The Future of Rock 100.5 - Predictions

[acheron1982]

I wanted to create this topic to explore what we, on the board, believe Rock 100.5 will do in the future. I think we all agree it will remain in the rock arena but what direction:

1- Continue with it's mainstream rock playing mostly 90s and early 2k with a few new cuts and a few classic cuts from the 70s and 80s. "1" will be essentially no change.

2- Alternative. This would include cuts 99x and Dave would play.

3- Active Rock. Move the bone over to 100.5. Face it, active rock does better than alternative in most southern markets (not my personal taste but going by what I see in ratings).


Personal Opinion: What I would personally like to see is an active/alternative rock hybrid that takes care of both niches well. This would satisfy the Five Finger Death Punch, Slipknot folks and MUSE, Silversun Pickups folks but it would be difficult to pull off to play Slipknot followed by Florence and the Machines even though other stations like 105.7 The Point in St. Louis have actually pulled it off well. This is my personal opinion but I want to know which of the 3 choices above do you guys (and gals) think is more likely to happen.

Personally I think its going to be "2" considering they are waiting for Dave to go to hell but you can't ignore the fact active rock does better in southern cities. Of course, I think alternative and AAA turn better $$numbers$$ because of the income of the average listener vs active rock.

 

[Wildstyle K]

Could Rock and Alternative go together like Hip Hop and R&B?

Could rock stations be programmed like urbans, playing rock songs with some alternative thrown in (the same way urban stations play r&b with hip hop)?

 

[acheron1982]

If done correctly, they could. Active rock stations already mix in some alternative artist from time to time but there are very few radio stations that play from both charts. A station that plays alternative typically stays away from the harder active rock stuff and active rock stays away from the more indie European sounds of alternative. For example, M83's Reunion is ONLY going to be played on an alternative station and SIX AM is ONLY going to be played on active rock station but there are a handful (I mean like two that I know of) that play both formats together.

Could Rock and Alternative go together like Hip Hop and R&B?

Could rock stations be programmed like urbans, playing rock songs with some alternative thrown in (the same way urban stations play r&b with hip hop)?

 

[acheron1982]

Here is two examples of stations that play from both charts. Note that both stations are not owned by Cumulus or CC.

Rock 95 our of Augusta: Leans active but plays Silversun Pickups, MUSE but stays away from the softer AAA style alternative. http://www.quuit.com/Quu/playlist/69

105.7 The Poing out of St. Louis: Leans alternative but plays Korn, CAVO, and Five Finger. Again, they stay away from the softer AAA style of alternative music. http://www.kpnt.com/Music/Broadcast-History.aspx

 

[jabba17]

Here is my completely unfair and unbalanced take on this:

I think number 1, since River has its limits when it comes to playing the harder stuff from the 70s and 80s, stuff that is very simpatico with active rock, and would cause a lot of Atari-not-Nintendo older GenXers like myself to go back to their iPods or satellite or IHeartTuneIn (or put up with River) should it disappear from the air.

Going straight active rock would put 100.5 in the same hole that Project found themselves in, and cause them to lose significant listeners.

That's not to say that 100.5 couldn't stand to tidy up their playlist, and leave the 1970s arena rock to River.

But, then again, when have marketeers ever given a flying fig about GenXers? Obsessing over boomers (well, maybe not anymore since they have aged out of the money demos) and Millennials is more fun for them.

I think there will remain a hole for alt for now, and someone will fill it eventually. Just not 100.5 unless Cumulus moves Rock to another frequency first.

 

[upstate29651]

But, then again, when have marketeers ever given a flying fig about GenXers?

Gen X is now moving into their highest earning potential years. What is the sound of Gen X? 90's alternative/Grunge.

Do radio salespeople get this? Are they educating their customers? I doubt it.

G

 

[acheron1982]

Gen X sound might be 90's alternative/grunge and would not doubt that would be part of an alternative format but there at the beginning, when 99x first came back on the airwaves, they were hitting the 90s hard and lots of people complained so they skewed a little newer. As a Gen X myself, I like the 90s grunge and stuff but I can only handle so much "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana.

But, then again, when have marketeers ever given a flying fig about GenXers?

Gen X is now moving into their highest earning potential years. What is the sound of Gen X? 90's alternative/Grunge.

Do radio salespeople get this? Are they educating their customers? I doubt it.

G

 

[atlantaboy]

I think there will remain a hole for alt for now, and someone will fill it eventually. Just not 100.5 unless Cumulus moves Rock to another frequency first.

This has gotta be a political situation - everyone was so bent on Dave flipping formats, and their ratings were twice as high as Rock 100.5 - yet most people seem to want to see Rock simply "tweak" its format

 

[agentUrge]

If they're still on the political bandwagon (I just don't listen to them anymore) then I still think that TRG probably won't gel very well with the 99x audience...so, if they intend to keep TRG on 100.5, I imagine it won't change much unless they try find a gap between the river and the bone. There's a some joke in there, somewhere....

I think there will remain a hole for alt for now, and someone will fill it eventually. Just not 100.5 unless Cumulus moves Rock to another frequency first.

recent exchange with the 99x twitter feed resulting in "We're not done yet... #iam99x"

First inclination was that it meant that they were waiting for Dave to make it's flip...what happens after that is anyone's guess. I'm a "half-full" guy...so my thoughts are that it means they will be back on the air on another translator. My dark side says they go back to web broadcast...."we be global".

 

[acheron1982]

To my understanding, 99x will likely go online again. A similar tweet was sent out by one of the DJ's from the old 99x saying that something was coming (in the dot com form) so that tells me they will likely go online.

 

[atlantaboy]

If they're still on the political bandwagon (I just don't listen to them anymore) then I still think that TRG probably won't gel very well with the 99x audience...so, if they intend to keep TRG on 100.5, I imagine it won't change much unless they try find a gap between the river and the bone.

I don't understand why TRG is such a priority to Cumulus, since it's pulling in a 1.6 share for the station - unless it's simple politics...

 

[chrocket87]

From what I've read, TRG bills too well to be let go and where else would you put them? The 98.9 translator? Perhaps they could retain TRG and flip to alternative? Assuming TRG does well in mornings and Rock does poorly in other dayparts, they could unless the mutual existence of the two on 100.5 would drive too many potential listeners away. That is if Alt can outbill mainstream rock in the other dayparts.

 

[jabba17]

If they're still on the political bandwagon (I just don't listen to them anymore) then I still think that TRG probably won't gel very well with the 99x audience...so, if they intend to keep TRG on 100.5, I imagine it won't change much unless they try find a gap between the river and the bone.

I don't understand why TRG is such a priority to Cumulus, since it's pulling in a 1.6 share for the station - unless it's simple politics...

From other posts, I gather that it's a combination of the show doing a lot better among the more-attractive demos and Cumulus being stuck with an expensive contract.

Music-wise, I've been looking at the online playlist of San Francisco's relaunched "K-Fox" (http://kufx.tunegenie.com), which might be best described as a Variety Hits version of Classic Rock. Might something like that work?

I would like to see some station rankings of MEN, particularly white men, 18-34 and 25-54. I wonder how Rock does in those demos, and River for that matter. Maybe the resistance to alt has to do with the fact that alt (and especially AAA) trends more female than most AOR, and the ATL female radio market right now is a feeding frenzy with all the CHRs and hot ACs and urban ACs vs. not many radio music choices for white mens (if you want a spoken word format, you're golden). See Roddy's column this week.

I bet alt or AAA comes back as soon as one or more of the CHRs/hot ACs throws in the towel, and at least one will. If oldies classic hits doesn't come back first.

 

[jabba17]

Playlistwise, according to yes.com, Rock is playing roughly 5 active/alt songs and 4 classic songs an hour. They seem to be mixing up their playlist so it's not so precise a split each hour--for example, the 6:00 hour had 6 classic songs (and how would you classify Kid Rock's "All Summer Long"?).

 

[Rogue]

...how would you classify Kid Rock's "All Summer Long"?

Gimmicky crap by a hack artist who's 15 minutes should have been up 15 years ago?

;D

 

[acheron1982]

How would you classify that song?? Hmmm... The only people I know that listen to it are the folks in their 40s and 50s who like to occasionally listen to modern rock like Nickleback but are devoted to classic rock.

I just looked at the playlist and it still looks pretty mainstream to me. Not classic rock, not active rock, not alternative rock but straight up rock. They really focus hard on the 90s though.

Remember though, Rock 100.5 is a funny station when it comes to formats. Cumulus, for the most part, backs off of the PD and allows him/her to do pretty much whatever the hell he/she wants considering they have moved their playlist around numerous times. Remember, this is the station that went classic rock, to active rock to mainstream rock in a 4 day period.

 

[atlantaboy]

From what I've read, TRG bills too well to be let go and where else would you put them?

Completely don't understand how TRG could bill well, and Rock 100.5 have a total share of 1.6 - there's literally gotta be no one listening to the station outside of mornings...

 

[Mitch Brewer]

Part of their problem is that they think that people who listen to rock want to hear deep cuts from Van Halen but every other rock group who has ever made music only gets their top 3 songs played. It's the same way with most rock stations in this country though. That's why the best rock isn't on major labels anymore, it's on independent labels and you hear it on the internet and at festival concerts.

 

[secondchoice]

From what I've read, TRG bills too well to be let go and where else would you put them?

Completely don't understand how TRG could bill well, and Rock 100.5 have a total share of 1.6 - there's literally gotta be no one listening to the station outside of mornings...

Maybe somebody very important at Cumulus headquarters likes to listen to Rock 100.5

 

[agentUrge]

Part of their problem is that they think that people who listen to rock want to hear deep cuts from Van Halen but every other rock group who has ever made music only gets their top 3 songs played. It's the same way with most rock stations in this country though. That's why the best rock isn't on major labels anymore, it's on independent labels and you hear it on the internet and at festival concerts.

I'm thinking you may have wrote this wrong because rarely have I ever heard deep cuts on the radio with exception to Rock 105 in Jacksonville in the late 80's but even still, those tracks were more or less hits that didn't make it as big as others.