Which is why it hasn't happened.
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Boston Radio Ratings April 2020.
- Thread starter freqlost
- Start date
Which is why it hasn't happened.
More pop, R&B and disco, less rock. The problem is that classic rock, and rock-based hits of the past, appeal to many people who never experienced the music when it was new. Think Led Zeppelin, Eagles, U2, Springsteen. Hits by Donna Summer, America, the Stylistics, or any of the studio-based "bubble gum" groups are audience killers when played alongside "More Than a Feeling," "Hotel California" and "Old Time Rock and Roll." That's why WROR is more a hit-based version of WZLX than anything WODS used to be.
ALT 103.3 Sample Two Hours. Is there enough of an audience for a station like this?
Shine A Little Light On Me: Black Keys
Under the Bridge: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Novocaine: Unlikely Candidates
You Don't' Know What Love Is: The White Stripes
This Life: Vampire Weekend
Check Your Phone: Cheap Cuts/Pete Wentz
Break
Moral of the Story: Ashe
1901: Phoenix
Used to Like: Neon Trees
Love Song: 311
Hero: Weezer
Break
Caution: Killers
Longview: Green Day
Hour 2
Level of Concern: Twenty One Pilots
Bad Decisions: The Strokes
Lost In Yesterday: Tame Impala
Fluorescent Adolescent: Arctic Monkeys
Trampoline: Shaed
Who's Gonna Love Me Now?: Cold War Kids
Break
Monsters: All Time Low
1979: Smashing Pumpkins
Van Horn: Saint Motel
Three Nights: Dominic Fike
City of Angels: 24K Golden
Break
Might Be Right: White Reaper
Bleed American: Jimmy Eat World
You could even keep the current AMP air staff. They all sound talented enough to tweak their delivery for a new format. Add a morning guy for a music intensive morning show minus the usual morning show wacky antics and you've got yourself a station where you have only added one salary.
Shine A Little Light On Me: Black Keys
Under the Bridge: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Novocaine: Unlikely Candidates
You Don't' Know What Love Is: The White Stripes
This Life: Vampire Weekend
Check Your Phone: Cheap Cuts/Pete Wentz
Break
Moral of the Story: Ashe
1901: Phoenix
Used to Like: Neon Trees
Love Song: 311
Hero: Weezer
Break
Caution: Killers
Longview: Green Day
Hour 2
Level of Concern: Twenty One Pilots
Bad Decisions: The Strokes
Lost In Yesterday: Tame Impala
Fluorescent Adolescent: Arctic Monkeys
Trampoline: Shaed
Who's Gonna Love Me Now?: Cold War Kids
Break
Monsters: All Time Low
1979: Smashing Pumpkins
Van Horn: Saint Motel
Three Nights: Dominic Fike
City of Angels: 24K Golden
Break
Might Be Right: White Reaper
Bleed American: Jimmy Eat World
You could even keep the current AMP air staff. They all sound talented enough to tweak their delivery for a new format. Add a morning guy for a music intensive morning show minus the usual morning show wacky antics and you've got yourself a station where you have only added one salary.
That's not the question. The question is Can you make more money with these songs than with pop songs?
It's not a popularity contest. It's not a reality show. This is business.
I think it would work. Entercom does many formats well especially Alternative. I think they would do a better job than iHeart could do. Plus Amp isn't beating Kiss and their ratings are at the bottom. They would not be in competition with Kiss or Jammin or any of the Urban stations for listeners or have any overlap with Mix.
Kiss and Jammin' are iHeart stations. It seems to me that Entercom would WANT to compete against them. Kiss is a very successful station, so its obvious the problem with AMP isn't the music they're playing, but the presentation. The problem with alternative is that it consistently underperforms in revenue in relation to the ratings. If you look around the country at top billing stations, you don't see the alternative format. So it might do better than AMP on the ratings side, but it will make less money. That's not good.
what would you change about AMP's presentation? clearly Entercom had the same idea when they shook up mornings, but nothing else has changed minus a few new songs.
Interesting you bring up mornings, because that's where they have absolutely no presence at all. So maybe if they had a competitive morning show, they might have a chance.
I think the problem with Amp is the music honestly. Way too youth-leaning, especially in a market like this. Maybe there is a reason why their sister station, (Mix) is outperforming them, despite Amp being more marketable from a businesses standpoint. Actually Amp reminds me of a more sanitized version of the 87.9 pirate (Beat) in NH before it got shut down.
The CHR format is by definition very "youth-leaning." That's the idea. The same music is good enough to make Kiss #2.
It's like saying ROR would be a better station if they played some currents.
I don’t think even Entercom wants to do more of this format. Look around the nation at some of Entercom’s weak performing stations. NYC and Dallas have failed to get off the ground. Heritage stations in LA and Kansas City are being run into the ground. Entercom has a thing for this format, yet it’s been over a year since Alt was removed from Boston and ETM hasn’t flipped 103.3 or 107.3 when they had it. That should speak volumes.
LA was being severely beaten by a newer competitor; "heritage" is only as good as your last book.
KROQ's morning show suffered from the retirement of half of the core team. The "rest of the team" continued declining. The station was getting older demos.
It's very hard to criticize them for the dissolution and decay of the morning show that held the station together. We can be critical of whatever they do to refresh the station, but, of course, not until the pandemic is over and listening levels normalize.
lol you guys kill me with this. You y’all as if radio is a successful medium fully private and responsive.
It only exists in its current format today because it’s a government sanctioned monopoly, with the FCC keeping it largely stale and uncompetitive.
You older radio guys talk as though these stations are actually “successful “ meanwhile they’re lose listeners and become more irrelevant with each passing day.
Explain how the FCC is doing any of what you say it's doing. It has hardly any interest in station formats and spoken and musical content, just rules regarding language. If you're referring to the limited number of frequencies available and the ownership of many stations by wealthy individuals or large chains, well, that's how it works in the good old USA. You need money to get into the radio game, and once you're in, the government isn't going to push you out unless you do something horribly wrong.
Radio remains successful for those stations that have an audience advertisers will pay to reach. About half of all stations didn't make a profit even before the virus hit. But, going back to the 60's and 70's, about half of all stations then did not achieve profitability.
That is not true. There is no monopoly... in fact the FCC rules prohibit them. Look at Boston where owning the two major sports stations was not allowed in the CBN merger with Entercom as it would be too concentrated.
The high rated stations are generally successful, meaning they have a profit. "Success" does not mean a station has a big audience. It means the station makes a profit.
While radio is in the entertainment business, it does not make money from its users. It makes money from advertisers who want to talk to those users. And that is where "success" is measured.
From what I can see on their playlist..Ampnis more similar to Jamb now than Kiss. It looks like it leans hip hop pretty heavily. The personalitiesand imaging don’t match with that.
That makes 3 watered down hip hop stationS JAMN AMP HOT
2 stations that lay considerable amount of that music KISS WKAF
1 legal online station playing that music locally SPARK
2 illegal stations playing that music B87 BIG CITY
enough is enough. It’s no wonder Amp can’t get any headway-people can barely tolerate JAMN but at least they have heritage and more urban personas with more connections to hip hop. Amp seems out of place with all the Roddy Ricch Quavo Megan thee stallion Doja Cat Saint John Jeremiah...theres very minimal non hip hop/pure pop. Jonas brothers and Sam Smith here or there...
One good urban could could eliminate a ton of the rhythmics and free up the dial. Having 4+ rhymtics tells me there demand for an urban. As was evidence to some extent by WKAFS initial ratings
MassMusicMan
Banned
No, it tells you there's demand for rhythmic.
Honestly, I'm astonished that anyone could live in Boston and think that it's Chicago or Atlanta.
I don't think it would work. Number one, most of Boston's rock exports have been of the "hard rock/metal" variety, and having local artists in the playlist is essential for authenticity. Number two, Boston has WXRV, which does play a number of alternative artists in its playlist like almost all AAAs do. As I can attest from living in Chicago and watching WXRT beat WKQX consistently for over 3 years, a "straight alternative" (WKQX in 2017-18) or a "pop alternative" (WKQX 2019-today) is going to have trouble against a strong AAA, and while shares don't tell the whole story, WXRV does generally pull around a 3 share in the Boston market.
If you're going to go Alternative in Boston in the current environment, you have to lean Active, which is something Entercom is clearly uncomfortable doing as none of their Alternatives have an Active lean. So in addition to the Twenty-One Pilots and Cage the Elephants of the world you need to play the Godsmacks and Breaking Benjamins too.
If I may adjust your playlist to demonstrate what I'm talking about... Boston's Rock Alternative 103.3 10am-12pm
Shine A Little Light: Black Keys
Give It Away: Red Hot Chili Peppers ("Under the Bridge" is a good song but I would not include it in a set meant to energize people for their workday)
She's Kerosene: The Interrupters
You Don't Know What Love Is: The White Stripes
Comedown: Bush
Deleter: Grouplove
Break
I Stand Alone: Godsmack
Best Of You: Foo Fighters
Hero: Weezer
Kryptonite: 3 Doors Down
Savior: Rise Against
Atlas Falls: Shinedown
Break
Longview: Green Day
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy): The Offspring
Hour 2
Level of Concern: Twenty One Pilots
Interstate Love Song: Stone Temple Pilots
Do I Wanna Know?: Arctic Monkeys (go with one of their hits, not "Fluorescent Adolescent", which never charted in the US)
Who's Gonna Love Me Now?: Cold War Kids
The Memory Remains: Metallica
Break
It's About Time: Young the Giant
1979: Smashing Pumpkins
Real Long Time: White Reaper
Semi-Charmed Life: Third Eye Blind
The Boys of Summer: The Ataris
Break:
I Will Not Bow: Breaking Benjamin
A Grave Mistake: Ice Nine Kills
That being said, I'm not sure if even an Active-leaning Alternative would have a shot in the current environment. I will say it would be the best shot for such a station in Boston, but you'd need to attract the former WAAF listeners as well as peel off some of WBOS', and also hope that some of WXRV's listeners have a craving for something livelier than a AAA. The ceiling and basement for this station may be too low for it to be viable.
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Based on what you're saying, it's a 2 share station at best, even on a full market signal. Which once again puts the pressure on the sales demographics, and if Entercom already reaches them with other stations, why go through the expense of flipping a station just to play a certain genre of music? Radio companies aren't in the music business. The only reason to play those songs is they will attract a sellable audience, and I don't see that happening.
MassMusicMan
Banned
Save for maybe the Weezer, that's a sweep I would have heard on WAAF, the station that spent its final decade posting 1 shares before selling for two-thirds of what WFNX sold for eight years prior.
I'm 36, and I'm not going to listen to that instead of HOT 96.9. And I grew up loving rock radio, but I like the kind where there's sometimes melodies and strings and woodwinds, not a textureless block of screaming and guitar distortion.
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