Why is the Phoenix radio landscape so boring if the population is booming?

[davideduardo]

David, you are missing the point. No one is saying all African Americans listen to the same type of music. What I am saying is, they should actually have a choice if they want to listen to actual R&B (not just hip-hop) on Phoenix radio whether it be old or new school. There is obviously some sort of market for it in Arizona or you wouldn't have acts such as: Floetry, Miguel, Charlie Wilson or Mint Condition doing shows at the celebrity theater or at casinos around the metro Phoenix area.

The problem is that a mass appeal format can not target just African Americans in Phoenix, and Urban AC is essentially always a format that gets 90% of its listeners from the Black community.

You could likely fill those venues if you brought in Ailee or Do Kyung-soo, but that does not mean a K-pop station would be successful in Phoenix.

 

[davideduardo]

...but the new way of coming up with ratings (CUME) did them in.

"Cume" is not a new way of "coming up with ratings". Since Arbitron began doing radio in 1965 they measured cume and time spent listening. Everything else is a derivative of those two pieces of data.

What did smooth jazz in was the aging of the listeners. The change to electronic detection of listening just showed that they did not listen as much as they said they did in the diary ratings data capture method.

 

[TheBigA]

This format would have to be specially catered to the Phoenix market and not cookie cutter, which is what radio tends to do.

CBS owns several stations in Phoenix including KOOL. They don't program KOOL as a cookie cutter classic station. CBS also owns The Wave, and could easily bring the format to Phoenix if they felt it could make more money than the current formats they have. You see what they've chosen to do.

Just saying, someone needs to get on the ground floor. You have to start somewhere.

Radio is not in the music business. There is no benefit at getting in on the ground floor with an audience that isn't growing. You just stay at the ground floor, which isn't very exciting.

 

[indieradioguy]

"Who" is listening to radio the most these days? Based on the many
posts I see on this site, that would have to be people over the age of 45 or so. Younger
people simply aren't interested in radio when they can stream all the exact music they
wish to hear.

Not exactly true, as others have pointed out. Additionally, KWSS-LP is the only station in town that *does* in fact introduce new bands to *young* listeners. (Not even KROQ in LA can break new artists anymore.) They did it with fun. (who went on to win Best New Artist at the Grammys), they did it with the Kongos (whose third album comes out this week), they do it with countless artists that KDKB still hasn't gotten around to adding. So, while I definitely appreciate the sentiment, it's not entirely accurate.

 

[indieradioguy]

Radio is not in the music business. There is no benefit at getting in on the ground floor with an audience that isn't growing. You just stay at the ground floor, which isn't very exciting.

Which is precisely why I refuse to listen to KDKB -- if I wanted to hear oldies from the 90's, I'd listen to KOOL. And do, as a matter of fact.

 

[Saladressing]

104.3 KAJM plays a smattering of Urban AC product these days IIRC. That's more Urban AC than some similarly sized markets have on the commercial dial. Minneapolis, Denver and Seattle come to mind.

 

[Nathan O'Dan]

104.3 KAJM plays a smattering of Urban AC product these days IIRC. That's more Urban AC than some similarly sized markets have on the commercial dial. Minneapolis, Denver and Seattle come to mind.

I can't speak on Denver or Seattle's scene, but the Urban AC genre is covered by KMOJ. Their 6500 watt tower reaches North Minneapolis and the rest of the NW burbs where their market resides.Their was an Urban AC/Rhythmic Oldies format on the 105s back in the early 2000s. But like most formats on the 105s, they are doomed to failure for poor coverage even with 3 signals. Currently, the 105s are running a classic hip hop format. I haven't seen their ratings, but I can only imagine a 2.0+ is a win their book.

 

[Sammi Brie]

I think another part of it is that Phoenix has few institutions of higher education.

I'm in Chicago right now and am astounded by the number of available noncommercial stations and the number of lower-power FMs.

 

[Saladressing]

I can't speak on Denver or Seattle's scene, but the Urban AC genre is covered by KMOJ. Their 6500 watt tower reaches North Minneapolis and the rest of the NW burbs where their market resides.

I know, that's why I stated "commercial" dial. No worries tho mate. Your point is valid, that music is indeed on the dial there because of KMOJ.

However now that I think about it Jammin' 101.5 in Denver is basically a rhythmic oldies outlet so some stuff that may be labeled as Urban AC may get some airtime there as well.