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Entercom Launches Alt 98.7

Your receiver must have the bass turned way down or you love "crunk" bass, I guess. Without knowing what type of equipment you are using, it is tough to judge. Song after song sounds unnatural to my ears, both on my car radio (an OEM Ford B&O system) and on my Yamaha RX-V683 home theater receiver.

WRIF, interestingly, has the opposite problem - not enough bass punch. Overall, though, WRIF's processing is somewhat easier to tolerate. A lot of detail gets lost on "busy" songs over at 101.1, which annoys me.

Aurally speaking, I actually think the iHM and Cumulus FM stations in town sound the best. Among the rock stations, 106.7 WLLZ sounds particularly good aurally. (Basing my comments on analog audio only; HD might be a different story.)

Give them some time they could have some good ratings perhaps better than “The Breeze” format.
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Anything is possible, I suppose. The number of markets across the country where Alternative earns mediocre to terrible ratings outnumbers the number of markets where it earns good or excellent ratings. As I've already stated ad nauseam, the format in its pure form has a very shaky track record locally.

Let me remind you that the station hasn't announced a PD yet. When that happens, then you can rant about processing.
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Maybe corporate radio should put greater effort & energy into putting forth a strong product at launch. But who am I to question?

Corporate radio's new station launch philosophy is akin to a new soda flavor with only half of its final ingredients or a new store opening where many of the shelves are unstocked. I'll never understand it.
 
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MarkW said:
I just keep seeing the same tired playbook used by iHM, Entercom and others over & over & over.
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You're also saying the same tired criticisms over & over.

Clearly Entercom and iHeart are doing different things, because where they compete, iHeart is winning.
 
MarkW said:
Your receiver must have the bass turned way down or you love "crunk" bass, I guess. Without knowing what type of equipment you are using, it is tough to judge. Song after song sounds unnatural to my ears, both on my car radio (an OEM Ford B&O system) and on my Yamaha RX-V683 home theater receiver.

WRIF, interestingly, has the opposite problem - not enough bass punch. Overall, though, WRIF's processing is somewhat easier to tolerate. A lot of detail gets lost on "busy" songs over at 101.1, which annoys me.

Aurally speaking, I actually think the iHM and Cumulus FM stations in town sound the best. Among the rock stations, 106.7 WLLZ sounds particularly good aurally. (Basing my comments on analog audio only; HD might be a different story.)



Anything is possible, I suppose. The number of markets across the country where Alternative earns mediocre to terrible ratings outnumbers the number of markets where it earns good or excellent ratings. As I've already stated ad nauseam, the format in its pure form has a very shaky track record locally.



Maybe corporate radio should put greater effort & energy into putting forth a strong product at launch. But who am I to question?

Corporate radio's new station launch philosophy is akin to a new soda flavor with only half of its final ingredients or a new store opening where many of the shelves are unstocked. I'll never understand it.
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MarkW said:
The new 98.7 in Detroit continues to sound like complete garbage. The corporate radio goons cannot even get the audio processing right! Pervasive bass washes out all other instruments. Heard Nirvana and Green Day songs that sounded butchered because of the settings. The processor settings sound like something that would be useful for a hip-hop station. Why does corporate radio fail at even executing the basic fundamentals properly?

The alternative audience in Detroit does not care much about "new music discovery." This isn't Denver or Portland. They want to hear the favorites they grew up with in the 90's and 00's listening to 89X. The alternative audience here is an alternative ROCK audience. Doesn't need to be a bunch of nu-metal songs like 105.7 in St. Louis. Just a good mix.

The last time 98.7 tried a format geared to young adults, the ratings stunk. This time will be no different given Entercom's refusal to program the station to Detroit's tastes.
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You say the station sounds like garbage. What are you listening on, a 1980’s rack system? I have zero quality issues on 98.7 sounds great on my Bose.
 
Well, "Bose" could mean any number of audio devices.

I told you what I was using - OEM Ford/B&O stereo system in the car (2019 model year) and a Yamaha RX-V683 home theater receiver (purchased a year ago but I believe this unit was released in 2018). To my ears, the bass on 98.7 sounds highly over-emphasized on both. Audio imaging is also disappointing; the chain sounds compressed and unnatural.
 
You're also saying the same tired criticisms over & over.
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Based on your innumerable posts on this board, at least in my eyes, you sometimes come across as an apologist for big radio, so your disdainful remarks toward me are not surprising.

What's interesting is on other forums on this site, you've (correctly) noted the poor performance of the Alternative format in recent quarters, so I'm a bit astonished that you seem neutral or even supportive of this format move in Detroit.
 
Sine 2013 Alternative/AAA music has had an increased presence as a format and on other formats such as CHR. This type of music is largely listened to by younger demographics who listen to music via phone or tablet. I work in school transportation, and when spending time as a driver I observed that 90-95% of HS students boarded the bus with ear buds in their ears, even at 6:00 a.m. Noting this data, I fully understand why Entercom would want to embrace the Alternative format, as opposed to a format that is largely listened to by users of radios that are generally not portable devices. The industry as a whole is really beginning to embrace streaming, but how many operators thoroughly analyze the data to understand who is using it to listen and where they are using it?
 
MarkW said:
Based on your innumerable posts on this board, at least in my eyes, you sometimes come across as an apologist for big radio, so your disdainful remarks toward me are not surprising.
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I'm just tired of the use of the phrase "corporate radio." I've worked for both mom & pop as well as corporate, and I see little difference. Do you really think local ownership of alternative radio would be better? Obviously not since I saw your comments about the local alt stations in Minneapolis that were just sold to EMF.

The problem with the alt format is not about ownership. In my view, it's about the music. The music business, the record labels, and the artists have a very vocal dislike for broadcast radio because they don't share in the royalties. They've made this very clear. If the alternative artists and labels were as invested in radio as they had been 30 years ago, the radio stations would be a lot better.
 
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theman8410 said:
The industry as a whole is really beginning to embrace streaming, but how many operators thoroughly analyze the data to understand who is using it to listen and where they are using it?
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The data is a tool. We use it to better understand who is listening to what. I constantly scan streaming charts to see if there are songs we might be missing, or if I learn something when listeners make the playlists. I'm surprised at how often the streaming charts mirror the airplay charts. The only difference that I see is the duplication for the most popular artists. Clearly fans of those artists don't mind hearing multiple songs by those artists in heavy rotation.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm just tired of the use of the phrase "corporate radio." I've worked for both mom & pop as well as corporate, and I see little difference. Do you really think local ownership of alternative radio would be better? Obviously not since I saw your comments about the local alt stations in Minneapolis that were just sold to EMF.
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I have owned stations, and worked for small owners and big corporations.

There are good and bad among both multi-station-multi-market operators and local small companies.

The big groups can be rigid, but have good benefits in most cases, and they tend to attract more competent people. But some can be too penny-wise and pound-foolish to the point of being arbitrary.

I spent a long time... over 25 years... with a family owned station in Puerto Rico as both employee and consultant. There is nobody better than the owner and his family. I truly love them all.

I spent 3 years with another family owned station in LA. I have a good idea what Hades is like. It was like having a daily root canal.

Working for Cecil and Richard Heftel and then for Mac Tichenor was a marvelous experience. But the new owner, Perenchio, exemplified rigid, antiquate and regimented management. Tolerable, but not stimulating... the poorer side of a big corporate owner.

And I did consulting for Emmis... from Smulyan on through the management group, there were none better. A bigger group at the time, but run with respect for talent, creativity and imagination and willing to understand that nobody does everything right 100% of the time, but if they fear censure, they will not even try!
 
DavidEduardo said:
The big groups can be rigid, but have good benefits
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Exactly...I always say the difference is the checks don't bounce. I've had paychecks bounce from small owners. I've had small owners pay me on time, but also ask me not to cash it for a few days.

Any empathy I have for small owners went out the window when they started the Independent Broadcasters Association. One of the things they talked about was using voicetrack talent without paying them. So it's obvious they have no real emotional attachment to live & local talent. Or put another way, they're just as cheap as the corporate guys.
 
There are certainly a fair number of independent owners who run shoddy operations; no question about it. There are a couple well known such instances in northern Michigan, for example.

That said, I've seen some darn good things from local owners in Michigan in recent years.

- 103.9 The Fox in Flint - hired a very popular morning man with an impressive market tenure that Cumulus threw to the curb.
- RadioFirst in Port Huron - programs several excellent local stations.
- WFFR-LP in Muskegon - multiple local personalities on a polished sounding LPFM in a market where iHM threw nearly all of its local air talent to the curb long ago.
- 102.7 WMOM Ludington / M106.3 Greenville / I-1430 Ionia - committed local ownership with locally developed playlists and mostly local air talent (some syndicated programming is aired).
- Real Oldies 1480 Grand Rapids - a public radio station with a locally curated playlist and great air talent. Former standout Detroit / Chicago air talent Bill Bailey worked at this station until he passed away.
- Midwestern Broadcasting in Traverse City - 103.5 WTCM is a textbook example of how to do country radio properly. Outstanding local air talent.
- 98.5 WUPS: 100 kW blowtorch in Houghton Lake that also attracts decent listening from time to time in Saginaw - Bay City - Midland. Mostly local airstaff.
- 92.1 WIDL in the Thumb: Outstanding playlist with tons of variety for a library-oriented rock station. They play a lot of 90's rock hits that commercial radio forgot about long ago (but often are found on Sirius XM with regularity).
- 98KCQ: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention longtime country radio stalwart WKCQ in Saginaw. A truly phenomenal sounding station. In fairness, Alpha Media-owned 94.5 The Moose is no slouch, either.

I don't see the mass layoffs at the small time outfits that I see at the corporate behemoths. Gee, I wonder why (rhetorical question).
 
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MarkW said:
I don't see the mass layoffs at the small time outfits that I see at the corporate behemoths. Gee, I wonder why (rhetorical question).
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You don't see it because it doesn't make national news. But it's happening. Here's one example:

Golden Isles WRJY/Brunswick, GA midday personality Katie Green has exited after more than six years.

You also don't see the rehires and replacements at the corporate stations. But they happen.
 
MarkW said:
I don't see the mass layoffs at the small time outfits that I see at the corporate behemoths. Gee, I wonder why (rhetorical question).
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The local stations in today's radio world are up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

The large companies can create "national" stations with the best talent. Local stations can't unless they go to a syndicated generic format that runs nearly real-time. The big companies can create workparts to be integrated with local music and service elements, but small operators have no choices.

The old excuse used to be that every market was "different". I've made a career out of doing what everyone "local" said would not work. And today, with the Internet making music trends almost world-wide simultaneously, there are very few local differences within individual formats. And in the past we did everything live because there was no other way to do it...

"Live" and "local" are anachronisms. Old-timers and local stations often use them as shields to defend what they are doing... but today that shield is made of tissue paper, not steel.

Yes, there are a few exceptions... Buddy's station group is a good example. But in general we will see more and more national or regional shows and formats.
 
TheBigA said:
So it's obvious they have no real emotional attachment to live & local talent. Or put another way, they're just as cheap as the corporate guys.
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I have an emotional attachment to a great many things that aren't smart business. Many of these operators would probably love live or at least local talent that were quality and they could afford. But that's not the economics of radio anymore.

I do however, believe in paying talent. If I can't pay someone to voice track, then I'm not expecting to be able to get someone.
 
I was just at the grocery store, and as I was comparing coffee prices, I heard a familiar guitar lick in the store's muzak system. It was Semisonic's Closing Time. It has been a while since I heard that one. It's a great song. It's from that part of Alt that is inherently pop. Tone down the guitar, and it's a pop song. It was a massive hit for the band. Their only hit, if I recall. That's another problem with alt bands...they usually only have one big hit in them. Man I felt like rockin' out in the middle of the grocery store! That's what we need. Put me in the mood for alt on the radio again.

 
TheBigA said:
Most of the stations airing the satellite 24/7 formats are small local stations. That business is growing right now.
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Not really. Year-to-date, Cumulus's network division (basically Westwood One, the largest provider of these 24/7 formats) is down 32% YoY. And the local station group is down 34%. I'm not sure I'd be splitting that hair if I were Mary Berner talking to the investors.

Small stations are just automating, without involving a 24/7 format from what I can tell. If WW1 is going to feed me voice tracks from who-knows-when, there's no way I'm giving them 3 minutes an hour of inventory for that.
 
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