Kevin L. Sealy seems to imply that WWPR (Power 105), WQHT (Hot 97) and WHTZ (Z-100) will satisfy any fans of hip-hop/rap in the market. I tend to disagree with that statement. All three stations definitely cater to a younger demo - in fact, I can't imagine anyone over 30 listening to any of them. Excluding the special features that pop up (usually on a weekday afternoon), it's all modern stuff and you seldom ever hear anything from earlier than 2003 or so. That means they play lots of hip-pop like Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, Hurricane Chris, VIC, Flo Rida, T-Pain, etc. Worse still, they also play stuff like Justin Timberlake and Rihanna that I don't think any hip-hop fan wants to hear. Both stations seem to throw on tracks like that to target Z-100 listeners. And speaking of Z - seriously? Z? If you can get past the Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers, you might just hear some played-out hip-hop track that might be fresh to Grandma, but absolutely no one else. If you want to hear old-school hip hop - Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Kurtis Blow, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, KRS-ONE, EPMD, NWA, Geto Boys, Tupac Shakur, pretty much anything else from the '80s & '90s - it's non-existent on NYC airwaves. They assume that fans of this type of music have given up and started listening to Fresh or PLJ? Somehow I highly doubt that.
Starting with this decade, the driving force in hip-hop shifted from the MC to the producer. These days, songs on the Urban charts seem to be more notable for their beats than for their lyrics. This decade will go down in history as being rap's "hair metal" phase, as most hit songs seem to be about getting laid more than anything else. Those who enjoyed hip-hop for the MCs with their distinctive flows and intelligent lyrics really have nowhere to go. None of the aforementioned options are going to satisfy these people.
Mr. Sealy also seems to suggest that all the bases are covered when it comes to rock. As a rock fan, I take major exception of that. RXP does have some surprising selections, but they are extremely frustrating since they are all over the place musically. Other threads have mentioned that they go from ZZ Top to Beck, Boston to The Kooks, Aerosmith to Arcade Fire, Guns N' Roses to Mike Doughty, etc. They try to please all rock fans and end up pleasing none of them with this approach. My advice to them would be to leave the classic rock behind and go with a smart Alternative approach like Indie or FNX. Q 104.3 is what it is - your token classic rock station. It's dependable in delivering tried-and-true hits, mostly from the '70s, but a lot of people will find it boring. Don't even get me started on K-Rock. K-Rock is also for all intents and purposes a classic rock station, only leaning a little more toward Def Leppard, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses and acts whose heyday was in the '80s. They play some new music - and by "some" I mean about 5 or 10 songs tops. And it's all extremely safe chart-topping songs, many of which can be heard elsewhere in the market, i.e. the new Nickelback single (which is awful, for the record). If you're looking for the heavier bands that Hardrocker9 listed in the previous post, you're out of luck. Ditto for most Alternative acts as well. Yes, they're playing the new Kings Of Leon song, but that's only because they're promoting a KOL gig at MSG. K-Rock's ratings have hit rock bottom because they are everything a rock station should never be - tired, predictable and boring.
NYC does have lots of frequencies. Too bad many of them are going to waste with the same old junk.
