For such a saturated market, a lot of duplication...

[Radio-X]

Now, I'm sure there is debate on whether Savannah/Hilton Head is over-radioed (I think it is). What is kind of odd...why all the duplication?

I mean, I know its all about the money, but let's look at the market:

4 Classic rock/hits stations: I-95, Q-105.3, The Hawk (laugh now), and The Drive
2 CHR/Top 40-ish stations
2 Oldies stations: Coast, and 98.3
2 Country stations

Now, look at what's missing:
NO FM Gospel. 3 AM stations play it
NO Sports station in Savannah proper (WFXH-AM doesn't exist in Savannah after dark)
NO Spanish FM or AM in Savannah
NO Alternative rock station...well, 106.1 cuts muster, I guess
NO Hot/Modern AC

I really think the area is ripe for a format shake-up...I mean, really! Obviously I'm just playing armchair OM, but imagine the possibilities! There is a money tree out there that's in bloom, and nobody's seeing it!

Radio-X

 

[FilmCritic3K]

Now, I'm sure there is debate on whether Savannah/Hilton Head is over-radioed (I think it is). What is kind of odd...why all the duplication?

I mean, I know its all about the money, but let's look at the market:

4 Classic rock/hits stations: I-95, Q-105.3, The Hawk (laugh now), and The Drive
2 CHR/Top 40-ish stations
2 Oldies stations: Coast, and 98.3
2 Country stations

Now, look at what's missing:
NO FM Gospel. 3 AM stations play it
NO Sports station in Savannah proper (WFXH-AM doesn't exist in Savannah after dark)
NO Spanish FM or AM in Savannah
NO Alternative rock station...well, 106.1 cuts muster, I guess
NO Hot/Modern AC

I really think the area is ripe for a format shake-up...I mean, really! Obviously I'm just playing armchair OM, but imagine the possibilities! There is a money tree out there that's in bloom, and nobody's seeing it!

Radio-X

From your lips to a savvy GM and PD's ears, Radio-X...but who's willing to step up and do anything? And we actually DO need a real Alternative station or a AAA station. WFXH doesn't cut it on any planet. I find it appalling that it's allowed to report as an Alternative, yet they play as much if not more Active Rock than an Active Rock station! What are they airing this week? A countdown of the top heavy metal albums! Huh?! You don't see Top 40 stations reporting as Urban or Country stations reporting as Soft AC. WFXH should stop pretending it's an Alternative station and just fess up that it's really Active Rock.

Don't believe me? Head over to their website, http://www.rock1061.com, and click the banner at the top to see what the station's played in the last 24 hours. That certainly doesn't look like the playlist of an Alternative station, that's for sure.

 

[middlega]

Don't believe me? Head over to their website, http://www.rock1061.com, and click the banner at the top to see what the station's played in the last 24 hours. That certainly doesn't look like the playlist of an Alternative station, that's for sure.

I'm sometimes intrigued by comments like this, so even though I'm nowhere near the market, I did just what you suggested & took a look at their playlist, starting with the "Top Hits" list (I said I was intrigued, not masochistic enough to parse their entire last 24 hours )

Here's the top 25 titles listed
"From Yesterday"- 30 Seconds From Mars - #1 on R&R Alternative chart this week / #10 on Active Rock
"It's Not Over" - Daughtry - #19 Alt / #5 Active Rock
"Breath" - Breaking Benjamin - #7 Alt / #1 Active Rock
"Forever" - Papa Roach - #11 Alt / #8 Active Rock
"Pain" - Three Days Grace - #2 Alt / #4 Active Rock
"The Enemy" - Godsmack - Uncharted Alt / #7 Active Rock
"Famous Last Words" - My Chemical Romance - #5 Alt / #24 Active Rock
"Ladies & Gentlemen" - Saliva - #30 Alt / #2 Active Rock
"No Control" - Pepper - Uncharted Alt / Uncharted Active Rock
"Everything" - Buck Cherry - #28 Alt / #11 Active Rock
"Dig" - Incubus - #8 Alt / #18 Active Rock
"Coming Undone" - Korn - #19 Recurrent Alt / #10 Recurrent Active Rock
"All These Things..." - Bullet For My Valentine #34 Alt / #13 Active Rock
"Prayer of the Refugee" - Rise Against - #13 Alt / Uncharted Active Rock
"Anna Molly" - Incubus - #18 Alt / #13 Recurrent Active Rock
"Face Down" - RJSA - #12 Alt / #39 Active Rock
"Tell Me" - Dropping Daylight - Uncharted Alt/ #29 Active Rock
"This Ain't A Scene..." - Fallout Boy #15 Alt/ Uncharted Active Rock
"Through Glass" - Stone Sour #3 Recurrent Alt/ #5 Recurrent Active Rock
"Sillyworld" - Stone Sour #23 Alt / #4 Active Rock
"My Curse" - Killswitch Engage #15 Alt/ #21 Active Rock
"The Older I Get" - Skillet Uncharted Alt/ #30 Active Rock
"Lazy Eye" - Silversun Pickups #14 Alt / Uncharted Active Rock
"Ruby" - Kaiser Chiefs #21 Alt/ Uncharted Active Rock
"House of Cards" - Medina Lake Uncharted Alt/ Uncharted Active Rock

So out of their top 25 from yesterday
16 Songs on both Alt & Active Rock charts (current or recurrent)
4 Songs on Alternative chart but not on Active Rock chart
3 Songs on Active Rock chart but not on Alternative chart
2 Songs not appearing on either Alt or Active Rock Charts

Based on that, just from the outside looking in, I can't help but wonder if perhaps your dissatisfaction with their playlist might be influenced by some unhappiness with the Active Rock skew of Alternative stations overall? I won't argue that there appears to be a significant A.R. influence on their playlist (just based on yesterday) but it looks like that's true at the majority of stations in the Alternative format right now.

I don't really have a dog in this fight at all, but at least I got a little bit of diversion from the work I should have been doing instead of figuring all this out

 

[FilmCritic3K]

Based on that, just from the outside looking in, I can't help but wonder if perhaps your dissatisfaction with their playlist might be influenced by some unhappiness with the Active Rock skew of Alternative stations overall? I won't argue that there appears to be a significant A.R. influence on their playlist (just based on yesterday) but it looks like that's true at the majority of stations in the Alternative format right now.

I don't really have a dog in this fight at all, but at least I got a little bit of diversion from the work I should have been doing instead of figuring all this out

96 Wave in Charleston is a terrific example of what an Alternative station is and what an Alternative station should sound like.

Here's 96 Wave (WAVF)'s music log...

http://yes.com/station/WAVF

Contrast and compare that with WFXH's music log; the difference is striking.

My dissatisfaction with WFXH stems from the fact that we're not all 15 year olds that think Disturbed and Saliva are poet laureates that need 7 spins in 2 hours. As I stated in a previous post, I'm willing to sit through songs by those bands if there is diversity in the playlist.

 

[Radio-X]

I miss the days of yester-year moving the old TV antenna to the north to get 96.1 on the radio, or perhaps moving it to the south to get 107.7 in Brunswick.

And I give Rock 106-1 a little bit of credit. They have to (because nobody else besides I-95 touches new rock) cater the station to the most rockers. You have the people who are interested in hearing some Depeche Mode, Cure, classic Nirvana, and maybe some newer stuff from good bands, then you have your stereotypical southern 27 yr old male who likes Disturbed, Alice In Chains, and Limp Bizkit. The latter is stereotypically (at least to advertiser's eyes) going to frequent strip clubs, bars, liquor stores, etc.

Still, it seems like "deep fried rock" is covered from son (Rock 106-1) to father (I-95) to Gramps (103-1)
Kinda unexciting...

Radio-X

 

[FilmCritic3K]

I miss the days of yester-year moving the old TV antenna to the north to get 96.1 on the radio, or perhaps moving it to the south to get 107.7 in Brunswick.

And I give Rock 106-1 a little bit of credit. They have to (because nobody else besides I-95 touches new rock) cater the station to the most rockers. You have the people who are interested in hearing some Depeche Mode, Cure, classic Nirvana, and maybe some newer stuff from good bands, then you have your stereotypical southern 27 yr old male who likes Disturbed, Alice In Chains, and Limp Bizkit. The latter is stereotypically (at least to advertiser's eyes) going to frequent strip clubs, bars, liquor stores, etc.

Still, it seems like "deep fried rock" is covered from son (Rock 106-1) to father (I-95) to Gramps (103-1)
Kinda unexciting...

Radio-X

I'm 25 and I despise nu-metal (Saliva, Disturbed, et al) and prefer classic alternative, early '90s grunge, and indie rock I'm a fan of 96 Wave and if we had a station like that here in Savannah, I'd never change the station.

 

[middlega]

I'm 25 and I despise nu-metal (Saliva, Disturbed, et al) and prefer classic alternative, early '90s grunge, and indie rock

And I'll be 40 in another month but would rather hear some of today's active rock core acts do a sound check instead of the majority of what you mentioned preferring ... which I mention only to make the point that I doubt the station is programming solely to what either of us would prefer.

 

[FilmCritic3K]

I'm 25 and I despise nu-metal (Saliva, Disturbed, et al) and prefer classic alternative, early '90s grunge, and indie rock

And I'll be 40 in another month but would rather hear some of today's active rock core acts do a sound check instead of the majority of what you mentioned preferring ... which I mention only to make the point that I doubt the station is programming solely to what either of us would prefer.

Exactly. But there's a comfort zone, an in-between if you will, that can be reached, IMHO, in which you and I *and* the 15-year olds listening can all be programmed for.

 

[middlega]

Exactly. But there's a comfort zone, an in-between if you will, that can be reached, IMHO, in which you and I *and* the 15-year olds listening can all be programmed for.

Although I'm risking a bit of a tangent here (because I'm making a more general observation than one specifically about this station), I'm not completely sure there is a mark like that.

Or more accurately I guess, not one that is significantly more satisfying. Again, just talking about my own listening, the minute a station hits a song I have zero interest in, I'm gone. I might be back in five minutes or five days, or five weeks, but I'm going to surf the dial & ultimately hit the CD button if two cycles through doesn't bring me to something I actively enjoy. And I think that's a more pronounced trend now than it was, say, 20 years ago. I recall having a lot more patience for sitting through something I have zero desire to hear "back then" than I do now. Maybe that's an odd function of aging or something (although it seems to be contrary to conventional wisdom about gaining patience as we get older).

Granted, none of us here are probably "normal" in our listening habits. But as it happens, I'm only really returning to rock radio as a listening option in the past 2-3 years after tuning it out almost completely for longer than that (roughly from the beginning of the grunge era). I simply found nothing appealing about probably 95% of the music & the other 5% wasn't compelling enough to make me sit through the rest. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks & all that, my point isn't to denigrate your own tastes or anything. It's just that I think that's not an uncommon sentiment in general, preferences have become more specific which is why there's been a proliferation of narrower format niches. And that (hopefully) brings me back around to what I was thinking when I started this post, that I'm not at all sure that any station could really consistently satisfy both of us at the same time, never mind the 15 y/o sitting next to us at the traffic light. Trying to do so is probably what brought on this conversation in the first place.

And BTW, thanks for what, IMO, is a pretty good discussion. It's been a nice change of pace for me to have a conversation at radio-info that hasn't involved anybody getting p.o.'ed

 

[faaradar]

the minute a station hits a song I have zero interest in, I'm gone. I might be back in five minutes or five days, or five weeks, but I'm going to surf the dial & ultimately hit the CD button if two cycles through doesn't bring me to something I actively enjoy. And I think that's a more pronounced trend now than it was, say, 20 years ago. I recall having a lot more patience for sitting through something I have zero desire to hear "back then" than I do now. Maybe that's an odd function of aging or something (although it seems to be contrary to conventional wisdom about gaining patience as we get older).

I think that it is because we have so many more formats and stations to choose from that there were 20 years ago.

 

[FilmCritic3K]

And BTW, thanks for what, IMO, is a pretty good discussion. It's been a nice change of pace for me to have a conversation at radio-info that hasn't involved anybody getting p.o.'ed

Oh, no problem.

I do get what you're saying. I can tolerate the active rock, by the way. I just like it blended into the playlist along with the other stuff.

 

[htowler]

Now, I'm sure there is debate on whether Savannah/Hilton Head is over-radioed (I think it is). What is kind of odd...why all the duplication?

I mean, I know its all about the money, but let's look at the market:

4 Classic rock/hits stations: I-95, Q-105.3, The Hawk (laugh now), and The Drive
2 CHR/Top 40-ish stations
2 Oldies stations: Coast, and 98.3
2 Country stations

Now, look at what's missing:
NO FM Gospel. 3 AM stations play it
NO Sports station in Savannah proper (WFXH-AM doesn't exist in Savannah after dark)
NO Spanish FM or AM in Savannah
NO Alternative rock station...well, 106.1 cuts muster, I guess
NO Hot/Modern AC

I really think the area is ripe for a format shake-up...I mean, really! Obviously I'm just playing armchair OM, but imagine the possibilities! There is a money tree out there that's in bloom, and nobody's seeing it!

Radio-X

Also No Rhythmics or Rhythmic ACs no AAA(except DJ AAA on WQBT)