Entercom Launches Alt 98.7

[TheBigA]

Not really. Year-to-date, Cumulus's network division (basically Westwood One, the largest provider of these 24/7 formats) is down 32% YoY.

Everybody's revenue is down. That's not my point. More stations are signing up for this kind of service, and most of them are small local stations. They're signing up because they have to cut costs, and this is a way to do it.

 

[macattack]

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.

I think this might actually happen next year unless Entercom going all-in on pop smothers it in the crib. We are seeing signs of rock revival becoming a thing. Royal Blood's "Trouble's Coming" has a dance-y groove and it's starting to blow up. Foo Fighters did the same thing with "Shame Shame". "When It Breaks" by Inhaler also has a killer groove. 90's-tinged "My Way Soon" by Greta Van Fleet could become that young group's biggest hit. Ayron Jones has scored a top 10 on rock with a heavy alt-rock song called "Take Me Away". And so on.

This is to say nothing about pop-punk's sudden return to relevancy with Machine Gun Kelly of all people, along with venerable act All Time Low going to pop next year with a new mix of their Alt #1 "Monsters". The Dirty Nil also toned themselves down somewhat to fit with the edgier aspects of pop-punk and "Blunt Force Concussion" is about to chart. KennyHoopla also did a song with Travis Barker called "ESTELLA//" and that is Entercom's current Pick of the Week.

It's going to be competing with alt-soul as the new thing of the next decade but soul and rock are sister genres, I think they can co-exist on Alternative. I feel like Entercom is making a mistake by going all-in on alternative pop when it's likely going to die out starting next year...

 

[TheBigA]

I feel like Entercom is making a mistake by going all-in on alternative pop when it's likely going to die out starting next year...

Whatever happens will be driven by the music. Because if Entercom misses whatever trend is happening, it will be picked up by SOMEONE. It may be iHeart, it may be Hubbard, it may be James Corden for all we know. There are just so many options. If Entercom misses the trend, it will be their loss. But it won't be the music's loss, because if the music is good enough, it will find an audience...even if it happens late at night in a grocery store.

What I'm hoping for is for radio stations to have room for ALL of it. The driving force behind the country radio success of the past few years has been the willingness of radio and the audience to listen to all of the various sub-sets of new country on the same station. That's how you end up with Blanco Brown or Gwen Stefani being heard next to Jon Pardi and Luke Combs.

 

[macattack]

Whatever happens will be driven by the music. Because if Entercom misses whatever trend is happening, it will be picked up by SOMEONE. It may be iHeart, it may be Hubbard, it may be James Corden for all we know. There are just so many options. If Entercom misses the trend, it will be their loss. But it won't be the music's loss, because if the music is good enough, it will find an audience...even if it happens late at night in a grocery store.

Entercom definitely noticed alt-soul, but they seem to betting more on alt-pop continuing to stay strong into the next decade when historically the previous decade's trends don't tend to stick around on Alternative. It's always Indie Rock (in some form) with a companion genre or two that gets swapped out. New Wave died in 1991-93, Grunge and Big Beat/Trip-hop in 2001-03, Alternative Metal and Pop/Punk in 2011-13. Unless something happens to buck this trend, Alternative Pop is toast by 2022-23.

Odds are we don't even know who the artist is that'll blow everything up. Nobody knew who Nirvana was in 1991. Foster The People in 2011. Duran Duran in 1981. We did know who Linkin Park was in 2001 when "In The End" took off like a rocket, but they hadn't penetrated outside of the rock formats until that point so they were still an unlikely candidate.

Next year is going to be exciting. Looking forward to it.

 

[TheBigA]

Unless something happens to buck this trend, Alternative Pop is toast by 2022-23.

If that happens, they'll need to fill the void with something. That's what happened two years ago.

 

[macattack]

If that happens, they'll need to fill the void with something. That's what happened two years ago.

I'd argue there was never really a void, just a logical evolution of what "Pumped Up Kicks" started in 2011. Much like how emo was the logical evolution of pop-punk in the late 00's, or how Alternative Metal took over from Nu-Metal in the mid-aughts, or Post-Grunge evolving from Grunge in the mid-late 90's. We slowly switched from Indie Pop to Alternative Pop and never really noticed.

 

[TheBigA]

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).

Meanwhile, some big corporate owners are extending the contracts of their talent. Here's an example from iHeart:

Charlamagne Tha God Renews And Extends Deal With iHeartMedia.

Capping off an eventful year for one of radio’s most listened to and influential personalities, Charlamagne Tha God has signed a contract extension with iHeartMedia. The five-year deal will keep

www.insideradio.com

They're not just firing everyone. If you want to know what it takes to get your deal extended, learn from him.

 

[TheBigA]

just saw in Country Aircheck that Pure Country in Windsor will carry the US syndicated host Bobby Bones:

Premiere syndicated The Bobby Bones Show will join Bell Country CIMX/Windsor, ON for mornings effective Dec. 14. “The Pure Country brand has become the premier country music brand in Canada, [and] we’re so excited to be the first international market to feature The Bobby Bones Show on morning radio,” says iHeartRadio/Canada Head/Radio Content & Strategy Rob Farina. CIMX flipped from Alternative last month

 

[Theater of My Mind]

just saw in Country Aircheck that Pure Country in Windsor will carry the US syndicated host Bobby Bones:

That brings up a few questions and probably deserves its own thread.

 

[MarkW]

Not a surprise; the addition of Bones was fully expected.

I guess the big question for me is whether or not this is a sign Bell Media will scrap local morning shows at its other "Pure Country" stations as contracts conclude in favor of moving Bones to morning drive. I believe a rehashed version of Bones' content is purposed for evenings on those other stations.

CIMX will be a complete non-factor on the U.S. side of the border. 100 percent of outreach to listeners and advertisers will be focused on SW Ontario.

Foo Fighters did the same thing with "Shame Shame".

I love the Foo Fighters, but "Shame Shame" is a mediocre song.

 

[davideduardo]

Meanwhile, some big corporate owners are extending the contracts of their talent. Here's an example from iHeart:

Charlamagne Tha God Renews And Extends Deal With iHeartMedia.

Capping off an eventful year for one of radio’s most listened to and influential personalities, Charlamagne Tha God has signed a contract extension with iHeartMedia. The five-year deal will keep

www.insideradio.com

They're not just firing everyone. If you want to know what it takes to get your deal extended, learn from him.

But, again, they are finding talents who can be used on multiple markets and productive streams. This is not a local show.

 

[MarkW]

It was Semisonic's Closing Time. It has been a while since I heard that one.

That song has received regular airplay on multiple Detroit radio stations for years. Of course, the station that probably played that song the most (93.9 The River) in recent years just bit the dust. Can still be heard on WOMC, WDVD, WNIC and now Alt 98.7. WLLZ also includes it in rotation on occasion. Sirius XM also plays it regularly on its Pop Rocks, 90's, and Lithium channels, and perhaps a couple others.

That song is a popular one to use to end the life of a radio station brand. Wouldn't surprise me if it was 93.9 The River's final song.

 

[MarkW]

98.7 finally cleaned up its messy sounding audio chain!

The processing sounds decent now. Happened within the past few days.

Too bad I cannot say the same for the music choices.

 

[Kevin]

98.7 finally cleaned up its messy sounding audio chain!

The processing sounds decent now. Happened within the past few days.

Too bad I cannot say the same for the music choices.

We need you to program and engineer 98.7, you sound like you’re capable of multitasking. Entercom is taking applications.

 

[Kevin]

The format isn't a strictly rock format. Triple J here in Australia has been playing hip hop for years. I don't get the reason as to why people think "Alternative means Rock"

I totally agree, alternative takes on many forms of music not just rock. Back in the underground radio days jazz, country and spoken word were played along with rock, and back in the late 60’s these stations were also known as alternative as well as underground.

 

[MarkW]

The audio improvements were very short lived. The chain is back to an excessively bass heavy sound. Began noticing it last week. Very fatiguing.

 

[Kevin]

The audio improvements were very short lived. The chain is back to an excessively bass heavy sound. Began noticing it last week. Very fatiguing.

Mark, It doesn’t matter the audience that 98.7 is catering to doesn’t own radios they stream. If they even stream Alt 98.7 it would not be too many listeners, this age group is into Pandora, Spotify and YouTube. If they’re younger than 35, traditional radio doesn’t exist to them.

 

[TheBigA]

If they’re younger than 35, traditional radio doesn’t exist to them.

You're saying they don't own cars? Here's a study that says 55% of people 13-25 use AM/FM radio:

Radio's Roadmap To Gen Z Listenership - Edison Research

You're making a generalization that isn't supported by facts.

 

[Kevin]

You're saying they don't own cars? Here's a study that says 55% of people 13-25 use AM/FM radio:

Radio's Roadmap To Gen Z Listenership - Edison Research

You're making a generalization that isn't supported by facts.

Many 20 somethings don’t own cars or even have a drivers license. Many depend on Lyft and Uber to get around, many 20 somethings still live in Mom and Dads basement. According to the Edison study 55% use radio, that’s is correct but what will it be in 2030? 25%, meanwhile streaming will just get even more popular and FM radio will become the new AM radio with political talk, sports, religion and ethnic programming. As AM stations and or formats move to FM. This is what I personally envision what FM will be like in the 30 years. Now getting back to this Alt format, there’s truly no future in catering to that age group, radio will not be able to steal the ears and eyes of the Spotify and YouTube Listeners/ Viewers. This under 35 age group is glued to the smartphone and AM and FM will feel the hurt in the next few decades.

 

[TheBigA]

This under 35 age group is glued to the smartphone and AM and FM will feel the hurt in the next few decades.

Keep in mind that AM & FM are just transmission platforms owned by the government. The radio stations that use those frequencies are merely licensees. The bigger companies, such as Entercom & iHeart, have their own online streaming platforms as well as podcast services. In the meantime the government wants to put a bunch of new regulations on tech companies. All of these companies have existed regulation free for a long time. That may change the way those phones and streaming systems operate. Don't assume things will be this way forever.