Doing the same as to what Kaplan is doing in Philly in following the research in each market.
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Amber Miller exits Alt 104.5
- Thread starter atthestars
- Start date
No offense, but I have never once seen Kaplan convincingly "follow the research" and I have rather accidentally tracked his career back to the 90's through research into popular music for a book and such. He has always done this type of thing wherever he goes, regardless of the market. Lip service to alternative rock (he would medium prime RHCP cuts from Californication or enormous Linkin Park hits from Meteora at best) while chasing the new left-field pop trends and putting them on power, overall shooting for a dance-ready "cool soccer mom" sound that comes across as a Hot AC that isn't willing to admit it's a Hot AC. Whether it was “Ray of Light” by Madonna and "Natural Blues" by Moby twenty-five years ago or "hot girl bummer" by blackbear and “brutal” by Olivia Rodrigo just a few years ago, he will always do this, no matter where he is.
Perhaps Philly is a better fit for him because this specific station has typically followed a formula similar to what he follows, but I have yet to be convinced this is anything but a coincidence.
I honestly do not understand why a pop or Hot AC station doesn't hire him because he'd probably be a necessary breath of fresh air for those formats. He's out of his element on Alternative and always has been, but because that's where he always has been, that's where he keeps getting hired.
Perhaps Philly is a better fit for him because this specific station has typically followed a formula similar to what he follows, but I have yet to be convinced this is anything but a coincidence.
I honestly do not understand why a pop or Hot AC station doesn't hire him because he'd probably be a necessary breath of fresh air for those formats. He's out of his element on Alternative and always has been, but because that's where he always has been, that's where he keeps getting hired.
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The only format hole in this market is Classic Alternative, WERV recently flipped among others, I think if done right it would grab some audience from MMR, RFF, MGK, OGL and BEN.. It could even be a rimshot, the beginning of summer is the perfect time for a launch.
Huh? Isn't that mostly what they play on alt104? I count 10 currents. The rest is classic.
Then, as you say, a lot of these songs are already getting play at four others stations. Where is the hole?
In the “logic,” perhaps?
I didn't know these stations played New Order,The Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division, Pixies, The Cure, Sonic Youth, Adam and the Ants, Pistols, Talk Talk, Public Image Ltd, XTC, Madness, Boomtown Rats, maybe I just missed when they were played...
And you would hear slim to none of those bands on a major market “classic alternative” station. You would get everything WRFF is playing just without currents.
We are far from the point of describing a lack of a classic alternative station as a market having a “format hole”. It’s appeared in a few markets, been (relatively) successful in a few, but it’s nowhere near one of the basic “colors” of a market’s radio “crayon box”. I say this as someone who’d probably have such a station as my number one preset, but I recognize the reality of the situation and just have all the out-of-market Classic alt stations in a folder on my TuneIn profile.
We are far from the point of describing a lack of a classic alternative station as a market having a “format hole”. It’s appeared in a few markets, been (relatively) successful in a few, but it’s nowhere near one of the basic “colors” of a market’s radio “crayon box”. I say this as someone who’d probably have such a station as my number one preset, but I recognize the reality of the situation and just have all the out-of-market Classic alt stations in a folder on my TuneIn profile.
I didn't know a lot of those bands were considered alternative. Most of them were just bad rock and pop bands.
In this ever-changing definition of “alternative” in which we live in, I’d say those bands do fall under the “alternative” umbrella, particularly the precursors “new wave” and “modern rock”.
Maybe market size was a bad differentiator on my part. NNX is Cumulus and XETRA is independent. I do not envision an Audacy or iHeart Classic alt station in Philly having anywhere close to a similar playlist. Audacy has no room to be adventurous with their financial situation and iHeart’s entire operation at this point is a paint-by-numbers presentation with a quintuple-tested playlist. I guess what I’m saying is this scenario would only have a hint of possibility if there were any smaller owners in town.
Whether they do or not doesn't change the fact that they, for the most part, suck. They sucked when they were currents, and being called classic doesn't make them suck any less. You don't play sucky old bands on the radio because no one else is. You consider maybe no one else is playing them because they suck.
It’s okay for you to not like those bands, and it’s okay for others to like them.
I agree. That's why we have Spotify and personal music devices. So people can listen to their own personal playlist as long as they want.
Radio isn't built on format holes or playing everything that was ever recorded.
A lot of those artists are regularly played on WXPN.
At least Philly has an ALT. Try NYC where only Classic Rock Exists
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