kane and friends was positive. I actually used to GOOGLE to see if local ( which I want sure ) or national....

Gave them the week and then forgot about them / never came back.

Is that the
Kane from 93.3 / fLz early/ mid 90s.
( I know it is not KANE from wwe or the nhL )

 

[TheBigA]

- My thoughts would be dump these stations and use the benefit of the sale to reduce debt company wide.

Who would buy them? EMF is the only company with cash to burn.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Any chance Entercom/Audacy
( still Entercom to me ) just sells off the
Alt stations as one package deal ?

No.

With the creeping death of AM, and people's declining interest in music on FM, it's only a matter of time before at least one of Audacy's all-news stations in New York gets moved to FM displacing Alt 92.3 for a simulcast of 1010 WINS. I don't think it's imminent quite yet...but ultimately it will happen.