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Mixing country with classic rock.. What's your opinion

R

RFLA

With a major market signal; KZPS 92.5 in Dallas, flipping format from Classic rock to a format that promises to mix equal parts of classic rock with country and Alternative (texas/red dirt) country, I was wondering what's the general consensus?

It was tried in New Orleans with the station basically reformatting hot country in one year to keep ratings (even though there are stations from 80 miles away that are getting almost half the ratings (they are below 1s) that this in-town station was getting.

It's a good sound if done right, but how long until the novelty wears off?

RFLA
 
RFLA said:
With a major market signal; KZPS 92.5 in Dallas, flipping format from Classic rock to a format that promises to mix equal parts of classic rock with country and Alternative (texas/red dirt) country, I was wondering what's the general consensus?

It was tried in New Orleans with the station basically reformatting hot country in one year to keep ratings (even though there are stations from 80 miles away that are getting almost half the ratings (they are below 1s) that this in-town station was getting.

It's a good sound if done right, but how long until the novelty wears off?

RFLA
Click to expand...


rockin country was in no way anything like kzps. i have been lisnting for a few days now. kzps hardly plays any mainstream country. mostly stuff like robert earl keen, crooss canadian ragweed and kevin fowler. its basically like outlaw country sirius 63 on an fm stick. and yes i like it! ;D
 
This discussion his the Dallas board, and the great MacOConnor gave us this rundown...


Here’s a rundown of the 76 artists played on Day 1 of Lonestar 92.5, listed according to plays per artist (as detected by an online automatic logging site that may have missed a few songs):

The top 14 artists had 147 spins. The remainder accounted for 127 plays.

Classic Rock/Southern Rock Artists (45)
19: ZZ Top
14: Lynyrd Skynyrd
12: Bob Seger
10: Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughan
9: Allman Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty
8: John Mellencamp
7: Bad Company
6: Bruce Springsteen
5: Charlie Daniels Band, Eagles, Rolling Stones, George Thorogood
4: 38. Special, Grateful Dead, Little Feat, Steve Miller Band
3: Eric Clapton, Marshall-Tucker Band, Molly Hatchet
2: Greg Allman, Arc Angels, Blackfoot, Steve Earle, James Gang, Jonny Lang, Outlaws, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Joe Walsh, Neil Young
1: The Band, Jackson Browne, Derek & The Dominoes, Doobie Brothers, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Georgia Satellites, Janis Joplin, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Ram Jam, Chris Rea, Rossington-Collins Band, Wet Willie

Country Artists (21)
9: Hank Williams Jr.
7: Waylon Jennings
6: Pat Green
4: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson
3: Drive-By Truckers, Jack Ingram, Travis Tritt
2: David Alan Coe, Reckless Kelly, George Strait, Dwight Yoakum
1: Jason Borland, Brian Burns, Confederate Radio, Bleu Edmonson, David Frizzell, James McMurtry, Sam Roberts, Billy Joe Shaver, Jerry Jeff Walker

Roots Rock Artists (10)
4: Wilco
2: Jayhawks, Lyle Lovett, Old 97’s, Todd Snider, Son Volt
1: Ryan Adams, Robert Earl Keen, Tiesto, Whiskeytown


As you can see, its anything but mainstream country. Old-time, or Red Dirt, describes it best. I'm young, so I'm a bigger fan of The Wolf and KSCS, stations that my dad call "pop country". He likes the new LONESTAR a lot better than I do.

But is mixing the two genre's a good idea. In my oppinion, no. Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, and Pat Green SHOULD NOT be played on the same station as ZZ Top. They belong with Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and George Strait.
 
But the biggest question I think I had more was, can it survive non-HD radio on such a stick? Espcially in towns other than say Texas?

Texas I find, is like Louisiana sometimes, in the fact that radio is sometimes done different for ratings and it wins..

But big question at the end of the book, Will it perform?
 
But is mixing the two genre's a good idea. In my oppinion, no. Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, and Pat Green SHOULD NOT be played on the same station as ZZ Top. They belong with Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and George Strait.
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hank jr, waylon and zz top are all southern rock. i am 39. i grew up on skynyrd,zz top, 38 special, hank jr, charlie daniels and even alabama. so yes they sould be mixed. skynyrd fans like hank jr and hank jr fans like zz top and zz top fans like waylon jennings. the people that dont understand that are people that only see genres in music. that line shoulnt be drawn sometimes. as ai said before outlaw country sirius 63 also plays hank jr, hank sr, hank III and zztop...and i am not alone. my neighbor also thinks the same way. actually all 3 of my neighbors like stevie ray vaughn and waylon jennings. we had a neighborhood shin-dig tonight and we were blaring zz top and waylon ;D

and tim mcgraw is not country!!
 
I think that the Classic Rock/Country hybrid might work particularly in the south, mid-west and Rocky Mountain states, particularly in smaller town and rural areas. Close to home, I don't think Washington or Baltimore would be good places to try this, but it might work in western Maryland, Maryland's western shore, or virtually any where along the middle to lower Del-Mar-Va peninsula, particularly if a station has a good signal. Rural Virginia and West Virginia might also be good places.

Artists worth considering for the format should include: Steve Earle, Buffalo Springfield, Cream in addition to those mentioned earlier.
 
Is Clear Channel still blacklisting the Dixie Chicks from all their stations? They'd be right at home on a rock/country mixer like Lone Star 92.5.
 
Went to a Martina McBride concert last night and her warm-up band was "Little Big Town"... they played some Fleetwood Mac songs...good grief! One of the lead singers had on a John Lennon T-shirt. I think they're really a rock band that sings lyrics with a country theme. There really isn't much of a place for rock bands these days, so they're doing county! I didn't like it. To me country should have more of an accoustical sound...not heavy metal!
 
MaskMan said:
Went to a Martina McBride concert last night and her warm-up band was "Little Big Town"... they played some Fleetwood Mac songs...good grief! One of the lead singers had on a John Lennon T-shirt. I think they're really a rock band that sings lyrics with a country theme. There really isn't much of a place for rock bands these days, so they're doing county! I didn't like it. To me country should have more of an accoustical sound...not heavy metal!
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what is accoustical?? is that some new type of music or do you mean accoustic? ;D and since when was fleetwood mac heavy metal? or john lennon? perhaps you are rather old ;D
 
Martina McBride.. one who is definitely pop country if you ever heard it .. or should I say the real voice of adult contemntry.... Sorry, I don't like being bomb blasted by Cause of the month songs like you do on a/c radio and country like she does...

The thing about country now is , the people coming out of Nashville are playing their influences and hince the wide gaps such as country rock, traditional, and the pop country that people rally against now..

Hince the post of the mixing country with classic rock.... A lot of the alt-country, texas-red dirt scene and modern country can be said to be heavily influenced by these 1970s classic rockers.. However I find country listeners are now starting to fragment like rock did in the 1970s and 1980s.... But I don't think the country has progressed enough that it can fit seemless with classic rock like ac/dc..... maybe mellencamp, Don henley, the eagles, or Bob Seger but not say KISS.

RFLA
 
I remember something that happened back in 1994. A country station was planning to make a change. It was believed that they would do "Rockin'" because that's what was done somewhere else. The first song I heard after the change was George Thorogood's "Move It On Over". That would have been great. Except the station ended up being alternative rock. How is George Thorogood alternative?
 
I've been listening to Lonestar most of the day, and I don't hear it.

A lot of its too old for me, and I'm 49 years old. That can't be good.

And I would prefer more Country in the mix.
 
klutch00 said:
I think that the Classic Rock/Country hybrid might work particularly in the south, mid-west and Rocky Mountain states, particularly in smaller town and rural areas.
Click to expand...

This is a format that we (mandatoryfm.com) have been doing prior to Lonestar 92.5 making their change and it works here. But, yes, we are in a more rural area in Texas and our feedback has been extremely positive. While we too incorporate what I will loosely call "classic rock" into our mix, we still choose songs/bands that "fit the sound" and if they're too hard or too new - then they aren't played. Songs in that category only make up about 10-15% of what you'll hear an hour. We have our "Texas Country" artists, our "Americana" artists, the "Classic Country" guys like Willie and Waylon, CDB, Johnny Cash, some blues and then just stuff you've never heard. We record all of our in-studio interviews and include those acoustic songs into our playlists as well. We really try to balance it all and it always needs fine-tuning of course.

I listened to Lonestar just 2 weekends ago when I was visiting family and for the D/FW market to have that kind of station there, I think it's great. For the 2 solid hours I listened, I heard more like 65-70% classic rock-ish stuff with the rest being Texas Country/alt-country/americana...and if I lived up there, I'd want to hear more of the "country-ish" stuff too, but that's where stations like KHYI can pick up - although I hear many complaining of their music these days.
 
Since we've been discussing the format and we provided sample playlists of Lonestar, I was wondering if you could say publish on here a hour or two or so of playlist to get a better idea of yours?

Before deregulation, I found country stations willing to chance it more, playing say John Cougar Mellencamp along with the country of the day (Early 1990s).. Now you have small town stations outside of Texas in neighboring states willing to play the Texas music and thats about it (Most Texas country music radio unfortuneately is basically limited to Texas in finding it as say a fan) . I know where I am in South Louisiana, its weird in that they will advertise the Texas artists but wont play them.... go figure

RFLA
 
My apologies for not posting sooner. I'd be happy to post from our play list. Here's our 11am to 1pm log for today, Friday July 27.

Love is Crazy Roger Creager
Let It All Go Johnny Cooper
Beautiful Mistake Guy Forsyth
Modern Day Bojangles Django Walker
Light Up A Candle Kasey Chambers
Rockabilly Bride Jeffrey Halford
Never Gonna Be Your Bride Carrie Rodriguez
I live the life I love Delbert McClinton
16 Days (Live) Wade Bowen
Denver Nights Austin Collins
If I Was A Candle Eleven Hundred Springs
Slow Down Keb' Mo'
Musta Notta Gotta Lotta Joe Ely
Better Than This Jeff Finlin
The Mountain Lucero
Wrapped For Me Rodger Wilko
Country Morning Music Keith Sykes
Ramblin' Roadsong Jed & Kelley
Wallet Terri Hendrix
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is McKay Brothers
Rock Of Your Love John Hiatt
Should've Broke Your Heart Ryan James
Lubbock Or Leave It Dixie Chicks
Wide Open Spaces Ed Burleson
The Search Son Volt
Magnolia Wind Guy Clark
Gloria Van Morrison
Roll And I Tumble Ray Wylie Hubbard
It Came From San Antonio Bruce Robison
Dry Creek Owen Temple
Worth Dyin' For Gurf Morlix
 
How 'bout
Tommy Conwell I'm Not Your Man
Joe Satriani
Mountain
Marshall Crenshaw
Lee Majors(!) Theme from the Fall Guy(Unknown Stuntman)
Waylon Jennings Theme from the Dukes of Hazzard
The Highwaymen
Johnny Lee Lookin' For Love
Anne Murray(Could I Have This Dance) dayparted to overnights only!)
Ronnie Milsap No Gettin' Over Me... & many more ;) ;)
 
We had a station that had the country/classic rock mix and it did pretty well for itself. They would even blend in some of the local talent's music into the playlist regularly. It was a mom & pop locally owned station that had a good following throughout the community, but alas, the owner decided to retire and sold the station to a hispanic christian radio company. Their playlists included texas, mainstream, and pop country, as well as classic/lite rock, and classic country. Local talent was good and weren't tied to liner cards, everything was pretty much improvised. Sure miss it :-\

Poops
 
Isnt the new Eagles tune charting on country music? Funny how times have changed, when the Eagles fit better with us than in Rock.
 
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