I'll have to check their playlist but I haven't heard any pop songs on KVEG recently. I agree that hip hop is past it's peak (and I have been following it since I first heard Sugarhill Gang-Rappers Delight on the old KVOV AM 1280 in early 1980). It seems to me it jumped the shark earlier this decade when there was talk about how mainstream hip hop had become..the"hip hop lifestyle" etc. Hip Hop peaked around the time of 50 Cent-In Da Club and it's slowly gone down since. Many would say the music isn't nearly as good as it was 10 or 20 years ago. Don't get me wrong it's still huge and one of the more popular genres of music in the U.S...just in a slow but steady decline.
So if KVEG is still beating KLUC in PPM it's all the more impressive because KLUC is playing the dance-pop type music that is very hot right now. KLUC has their pulse on it. Of course having NOW FM as part of the radio landscape fragments some of KLUCs audience and this works to the advantage of HOT. This is why I think KVEG is better off not playing too many pop songs, Lady Gaga is fine but Miley is probably pushing it too far.
So if KVEG is still beating KLUC in PPM it's all the more impressive because KLUC is playing the dance-pop type music that is very hot right now. KLUC has their pulse on it. Of course having NOW FM as part of the radio landscape fragments some of KLUCs audience and this works to the advantage of HOT. This is why I think KVEG is better off not playing too many pop songs, Lady Gaga is fine but Miley is probably pushing it too far.