GRRR - G Rock Repetition Radio

[Beejus]

Re: G Rock Radio Did It Again!

Yeah, Beejus, just read the first two lines of my message and ignore the rest - that's the ticket.

I'll give you the abbeviated edition: They play "Basket Case" EVERY DAY between 9 and 5, along with a bunch of other songs. The consultants that this station is using are steering it in the wrong direction by repeating two or three dozen songs in the same time slot every day. The only difference: We played it at 1:20 PM yesterday, so we'll play it at 11:40 AM today! The Alternative format has been known to feature less Gold repetition than other formats, but apparently that fact is lost on CBS, Clear Channel, and now Press. Apparently Press hasn't learned from the mistakes that CBS made with K-Rock. I used to think that this station was trying to appeal to the at-work demos, but with all the repeats, I have been proven wrong.

::sigh:: This is the final time I humor you on this topic. Here we go.

1.)I only quoted the first part of the thread because that's all I needed to respond to. The rest has been repeated in nearly all 500+ posts you have made.

2.)Green Day's Basketcase has been played TWICE on GRock Radio in the past 7 days (not including today obviously.) One spin came in the Midnight-6am daypart, the other in the 7-Midnight daypart. So that kicks TWO of your claims dead. It hasn't played EVERY day, and it hasn't even played in daylight hours.

3.) Modern Rock, Active Rock, Hot AC stations... they play the core gold songs a lot. Even I do at my station. Some songs get played daily or sometimes two may squeak in. The reasoning... people don't want to hear songs they are not familiar with. It's one thing to build a new song and make it a hit... but to dig up an obscure hit that no one remembers, that's probably going to make a chunk of people tune out because they don't know it. Sure the minor few will go "OH WOW!" and crank up the radio, but not many will. That's what flashback/retro weekends are for.

I don't care what you respond with anymore, because I've proven you wrong countless times. You're complaining to the wrong people, and you can't get that through your head. Other people can humor you if they so desire, but I'm done with it.

 

[SoulCrusher]

Re: G Rock Radio Did It Again!

::sigh:: This is the final time I humor you on this topic. Here we go.

1.)I only quoted the first part of the thread because that's all I needed to respond to. The rest has been repeated in nearly all 500+ posts you have made.

2.)Green Day's Basketcase has been played TWICE on GRock Radio in the past 7 days (not including today obviously.) One spin came in the Midnight-6am daypart, the other in the 7-Midnight daypart. So that kicks TWO of your claims dead. It hasn't played EVERY day, and it hasn't even played in daylight hours.

3.) Modern Rock, Active Rock, Hot AC stations... they play the core gold songs a lot. Even I do at my station. Some songs get played daily or sometimes two may squeak in. The reasoning... people don't want to hear songs they are not familiar with. It's one thing to build a new song and make it a hit... but to dig up an obscure hit that no one remembers, that's probably going to make a chunk of people tune out because they don't know it. Sure the minor few will go "OH WOW!" and crank up the radio, but not many will. That's what flashback/retro weekends are for.

I don't care what you respond with anymore, because I've proven you wrong countless times. You're complaining to the wrong people, and you can't get that through your head. Other people can humor you if they so desire, but I'm done with it.

Points taken. I understand playing mostly familiar songs to keep your audience tuned in. I DON'T understand beating your listeners over the head with them like G Rock Radio does. Recently on yes.net, I saw that Green Day's "Longview" was ranked in the station's Top 50 songs - that means it had to get at least 10-15 spins by my estimate. I think that's a little excessive. G Rock Radio's library stretches back to the '70s, and there are enough hits from the last 30 years that there's no need to pound songs with this frequency. For the record: As popular as Green Day has been, most of their songs are simple and fairly disposible, and therefore burn out very quickly. Even their "policitcally charged" album American Idiot is pretty tame and makes a very vague statement when you think about it. I've listened to Active Rock / Alternative stations around the country, and none of them play Green Day nearly as much as G Rock Radio does - well, except for the heavily-consulted CBS and Clear Channel stations that choose songs solely on chart performance.

I don't know what station you work for (you're not Beej from WJSE, 102.7 The Ace, are you?), but the vast majority of the Alternatives that I've heard that are not run by one of those two corporate behemoths combine familiar selections with plenty of currents and at least 1 or 2 "haven't heard that in a while" tracks. They also play the edgier bands that G Rock Radio shies away from as well. Maybe it's because they look at the format with blinders on that G Rock Radio's playlist is so thin. It's right there with any CBS or Clear Channel station you can think of, and this one short-lived Alternative I heard in Phoenix (I think it was called "Party" or something) about 6 or 7 years ago which at least had a few surprises.

Flashback/retro weekends occur on G Rock Radio about as frequently as Halley's Comet sightings, relatively speaking. Maybe two or three times a year if we're lucky. Once a month or two would be enough to keep me satisfied, but we don't even get that.

 

[Beejus]

I'm saving the rest of the board the grating annoyance. SoulCrusher... any more discussion should be done through PM.

And no, I am not Beej from WJSE (I didn't notice there was a Beej on WJSE). I'm originally from the Philly area, have moved elsewhere for work, but like to read about what's going on in the homeland. So if Beej from WJSE reads the board... sorry for stealing your name... I didn't mean it!

 

[SoulCrusher]

OK. I'm not going to rant much more, but this is the bottom line with G Rock Radio: They listen more to their consultants and market research than the listeners. I would be willing to bet that most of the market research comes from a small part of the market and from females - how else to explain hearing a cheesy Green Day ballad (Wake Me Up When September Ends) going into an equally cheesy Fuel ballad like "Hemmorhage (In My Hands)"? Well, OK, it was separated by a good We Are Scientists song, but that proves that they throw their hat in with the Females - they should have thrown in Beck's "Nausea" while they were at it because that's what I felt after hearing those dopey trailer-rocking power-balladeers Fuel. Want more proof that this station favors Females? They play the cheesy edit of the AFI song without the screaming. They play all of the bubblegum pop/punk that the little girls love like Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco and Yellowcard. They play simpering cupcake acts like Death Cab For Cutie, Keane and Coldplay incessantly. But they're most annoying for what they choose not to play, and that's bands like Tool, System Of A Down, Korn, Deftones, etc., along with up and coming bands like Bullet For My Valentine and Underoath. Maybe these bands aren't "the roots of Alternative", but if this station can play straight-up arena rock bands like Shinedown, Stone Sour and Audioslave along with all of the weepy balladry better suited to Lite-FM, these bands should all have a place, too. But they don't, because God forbid we risk "losing" the Females by playing something that the Males prefer for once!

Forgive me for ranting - when it comes to music, I guess I'm lactose-intolerant. It just boggles my mind why Male listeners under 50 have practically nowhere to go on the FM dial. I just would like to see G Rock Radio shift to being a full-on Alternative instead of doing this Hot AC / Alternative format, or Alternative-Lite, or whatever you want to call it - for ONE ratings period. Since they purchased WHTG, Press hasn't even attempted the format I'm describing in this area. Having looked at plenty of Alternative playlists, I can honestly say that G Rock Radio is about as safe as an Alternative not run by CBS or Clear Channel can get. When they do break protocol and play something different, it's on a time where no one can hear it (early Saturday and Sunday morning).

Well, I'm done ranting on this topic, but it's open to discussion for anyone interested. And I have attempted to contact the station with my suggestions - I was told that the station targets Men and Women equally, and that the bands that I suggested don't fit the station because they're going for a "happy" vibe. Like the crying balladeers mentioned before are the epitome of happiness. And I believe the "targeting Men and Women equally" like I believe that Earth is flat.

I'm glad that this area does have an Alternative station - let that be said. I just wish the station was a bit more democratic when it comes to its overall sound, instead of being so insular.

 

[chuckydoll]

Maybe it's due to budget cuts

When you cut the budget for your station, you'll get more repetition even in a "no repeat" format.

Budget cuts are why Mike Gavin is no longer PD of G Rock Radio.

 

[SoulCrusher]

Re: Maybe it's due to budget cuts

When you cut the budget for your station, you'll get more repetition even in a "no repeat" format.

Budget cuts are why Mike Gavin is no longer PD of G Rock Radio.

That may be true, but repetition was present even when he was PD. But I do believe that he was instrumental in steering the station away from the Modern AC direction the station had been in to where it is now - as close to full-on Alternative as it has been since Press purchased WHTG from the Gade family in 2000.

I believe the repetition is rooted in the heavy dayparting at the same station. They definitely have a better Modern Rock library than your token CBS or Clear Channel "Alternative", but the dayparting at G Rock Radio leads to often hearing the same songs within the same timespan. I hope they will begin to phase this out now that they have established themselves. If we wanted to hear something soft, we would just turn on WOBM or G Rock Radio's sister station, The Breeze.

There are still some surprises here and there, though. Today they played Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and it wasn't during the Nineties At Noon segment. More unexpected tracks like this will keep the station from getting stale. After all, one can only hear the same old Green Day and Nirvana songs so many times.