The sad state of Active Rock as a format

[frozenfiresb]

Is active rock becoming less of a viable format in some markets? When WYSP in Philly first flipped from active rock to modified classic rock "The Rock You Grew Up With" a couple of years ago, I didn't think much of it, but since then, numerous rock stations across the country have undergone similar changes or been flipped. Here in NYC, we have WRXP which is (thankfully) going to be sold soon, which is an absolute trainwreck of a station, going from AC/DC and Guns 'n Roses to Coldplay and the Killers to absolute overkill on most of the Seattle/other big '90s bands to the Clash to Bruce Springsteen. WRXP has NEVER in its 2 1/2 (approx.) years of existence played any harder stuff in rotation (with the exception of the out-of-place-for-an-alt AC/DC and GNR, a few of Metallica's softest songs, and a few Rage and NIN tracks). Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, and a bunch of smaller markets have also lost rock stations within the past few years. What I'm wondering is if stations like KBPI, WCCC and WJJO could ultimately suffer the same fate (over time).

 

[vchimpanzee]

I guess the problem is people in the target audience listen mostly to iPods and the Internet. Radio? What's that?

 

[CTListener]

I guess the problem is people in the target audience listen mostly to iPods and the Internet. Radio? What's that?

Or they're listening to the hip-hop stations, not the rockers.

 

[TheBigA]

The problem is that there's not much activity in active rock. I took a look at the Top 30, and other than Foo Fighters, Korn, and Disturbed, there's not much to build a format around. Radio isn't the problem here. The problem is the music. Great music makes for great radio, not the other way around. Dull music makes for...well...you know.

 

[vchimpanzee]

The problem is that there's not much activity in active rock. I took a look at the Top 30, and other than Foo Fighters, Korn, and Disturbed, there's not much to build a format around. Radio isn't the problem here. The problem is the music. Great music makes for great radio, not the other way around. Dull music makes for...well...you know.

So active rock isn't active?

 

[vchimpanzee]

I guess the problem is people in the target audience listen mostly to iPods and the Internet. Radio? What's that?

Or they're listening to the hip-hop stations, not the rockers.

Well, there are people doing something called "Scratch and Sniff" who are trying to deal with that problem.

 

[MarcR]

I guess the problem is people in the target audience listen mostly to iPods and the Internet. Radio? What's that?

Or they're listening to the hip-hop stations, not the rockers.

Hip hop began losing its cachet 5 years ago, so they're probably not listening to stations with such a format.

 

[MarcR]

The problem is that there's not much activity in active rock.

Active Rock's problems are its overreliance on '90s grunge and classic hard rock music and the qualitative composition of its audience (ie too few female listeners, and too many male listeners with just a high school education).

 

[radiowizard101]

Active Rock is an Oxymoron... programmed for morons with a very limited scope of music preference.

 

[lp]

other than Foo Fighters, Korn, and Disturbed, there's not much to build a format around. Radio isn't the problem here. The problem is the music.

There are a TON of GREAT bands out there. Radio needs to embrace the Indie promoters again....and they need to get off their duffs and find the music themselves. A good place to search for straight ahead rock bands is the UK.

I suppose this brings up another question. What's more important to your listener? A familiar band or a good song?

 

[TheBigA]

Radio needs to embrace the Indie promoters again....and they need to get off their duffs and find the music themselves.

Who benefits? Playing unknown music benefits the labels. It's up to them to spend some money to promote their music and get radio enthusiastic about it. But the labels have convinced themselves that OTA radio is dead. So they don't care. Meanwhile, radio can get big ratings by playing the familiar war horses.

 

[lp]

Radio needs to embrace the Indie promoters again....and they need to get off their duffs and find the music themselves.

Who benefits? Playing unknown music benefits the labels. It's up to them to spend some money to promote their music and get radio enthusiastic about it. But the labels have convinced themselves that OTA radio is dead. So they don't care. Meanwhile, radio can get big ratings by playing the familiar war horses.

Just in it for the free T-shirts, A? Seeing as how you think the labels are solely responsible for radio's content, you'll be cutting that first royalty check, right?

 

[landtuna]

I guess the problem is people in the target audience listen mostly to iPods and the Internet. Radio? What's that?

Or they're listening to the hip-hop stations, not the rockers.

Not very likely.

 

[CTListener]

I guess the problem is people in the target audience listen mostly to iPods and the Internet. Radio? What's that?

Or they're listening to the hip-hop stations, not the rockers.

Not very likely.

Why not? Rock is nearly 60 years old. To a lot of kids today it's not just "dad's old music," it's "granddad's old music." The kids are listening to rhythm-based, ringtone-friendly music that has very little to do with Chuck Berry, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Nirvana or and other rock icon you can name. Auto-tuned ultra-simplistic pop and angry thumping rap have their ears and that's what radio is playing. Why in the world would they even think of listening to a rock station?

 

[flashback]

so mostly brain dead music has pretty much replaced creative rock music.much of the rock is creative anyway.

music will of course change as time goes along but does it have to dumb down when it does?

 

[TheBigA]

music will of course change as time goes along but does it have to dumb down when it does?

That's what fans of Cole Porter and Hoagy Charmichael said whenn they first heard Elvis and The Beatles. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

 

[sdh483]

music will of course change as time goes along but does it have to dumb down when it does?

That's what fans of Cole Porter and Hoagy Charmichael said whenn they first heard Elvis and The Beatles. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

True, but those artists and others had progressed beyond their "yeah, yeah, yeah" eras.
I've heard lots of artists who seem to stay on their plateau of style, even as they incorporate the electro sound that is popular today. They still sound as stale as they did ten years ago. That was a totally different story from The Beatles. They went from "yeah yeah yeah" to Sgt. Pepper.

 

[Jay F]

The problem is that there's not much activity in active rock.

Active Rock's problems are its overreliance on '90s grunge and classic hard rock music and the qualitative composition of its audience (ie too few female listeners, and too many male listeners with just a high school education).

Yet it seems like the active rocks that play a wide spectrum including hard classic rock and 90s do better than the stations that are more current based. KRXQ/Sacramento does well for example with a wider range. In PPM markets where cume is especially important playing familiar music is vital.

Here is what I think the biggest problem Active Rock has. In the 70s and 80s the biggest rock bands were household names "Superstars" as the Burkhart/Abrams format was called at the time. The music and artists were familar to a wide range of radio listeners.
Today rock is too much of a niche. Outside of rock listeners, the wider universe of radio listeners are unfamiliar with most of the formats core artists.

Also it seems like much of the newer rock has a darker, more negative vibe than rock used to have in it's heyday. While this may be what the active rock audience wants, it may turn off other potential listeners who can get their fix of "feel good" music from other formats.

 

[KFodor]

IMHO -

When some of today's rock artists learn about writing lyrics and adding melody, rock may revive.

A poster here is right, there's way too much reliance on grunge, power chords, rock-based hip hop, and vocals which are largely screams. And way too many songs with the topic of, "my job sucks", "my life sucks", etc. I'd like to listen more...but these things drive me away after a while.

I have heard some good songs from some good bands (it's not all bad), but they are too far and too between.

 

[landtuna]

Real Rock disappeared with the advent of Grunge and hasn't made a significant return. Heavy Metal wounded Rock and Grunge killed it. No innovation. No experimentation. No "music". Just noise.