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Why doesn't Pittsburgh have a rock station?

SteelRocker said:
corporateradiosucks said:
Can you not pick up Rocky 99? How "central" are you talking?
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I'm not familiar with that station. I live in Lancaster, so in the Lancaster/York/Harrisburg market now.
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Rocky 99 is more "west" than "central".
 
It's also about the demographics of the market. 1 of every 6 listeners in this market is a female over 55. DVE is a Rock station with an adult focus (that's their rationale for playing the same songs for the last 30 years). The young male demo here just isn't big enough, that's why CC has to supplement the X with Madden and the Pens.
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Right on PT. And, DVE has so successfully branded themselves as "the rock station" in Pittsburgh for years, and continues to do so. Some may say at the expense of the other stations in that building. Case in point, that huge DVE sign that's been on the top of Fleet Street. There are 5 other stations in that bulding that CC owns, why don't they advertise them by putting their logos up there, too (rotating thru the six)? They don't because DVE is the mothership that they protect with a fierceness.
 
corporateradiosucks said:
SteelRocker said:
corporateradiosucks said:
Can you not pick up Rocky 99? How "central" are you talking?
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I'm not familiar with that station. I live in Lancaster, so in the Lancaster/York/Harrisburg market now.
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Gotcha. Like RPF said, it's too far west. They are Johnstown/Altoona.
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Ok, yes that is way far away. I'll keep listening to iheartradio for DC-101 and 105.9 The X in Pittsburgh. That's an option that wasn't available just a couple of years ago.
 
My friends who are programmers in other markets say they see lots of kids who like older rock, because their parents control the car radio (unlike me, who puts up with Radio Disney).
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This is the best post I've read in awhile.
 
If you're talking about a new rock station....current and tracks that are up to 10 years old (say 2002-present)....the radio industry generally stays away from music that would appeal to people who are mainly male, mainly age 16-late 20's (a kind of profile of most people who'd like that type of music).

Why? #1-a lot of that demo (say even 16-34) grew up learning about new music from friends or on the internet, and many aren't heavy radio listeners, and #2-advertisers would rather support a format who's audience is older (35-54) and preferably more female than male because it is commonly believed in advertising circles that women make most buying decisions, and they are part of families with kids, and thus families are in much heavier spending years than much younger, mostly single males.
 
The primary advertisers who want young males are fast food, strip clubs and porn sites. If you think you can make a profit selling a format to those categories, good luck.
 
Tim said:
If you're talking about a new rock station....current and tracks that are up to 10 years old (say 2002-present)....the radio industry generally stays away from music that would appeal to people who are mainly male, mainly age 16-late 20's (a kind of profile of most people who'd like that type of music).

Why? #1-a lot of that demo (say even 16-34) grew up learning about new music from friends or on the internet, and many aren't heavy radio listeners, and #2-advertisers would rather support a format who's audience is older (35-54) and preferably more female than male because it is commonly believed in advertising circles that women make most buying decisions, and they are part of families with kids, and thus families are in much heavier spending years than much younger, mostly single males.
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So the question is...will this music EVER get played on commercial radio?
 
corporateradiosucks said:
Tim said:
If you're talking about a new rock station....current and tracks that are up to 10 years old (say 2002-present)....the radio industry generally stays away from music that would appeal to people who are mainly male, mainly age 16-late 20's (a kind of profile of most people who'd like that type of music).

Why? #1-a lot of that demo (say even 16-34) grew up learning about new music from friends or on the internet, and many aren't heavy radio listeners, and #2-advertisers would rather support a format who's audience is older (35-54) and preferably more female than male because it is commonly believed in advertising circles that women make most buying decisions, and they are part of families with kids, and thus families are in much heavier spending years than much younger, mostly single males.
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So the question is...will this music EVER get played on commercial radio?
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Probably not, but consider this.... the Classic Hits and Classic Rock formats were spawned by programmers noticing that no one was playing all the old 60's and 70's rock hits. Now the difference is, this stuff had been played as currents.

If a wave of programmers comes along and realizes that the music their target demo likes is not represented anywhere, it could be seen as an opportunity somewhere down the road.

But there's another problem with newer rock... much of it is so loud, so hard, and about subjects like pain and death (Linkin Park screaming "PUT ME OUT OF MY F*&^($^%$ MISERY" comes to mind, that it just can't be used as background music in a business, and make no mistake, successful stations have to fill that role. The reason PPM yields different results than the diary system is largely because the meters record "passive listening", ie being exposed to a station when you walk into a business. Urban fares poorly under PPM for the same reason (and the demise of Smooth Jazz baffles me...).
 
Ah, Parttimer.

Who would have ever thought that a song about slavery and cunnilingus could be played in the open at ANY business? And here we are in 2012...walking into Subway for our BMT and hearing "Brown Sugar."

I could go on a rant about this having to do with the baby boomers' shoving their culture down everyone's throat but it's too early in the AM and I don't feel like it.
 
corporateradiosucks said:
Ah, Parttimer.

Who would have ever thought that a song about slavery and ------ could be played in the open at ANY business? And here we are in 2012...walking into Subway for our BMT and hearing "Brown Sugar."

I could go on a rant about this having to do with the baby boomers' shoving their culture down everyone's throat but it's too early in the AM and I don't feel like it.
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Find me 5 people who can actually understand the words to "Brown Sugar."

Then find me 5 people who could walk into a business and not find it annoying if a metal station was on. Then find me a business that would want those 5 people as customers, aside from a Harley dealer and Blush.

This isn't a culture war, this is common sense....
 
Then find me 5 people who could walk into a business and not find it annoying if a metal station was on. Then find me a business that would want those 5 people as customers, aside from a Harley dealer and Blush.

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Exactly. Unfortunately, there are a lot of slackers in the metal crowd. They tend to have (at most) a high school diploma and a high propensity to shoplift.
 
First off, LOL because I used the technical term and that got censored too. ;D

And I missed where we went from "current rock" to "metal." I personally don't consider Linkin Park metal...semantics maybe...but I don't. That doesn't matter though. My point is just that times change and we might be very surprised at what is acceptable in 30+ years.

Oh and nice bigoted comment right above this one. ::)
 
corporateradiosucks said:
And I missed where we went from "current rock" to "metal." I personally don't consider Linkin Park metal...semantics maybe...but I don't. That doesn't matter though. My point is just that times change and we might be very surprised at what is acceptable in 30+ years.
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Metal's not accurate, my bad, but my point is still that new rock stations are just too limited in what they will play.

Think about this... back in the day you had guitar driven bands like Zeppelin and Van Halen, you had Pink Floyd, Yes, and Genesis, all the Southern Rockers, Santana with their Latino flavor... an amazing variety of sounds and textures. Now if it doesn't fit a very narrow sound it gets pushed off into Alternative or Indy/AAA categories. If the Eagles hit the scene today they would have to be a country band.

I think rock radio killed itself by getting too narrow.
 
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