K-Rock = AOR?

[Neanderpaul]

Based on what I've read, it appears as if AOR is back. At least in NY. Which is probably a nice place for a movement to start.

The niche formats of Active & Alternative seem to have been cross-pollenating for years, and knowing how our industry tends to knee-jerk, it would seem that K-Rock's re-emergence sends up a big flare for the return of straight-ahead "Rock" radio. Look at some of the CBS "Alternatives" KROQ plays Ozzy...not alternative. WBCN plays Sabbath, ACDC, and Aerosmith. Also not Alternative.

Look at WAAF in Boston playing Violent Femmes, James, White Stripes, Bob Marley.

Is this a result of the "Jack" influence? Or, has the industry come full circle and realized that there are "rock" and "alternative" listeners that are actually more tolerant to a wider variety of musical textures? And seeing as the record companies have slashed promotional budgets/staff, one-stop outlets would be a positive. Especially given the perceived dearth of "good" new music, and multi-format attempts to break bands.

If K-Rock is more a traditional AOR, watch for smaller markets to mirror their textures, and adjust accordingly. Which is good if you work in any of the Rock sub-formats. More gigs. Of course that means work on the talent end to know the product better. But K-Rock's return could really help the format overall.

I hope it works. Rock radio could use a kick in the teeth.

 

[SoulCrusher]

With a lot of the music they're playing, they're going head-on with Q 104.3. I wish that the station would play more music that can't be heard anywhere else in NYC. There is the indie-style Alternative that is popular right now (Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Kings Of Leon, etc.), the harder music on Active Rock (Hellyeah, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Static-X, etc.), and NYC rock music (New York Dolls, Suicide, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Interpol, Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Bravery, Liars, TV On The Radio, etc.), very little of which is represented by K-Rock, and represented nowhere else on the dial. Many of these bands still manage to sell out venues in the city anyway, so wouldn't it make sense to go either Alternative or hard Active Rock instead of having so much overlap with the competition? I can hear so many of these songs on Q, PLJ, even sister station Jack. They're basically the same sound as they were when they were doing "Great Rock Period" two years ago, and that will only result in marginally higher ratings than what they have now - something in the mid 2s, tops.

 

[MarcR]

KROQ plays Ozzy...not alternative.
[/quote]

KROQ played Ozzy?! Perhaps they did so in recognition of his huge celebrity rather than as an embrace of (non-alternative) metal music (and because of the fact they have no Active Rock formatted competition in their market).

 

[XCountry285]

Krock should lean towards altenative and play some FALL OUT BOY!!!!Or something like that with like artists like:
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Snow Patrol
Sick Puppies
30 Seconds To Mars
Dashboard Confessional
Daughtry
Panic! At The Disco
The Academy Is
Hinder
Incubus
Jack Johnson
The Killers
Nickelback
etc.
Basically just add any artists signed by Fueled By Ramen

 

[stench]

Does anyone really think that normal listeners differentiate rock music into all of the wonderful "radio" sub-categories? Rock is an attitude not a format. No wonder radio sucks.

 

[MoldaMania182]

Krock needs to lean a more alternative than they are if they want to get anywhere.

 

[henry]

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Snow Patrol
Daughtry
Dashboard Confessional
Panic! At The Disco
Hinder
The Killers
Nickelback

It seems like PLJ is playing a lot of that already.

 

[SoulCrusher]

And why did K-Rock perform so poorly in the ratings? That's simple - because it stunk to high heaven. It tried to be all things to all people, and in the end was nothing to nobody. Led Zeppelin into Limp Bizkit into The Killers into Eminem - lets just play everything that's popular, throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. Before that, they made they mistake of making frat boys their core audience, which limited both their ratings and their potential ad revenue. That's right - they played up too much to Johnny Guido and Janie Guidette, and alienated everyone else. Advertisers knew that the target audience was too busy blowing all their money on Drakkar to buy anything from them, so there you go. And just when it seemed like they were close to getting the balance right, they pulled the plug and became "Great Rock Period". Whoever came up with the idea to get into a steel cage match with Q 104.3 must not have had their head on straight - wonder if it was the same genius that thought Free FM would work?

CBS wants to take everyone on with all of their formats - Fresh competing with 106.7, Jack fighting with PLJ, K-Rock up against Q. And what has it gotten them besides a whole lot of egg on their face? If they had any intelligence, they would make K-Rock an Active Rocker unafraid of playing harder rock like Sevendust and Mudvayne, 101.1 would be an Alternative with little overlap between it and K-Rock, and 102.7 would have either Classic Hip Hop or Country as its format. The following is there for all these formats, as proven by a number of factors ranging from album sales, sold out concerts and dissatisfaction with modern hip-hop. Who knows - maybe CBS wants to leave the radio industry? It's like they're not even trying anymore.

 

[leethalweapon]

Why would you want to kill FRESH? It is the only thing in their FM stable that is doing any good at the moment. As for K-ROCK, I saw their list between midnight & 6am on Friday, and was burnt out looking at it and it's lack of variety. At what point do you think Nirvana every 90 minutes is too much?

 

[Brooklyndon]

With new york's history, K-Rock should only be playing alternative, new wave, and punk. And they need to distance themselves fromthe URban decay imagine and genral trashy vide that come with Okie and Ainfunny.

 

[Ozman]

If they had any intelligence, they would make K-Rock an Active Rocker unafraid of playing harder rock like Sevendust and Mudvayne, 101.1 would be an Alternative with little overlap between it and K-Rock, and 102.7 would have either Classic Hip Hop or Country as its format.

since I travel a lot in new england I will say that it seems every rock station seems to attack things diffently. Ones that have competiors of both classic rock and alternative seem to have the active rocker. you go to markets with just one of these stations, a lot of times the harder edged rock gets ignored which seems to be happening in NY.

If I had my dream, I wish k-rock would take an approach like TOS, be crap during the day except for an all request lunch to make the advertisers happy, and then in the late evening like the approach of the nine o'clock riot which would probably attract different advertisers for harder edged music at night. liners could do a number too. It seems right now I get attracted to 92.3 because of the liners like its baaaack and the rock of NY. I hope the continue to come up with good quick liners where people would wait til the end of a song sometimes to wait to hear a funny liner.

[/quote]
maybe CBS wants to leave the radio industry? It's like they're not even trying anymore.
[/quote]

Its gotta be a money thing. most people Just care about getting a paycheck right?
The loyal ones are people person ones which seems not to exist at all or that much anymore.
at least WMMR and WCCC try to take the approach of "family buisness run radio" "Independent radio"
which is a dying thing but it can work really well if you will notice with the arbitron ratings with the 2 stations

 

[Neanderpaul]

Does anyone really think that normal listeners differentiate rock music into all of the wonderful "radio" sub-categories? Rock is an attitude not a format. No wonder radio sucks.

Radio doesn't suck. Bad radio sucks. And there's a lot of it being done.

You're making my point. While I might love AC/DC and OZZY, but despise Linkin Park, the majority of the audience doesn't. And that's how it was way back when.

You would hear the Eagles and Iggy on the same station back then. Then, we subdivided to the point of silly. "Program narrow-Market wide" is a great philosophy, until you program so narrow, you corner yourself. Radio forgets to work the process of growing to replace the audience it sheds. Believe it, or not, at some stations, the audience has told programmer via research that "Crazy Train" doesn't belong on their stations anymore. They're tired of it. And yet radio continues to hammer the old warhorses. Because we've done a terrible job of setting up the music for the next generation. Hopefully K-Rock will use the familiar to set up the new, and then shed the familiar at the proper rate.

We'll see.

 

[theevilliberals]

Soulcrusher:Before that, they made they mistake of making frat boys their core audience, which limited both their ratings and their potential ad revenue. That's right - they played up too much to Johnny Guido and Janie Guidette, and alienated everyone else

When did K-rock play house music? Johnny "Guido" is usually a house music fan, not a smashing pumpkins fan. The old K-rock was Pumpkins into Bush into Nirvana back into Bush. That was the format for 8 years, than they added the main stram metal acts, Metallica, AC/DC

It is hard to say what a "frat boy" listens to anyway. I know frat kids who were huge deadheads, and toured phish concerts.

I say program anything but those cheese ball "emo' bands.

 

[Brooklyndon]

Actually Johnny Quido is probably a g-unit fan. But I digress.

After 4 days of fairly intensive K-Rock listenership, I can say I know why I stopped listening to rock radio to begin with. Hopefully this weekend has been a stunt, liek "way-back barbeque" and starting tomorrow they'll offer something other than tired grunge mixed in with [name your Nickleback tribute band]. Alas, K-Rock will never play cool music. I heard them play the Violent Femme's "One Kiss" Friday night, that was great, until they segued into an O&A spot. As long as those two cancers are on that frequency, K-Rock will sit in the same no ratings spot its been in. The only way to build an audience is through credibility, through offering their audience something new. Anyone can get "Mr. Brownestone" on Limewire, but how do I find out who whatever cool band I don't know about? Myspace music only goes so far in discovering acts. But again, I digress.

if this weekend proved anything its that, K-Rock is Sh*t.

 

[adma]

It is hard to say what a "frat boy" listens to anyway.

Illegal downloads.

Now, *overgrown* frat boys still listen to radio, i.e. the sort usually subjected to "stop it, dad, you're embarrassing me"...

 

[SoulCrusher]

Johnny Guido probably likes Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Eminem, Linkin Park - you know, all the rap-intensive stuff that was popular around 2000. K-Rock went so heavy into rap and rap-rock around that time that many listeners tuned out as a result. Before that, they started losing listeners when they went too heavy on the arena rock like Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith.

Now Johnny Guido is probably more likely to listen to G Unit, but he still throws on the pimp rock for old times sake. I see them all the time in Seaside Heights - they hang out in groups, with one of them carrying a boom box, all with mirrors in one hand and a bag with Drakkar and hair products in the other, waiting for a group of scantily clad girls to pounce on. It's been this way ever since I started going there 17 years ago. I guess some things never change.

 

[Hardrocker9]

Should be a Active Hard Rocker, Something that is a mix between the old YSP and The current, 93.5 the beach. There are alot of Activie Rock artists that could get airplay and help avoid repetition. Just a thought.

 

[SoulCrusher]

When the station is fully up and running with all its jocks and a PD/MD in place, K-Rock needs to find a direction, and they most definitely need to play at least 30-40 Currents. Whether they lean Active or Alternative remains to be seen, but they need to make an effort to differentiate themselves from the competition if they want to improve over the ratings they had 2 years ago. I'm listening now, and so many of these songs can be heard other places - Q, PLJ, even Jack. Right now they sound like they did before the Free flip, with a few safe hits from the past year thrown in - like Daughtry and Nickelback, for instance.

I sure hope this station doesn't go with a safe Rock format like WBAB in Long Island and WDHA and WRAT in NJ. They need to go either Active (playing heavier rock acts like Mudvayne, System Of A Down and Pantera, and also playing bands currently on the charts like Hellyeah, Bullet For My Valentine and Static-X) or Alternative (leaning more toward the indie end of things, and playing less of the crossover stuff that you can hear on PLJ, Jack and Fresh). Maybe they will - they've only been on for a few days, so things might change. We only have CBS and K-Rock's history of playing it very safe to go on.

 

[p_herring]

When the station is fully up and running with all its jocks and a PD/MD in place, K-Rock needs to find a direction, and they most definitely need to play at least 30-40 Currents. Whether they lean Active or Alternative remains to be seen, but they need to make an effort to differentiate themselves from the competition if they want to improve over the ratings they had 2 years ago. I'm listening now, and so many of these songs can be heard other places - Q, PLJ, even Jack. Right now they sound like they did before the Free flip, with a few safe hits from the past year thrown in - like Daughtry and Nickelback, for instance.

I sure hope this station doesn't go with a safe Rock format like WBAB in Long Island and WDHA and WRAT in NJ. They need to go either Active (playing heavier rock acts like Mudvayne, System Of A Down and Pantera, and also playing bands currently on the charts like Hellyeah, Bullet For My Valentine and Static-X) or Alternative (leaning more toward the indie end of things, and playing less of the crossover stuff that you can hear on PLJ, Jack and Fresh). Maybe they will - they've only been on for a few days, so things might change. We only have CBS and K-Rock's history of playing it very safe to go on.

Totally agree. I was listening this weekend and, although it wasn't AS bad as when they were "Great Rock. Period" it still is way too safe and predictable. The only currents I heard were:

BREAKING BENJAMIN - Breath
PAPA ROACH - Forever
THREE DAYS GRACE - Never Too Late
LINKIN PARK - What I've Done

All those songs have been on the charts for awhile. There were absolutely no NEW tunes on there. I hope they start adding in more currents and not just making it like a JACK-FM of 90's rock.

 

[mjb1124]

I sure hope this station doesn't go with a safe Rock format like WBAB in Long Island and WDHA and WRAT in NJ. They need to go either Active (playing heavier rock acts like Mudvayne, System Of A Down and Pantera, and also playing bands currently on the charts like Hellyeah, Bullet For My Valentine and Static-X) or Alternative (leaning more toward the indie end of things, and playing less of the crossover stuff that you can hear on PLJ, Jack and Fresh). Maybe they will - they've only been on for a few days, so things might change. We only have CBS and K-Rock's history of playing it very safe to go on.

Since they seem to be going for an Alternative-leaning Active Rock sound, I think that taking a similar approach to The Ace (WJSE) in Atlantic City might work. They throw in the classic rock stuff but are very progressive with new music from both Alternative and Active artists.