Jane St. John said:It would be nice if Corpus Christi were a progressive enough market to embrace an "Adult Alternative" station, to which Herve was referring. That is, if he was referring to a true Triple A format. Unfortunately, it was tried once, and due to lack of support from the management at the time, and overall disinterest from the listening audience, it struggled and then faded away. I know, I was there. KWVS-FM initially signed on as a smooth jazz/nac format, then transitioned to Triple A during the time that I was MD/APD. I'd like to think that for a short time, Corpus Christi and the 100 people who listened to the station were actually being treated to some pretty awesome music.
Then it went classic rock, then to what it is now: KFTX. KFTX was always intended to be a country station, because that's what Tom Dobson, the owner of Quality Broadcasting, liked and what his wife liked. Ratings will never matter to KFTX. Everytime somebody eats a Whataburger, they help keep the station afloat. Not because they were actually listening to it. Or maybe it is true, the listeners have fallen and can't get up.
But, it's like the Boss Jock says, it's all about playing the hits and what people know. Which is really so sad, when there is so much good music out there to be had. As well as talented jocks who are "on the beach" because it's easier to syndicate or pay one or two people to voice track.
Usually "Alternative" or "Progressive" formats work in big cities because of the shere number of people. Some smaller markets you might do well like Austin but if you want to make money and get the masses "Nitch" formats ain't the way to go in most cases. Mainstream Country-CHR-AC-Oldies-Rock-News/Talk is about it.