ATL NOW THE WORST EVER

[acheron1982]

Above I used the phrase "with the exception of Urban". Yes, Atlanta is a wonderful city for urban music and the stations in Atlanta are great when it comes to urban. I'm referring to radio in general. Urban would be horrible in Seattle but other radio stations and people who like those radio stations would say Seattle is great. The problem with Atlanta is the fact the stations (most) are ran by the big 4 c's. Other communities like St. Louis, and San Diego also have stations owned by some of the big 4 but also stations that are owned by smaller corps. Birmingham also sucks when it comes to radio. I can't speak for Urban (you can though) but the other formats in Birmingham are also very corporate sounding.

I agree with others that Atlanta radio is no worse than anywhere else. Radio sucks everywhere.

Actually, I think Atlanta is arguably the strongest R&B and Urban market in the country, mostly due to the large African-American population here. I'm not sure that there's a market with a station as strong as V-103 anywhere. And how many markets have 2 Urban ACs and an FM gospel station?

And while everybody likes to complain about the music played by all the stations here, when I go out of town for a week or two and listen to stations in other mid-sized Southern markets like Orlando, Tampa and Charlotte, I find that their playlists are even smaller than the stations here and while they sound fresh at first, they become old VERY quick. And when I come back to Atlanta, I realize how far ahead musically Atlanta radio still is compared with the other Southern markets.

Amen to that! I swear if some of you that hate Atlanta radio that much, have they considered how awful radio is for urban music listeners in other major Southern markets? Birmingham, Nashville, Charlotte, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, Louisville, and Jacksonville are all mundane as it gets for urban formats. They have plenty of stronger stations in other formats except urban formats. I applaud V-103 for being so strong and maintaining such a very diverse playlist of contemporary and old school hip-hop and R&B although it has some fierce competition from the Radio One-owned stations and Kiss 104.1. The only large city urban stations that comparable to V-103 is their CBS-owned sister station WPGC-FM/Washington DC along with KPRS/Kansas City, KMEL/San Francisco, WBLK/Buffalo, and WDKX/Rochester (New York).

 

[ccinsider]

I've never denied that while Atlanta is a great market for Urban formats, I feel that the non-Urban stations lack (outside of country and Star 94). Given the demographics and size of the market, it SHOULD have the strong Urbans it has.

Comparing the non-Urban formats, though, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, and even Charlotte have much more variety and better sounding choices. Raleigh and Nashville, Greensboro-Winston-Salem are unimpressive.

Yep, for those of us who live in Charlotte:

You have 3 CHRs
2 Classic Hits/Rock
A few Urbans.
1 News/Talk powerhouse
But, AC/Variety gets tricky. You have a station (107.9 WLNK) that isn't afraid to play 70s hits and HotAC currents back-to-back with Personality-based morning and afternoon shows. You have more mainstream and a little more conservative AC (104.7 WKQC) which has a fantastic morning show and great DJs. Then the new WLKO'S which, in addition to classic hits and 80s/90s songs, now plays current AC hits like Gavin DeGraw, Carly Rae Jepson and so on.......

 

[kilamanjero]

I agree with others that Atlanta radio is no worse than anywhere else. Radio sucks everywhere.

Actually, I think Atlanta is arguably the strongest R&B and Urban market in the country, mostly due to the large African-American population here. I'm not sure that there's a market with a station as strong as V-103 anywhere. And how many markets have 2 Urban ACs and an FM gospel station?

And while everybody likes to complain about the music played by all the stations here, when I go out of town for a week or two and listen to stations in other mid-sized Southern markets like Orlando, Tampa and Charlotte, I find that their playlists are even smaller than the stations here and while they sound fresh at first, they become old VERY quick. And when I come back to Atlanta, I realize how far ahead musically Atlanta radio still is compared with the other Southern markets.

Amen to that! I swear if some of you that hate Atlanta radio that much, have they considered how awful radio is for urban music listeners in other major Southern markets? Birmingham, Nashville, Charlotte, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, Louisville, and Jacksonville are all mundane as it gets for urban formats. They have plenty of stronger stations in other formats except urban formats. I applaud V-103 for being so strong and maintaining such a very diverse playlist of contemporary and old school hip-hop and R&B although it has some fierce competition from the Radio One-owned stations and Kiss 104.1. The only large city urban stations that comparable to V-103 is their CBS-owned sister station WPGC-FM/Washington DC along with KPRS/Kansas City, KMEL/San Francisco, WBLK/Buffalo, and WDKX/Rochester (New York).

Kiss is owned by Cox and is actually fairly listen-able for me. Although they are ghetto sometimes. I liked when they played more oldies. I mean white peeps listen too. But you would never know it.

I know people whom work in management and sales for CBS Radio and Cox Media, they know...

 

[kilamanjero]

Above I used the phrase "with the exception of Urban". Yes, Atlanta is a wonderful city for urban music and the stations in Atlanta are great when it comes to urban. I'm referring to radio in general. Urban would be horrible in Seattle but other radio stations and people who like those radio stations would say Seattle is great. The problem with Atlanta is the fact the stations (most) are ran by the big 4 c's. Other communities like St. Louis, and San Diego also have stations owned by some of the big 4 but also stations that are owned by smaller corps. Birmingham also sucks when it comes to radio. I can't speak for Urban (you can though) but the other formats in Birmingham are also very corporate sounding.

I agree with others that Atlanta radio is no worse than anywhere else. Radio sucks everywhere.

Actually, I think Atlanta is arguably the strongest R&B and Urban market in the country, mostly due to the large African-American population here. I'm not sure that there's a market with a station as strong as V-103 anywhere. And how many markets have 2 Urban ACs and an FM gospel station?

And while everybody likes to complain about the music played by all the stations here, when I go out of town for a week or two and listen to stations in other mid-sized Southern markets like Orlando, Tampa and Charlotte, I find that their playlists are even smaller than the stations here and while they sound fresh at first, they become old VERY quick. And when I come back to Atlanta, I realize how far ahead musically Atlanta radio still is compared with the other Southern markets.

Amen to that! I swear if some of you that hate Atlanta radio that much, have they considered how awful radio is for urban music listeners in other major Southern markets? Birmingham, Nashville, Charlotte, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, Louisville, and Jacksonville are all mundane as it gets for urban formats. They have plenty of stronger stations in other formats except urban formats. I applaud V-103 for being so strong and maintaining such a very diverse playlist of contemporary and old school hip-hop and R&B although it has some fierce competition from the Radio One-owned stations and Kiss 104.1. The only large city urban stations that comparable to V-103 is their CBS-owned sister station WPGC-FM/Washington DC along with KPRS/Kansas City, KMEL/San Francisco, WBLK/Buffalo, and WDKX/Rochester (New York).

I'm originally from Birmingham, and it is horrible market for urban radio. There is too much splicing and too little respect for the actual format or its music. Cumulus has a chance to fix that with Hot 107.7 becoming a full-service urban contemporary, but they would rather not rock the boat.

Oh yeah, there is practically no such thing as urban radio in most markets with a less than 10% black in its overall population with the exception of San Francisco. Most seem to only have CHR/rhythmics that might spin a charting hip-hop and/or R&B song but that is it.

 

[acheron1982]

[/quote]
Carly Rae Jepso

[/quote]

I can tolerate some top 40 by this chick is down right annoying. Annoying bubble gum music is what she defines.

 

[RTibbs]

I've never denied that while Atlanta is a great market for Urban formats, I feel that the non-Urban stations lack (outside of country and Star 94). Given the demographics and size of the market, it SHOULD have the strong Urbans it has.

Comparing the non-Urban formats, though, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, and even Charlotte have much more variety and better sounding choices. Raleigh and Nashville, Greensboro-Winston-Salem are unimpressive.

I love Hippie radio in Nashville, Atlanta needs this...Since it always had the highest hippie baby boomer pop in the SE.


http://hippieradio.net/

Looks like an old z93 playlist and there is nothing hippie about it.

 

[kal30005]

I've never denied that while Atlanta is a great market for Urban formats, I feel that the non-Urban stations lack (outside of country and Star 94). Given the demographics and size of the market, it SHOULD have the strong Urbans it has.

Comparing the non-Urban formats, though, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, and even Charlotte have much more variety and better sounding choices. Raleigh and Nashville, Greensboro-Winston-Salem are unimpressive.

I guess that's a matter of taste. For the record, I am not much of an urban radio listener. Just pointing out that Urban is a strength of Atlanta radio.

I've spent a good bit of time in Jacksonville and Orlando through the years and I have no idea what stations you think are better than what's here in Atlanta, past or present. Radio in those 2 markets has always pretty much sucked and musically, they've been weeks or months behind Atlanta as long as I can remember.

Tampa has had some good stations through the years, but on my recent visits, radio there sounds about the same as everywhere else. Listened to FLZ, which used to be good a few years ago, for a few hours driving and didn't hear a single song I hadn't heard a hundred times on Star, Q or Wild, except they were adding a dance beat to every song, which Florida CHR stations have done for years. The only station I heard that sounded different than what's in Atlanta was Q105. Everything else sounded pretty much like what's here.

And I don't think there's ever been a truly decent alternative station in any Florida market. Nothing that's ever compared to what Atlanta has had.

Atlanta could easily fix itself if 99X moves to a bigger signal (100.5) and updates their playlists to play more current alternative and local music. And if River would fill the Rock 100.5 void and move a little harder and expand their playlist. And I think there's room for a good talent based classic hits station that everyone here seems to want.

Make those 3 changes and Atlanta radio would be pretty good.

 

[atlantaboy]

I've never denied that while Atlanta is a great market for Urban formats, I feel that the non-Urban stations lack (outside of country and Star 94). Given the demographics and size of the market, it SHOULD have the strong Urbans it has.

Comparing the non-Urban formats, though, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, and even Charlotte have much more variety and better sounding choices. Raleigh and Nashville, Greensboro-Winston-Salem are unimpressive.

Yep, for those of us who live in Charlotte:

You have 3 CHRs

Huh? ??? (there are only 2 CHRs)

Also, Charlotte has no Hot AC or AAA, and the Alternative station borders on Active Rock - definitely not a good market for me...