G-Rock

[CHRles]

Okay then, I guess to you anything that doesnt sound like Nirvana is Rap. Hit 106 plays a lot of Leona Lewis, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Pink, Beyonce, Ne-Yo, Britney, Taylor Swift, Jason Mraz, Kevin Rudolf, Akon, Rihanna, All American Rejects, etc. None of those acts are Rap.
They do play some TI and Kanye West, but even those artist's latest releases aren't Rap.

If you want to listen to good Modern/Alternative Rock or Active Rock stations on the net I'm sure I can recommend some decent ones for ya. Or you can subscribe, for a nominal fee, to satellite radio and get your Nirvana-friendly sound fix.
The station ditched its Modern Rock format not to piss you off, but b/c the station was pissed off it wasn't doing well as it had hoped in the ratings and revenue department. Perhaps it'll find better luck with another format, one which includes some "Rap"

 

[MarcR]

Speaking of Hip Hop/Rap, album sales of that genre dropped another 20% last year (as opposed to a 14% drop for total album sales),and hip hop/rap is now the sixth most listened to genre of music, as opposed to third most listened to in 2003. Succinctly put, hip hop, god willing, is headed for oblivion!

 

[hotpatrick2004]

The jist of all of this is hits 106 will fail no ifs ands or buts.They may get some numbers after a period of time but the format will be a hard sell especially w/ a chr over tapped market like there is. Hits 106 is a waste of a frequency when most people will listen to Z-100 anyway. I would never advertise on hits 106 if i had a business out of principle but i would of on grock.

I hope terrie carr lands on her feet i know she is still at the station but must hate it!!!

 

[BigBoy41]

Thanks HP...thats all I wanted to know,...someones opinion on what an advertiser may be thinking. there were alot of cool clubs and shore related things that the station was involved with. and when I listened to GROCK CHR guy I liked ALL the different styles of alternative..(not just nirvana)..you appear to either work at the station or for some other god awful hit outlet with all of your statistical crap.....Grock was different and stood out on the dial. another great station that has gone away...your stupid charts and crapola doesn't change the fact that what they replaced it with is junk....if they replaced it with something better I'm game to give it a try. but they didn't. hip hop or rap...it's still CRAP

 

[MarcR]

They do play some TI and Kanye West, but even those artist's latest releases aren't Rap.

I should've added that R&B album sales also dropped nearly 20% last year, and that the "Alternative" genre outsold it by about 4,000 units. To the detriment of R&B, I think most people can hardly distinguish it from Hip Hop anymore, and that R&B artists better disentagle themselves soon from Hip Hop before they also suffer its fate.

 

[CHRles]

You guys don't get it. Advertisers will advertise on the station b/c local Monmouth-Ocean businesses can't afford to advertise on a New York City CHR.
I guess you guys aren't familiar with 106.1 BLI Long Island. In the Suffolk-Nassau book Z-100 gets great ratings, but so does local CHR WBLI. Additionally, a lot of local businesses targetting 18-34 are very happy that Long Island has its own CHR.

As for Hip Hop, a lot of kids are simply downloading the music for free, but its still a very popular genre. And CHR/Pop radio? Extremely popular these days ratings-wise and cume-wise, and offers a lot more musically then just Hip Hop.

Modern Rock radio, on the other hand, is struggling in many markets. It's missing on the dial in a number of prominent markets including New York, Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Orlando, and Nashville,
Modern Rock radio is also struggling in places like Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, Charlotte, Sacramento, even in Seattle.

 

[SoulCrusher]

You guys don't get it. Advertisers will advertise on the station b/c local Monmouth-Ocean businesses can't afford to advertise on a New York City CHR.
I guess you guys aren't familiar with 106.1 BLI Long Island. In the Suffolk-Nassau book Z-100 gets great ratings, but so does local CHR WBLI. Additionally, a lot of local businesses targetting 18-34 are very happy that Long Island has its own CHR.

Advertisers are not going to run commercials on Hit 106, if they're smart. I'm sure Press will offer competitive prices for time on the station, but look at it from the perspective of business: There are so many places where fans of today's Top 40 music can get their fix. Why would any of these people listen to some startup station when they probably have loyalty to Z 100, Q 102, WPST, 94.3 The Point, Wired 96.5, or countless other very similar stations? Regardless of what type of business I ran, I wouldn't be interested in buying time because my demo is probably listening to some other much more established station instead.

G Rock was one of a kind. The CEO of Press Communications excitedly exclaims about Hit 106: "Monmouth/Ocean listeners will finally have a Top 40 station to call their own". Big deal. The CHR audience doesn't care about regional loyalty - either they listen to a station because the brand/packaging of the station appeals to them or because they like the personalities. There is no difference musically between Hit 106 and any of the other more widely-known CHRs, and it's safe to say that this station will be mostly automated as part of a cost-saving measure by Press, so it will only have so much personality going for it.

Press seems to be unfazed by the unhappy G Rock fans. I think they're going to learn the hard way that there's absolutely no need for another Top 40 station in this market, and maybe another company will jump in and capitalize on their mistake. 105.7 The Hawk's ratings were the same as G Rock, even with their powerful signal. Maybe Millennium will give up on this disappointment and try something new ... we can only hope?

 

[MarcR]

As for Hip Hop, a lot of kids are simply downloading the music for free, but its still a very popular genre.

Evidently you don't have many contacts with people in the music industry because the ones I've spoken to agree that the hip hop genre is hemorhaging listeners. If your hypothesis was correct, then the genres of Heavy Metal, Rock and Alternative would also experience steep declines in album sales, but their losses for 2008 were well below the 14% decline for album sales as a whole.

 

[CHRles]

That's b/c Metal's sales already plummeted long ago from their late 80s/early 90s peak. Alternative album sales are nowhere near the levels they were in the mid 90s.
But fine, dont take my word for it. Believe whatever you want to believe. Aren't you the same guy who last year wrote on one of the boards that Z-100 doesnt have much of an audience in the suburbs anymore? Yet book after book this CHR/Pop station continues to dominate both in the city and in the burbs.
Time will tell if Press made a good decision here or not.

 

[nd2023]

I admit, when I heard about the format change, I listened to Hit 106 to sample it. It's the worst CHR I've heard, and I have heard plenty of CHR stations. I didn't listen to GRock that much, but it was nice to have it on the air. TSL for Top 40 is lower than for Alternative, but cume is probably going to be more. Thing is, most of GRock's cume hates Hit 106, and there are 6 other CHR stations in the area (Z, Q, Wired, STW, PST, Kiss) that will eat at Hit 106's cume, not including the hip hop (Hot, Power NY, Power Philly, The Beat), hot/rhythmic AC (PLJ, Point, SoJo, WAYV, KTU, My), and dance (Pulse, Z) stations. That's 19 stations trying to get the same audience! We all know the pie isn't split evenly. Z100, Q102, PST, and Wired have the most listeners. GRock had loyal listeners out to its 40 dBu contour, Hit 106 will be lucky to have loyal listeners in its city grade contour (no reason to listen to a CHR through the static when there's another one on a strong signal).

 

[Soon Yi CIV.V]

I appreciate the passion going on here but everyone does realize that G Rock isn't coming back, right? The company thinks they can sell the thing better with CHR and they're probably right. 150 people outside with signs can't change that. Even if 7,000 people showed up, McAllan's public acknowledgment of their right to assembly--and his kind offering of information about the rules and permit information for doing so--was pretty much a thumb in the eye.

Companies like Press want to turn a buck and they want to turn it fast. They'll likely be able to make more money with a female-oriented format than they were with the male-oriented format--even if they end up with fewer total listeners. (Crazy, right? I know!) Every single little thing in radio is about sales nowadays. There used to be more to it...but now there's no room for anything else. Long-term strategies are things of the past. Money, money, money, money. Money! In the short term, who suffers? The listeners of course. Take solace however that in the long run, the owners will feel the burn too. (After all, they can't keep doing this forever, can they?!)

I'm not sure why these things surprise anyone anymore. But I feel bad for the fans. It is horrible having your favorite station suddenly disappear.

 

[ccuphl]

I appreciate the passion going on here but everyone does realize that G Rock isn't coming back, right? The company thinks they can sell the thing better with CHR and they're probably right. 150 people outside with signs can't change that.

Having only 150 people -- in a market of 1,100,000 -- show up to protest something a week after it happened (especially on a Saturday when no one's working at the station) made Press's decision to flip WHTG/WBBO even more solid. And having only 150 people show-up makes that 16th place 12+ number even more realistic and, worse yet, visible (keep in mind, the PPM tends to favor rock stations).

Contracts with Dial-Global for the CHR format were signed weeks ago. Contracts for the national 7-midnight show that they're carrying were signed weeks ago. There's no going back at this point.

You, as a listener, have a right to protest anything you want. You, as "the public" have the right to file a written comment with the station that has to go in their public file. You, as "the public" have the right to file comments regarding the station's public service obligations (which, by the way, is not: "the new format sucks") when WHTG or WBBO are up for renewal. Beyond that, it's all business... whether that business can successfully manage its properties or not is a whole 'nother topic.

 

[eyg2181]

if the people want chr, there gonna go to pst. but it aint coming back. another good station bites the dust, whats next, the hawk?

 

[hubcity]

Having only 150 people -- in a market of 1,100,000 -- show up to protest something a week after it happened (especially on a Saturday when no one's working at the station) made Press's decision to flip WHTG/WBBO even more solid. And having only 150 people show-up makes that 16th place 12+ number even more realistic and, worse yet, visible (keep in mind, the PPM tends to favor rock stations).

Okay, let's do the math - a 1.4 in 1,100,000 is 15,400. (Do correct this if necessary; I'm still not sure if I understand ratings, or ever will.) A single phone call - a simple active response to a station's call to action - statistically represents how many listeners? And this wasn't just a phone call - this was getting out of the house, getting in a car, driving to a place with limited parking on a frigid cold day - layering was necessary - and walking up and down a street yelling slogans, while police stood by to keep the peace, all because of a radio station. Most of these things are enough individually to keep people home. (I know I couldn't make it - prior engagements ensured that my wife woulda killed me.)

Statistically speaking, the number of people likely to brave all those obstacles, given the ratings-measured size of the the listenership, should have been about five. I think you're being groundlessly dismissive here.

 

[ccuphl]

And this wasn't just a phone call - this was getting out of the house, getting in a car, driving to a place with limited parking on a frigid cold day - layering was necessary - and walking up and down a street yelling slogans, while police stood by to keep the peace, all because of a radio station. Most of these things are enough individually to keep people home.

Statistically speaking, the number of people likely to brave all those obstacles, given the ratings-measured size of the the listenership, should have been about five. I think you're being groundlessly dismissive here.

I'm not being groundlessly dismissive here. Frigid cold? It was in the 30s and breezy... it's January! Wear a coat and a sweatshirt. And if you're extremely passionate about something, the lack of parking won't stop you from going somewhere (it's a protest - there will be walking).

My overall point here is you know the Press higher-ups got a laugh Monday morning over the fact that only 150 people showed up to protest their format change. That's fewer then the number of people in one Wal-Mart at any given time.

 

[BigBoy41]

took 106.3 off my pre set today....any suggestions of a station to replace it with?....I travel through the central NJ corridor quite a bit...heard a few mention 95.9...I'll give it a try. Seems to me any negative publicity is not a good thing in this economy which seems to be blamed for alot of radio woes...I bet the G competitors on the shore are loving this

 

[nd2023]

I was listening to Hit 106 tonight and heard the Nudge show. Is it the same Nudge that used to be on Q102's night show years ago?

 

[amfmsw]

Thinking about this on a whole other plane...

If I had a car dealership, or any business, and 150 people showed up at a remote, wouldn't you consider that to be a successful event? I know the salesperson and retailer would. But I doubt you'd find 150 Dodge Nitro enthusiats. Just thinking.

 

[hubcity]

I'm not being groundlessly dismissive here. Frigid cold? It was in the 30s and breezy... it's January!

You prove my point.

You're also moving the goalposts. 150 is a small percentage of 1.1M, but it's a full percent of the Arbitron-measured listenership. Statistically, of the measured listenership, you'd expect a lot less given the conditions:

- Thirties and breezy
- Marching and holding signs
- Pushing close to the legal definition of "trespassing" without crossing
- With the police standing by.

How're your statistics working out now? Did you remember to carry the '1'?

The fact that 150 people showed up says one of two things: the audience is more vocally committed to the station than statistics would suggest, or the measured listenership is not nearly as much as the actual listenership.

Look at WRXP. Their ratings are awful, but those non-existent listeners keep selling out venues for WRXP events. What are you gonna believe, the ratings or your lyin' eyes?

 

[Soon Yi CIV.V]

Regardless of whether 150 people is or isn't a smashing turnout, the facts remain the same: Press made a business decision and even if turnout had been three times what it was, it certainly wouldn't have changed any minds. Sure, it suck for the fans...but G Rock ain't coming back.