Can Alternative Rock survive in New York City if it's done correctly? KRock was really Rock, not alternative. What if CC made one of their stations like Radio 104.5 in Philly? or a station like WRRV in Middletown?
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Alternative Rock to New York City
- Thread starter XCountry285
- Start date
XCountry285 said:
The problem is in your question: "if done correctly." Too many interpretations of what that means.
For rock to survive on the radio, it needs to embrace some of its more popular side genres. That's what they tried to do at WRXP in its final months. It got them the best ratings since they'd signed on, but attracted criticism from purists.
If alternative rock is done for purists, it won't attract enough listeners to survive. If it's done in a broader way, with tolerance towards all and malice towards none, it will get good ratings, but alienate the purists. It's one of the many reasons why music went away from MTV. Alternative rock is, by definition, alternative music. Thus to be embraced by mainstream radio is kind of antithetic. No?
i mean the alternative rock radio format of music
XCountry285 said:
That's exactly what's he's talking about, and he's totally right. Example in CT: John Fuller brought back Radio 104.1 as "Connecticut's Alternative" in 2009... and he's playing Maroon 5, Adele, and Daughtry in the mix. It's a wide range and tries to appeal to a mass audience, but alienates the purists, and semi-purists like myself.
One of the more successful alternative stations in the country that I love is WBRU Providence. 3.7 share in the latest book with a cume around 272,000. However, they're owned by Brown University with no shareholders to please. It's not an easy format at all, even for the heritage rockers.
XCountry285 said:
No.
XCountry285 said:
CC has turned Radio 104.5 and its alternative rock format into the overall biggest rock station in Philly as of the last book or two, period. Considering when you have ~3 others in the same town, it's hard to ignore. Not sure they'd be the ones to do it, but I find it too hard to believe something similar couldn't at least survive here.
TheBigA said:
Exactly, which is why I said not sure they'd be the ones to do it, because they probably wouldn't.
TheBigA said:
I only count 5, who is the 6th that I am missing?
WAXQ 104.3-FM - Classic rock
WHTZ 100.3-FM - Contemporary hit radio
WKTU 103.5-FM - Rhythmic contemporary
WLTW 106.7-FM - Adult contemporary
WWPR 105.1-FM - Urban contemporary
I know CBS owns 6.
WCBS(News/Talk)
WCBS-FM (Oldies)
WFAN (Sports)
WINS (News)
WWFS (CHR)
WXRK(Rhythmic CHR)
I am not really big on government regulation but these are the limited public airwaves and when you start taking a look at ownership of so many stations like this by just a few companies it really makes you stop and think.
TheBigA said:
I'd say KTU. Their playlist is too similar to Z100, although it's not hurting Z, it's way too similar. It could be helping it defend Now FM. Power I myself like that station and don't want it to flip nor do I want Z or Lite or Q104.3 to flip.
XCountry285 said:
Last I checked KTU had the highest cume of any station in the city and was at or around number one in the money demographics. No way they're flipping. And I don't think Q104.3 is gonna make any significant adjustments since their approach is working just fine.
As I said before, it's outright embarrassing that New York has no place for new rock. Too bad most rock stations in NY before it had to have some sort of classic rock included. If only RXP didn't rely so much on classic rock from the start, maybe they wouldn't have had the reputation they gained. And their ratings at the time of their demise wasn't that bad, unlike, say, K-Rock near the end of their existence.
At this rate it looks like it will continue this way for a long, long time.
KTU is eating away at Z's audience their owned by the same company. Z should go rock leaning IMO or at least somewhat adult leaning.
liradioisbad said:
That's the whole issue though... What kind of new rock? If you play ALL the new rock, you'll alienate your audience. I like alternative, but if I hear metal I'm changing the station. Listeners of active rock aren't always into indie rock. If you play just ONE type of rock, it hasn't been possible to pull in the required audience to bring in sustainable revenue.
there is one huge problem for rock,alternative or not..the success of rock in the 60's,70's, 80's and into the 90's, was that it defined and symbolized a lifestyle/mindset which unified 'rock people'...that no longer exists, really, hip hop pretty much co opted the target audience, and thus, radio programmed(most successfully,anyway) to the 'classic rock' era, when that unity insured an audience...not to mention that I haven't noticed a Lennon, McCartney, Morrison, Jagger.Bowie, Cobain figure emerging to serve as a figurehead in recent times
Well said. I agree. The balkinization of most music, but especially rock, makes it less attractive to radio programmers for achieving their goal of attracting mass audiences. American TV has for the most part put most of its attention on pop acts rather than rock. MTV has abandoned music the way it once did. The thing country music has been able to do is concentrate attention on a core group of artists in a unified way through multiple forms of media. That recreates the same kind of media concentration that once existed in the 60s and 70s. Someone needs to do this in rock in order to save the genre. Or else it simply won't have the power and impact it needs to survive.
J
Jersey Maiden
Guest
reelyreal said:
It's too bad no one is willing to take a chance on combining active rock and alternative anymore. KRock in my high school days had everyone including Disturbed, New Found Glory, Oasis, and even the Roots. While GRock had a lighter alternative lean (think OAR, which has crossed over to AC), it still was comfortable playing Trapt next to an indie band. Both stations are long gone. I heard some complain that RXP's playlist was too broad. And it didn't even cover as much ground as those dead stations. Personally, I don't like hardcore metal (where are they do is scream and bellow) but I enjoy Disturbed because there's actually a melody to their songs. I have a slight preference for alternative but there's a lot of hard rock I like. Part of it may be that I'm forced to listen to WDHA now if I want new rock.
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