sflaboy said:
Just one question - not intending to start anything...but have you ever programmed a radio station?
Yes, a couple of them in fact.
If so, then in what market?
Miami is one of them...
I'd sure hope to be considered a teacher as that is one of the most important jobs for a GM, PD, GSM or consultant, IMHO.
Just wondering where all this "high theory" is coming from.
Since when is knowing the characteristics of your market "high theory?"
Your statement reminds me of all the roadkill I have seen over the years where someone says, "the reason (insert format name or music genre here) has never worked here is that nobody has understood what (repeat the name of the format or genre) listeners really want." Forget the fact that there simply may not be enough listeners for that format to make it viable, and forget the fact that the only one to know what listeners want are the listeners.
PDs are like chefs... we cook up what listeners "order" and if we satisfy and exceed expectations, the customer comes back.
One more time...Rock is a PRIMARY format.
The facts would indicate that in the Miami MSA it is not a primary format (whatever that term means to you). It's not really certain that it is even a viable format.
There is an unserved hole in Mia-Fll. Yes, it does underperform vs the US - so does Country. But, the format has succeeded in the past (Zeta & SHE).
Country is nowhere nearly as fragmented as "rock." There are varieties of rock that are repugnant or useless to partisans of other kinds of rock. There is even polarization within formats, as anyone who has ever been in an alternative rock music test can testify to.
While some country listeners may prefer a pre-90's sound, there is a lot more tolerance for more current songs than you would find between classic rock partisans and songs from the modern/active/alternative rock subsets. Essentially, we have several different rock formats...
When She and such were more successful, the demos of Miami were very different. And, as is usually the case, the majority... in this case Hispanics... will tend to influence the tastes and preferences of the market as a whole. That's basic sociology... and sociology is the only university level course in programming that is worth taking.
When those stations were at the top of their games the market was approximately 45% Hispanic and 12% black. I had no idea that the market had gone to 70 or 80% ethnic in the three years I've been in Alabama.
In 2000, Miami 12+ was 39% Hispanic, and 17% Black. WZTA was 12th and WBGG was 16th in 12+, while WEDR had, alone, a share equal to the sum of the two rockers. 103.5 had no year averaging over a 3.6 after 1985 when it averaged 5.0 (Source: Duncan's American Radio, Maximiser). Rock has had less than a 6 share for a decade... certainly not the top of anyone's game.
The Hispanic population in the MSA has grown by over a third in ten years, and the Black population by nearly 20%. That means the non-Hispanic white population has gone from around 46% to 30% in the same period, a
loss of a third.
growing up in South Florida, WSHE and Zeta 4 (K102) were on the bottom of the list of stations listened too. Not much has changed. Rock has never done well in South Florida. Heck Stations played very little AC/DC, Def Leppard. Hell Bon Jovi wasn't in heavy rotation. Not much has changed. The stations above probably wouldn't have survived if it wasn't the fact they were owned by smaller groups at the time.