Rock 101 WRXP back???

[atlmike]

I really miss KROCK and was excited when WRXP came about... but then when I visited back in February it seems like they flipped it to Talk radio?! Is Rock 101.9 back? I don't live in NY anymore but I noticed the website mentioned they are back... are they back on the air or just online only??

It's hard to imagine that the NYC area can't support an alternative/contemporary rock station...

 

[drchuck]

They're on 97.1 FM HD-2 and Jelli.com.

 

[XCountry285]

New York Needs Rock. I don't understand it. It works fine in Philly you have a plethora of rock stations. Here it's the same Hip Hop & Dance on literally 90% of the stations. It sucks. We have no variety here. No Rock & No Country. But if you're into hip hop & dance nyc has got tons of it, so much that half the stations play the same song on them almost all the time. I understand it is a business, but don't compete against yourself ex. CC: 103.5 & Z100. 103.5 needs to go Rhythmic CHR and not Pop to protect Z. or 103.5 needs to go dance or country again or Alternative. 101.9 we don't need talk radio it's not working-on top of that they don't even talk about anything relevantly important like politics, sports, or local news. It's a waste of space. 94.7 better go country or rock. I can barely get DHA where I am.

 

[RadioPhillyFan]

New York Needs Rock. I don't understand it. It works fine in Philly you have a plethora of rock stations.

Philly is a young city with six or seven universities to support that kind of music, though. Most of New York is older and people who just moved, to make it in the big city, also immigrants, people who have lived there. Sure, that's Philly too but not to the extent of NYC, people will move to Philly for it's size and fame, but more often NYC then any.

Also, maybe the formats of Alternative tried were poorly done?

 

[nd2023]

New York Needs Rock. I don't understand it. It works fine in Philly you have a plethora of rock stations. Here it's the same Hip Hop & Dance on literally 90% of the stations. It sucks. We have no variety here. No Rock & No Country. But if you're into hip hop & dance nyc has got tons of it, so much that half the stations play the same song on them almost all the time. I understand it is a business, but don't compete against yourself ex. CC: 103.5 & Z100. 103.5 needs to go Rhythmic CHR and not Pop to protect Z. or 103.5 needs to go dance or country again or Alternative. 101.9 we don't need talk radio it's not working-on top of that they don't even talk about anything relevantly important like politics, sports, or local news. It's a waste of space. 94.7 better go country or rock. I can barely get DHA where I am.

Correction: NYC doesn't have a dance station

 

[erwin33]

They're on 97.1 FM HD-2 and Jelli.com.

97.1 HD2 and jelli.com have different playlists?

 

[secondchoice]

According to Arbitron NYC demo's are not Rock or Country friendly:

New York, NY
Population: 15,573,500

PPM: Mon-Sun 6am-Midnight | 17.4% Black | 20.8% Hispanic

I am going to try to be PC:

Either Rock and Country is not the music of choice for a very large percentage of minorities. NYC's two largest minorities make up 39.2% of the market. I am not sure of the demos for 94.7 signal. It is not a full market signal. But an Empire State Building FM playing Rock or Country is almost 40% "behind" from the start.

Considering the amount of steel and concrete sticking up in the air literally 100's of feet, and the increasing terrain height from NYC, it is surprising that any Class B FM covers all of the clock radios in the market.

 

[drchuck]

They're on 97.1 FM HD-2 and Jelli.com.

97.1 HD2 and jelli.com have different playlists?

Yes, they are different. I'm not sure of the logic behind this. 97.1 HD2 is not streamed over the internet, so I guess Jelli.com is their substitute for streaming.

 

[BobSmolarek]

I thought this was an April fool's post. Face it, New York is not a rock town, and the demographics are not going to get better, they will get worse (for rock) as time goes on. I disagree about changing WKTU, are you kidding? The ratings are great, leave it alone, it is a cume monster. I agree, I don't understand why they are trying news on 101.9, it seems like a ratings loser, advertising hasn't helped. The only thing I can think of is it will be a slow build, might take 10 years.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

>> 'The only thing I can think of is it will be a slow build, might take 10 years.' <<

That in itself could be the priest giving Last Rites, Father Bob. You're doubtless right. And time is something neither rock nor talk FM have at this point.

I lived in both NYC and Philadelphia. They may be 90 miles next to each other, but the two loud FM-signal core demos may as well be as disparate as those of Belfast and Rangoon. The Rock and the Country demo harvests are going to be found only in the suburbs. (And NYC has just as many, if not more, colleges, than Philly has. So that campus argument isn't valid).

And now, supposedly, Philly is going to get Merlin pixie dust sprinkled over it. Like this venture is supposed to be 3-out-of-5? What's next? Trying Los Angeles and raising the stakes to 4-out-of-7 with this non-music FM rubbish?

The times I heard WRXP I enjoyed it, even if it did sound like a glorified college station. But maybe what the terrestrial industry needs right now is younger people programming the content, not being pedophiled by programmers who are past their prime.

 

[Barry]

In many other cities, formats that are not quite profitable enough to be broadcast on the primary stations but still generate considerable interest, are being broadcast on translators fed by HD2/3 signals. But in this area, the spectrum is so crowded that it has been difficult or impossible to offer this method of transmission. So we may be falling behind a number of other markets, in offering a variety of music on the air.

 

[The Spy]

I thought this was an April fool's post. Face it, New York is not a rock town, and the demographics are not going to get better, they will get worse (for rock) as time goes on. I disagree about changing WKTU, are you kidding? The ratings are great, leave it alone, it is a cume monster. I agree, I don't understand why they are trying news on 101.9, it seems like a ratings loser, advertising hasn't helped. The only thing I can think of is it will be a slow build, might take 10 years.

At the rate they're going might be 50 years.
I think it is clear NO ONE is every going to listen to this crap.

 

[DToTheJ]

... and if they do, they'll do it on an outlet that fewer people use - HD Radio.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

According to Arbitron NYC demo's are not Rock or Country friendly:

New York, NY
Population: 15,573,500

PPM: Mon-Sun 6am-Midnight | 17.4% Black | 20.8% Hispanic

I am going to try to be PC:

Either Rock and Country is not the music of choice for a very large percentage of minorities. NYC's two largest minorities make up 39.2% of the market.

For comparison, here are some other major markets with high minority populations.

February '12 ARBITRON Monthly PPM 6+

WASHINGTON DC (Population: 4,479,400)
Black: 1,190,900 (27%) Hispanic: 632,300 (14%) [Total Minority: 41%]
#9 - WMZQ - Country - 3.8
#12 - WWDC - Alternative - 3.6

CHICAGO (Population: 7,762,900)
Black: 1,320,300 (17%) Hispanic: 1,528,100 (20%) [Total Minority: 37%]
#9 - WUSN - County - 4.0
#11 - WXRT - AAA - 3.8

BALTIMORE (Population: 2,308,900)
Black: 660,300 (29%) Hispanic: 108,400 (5%) [Total Minority 34%]
#4 - WPOC - Country - 6.6
#6 - WIYY - Active Rock - 4.8

DETROIT Population: 3,738,100
Black: 818,100 (22%) Hispanic: 137,500 (4%) [Total Minority: 26%]
#1 - WYCD - Country - 7.2
#11 - WRIF - Active Rock - 3.9 (but WRIF usually ranks higher in the 4's)
#14 - CIMX - Alternative - 3.4 (strong enough considering its Canadian content music mandate)

Even Miami, with 71% minority, supports a Country station with a respectable ranking given the demographics of the market:

MIAMI-FT LAUDERDALE-HOLLYWOOD FL (Population: 3,615,500)
Black: 725,800 (20%) Hispanic: 1,830,400 (51%) [Total Minority: 71%]
#15 - WKIS - Country - 3.1

To put it another way, the New York market, with a population of over 15 million:
- has 60% NON-Black/Hispanic minorities being served by zero Country or current Rock/Alternative full market commercial FM stations.
- has 40% Black/Hispanic minorities being served by 6 full-market Black and Spanish focused commercial FM music stations, and another 3 CHR stations that also serve much of that same audience with pop & rhythmic hits.

 

[ansky212]

Interesting analysis, above, by Theater.

Even with those large minority populations, I'd be willing to bet the majority of the people listening to the country/rock stations are suburban listeners. And I don't know what the reason is, but the New York market seems to be unique in that the stations try to cater more to people living in the city, and don't care much about picking up listeners in the suburbs. The suburban portion of the NY market is massive, consisting of half of NJ, most of LI, the Hudson Valley, and southern CT. There are more people in the NY suburbs than the entire population of most other radio markets.

 

[RadioPhillyFan]

Interesting analysis, above, by Theater.

Even with those large minority populations, I'd be willing to bet the majority of the people listening to the country/rock stations are suburban listeners. And I don't know what the reason is, but the New York market seems to be unique in that the stations try to cater more to people living in the city, and don't care much about picking up listeners in the suburbs. The suburban portion of the NY market is massive, consisting of half of NJ, most of LI, the Hudson Valley, and southern CT. There are more people in the NY suburbs than the entire population of most other radio markets.

For Philly, our urban population is 1,600,000 rounded - that's obviously all included in our market. Our Metro is about 6,300,000 [csa] (arbitron cuts three counties into another market, but not my point at all)

Now New York, you have 8,100,000 urban and 15,00,000 market - that's more then half the market being in urban area.

This is why rock does well in Philly, more of a suburban market. New York CSA is highly urban.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Adding Philly to the analysis:

PHILADELPHIA (Population: 4,480,600)
Black: 915,200 (20%) Hispanic: 338,300 (8%) [Total Minority 28%]
#5 - WMMR - Active Rock - 5.6
#6 - WRFF - Alternative - 4.8
#8 - WXTU - Country - 4.3

While those formats probably do better in the suburbs, I don't think it's fair to say imply are zero in the urban cores either.

There are many transplanted Americans who have moved to New York to work in the skyscrapers of Manhattan. A lot of them grew up on country and rock in their hometowns. They're in the city to work every weekday, they shop and play in the city after work, they're well educated and they have money to spend. They live in the market even if it's in the suburbs, but I think you'd also find plenty of them living in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

 

[RadioPhillyFan]

There are many transplanted Americans who have moved to New York to work in the skyscrapers of Manhattan. A lot of them grew up on country and rock in their hometowns. They're in the city to work every weekday, they shop and play in the city after work, they're well educated and they have money to spend. They live in the market even if it's in the suburbs, but I think you'd also find plenty of them living in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Makes more sense then my analysis.

 

[JustinCase]

New York is unlike any other American city, it's a product of the world, influenced by all over... nationalities of it's residents are a cross section of the world's nations; and the term minority isn't limited to Black and Hispanic.

New York will see a full dance station before a country one - just because country is, well country - and that's not NYC! Even country artists who are relatively successful in the market draw from outside the City or are of the pop-crossover variety. A lot of country purists don't like all the mainstream rock and pop influence in country music now.

 

[HHH]

New York HAS a triple-A.

WFUV, right?