And People Wonder Why RXP Is Failing...

[sdol]

So I'm sampling WRXP this afternoon at around 5 PM, when the DJ comes on after a Pink Floyd song and says the following:

"That was Pink Floyd, and before that was Pearl Jam. And this is a guy from New Jersey."

(Song starts)

If you're going to give an artist such a vague introduction, it had better be Bruce Springsteen. Or maybe Jon Bon Jovi.

As it turns out, the artist in question was one Pete Yorn.

And the fact that I had to go to Yes.com to figure out who the artist was, tells you all you need to know about how execrable that exchange was.

I know the only reason this station exists is for the advent of the PPM meters, which tend to be friendlier toward rock stations, but please... If you're going to have such vapid occurrences on this station, just turn it into a Spanish outlet and be done with it.

Here I go again... feel free to bash me.

You ACTUALLY took the time out to look on the internet to find out who the artist was and you're telling me you don't listen to this station??? Do you even think before you type something like this????

By the way RXP has one killer signal! I was down the shore and got the station crystal clear from Manahawkin all the way up the Parkway.

I have only listened once to the station but heard the morning show doing a bit on Matt's iPod and what number they were gonna pick. I couldn't even begin to fathom how MANY iPods it would take to hold his own personal music collection!

Whether you like him or not Matt is extremely relatable and as I have said before a one in a million type of talent. I don't think anyone knows more about rock music and upcoming artists than he does. Plus, he's good at picking out who's hot and who's not. Plus, he's born and bread and has lived the NYC lifestyle for decades!

Ok.... now it's your turn to bash me now! LOL!  ;D

 

[SuperRadioFan]

I still want to know and no one has an answer ... WHY does WRXP NOT stream in stereo????? This is 2008, folks!

 

[rapking]

And The Yankee's will be at home watching the Sox on TV. SOX,PATS,and The Celtics RULES ! New York Radio Dial kills Boston . Boston Radio dial s/cks !

HAHAHA you are slowwwww, I don't give a rat's behind about The Yankees since MY team, the LA Angels will clinch their division by beating the Yankees tonight or tomorrow.
Oh and BTW what was the Red Sox record against the Halos this season, hmmmmm? Geeeez, Lets Go Mets too (they're my 2nd favorite team... Remember '86 WS, RapKing?)

And 'RXP=The Sound= NOT AAA

How many times the Red Sox have to beat down the Angels in the playoff ? Its like a Pimp slap down his B-tch-s ! Boston Red Sox are still the champions and Boston radio Dial still sucks !

 

[rapking]

NYC Radio kills Boston? Is that meant to be funny? While NYC has utterly embarrassing excuses for rock stations, Boston has station that serve as models for the right way to program a station in this format, especially Alternative WFNX. Here in NYC, there's a tired classic rocker, a safe timid chicken rocker, and a kitchen sink rocker that's too inconsistent to be listenable for more than 10 minutes at a time. The hip-hop stations here are also terrible because they're virtually identical - tired new school music, including some stuff that doesn't even belong (Justin Timberlake? Rihanna?), and practically nothing from previous decades. Let's not even get into all the tired female-targeting stations that this market is full of. What exactly does NYC have going for it in terms of radio? Other than a good solid AM dial with all kinds of talk programming, not much.

Boston rock stations are TRASH . Boston "Radio Garbage 92.9" someone come into the station and put in a trash CD and leave for the day. WAAF,WBCN, and WFNX nobody listening to that Sh-T. Boston is known to be a rock market but Boston's Rock stations cant get good ratings . How bad is That ? What if Shreveport LA ( Urban music Market ) Urban stations had a hard time getting decent ratings in Shreveport radio market ?

 

[kms575]

NYC Radio kills Boston? Is that meant to be funny? While NYC has utterly embarrassing excuses for rock stations, Boston has station that serve as models for the right way to program a station in this format, especially Alternative WFNX. Here in NYC, there's a tired classic rocker, a safe timid chicken rocker, and a kitchen sink rocker that's too inconsistent to be listenable for more than 10 minutes at a time. The hip-hop stations here are also terrible because they're virtually identical - tired new school music, including some stuff that doesn't even belong (Justin Timberlake? Rihanna?), and practically nothing from previous decades. Let's not even get into all the tired female-targeting stations that this market is full of. What exactly does NYC have going for it in terms of radio? Other than a good solid AM dial with all kinds of talk programming, not much.

Boston rock stations are TRASH . Boston "Radio Garbage 92.9" someone come into the station and put in a trash CD and leave for the day. WAAF,WBCN, and WFNX nobody listening to that Sh-T. Boston is known to be a rock market but Boston's Rock stations cant get good ratings . How bad is That ? What if Shreveport LA ( Urban music Market ) Urban stations had a hard time getting decent ratings in Shreveport radio market ?

...Nice to see that you're getting back to your quality postings, as usual. And, BTW, the Red Sox will not be chanps again this year. They will limp off the field like Tom Brady did.

 

[DToTheJ]

"That was Pink Floyd, and before that was Pearl Jam. And this is a guy from New Jersey."

(Song starts)

If you're going to give an artist such a vague introduction, it had better be Bruce Springsteen. Or maybe Jon Bon Jovi.

As it turns out, the artist in question was one Pete Yorn.

You ACTUALLY took the time out to look on the internet to find out who the artist was and you're telling me you don't listen to this station??? Do you even think before you type something like this????

You missed the point entirely... If you're going to introduce an artist as being "from New Jersey" and only being "from New Jersey", and not give a name, it had better be a household name like Springsteen or Bon Jovi.

I still want to know and no one has an answer ... WHY does WRXP NOT stream in stereo????? This is 2008, folks!

And while they're at it, why doesn't Emmis stream Hot 9 --- on second thought, I think there is a thread of twenty (thanks djfrresh) on this pressing issue...

 

[kevinsealy]

SoulCrusher,

>>>The non-rock music fans, especially the dance nuts (of which I think you may belong to) post the same argument over and over again.

Q 104.3 is what it is - a meat and potatoes classic rocker. It's good if that's what you're into, but I'm not and I imagine many others are not as well.

K-Rock is just garbage. Period. That's why no one listens to the station at all outside of O&A. I mean, seriously, listen to the station. They play maybe 200, 300 songs tops and it's all the same old tired songs that they've been playing for years. Wouldn't you get tired of hearing the same thing every day for 10 or 20 years ... because that's essentially what K-Rock brings to the table. I looked at their airplay charts recently and noticed that Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" - a two year old song - ranked #5 overall. Do you see what's wrong with this picture? K-Rock is a safe, boring, and extremely tired station - I'm a rock fan, and on my NYC presets, the only rock station I have up there is WRXP. That should tell you something about K-Rock.

As for RXP - they're a station with tons of potential that wastes it on too many played out songs. Yes, they spin lots of great Alternative acts you can't hear anywhere else other than possibly on the left of the dial, but they also play predictable classic rock (Boston, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin) and dreadful modern steakhead rock (Nickelback, Daughtry). The station's definition of rock literally seems to be "anything that has a guitar in it", and that's the station's weak point - they're all over the place musically. If they focused on bringing the market what it sorely lacks, I don't see why this station couldn't succeed. Simply put, let Q 104.3 have Boston and all the soccer mom stations can have Nickelback and focus on being a good solid Alternative station. Take the R.E.M., Beck, Cake, Radiohead, etc. songs that are receiving airtime and just go on from there. NYC has never had a real Alternative station (K-Rock was close at one time, maybe around '95-'97, but they still played acts like Metallica), so I don't understand the reluctance to try such an approach, especially when bands like Arcade Fire and Kings Of Leon can sell out some pretty impressive venues despite limited airplay<<<

Apparently You've never read any of my posts on the New York Radio Message Board, and this board and posters here who are long time readers there can tell you that my alltime favorate radio station is WNEW-AM 1130 which makes me NOT a dance music fan. And my music taste ranges from (MOR) Pop Standards, Rock 'N' Roll Oldies to Adult Contemporary.

My posting was based on facts non my opinion on music.

If you add the ratings of WXRK outside of O & A and WRXP they don't even add up to (Hot 97) WQHT numbers.



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy

 

[p_herring]

SoulCrusher,

>>>The non-rock music fans, especially the dance nuts (of which I think you may belong to) post the same argument over and over again.

Q 104.3 is what it is - a meat and potatoes classic rocker. It's good if that's what you're into, but I'm not and I imagine many others are not as well.

K-Rock is just garbage. Period. That's why no one listens to the station at all outside of O&A. I mean, seriously, listen to the station. They play maybe 200, 300 songs tops and it's all the same old tired songs that they've been playing for years. Wouldn't you get tired of hearing the same thing every day for 10 or 20 years ... because that's essentially what K-Rock brings to the table. I looked at their airplay charts recently and noticed that Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" - a two year old song - ranked #5 overall. Do you see what's wrong with this picture? K-Rock is a safe, boring, and extremely tired station - I'm a rock fan, and on my NYC presets, the only rock station I have up there is WRXP. That should tell you something about K-Rock.

As for RXP - they're a station with tons of potential that wastes it on too many played out songs. Yes, they spin lots of great Alternative acts you can't hear anywhere else other than possibly on the left of the dial, but they also play predictable classic rock (Boston, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin) and dreadful modern steakhead rock (Nickelback, Daughtry). The station's definition of rock literally seems to be "anything that has a guitar in it", and that's the station's weak point - they're all over the place musically. If they focused on bringing the market what it sorely lacks, I don't see why this station couldn't succeed. Simply put, let Q 104.3 have Boston and all the soccer mom stations can have Nickelback and focus on being a good solid Alternative station. Take the R.E.M., Beck, Cake, Radiohead, etc. songs that are receiving airtime and just go on from there. NYC has never had a real Alternative station (K-Rock was close at one time, maybe around '95-'97, but they still played acts like Metallica), so I don't understand the reluctance to try such an approach, especially when bands like Arcade Fire and Kings Of Leon can sell out some pretty impressive venues despite limited airplay<<<

Apparently You've never read any of my posts on the New York Radio Message Board, and this board and posters here who are long time readers there can tell you that my alltime favorate radio station is WNEW-AM 1130 which makes me NOT a dance music fan. And my music taste ranges from (MOR) Pop Standards, Rock 'N' Roll Oldies to Adult Contemporary.

My posting was based on facts non my opinion on music.

If you add the ratings of WXRK outside of O & A and WRXP they don't even add up to (Hot 97) WQHT numbers.



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy

Kevin,

The reason K-Rock sees such terrible ratings is, as SoulCrusher mentioned, their playlist is so sterile and boring that even their target audience of Jersey beer drinkers/Metallica fans are bored with it.

 

[kevinsealy]

p_herring,

I was mainly responding to SoulCrusher assuming that I'm a dance music fan.

Being a radio person and someone who's seeking to get back into the industry, even radio formats that are far from my favorite, like Active Rock and Hip Hop I have to keep up to date on what's going on in NY radio.

If you go back to the Howard Stern days has K-rock ever had better than mediocre ratings not including Stern's numbers?





Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy

 

[adma]

Apparently You've never read any of my posts on the New York Radio Message Board, and this board and posters here who are long time readers there can tell you that my alltime favorate radio station is WNEW-AM 1130 which makes me NOT a dance music fan. And my music taste ranges from (MOR) Pop Standards, Rock 'N' Roll Oldies to Adult Contemporary.

My posting was based on facts non my opinion on music.

Well, actually, I find this funny. Rock fans blaming the dance fans; but in fact, maybe who you should really blame are the totally beige, totally square, totally *dead* MOR/AC/Oldies biases of Sealy, Sniffen, et al, who've spun this "New York's not a rock town" mythology in order to prop up their own senile hack Sleepy Hollow philistinism, which probably has even *less* to do with New York in 2008 unless you're still a 70s leisure-suiter at heart.

Look: the reason why WABC blanked on songs like "I Love Rock N' Roll" in its dotage isn't because New York wasn't a rock town, it's because WABC was in its dotage. The station was in advanced dementia, drooling and defecating and stinking up the joint...

 

[Indielover]

Look: the reason why WABC blanked on songs like "I Love Rock N' Roll" in its dotage isn't because New York wasn't a rock town, it's because WABC was in its dotage. The station was in advanced dementia, drooling and defecating and stinking up the joint...

Much like Sniffen and Sealy themselves...that board and its readers are so far out of touch and don't have a clue about music recorded after 1968.

 

[SoulCrusher]

Apologies to Kevin Sealy for the dance music fanatic implication. That was coming from someone who remembers when this board was taken over by dance enthusiasts who would spout off "Rock sux! Dance muzik rulz!" whenever they got the chance. They would criticize WKTU (which is fine - I understand why), but they would take their fanaticism into other threads, which was uncalled for.

If there's a point to my posts on this subject, it's that rock stations are not failing because "NYC isn't a rock town" as some have claimed, but that we have utterly pitiful excuses for rock stations in this town. K-Rock is flat out unlistenable because it is extremely safe and passes off very old songs as "new music" long after their time had come and gone. I mean, they're playing Kid Rock's horrible classic rock mashup song "All Summer Long", which is very popular at Hot AC, CHR and Country but went nowhere on rock formats - and that's one of maybe between 5 to 10 "new" rock songs they're playing. Instead of using a rock model of programming the station (playlist of at least 500-600 songs, cycling songs in and out of "A" rotation within 3 to 6 months) they're using the AC model which involves a very tight playlist of 200-300 Gold titles at best and playing their "Currents" in fairly heavy rotation for a year or more. I just checked their playlist stats, and do you want an example of how bad this station is? Two Van Halen songs that are both over 20 years old ranked #6 & #7 in overall airplay. Yes, you read that correctly the first time. K-Rock is failing miserably not because there is no audience for rock, but because they are beyond horrible. Take it from me - when I travel to the NYC area, I listen to either talk radio, WRXP, or one of the R&B stations. I refuse to listen to K-Rock on principle alone, because they are an embarrassment to rock radio.

 

[neo11]

I second that. A newer rock station in NYC can succeed, but 92.3 and 101.9 are both very poor examples of rock radio programming. K-Rock with its ultra-safe, ultra-tired playlist of dino-rock mixed in with a sprinkling of stale, year-old "currents," and 'RXP, which is attempting to get "hip" cred, then goes ahead and plays the same overplayed classic rock titles by Led Zepellin and Springsteen and Aerosmith along with overplayed rock from the 90s and today ("In the End" by Linkin Park, the same tired old crap from Nickelback that you can hear on AC and Hot AC's across the country, etc.).

Neither of these stations are tapping in to the rock music that is so popular with the younger demos nowadays, men and women alike, new stuff as well as older alternative that still resonates with the younger set. 'RXP teases by playing bands like the Cold War Kids, then throws that away the next time they play some Boston or Guns N' Roses.

 

[sdol]

"That was Pink Floyd, and before that was Pearl Jam. And this is a guy from New Jersey."

(Song starts)

If you're going to give an artist such a vague introduction, it had better be Bruce Springsteen. Or maybe Jon Bon Jovi.

As it turns out, the artist in question was one Pete Yorn.

You ACTUALLY took the time out to look on the internet to find out who the artist was and you're telling me you don't listen to this station??? Do you even think before you type something like this????

You missed the point entirely... If you're going to introduce an artist as being "from New Jersey" and only being "from New Jersey", and not give a name, it had better be a household name like Springsteen or Bon Jovi.

I still want to know and no one has an answer ... WHY does WRXP NOT stream in stereo????? This is 2008, folks!

And while they're at it, why doesn't Emmis stream Hot 9 --- on second thought, I think there is a thread of twenty (thanks djfrresh) on this pressing issue...

Sorry if I missed your point, but from RXP's standpoint Pete Yorn may be a common name to the listeners they are catering to. I've heard the name... don't know the name of any of his songs, but still I recognize the name. So this type of introduction to a song may be intentional. There may be a ton of Pete Yorn fans out there.

 

[adma]

And, if you have to do a search to figure out who Pete Yorn is...so what? To the Google generation, searching is a perfectly natural, commonplace reflex, hardly an annoyance. And with that kind of levelled, easily-searchable playing field, it doesn't even matter if you're not a Springsteen-type superduperstar.

It all makes the gripe which began this thread look like a mark of incurious sloth. "Who the f. is Pete Yorn?" Yeah, well, what the f. is the kind of jerkwater mentality that'd ask such a question? Maybe that's the reason why the Pete Yorn fanbase steered clear of commercial terrestrial long ago.

And perhaps that's the dilemma of RXP--it's trying to do a "webcast thing" on terrestrial, maybe with a little too much enlightened Mojo-reader's trust in a hypothetical "post-reactive" listenership (look, it's been a quarter century since the punk vs AOR wars) that can take a little properly contextualized Boston with their Pete Yorn. Which, given the nature of terrestrial these days, is a little like putting lipstick on a pig, to quote Mr. Obama...

 

[adma]

Much like Sniffen and Sealy themselves...that board and its readers are so far out of touch and don't have a clue about music recorded after 1968.

Or, for that matter, about music recorded *before* 1968, except maybe as a colorless, prechewed, never-too-unfamiliar comfort zone for "casual listeners" who are spooked by all sorts of cultural elements postdating 1968, never mind mere music.

As much as the dentist claims to represent "New York tastes", I reckon a little bit of a Brady Bunch Movie scenario taking place if one were to drop him in Manhattan (let alone hipster Greenpoint/Williamsburg) today.

 

[p_herring]

I second that. A newer rock station in NYC can succeed, but 92.3 and 101.9 are both very poor examples of rock radio programming. K-Rock with its ultra-safe, ultra-tired playlist of dino-rock mixed in with a sprinkling of stale, year-old "currents," and 'RXP, which is attempting to get "hip" cred, then goes ahead and plays the same overplayed classic rock titles by Led Zepellin and Springsteen and Aerosmith along with overplayed rock from the 90s and today ("In the End" by Linkin Park, the same tired old crap from Nickelback that you can hear on AC and Hot AC's across the country, etc.).

Neither of these stations are tapping in to the rock music that is so popular with the younger demos nowadays, men and women alike, new stuff as well as older alternative that still resonates with the younger set. 'RXP teases by playing bands like the Cold War Kids, then throws that away the next time they play some Boston or Guns N' Roses.

You totally nailed it with the second paragraph. When I'm in Manhattan it's ipod-only time. However, when I go out to visit my parents and get in the car, I'm happy to tune to 101.9. Then, they play some song that I can hear on Q or one of the post-grunge cross-over ballad songs (Lifehouse, Staind, Matchbox 20, etc.) that can be heard on any other format. I don't understand why they can't get it right. If you play music that can't be heard on any other format, you should see SOME ratings. However, let's be serious here, no rock station is really going to see above a 2.0 in NYC with media fragmentation and listeners most likely not coming back to radio due to past screw-ups.

 

[NoMoreLurking]

I don't understand why they can't get it right. If you play music that can't be heard on any other format, you should see SOME ratings.

Not if you regularly poison the music mix with songs that can be heard everywhere else. Every tired and out-of-context Boston, Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc. song is a roadblock to success and a diss to the listeners RXP seeks. It's there in the numbers - you think they'd see that. But the con$ultant$ are still too busy obsessing about putting more bush league "real guy" voices on the air between songs.

Priorities! It's the MUSIC, people!

Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym. And those who can't teach gym, con$ult.

 

[BACKnUSSR]

Well, actually, I find this funny. Rock fans blaming the dance fans; but in fact, maybe who you should really blame are the totally beige, totally square, totally *dead* MOR/AC/Oldies biases of Sealy, Sniffen, et al, who've spun this "New York's not a rock town" mythology in order to prop up their own senile hack Sleepy Hollow philistinism, which probably has even *less* to do with New York in 2008 unless you're still a 70s leisure-suiter at heart.

Look: the reason why WABC blanked on songs like "I Love Rock N' Roll" in its dotage isn't because New York wasn't a rock town, it's because WABC was in its dotage. The station was in advanced dementia, drooling and defecating and stinking up the joint...

I see your point. And I agree that there are many biases abound.
However, WABC DID play "I Love Rock n Roll" quite a bit...it did well.

The New York's "not a rock town" is pretty accurate....
In fact, NY was never a great sales maket for most rock bands (except for a few)
During the 60's the dominant AM's WMCA and WABC were so big and so strong, that their was little chance for one of those great
underground FM's to really emerge. WOR was the one that really started to breakthrough, but they did so in that Drake format setup
....so it never was as crunchy as rock in other markets....same with WNEW where they followed the lead of Scottso, Bob Lewis and other
ex-ABC types, and tried to be anti-Top 40 with that slow, laid back pacing.....
During the 70's "rock" had its NYC heyday with WNEW and WPLJ...but remember, these were always rock stations that were heavy on the
Billy Joel and light on the KISS.....they rocked.....but in that "not too hard" sort of way.....(I always remember WNEW being that weird "Rock" station that pounded "She's Always A Woman").
Then came the 80's....WNEW played rock hits but......it was mainly Billy, Bruce, Petty, The Band, Journey and not so much Ozzy, Judas Priest, Metallica,
and that sort of stuff.....
We were always an "RXP" rock sorta town.....nothing like Detroit, Denver, or even L.A.

 

[DToTheJ]

I don't think anyone realizes it, but what WRXP is now, is kinda like what WNEW was in the early 90's - maybe even the mid-90's when the late Scott Muni was relegated to talking up Cranberries records...