Clear Channel Continues To Anger Listeners Nationwide

[Just Hank]

Came across an interesting article regarding Clear Channel and its ongoing quest to turn every station into a robo-station:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/...00-s-of-workers-while-exterminating-rock-roll

You may want to skip the first little bit if you like Rush (yeah, the article is on Daily Kos, and yeah, it has a lefty bent), but the second part gives a good account of how CC destroyed 96 Rock / Project 9-6-1 and is following the same pattern nationwide.

A must-read if you want to know some of the reasons why Atlanta radio sucks so bad.

 

[Bengalsfan]

I really feel sorry for folks who live in the larger markets with Clear Channel stations. The smaller markets and stations are doing just fine with live jocks and actual news departments since they don't have billions in debt hanging over their heads.

 

[atlantaboy]

I feel like the creation of Power 96.1 was definitely a good financial move for Clear Channel, hands down

My problem is with them keeping Wild when all those songs are already covered on other stations - Atlanta is now the only major market where you can't hear Mumford & Sons anywhere on the radio dial - and one of the only major markets where you can't hear Muse

With most Alternative stuff, we now have to wait months before Star 94 finally decides to add it

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I was listening to Power 96-1 one night this week, and Maddox, the regular night guy, was off. But it was certainly reassuring when I realized Special K was filling in for him. In fact, I thought it was creative programming to have a cereal guy on right after a burger guy.

 

[Wildstyle K]

You must admit that Power 96.1 did kind of save Atlanta from continuing to be a "CHR horror embarrassment." Just wondering when they'll let Power 96.1 be a full rhythmic pop chr station instead of having somewhat rhythmic pop on Power and full rhythmic on WiLD. Both WiLD and Power can be merged into one station. It may mean losing some of the rhythmic hip hop hits, but there are already enough stations covering hip hop. I don't know what more to say.

Power can be more powerful without WiLD, although I do like the WiLD format style as well. But having both from the same company is just overkill in a way. If WiLD is flipped, then Power 96.1 would be able to play some of the mainstream hip hop hits they are simply not adding in with their pop mostly because they are trying to protect WiLD.

 

[Radaioman]

I really feel sorry for folks who live in the larger markets with Clear Channel stations. The smaller markets and stations are doing just fine with live jocks and actual news departments since they don't have billions in debt hanging over their heads.

Actually that is the exact opposite . The big market stations have more live jocks and more budget. Smaller markets are voicetracked

 

[caller10]

I really feel sorry for folks who live in the larger markets with Clear Channel stations. The smaller markets and stations are doing just fine with live jocks and actual news departments since they don't have billions in debt hanging over their heads.

Actually that is the exact opposite . The big market stations have more live jocks and more budget. Smaller markets are voicetracked

yeah let's check in to the south of ATL and see how Magic 98.1 is doing ... http://www.magic981.com/main.html

Looks like and local to me. NOT.

 

[Wildstyle K]

Power has the power to be live and local.... especially if they adopt all those people from WiLD.

 

[romer979fm]

this quote from the article removes all credibility...
"After frantically searching for answers, Diem discovered that Clear Channel had sold the station to Ryan Seacrest."

 

[DToTheJ]

...Atlanta is now the only major market where you can't hear Mumford & Sons anywhere on the radio dial...

Or at least it was until WRXP in New York was sold and blown up (again) for spoken word programming...

 

[Rick Rose 2.0]

Clear Channel flat out murdered 3 once popular radio stations in this market. WPCH, WKLS and last but not least WGST.

 

[htowler]

I really feel sorry for folks who live in the larger markets with Clear Channel stations. The smaller markets and stations are doing just fine with live jocks and actual news departments since they don't have billions in debt hanging over their heads.

Actually that is the exact opposite . The big market stations have more live jocks and more budget. Smaller markets are voicetracked

I'm in a small market. WQBT here in Savannah has 2 (Mohagany, TuTu ) Maybe 3 (T-Roy 'when he isn't in Jacksonville') Local Jocks. the rest are VT'd. And uses Premium Choice at least 8 hours a day and most of the weekend. Even the Local Jocks aren't always live. NO Live Local mix shows AT ALL

 

[TheBigA]

This sentence destroys the article's credibility for me:

It is also killing jazz, bluegrass, local content creation and progressive talk

It's been a long time since I've heard a commercial jazz or bluegrass station in a large market. Westinghouse killed WRVR in NYC, but that was in 1979. So to blame CC for killing jazz and bluegrass is just plain wrong. NPR is the company that's killing jazz and bluegrass, replacing it with news and talk. Local content creation is disappearing everywhere, including NPR. I don't see CC expanding conservative talk anywhere.

As I've said many times, what's killing rock is the music itself. The music needs to have a more unified fan base. It needs to be less splintered. Rock needs to do what it once did in the early days, which is bring people together. Back in the old days, you could hear blues, metal, rock, pop, folk, and even some country rock on the same station. Now, people have less tolerance for rock sub-genres they don't like. That's not good when you're trying to program a radio station.

 

[younglee981]

I really feel sorry for folks who live in the larger markets with Clear Channel stations. The smaller markets and stations are doing just fine with live jocks and actual news departments since they don't have billions in debt hanging over their heads.

Actually that is the exact opposite . The big market stations have more live jocks and more budget. Smaller markets are voicetracked

I'm in a small market. WQBT here in Savannah has 2 (Mohagany, TuTu ) Maybe 3 (T-Roy 'when he isn't in Jacksonville') Local Jocks. the rest are VT'd. And uses Premium Choice at least 8 hours a day and most of the weekend. Even the Local Jocks aren't always live. NO Live Local mix shows AT ALL

T Roy is always in Jacksonville, he lives here

 

[jabba17]

This sentence destroys the article's credibility for me:

It is also killing jazz, bluegrass, local content creation and progressive talk

It's been a long time since I've heard a commercial jazz or bluegrass station in a large market. Westinghouse killed WRVR in NYC, but that was in 1979. So to blame CC for killing jazz and bluegrass is just plain wrong. NPR is the company that's killing jazz and bluegrass, replacing it with news and talk. Local content creation is disappearing everywhere, including NPR. I don't see CC expanding conservative talk anywhere.

As I've said many times, what's killing rock is the music itself. The music needs to have a more unified fan base. It needs to be less splintered. Rock needs to do what it once did in the early days, which is bring people together. Back in the old days, you could hear blues, metal, rock, pop, folk, and even some country rock on the same station. Now, people have less tolerance for rock sub-genres they don't like. That's not good when you're trying to program a radio station.

Agreed. Since when has progtalk been a viable format on commercial radio? We haven't had any of those formats on the ATL commercial dial except for when WMLB 1170 (predecessor to 1160) had that Americana format that won acclaim but was stuck on the AM band with a weak signal out of Cumming to boot, and WJZZ had smooth (not "real") jazz.

 

[htowler]

T Roy is always in Jacksonville, he lives here

I seen T-Roy in Savannah once. So he did at least one Show here. May have been the only one

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

I really feel sorry for folks who live in the larger markets with Clear Channel stations. The smaller markets and stations are doing just fine with live jocks and actual news departments since they don't have billions in debt hanging over their heads.

Actually that is the exact opposite . The big market stations have more live jocks and more budget. Smaller markets are voicetracked

I'm in a small market. WQBT here in Savannah has 2 (Mohagany, TuTu ) Maybe 3 (T-Roy 'when he isn't in Jacksonville') Local Jocks. the rest are VT'd. And uses Premium Choice at least 8 hours a day and most of the weekend. Even the Local Jocks aren't always live. NO Live Local mix shows AT ALL

Mohagany is the only live jock at 94.1 THE BEAT/WQBT. TuTu is live at POWER 107/WPRW Augusta.

 

[XCountry285]

They should get rid of Wild much like CC should get rid of KTU in NYC. KTU is too similar to Lite, Power, & Z. CC owns great Alternative Stations like Radio 104.5 in Philly why not put an Alternative format in Atlanta on 105.7 as Radio 105.7 and in NYC as Radio 103.5? Yea I'm sure both Wild and KTU bill well but in terms of their cluster its redundant to have when you have a CHR already in your cluster and especially in NYC when you have a Hip Hop & CHR station where you really can't go Rhythmic CHR or even Hot A/C when you have a CHR and an A/C.

 

[chrocket87]

They should get rid of Wild much like CC should get rid of KTU in NYC. KTU is too similar to Lite, Power, & Z. CC owns great Alternative Stations like Radio 104.5 in Philly why not put an Alternative format in Atlanta on 105.7 as Radio 105.7 and in NYC as Radio 103.5?

Why not? Because KTU, even with Z100 in the cluster, bills much more than an Alternative station could. Plain and simple. As long as the revenue is there, CC could not care less if their entire cluster was made up of CHR and closely-related formats. I could agree with flipping Wild to Alternative, even though Adult Hits or Classic Hits is more likely, but to (repeatedly) suggest KTU flipping is madness.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

They should get rid of Wild much like CC should get rid of KTU in NYC. KTU is too similar to Lite, Power, & Z. CC owns great Alternative Stations like Radio 104.5 in Philly why not put an Alternative format in Atlanta on 105.7 as Radio 105.7 and in NYC as Radio 103.5?

Why not? Because KTU, even with Z100 in the cluster, bills much more than an Alternative station could. Plain and simple. As long as the revenue is there, CC could not care less if their entire cluster was made up of CHR and closely-related formats. I could agree with flipping Wild to Alternative, even though Adult Hits or Classic Hits is more likely, but to (repeatedly) suggest KTU flipping is madness.

Agreed. KTU has great ratings and probably bills really well. No reason to flip that.