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Rock Radio, in Houston, is dead. But why?

R

rocknrollisdead

Now here's the million dolloar question of the day. We've all agreed that it's a dead format in the 4th largest market in the U.S., but WHY? Is it the demographics of the city? KBAR (read previous thread) is rockin' in Victoria, and we can't get a decent station in Houston? That's doesn't make any sense! Are the people who got into radio to do some great thing feed up with the red-tape that they move to the 50+ markets and given the freedom to do some great programming?

...let the games begin.
 
Big corporate research says: stay safe, narrow and serve it up to the "share holder value" god.
 
rocknrollisdead said:
Now here's the million dolloar question of the day. We've all agreed that it's a dead format in the 4th largest market in the U.S., but WHY? Is it the demographics of the city? KBAR (read previous thread) is rockin' in Victoria, and we can't get a decent station in Houston? That's doesn't make any sense! Are the people who got into radio to do some great thing feed up with the red-tape that they move to the 50+ markets and given the freedom to do some great programming?

...let the games begin.
Click to expand...


The number #1 station in 18-49 is a rock station and the #1 station in 25-54 is a rock station. Not quite sure how you equate being number #1 with being dead.

18-49: KTBZ, KLTN, KRBE, KBXX, KHMX, KODA, KMJQ, KKRW, KOVE, KLOL, KKBQ, KILT, KHPT, KHTC, KTJM.
25-54: KKRW, KTBZ, KLTN, KODA, KMJQ, KHMX, KRBE, KOVE, KHPT, KKBQ, KHTC, KBXX, KILT, KSBJ, KLOL

(Houston August PPM, source David Eduardo on radio-info.com)
 
Dont' get me wrong, the numbers speak volume. From a sellers perspective, there's no better place to be. But man, from a once-loyal rock fans perspective, from someone who got into the business because of the music, the rock stations sound dead. Yet stations outside of Houston, sound freakin' awesome! Why? A larger playlist? The PDs/Mds have more options? I guess that's my question. What is it about Houston Rock Radio that sounds [EDIT]

Is it me? I don't think so. I've got co-workers and friends who are rabid rock listeners and they're not listening to rock radio either. Am i just out of the demo? Am I out of touch with rock? ....or am i listenig to band that dont' get the promotion, don't get put on the big bills, and don't look good on posters, but will rock your [EDIT]off?

I wonder if rock radio has gone the way of beer. Rock radio = light beer. It may not taste great, but we can sell a -------load of it.


[EDIT-profanity]
 
rocknrollisdead said:
the rock stations sound dead. Yet stations outside of Houston, sound freakin' awesome! Why? A larger playlist? The PDs/Mds have more options? I guess that's my question. What is it about Houston Rock Radio that sounds [EDIT]

Is it me? I don't think so.
[EDIT-profanity]
Click to expand...

Now that you worded it that way I completely agree. Unfortunately both the Arrow and the Buzz are highly ranked so I would not expect them to expand their lifeless playlists. I definitely do not expect to hear any song on the Arrow that I haven't heard in years nor do I expect to hear anything new on the Buzz. It happens once in a while but it is not within my expectations. And without that expectation, yes, rock radio in Houston is horribly boring. They very thing -- the unexpected -- that made FM radio exciting has been completely removed from the programming.
 
Sorry Creed fans but I blame them for the demise of rock radio in Houston. Seems like KLOL was playing them every 5th or 6th song. I don't know if it was just a Houston thing or maybe all Clear Channel rock stations but maybe payola was involved(just kidding). I know they have their fans so they must have talent but the thought of being subjected to one of their songs for the million time made me switch to a.m. almost permanently.

There was a guy that used to post here and he was trying to bring rock back to Houston. He was having trouble getting a good signal but found a way to transmit through power lines. I don't know if he is still doing it but if you parked under power lines you could supposedly pick up his station. He is streaming online so you can listen on the net. The playlist is really good and I wish he could his station out to more people.

http://cat-am.com/PHP/index.php
 
It depends on what you mean by "rock radio." Like some mentioned, "rock" is alive on KTBZ (alternative rock) and on KKRW (classic rock). Now, if you're talking about "album oriented rock," what the old KLOL was, then yes, that format is basically dead. I'll explain:

Classic rock stations and AOR stations share many of the same artists -- Van Halen, Def Leppard, Boston, Eagles, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, etc. But, classic rock stations don't play newer songs from these artists. Over the past decade, interest in new music from "classic rock" bands has decreased, making way for "new rock" artists to take their place (Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, etc). So, you now have the two sides of rock on two stations -- Arrow (old) and Buzz (new, well, 90's grunge and some news).

So, what would you consider a "true" rock station? One that plays classic rock and new/alternative rock? There are some stations that do that with success, but I think the Arrow and The Buzz are too strong here in Houston for someone to try that now. If you're looking for a station that focuses on those core 70's/80's rock artists I mentioned in the first paragraph, playing both old and new songs from them, that won't work. The interest in their new music isn't as mainstream as it used to be.

Just my opinion.
 
Don't think that rock radio is only dead in Houston. It is also lame here in Memphis. I've lived in both cities. They took our Buzz away and made it snap 94.1. It really sucks. We have an alternative/new rock station here 93X. But it doesn't do that well. I personally don't like it. It is also a rimshot station so that may be part of the problem. Then we have rock 103 which used to be more aor oriented but is more of the same 200 song classic rock format now. 98.1 the max mixes some newer rock with the classics. Maximum rock for memphis they say. So you see good rock radio is hard to find now no matter what big city your in. The CC's of the world want to be safe. Too safe in my opinion. Where do they get these supposed surveys ? By the way rock 103 and 98.1 the max are hanging in the top ten here in The home of rock and roll.
 
DAYRADIO said:
Houston is the 6th largest market, not 4th.
Click to expand...

...right.

Jay, thanks for http://cat-am.com/PHP/index.php.

First song out of the box was Deftones with Passenger (Maynard on vocals).
Judas - Got Another Thing coming
Petty - Last Dance w/ MJ.
George Torres - No clue who GT is, but it sounds great. I'm just glad I've never heard it before.
Black Sabbath - The Wizzard! Awesome! A great b-cut!
 
Rock radio is not dead, RADIO IS DEAD. I started doing this a few months ago, take a station/musical format that you don't listen to and give it a week or so and see what you think. The first station I chose was Mega 101. Guess what? THEY HAD A CRAPPY NARROW PLAYLIST and I don't even speak or understand spanish! Every day, it was the crap over and over, pitbull and daddy yankee, pitbull and daddy yankee blah blah blah. My second experiment was a local hip-hop/rap whatever the kids call it these days music station 97.9 I think it is the box or the beat or somesuch. note: I am the whitest of the white, no rythm having, no dancing a$$ you could think of. Guess what? Yup the same old same old over and over, same songs to the point that you could almost set your watch to it. My next experiment will be a local country...no wait, I can't bring myself to listen, I HATE COUNTRY THAT MUCH. I am sure it is programmed like all the other crap. As a previous poster said, play it safe, play it NARROW..
 
Fred is the first person to note this so far. If Hurban is such a hot format, why is Mega already changing? The heads of Clear Channel look like geniuses now for blowing up KLOL and KEGL when the rock format appears hot in PPM.

Rock is still alive, but just very fragmented. Take out the corporate control and consultants and maybe there could be a good AOR station in Houston again. Based on ratings, The Buzz and Arrow seem to be doing well so rock can't be totally dead. Both do better than Mega or whatever Omega believes it will become.

Maybe KLOL should actually become Omega 101. I like that. -Juan- and mrtexmex2007 would do mornings and nights because they would be so popular together. It would take this duo to salvage the wreck the once mighty 101 frequency has become in Houston. During their morning show as these two would be talking about how to make Hurban (or whatever format) work on the station, the poster that goes by Omega on this board would mysteriously lower the microphone to take over the show like a dues ex machina in a greek tragedy. Omega (the man, not the station) would offer leaks and predictions of who will be fired next and what the station's slogan could be the next week.

"Viva Omega 101" would be the bumper sticker for all of the cool kids' cars.
 
Hurban was far from Hot! I don't know who told you it was hot, it was never hot. As a Hurban station, it was not in the eyesight of many advertisers. I think that when you say "Hot", you refer to the small expansion of Hurban formats (remember, I said small). That was nothing hot.

Besides, A rock format back in 101.1 would not work, it's dead. Shure, Rock appeared hot in one PPM market. Big deal! Just because One format appears hot in another city does not mean it will work elsewhere. Take for example Hip-Hop/R&B formats. They do very well in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, but it did horrible in the RGV. IMO opinion, The Beat 96.1 sounded very good. Just one problem, it didn't fit well with listeners.

Rock is as good as...........it's just dead.
Some people need to get over Rock 101. Remeber it's business, don't blame the industry because people don't listen to Rock, it just became old and aged.
 
Rock is not dead. Listen to the background music of most TV commercials. ROCK. Crappy programming is dead and the same 50 songs is dead. Rock is far from it.
 
You are right rock is dead.

Go tell all of the rock stations in NY and LA to sign off. Make sure to tell the satellite companies to turn off their rock stations. XM alone has around 12 of them.

Also tell iTunes to take down the rock section. No one is buying from there. While you are at it, tell Rolling Stone magazine and all of the rock web sites to get off stands and web servers.

Call the Houston promoters and tell them to cancel all of the upcoming rock shows. It's a waste of our time.

Wait what's that sound? Mega 101 sinking? Oh well. Rock is dead.
 
Yeah, Rock is so alive at this point, that we still have a rock station in Houston and Dallas (well, count KZPS of you want) ;D. Clearly, we are seeing a big decline of Rock Radio. If you can't, well then, look again. iTunes has pretty much every genre of music, they even have Tejano, yet that's dead too. Satellite carries almost every genre that you can think of. It's no surprise they have a rock station. Just let KLOL go and quit blaming programers, it's not their fault they had to deal with a declining format.

I sense someone is still pretty ticked off at Clear channel for taking Rock 101 off the air and putting Mega 101 (or as some of you like to call it Mexican crap/Tejano):D.
 
I don't know, you could make a pretty good argument for radio being dead--at least on FM terrestrial. Once we get Internet radio in the dashboard, it's all OVER for the corporate ghouls who perpetuate the ultra-short list mind-numbing radio we're getting now. It will be even more fragmented, but talent and good programming will rise to the top. You notice there aren't 30 different Googles. Or UTubes. We'll have Internet winners...well, if the RIAA and others don't completely screw us. What bugs me about Houston radio is wasting a big signal like 101 on some silly foreign language crap. Back in the day, we've have TWO rockers, and TWO Top 40s battling it out. Makes everyone better when there's competition. But to waste that signal on any form of Mexican....rediculous. Even an AC to compete with Sunny would be better. Those who won't adopt to American culture should stay way up on the AM dial where they traditionally belong...with heavy reverb.
 
CaptainShowbiz said:
What bugs me about Houston radio is wasting a big signal like 101 on some silly foreign language crap. Back in the day, we've have TWO rockers, and TWO Top 40s battling it out. Makes everyone better when there's competition. But to waste that signal on any form of Mexican....rediculous. Even an AC to compete with Sunny would be better. Those who won't adopt to American culture should stay way up on the AM dial where they traditionally belong...with heavy reverb.
Click to expand...
When Harris county's Majority is Hispanic population, I think the "foreign language crap" is not crap sir. It's a money grower.

And when you speak of this "American Culture"; do you mean the same one that depends on the cheap labor of illegal immigrants? I see no argument on your opinion. If you ask me, we are now in need of more spanish stations here in Houston since the hispanic population seems to be growing an amazing rate. Pretty soon, Hispanics will be the Majority in the Houston Market.
 
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