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Competition Attacks, Hot Babes on Web Site--Alternative or Active Rock?

U

uncamark

In Detroit, the new FM translator/HD-3 of WGPR "The Bone" has started up with a strategy of going after CIMX "89X", the modern rocker across the river in Windsor. Along with taking shots at the fact it's owned by Bell Media, which would seem to me to be a good anti-corporate strategy, they are taking shots at 89X's CanCon requirements and proclaiming "10,000 American songs in a row" as their launch stunt. Somehow, it seems to me that this is not what you would expect to hear your typical filtered monotone image voice on an alt/modern rocker to be saying--this is something I would expect a testosterone image voice to be saying either with Toby Keith in the background on a country station or you-name-it on an active rocker.

In addition, the guy running the station says that he intends to have "Boner Babes" on the web site and "typical male immature humor" on the station. Somehow, this seems to me to be more active rock and that the alt/modern rock format should be more sophisticated than this--or am I mixing it up with AAA or college radio? Did any pretensions to sophistication on modern rock go by the wayside when Mancow started doing morning drive on Q101? Are the target audiences for active and alt/modern rock more alike these days than they used to be?
 
Mark Jeffries said:
In Detroit, the new FM translator/HD-3 of WGPR "The Bone" has started up with a strategy of going after CIMX "89X", the modern rocker across the river in Windsor. Along with taking shots at the fact it's owned by Bell Media, which would seem to me to be a good anti-corporate strategy, they are taking shots at 89X's CanCon requirements and proclaiming "10,000 American songs in a row" as their launch stunt. Somehow, it seems to me that this is not what you would expect to hear your typical filtered monotone image voice on an alt/modern rocker to be saying--this is something I would expect a testosterone image voice to be saying either with Toby Keith in the background on a country station or you-name-it on an active rocker.

In addition, the guy running the station says that he intends to have "Boner Babes" on the web site and "typical male immature humor" on the station. Somehow, this seems to me to be more active rock and that the alt/modern rock format should be more sophisticated than this--or am I mixing it up with AAA or college radio? Did any pretensions to sophistication on modern rock go by the wayside when Mancow started doing morning drive on Q101? Are the target audiences for active and alt/modern rock more alike these days than they used to be?
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"Babe of the Day" web sites scream active/mainstream rock to me. Alternative Rock has a huge female audience, unlike Active Rock. Seems stupid on an alternative station.
 
WBIMDJ said:
"Babe of the Day" web sites scream active/mainstream rock to me. Alternative Rock has a huge female audience, unlike Active Rock. Seems stupid on an alternative station.
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I listened for about fifteen minutes. If they're playing anything but active rock, I didn't hear it.
 
hubcity said:
WBIMDJ said:
"Babe of the Day" web sites scream active/mainstream rock to me. Alternative Rock has a huge female audience, unlike Active Rock. Seems stupid on an alternative station.
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I listened for about fifteen minutes. If they're playing anything but active rock, I didn't hear it.
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Unless they can get a PD who can make changes, looks like either they'll have to stop calling themselves "Alternative" or prepare to have 89X blow them out of the water (as if being a translator/HD channel hybrid wasn't enough).

BTW, I also heard that they had to pull Nickelback songs off of the initial playlist when someone pointed out to them that the band is--Canadian. :)
 
sfradio said:
yeah, shouldn't they more call out WRIF than 89x?
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They seem to be hung up on this Canadian thing (and they also seem to think that 89X is their target audience). Any other rockers in Windsor in the Detroit market?
 
Not sure what they're doing. When I checked it out a couple of weeks ago it was playing Deathcab, Incubus, etc. Maybe they're swinging it over to the Active side, in which case yes WRIF should be the target. It should go without saying that a station that says "94.3 The Bone Rocks Detroit" and features "Boner Babes" is not the position to be in as an Alt. Rocker.
 
Mark Jeffries said:
BTW, I also heard that they had to pull Nickelback songs off of the initial playlist when someone pointed out to them that the band is--Canadian. :)
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Even if it wasn't for the "no Canadian artists" gimmick, they shouldn't have even thought of playing Nickelback if they wanted to establish themselves as a true Alternative station. But that's clearly gone out the window anyway.

On a related note, WXRK-HD2 in NYC recently added jocks to its Alternative format. And it sounds like their PD must have similar goals, as their jocks are constantly talking about beer and babes, and trying really hard to be shock jocks. I actually applaud them for having jocks on an HD2 channel, and for apparently giving up-and-coming jocks a place to shine, but the attempts at being edgy aren't going over well, and really clash with the music.
 
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