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Do You Believe a Market's Radio Stations Tell a lot About The People There?

2

2Son

Do you believe a market's radio stations truly tell a lot about the people living there, or do you think that is a false idea? I used to believe that I could get a better idea of what people liked in a certain market by listening to what was playing on the radio stations there; however, I'm not sure I believe that as much anymore.

For example, throughout my 40 years, I've loved CHR, Alternative, and Dance and some of these preferences have peaked at different times. When I look back at the radio stations that have been a presence in the valley, I see times when there was much creativity and musical diversity , and then I see other times when it has been so boring to listen to radio.

KZZP during the 80's apparently took risks with music more than you'll see on CHR's nowadays -

Power 92 took risks with more dance music in the mid-90's and had very high ratings -
http://airchecked.com/2011/09/02/kkfr-power-92-phoenix-labor-day-96-dance-party-various-personalities/

http://airchecked.com/2011/05/05/kkfr-power-92-phoenix-5595-carey-edwards/

http://airchecked.com/2011/02/01/kkfr-1995-nov-2223-roxanne-steele/

During the late 80's/early 90's, the Houston market (KKBQ, KNRJ, KRBE) as well Austin market were playing more dancier/alternative music that may not have been as prevalent in most other markets - http://airchecked.com/category/houston/96-5-knrj-energy-96-5/

Chicago throughout the years has had times when radio was very dance intensive (B96) and other times, not so much - http://airchecked.com/2011/09/12/wbbm-fm-b96-chicago-1697-roxanne/

Do you believe every market nowadays is the same when it comes to just picking up on current trends or do you think each market can truly still be unique? Do you believe that the audience nowadays will just pick up on whatever is being played and accept it as popular, or do you believe that the audience has become smarter and do you believe this has negatively impacted radio? If you believe that a market can still be unique, what do you believe can change a market's tastes? Growth? or do you ultimately believe is simply has to do with radio ownership and those pesky advertising dollars? ;)

Thanks for listening.
 
2Son said:
Do you believe a market's radio stations truly tell a lot about the people living there, or do you think that is a false idea? I used to believe that I could get a better idea of what people liked in a certain market by listening to what was playing on the radio stations there; however, I'm not sure I believe that as much anymore.

For example, throughout my 40 years, I've loved CHR, Alternative, and Dance and some of these preferences have peaked at different times. When I look back at the radio stations that have been a presence in the valley, I see times when there was much creativity and musical diversity , and then I see other times when it has been so boring to listen to radio.

KZZP during the 80's apparently took risks with music more than you'll see on CHR's nowadays -

Power 92 took risks with more dance music in the mid-90's and had very high ratings -
Click to expand...

While KZZP was pretty damn corporate for most of its existence - at its peak in the 80's it was owned by a freaking insurance company - all of the CHRs in town did a fair amount of local research. Some of it was callout (playing song hooks), some of it was calling record stores (there's a blast from the past) to see what was selling, some of it was keeping up with the record pools (remember those?) and talking to club jocks. I knew a guy in Dallas who said his secret to staying ahead of the curve was calling all of the guys who jocked in gay bars to talk music every week because dance records would start there and then cross over into the straight clubs. Everyone wanted to be the person who got credit for finding a hit first, even before record people started working the song, so it was really competitive.

Today? If you jock at a club, you don't have a local record pool, you download from Promo Only. There aren't local record stores to call to see what singles are moving. Everyone is pretty much working off the same national data. Outside of the hip hop street promoters, who gravitate towards the strip clubs because of the content, it's hard for a song to be worked locally or regionally anymore, and that's before we get to the radio side of the equation.

The radio business is different, but so is the record business and how we discover music.
 
Agree on everything -- but I used to love their Top of the Hour ID:

They'd start with some sort of chime effect and then -- "KZZP Mesa and KZZP FM Mesa-Phoenix, a service of Nationwide Communications"

KRQ Tucson as a sister station had the same thing.

Good stuff..
 
VoiceofWayne said:
Agree on everything -- but I used to love their Top of the Hour ID:

They'd start with some sort of chime effect and then -- "KZZP Mesa and KZZP FM Mesa-Phoenix, a service of Nationwide Communications"

KRQ Tucson as a sister station had the same thing.

Good stuff..
Click to expand...

That chime was the melody of the "Nationwide Is On Your Side" jingle that's still used by Nationwide Insurance. Every NCI station had to use it.
 
Maybe then. Not now. I went searching for another alternative rock station since X-103.9 has Pa Kettle on in morning drive and no one has told him he's about two decades past his prime.

I used radio-locator to search, and the thing I found out (which I already knew) is almost all stations of any genre are virtually stamped out of a cookie cutter somewhere. Their websites all look alike, they all have the same disembodied voices (the word "talent" is hardly applicable to radio any more), etc. etc.

In its heyday (say the 1960s and 70's - and to a lesser degree up until the TeleCom Act killed off local radio), yes, every market sounded different. Whether it reflected anything about the people I do not know.

Coming from the MWest, I noticed a huge difference in St. Louis and Kansas City radio (narrowing it down to Top 40). St. Louis radio was staid, laidback, low key. BORING. The city was also in serious decline even in the 1960s.

Kansas City radio was virbrant, even sizzling. Kansas City's star was rising.

I supposed you could extrapolate this to other markets as well..

Again. that was then. Now? Hard to identify anything unique about "local" radio when it is tracked a thousand miles away.

I''d like to hear someone give timechecks again. Oops. Can't do that. That would be live. Hell we did it with analog automation and Drake's Solid Gold format.

Even XEROK had them, and they were one of the earliest forms of voice tracking.

BTW when did dead air become a staple of radio programming?
 
I live in a liberal college town -not in Arizona. We have two FM conservative talk stations(one of which has hovered around a one share for years) and no adult alternative-so I'd say a market's stations have much to do with the mindset of the general managers.
 
radiobum said:
I live in a liberal college town -not in Arizona. We have two FM conservative talk stations(one of which has hovered around a one share for years) and no adult alternative-so I'd say a market's stations have much to do with the mindset of the general managers.
Click to expand...

Conservative talk radio is a perfect example of controlling the message instead of programming for the market.
 
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