Lazlo was part of Kaplan's 2020 plan to regionalize talent at other stations. His Church of Lazlo was heard in Dallas and Las Vegas. But it didn't do well when it expanded. John Allers in Dallas dropped him last fall. So he's back in KC.
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KROQ, again
- Thread starter AceBiscuits
- Start date
Lazlo was part of Kaplan's 2020 plan to regionalize talent at other stations. His Church of Lazlo was heard in Dallas and Las Vegas. But it didn't do well when it expanded. John Allers in Dallas dropped him last fall. So he's back in KC.
Yes, the show didn’t catch on in those
markets. I was referring to his programming accumen with KRBZ.
markets. I was referring to his programming accumen with KRBZ.
Well, from looking at a 2 hour period of the KROQ playlist from 9:30 to 11:30am, there were 3 songs that are definitely considered Active Rock. Two of the three, am pretty sure are artists newly added ( but correct me if I'm wrong). They are: Papa Roach "Last Resort", Metallica "Enter Sandman", and System of a Down "Aerials", which they've already been playing. The Alternative titles are mostly rock, except they just couldn't resist playing Glass Animals.
These are three titles KROQ has been playing since the '90s/early '00s, minus the Kaplan era.
That's what I was wondering, if they were played back then, and were now being added back. Thanks for clearing that up.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Checking BDS:
Papa Roach song first played on KROQ 2/2/00 and has gotten at least one spin per week since, except for the two years between November 2013 and December 2015, when it got a total of eight airings cumulative.
Metallica title debuted 5/22/98, at least one play per week most weeks, no "low spin" gaps.
System of a Down has had consistent airplay as well, except only 17 airings in all of 2015, 12 in all of 2016 and 14 in 2018, first spin 11/5/01.
Showing how anti-Kaplan listeners' perception of his "era" at KROQ is distorted by their personal feelings about him and his programming style.
I would agree that Kaplan gets too much of the blame for the death by a thousand cuts KROQ experienced over the years, leading to this point. The music hasn't been on point for years, but that lack of an exciting playlist was at least masked by a powerhouse morning show. Then that declined, starting with the firing of Ralph Garman. Eventually Loveline collapsed. They let go of Rodney Bingeheimer, who had already been relegated to midnight on Sundays but at least still kept alive the original soul of the station and was its connection to its origins. Other signature jocks who definied KROQ, like Jed the Fish and Sluggo, also disappeared. And then the last straw was the end of Kevin and Bean. At that point, there was nothing left distinguishing KROQ as the countercultural, dangerous, wholly original station it once was. All that was left was the music -- and Kevin Weatherly had allowed it to grow stagnant years ago.
I'm curious as to why on Friday, they stated on air that were not played during the Kaplan era.
I think it's fair to say that artists like Papa Roach, Metallica and System of a Down were not championed by KROQ during the Kaplan era, because the focus was to lower the audience age by playing alternative pop/hip-hop/indie rock artists. The station still played those artists, but in lower doses, while increasing the plays of Machine Gun Kelly, 24kGoldn, et al.
The other thing is that the station never stopped referring to itself as "K-ROCK." They kept calling themselves "K-ROCK" on the air, but would often swap that out with K-R-O-Q, which the station has done through its entire history, it just happened at an escalated clip.
All said and done, I think Kaplan gets too much disrespect from this board and the industry. He is just trying to do his job, with the resources that he had, based on what data, research and advertisers were telling him.
I bolded the line above because at the end of the day, you can only do what your budget allows you to do in any business. When ratings go down, revenues often follow. When revenues go down, you don't have the same budget you had a few years ago and it gets harder to pay above market rates for the best talent that command them.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Simple answer: The audience will accept the perception created by those statements, even if the facts are different, because unless they heard a recent play and know the statement is false they'll attribute it to faulty memories.
More complicated answer: You and radiojomo obviously have listened a lot to KROQ over the years. Why did you accept their statements as fact? Rhetorical question, same logic.
Really simple answer: Because they can (and did) get away with it.
Mandela effect
Yes, that does make sense. The 5pm Friday announcement was obviously to create excitement about KROQ again, and how the music will rock again. From a station promo view, it sounds better than to be truthful and say, "We know you would only hear so-and-so artist every once in awhile, but now you'll be hearing them a lot more often". Obviously not as exciting a statement.
KYSR's morning show did a better job of connecting with a younger, tech-savvy, more diverse audience. KYSR's shift to play more alternative-leaning pop and indie rock music helped the station win audiences that are traditionally not listening to alternative music, including women and Latinos.
As a result, KYSR became the "counterculture" station because it was the anti-KROQ. KROQ became the dinosaur because it was too slow to change.
KROQ's biggest misstep over the past few years was not finding a suitable replacement for Kevin & Bean. But that process should have been done before Woody was even in market.
But honestly, there are no winners or losers in this battle. KYSR's listening is also down in 2022 and both stations are now plagued with listeners that are becoming increasingly hard to attract with programming that is catered to a wide audience.
K.M., please follow the etiquette of this board and do not mention other usernames unless you are quoting their previous statements. Thank you.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
My apologies. I was just trying to make the example clearer and I saw no harm in acknowledging that you obviously have listened a lot.
They might have not been played on the KROQ "proper." They were fed Alt 923's playlist at night, where the spins probably came from. I don't remember them playing Papa Roach or much of any active-sounding rock except maybe Linkin Park since about 2020.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Sorry to burst your bubble, but when I checked BDS it also gave me spins by daypart. I looked for any patterns like nights/overnights only. That wasn't the case.
Makes it weird they'd say that then.
It was a way of playing to their base by telling a little lie, just as politicians do. Makes the jocks look good, makes what's happening at the station sound edgy -- more like a revolution by the long-suffering, powerless grunts based on their God-given right to kick-ass rock music than what it really was: a move by upper management to boost ratings and billing.
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