will country start to fail here??? XTU on the way down?

[Jeffrey]

With NY being without a country station for over 10 years, the demize of country in LA and SF as of late, could country be on a downward trend in Philly?
I know XTU does well but the recent book shows a slight downward trend.
In a highly urban market and with the hispanic population on the rise, I wonder if country in Philly will continue to bill well.

 

[JimWilliams]

Tell that to the people who go bonkers for their ticket runs in the spring and summer, lol. Philadelphia, more so than New York, is a market that is made for both urban and country formats. They get enough of that suburban audience to do reasonably well and over 2 decades as a country format in a top 10 market says a lot. Don't expect a format switch anytime soon, in my opinion.

 

[wprt949]

uh no

 

[Betrayed]

Dunno. But I used to be a fairly big country listener. Then country went MTV. Superficial, mindless dribble geared to giggling 15 year old girls. Dopey morning shows. You flip on a country station and you get a short boring playlist of cookie cutter throwaway songs. The artists are cookie cutter. Mindlessness in abundance. Do they still play Reba, George Strait and Alan Jackson? Probably not. Too country. Not enough materialism and fashion style.

 

[Frasier]

Dunno. But I used to be a fairly big country listener. Then country went MTV. Superficial, mindless dribble geared to giggling 15 year old girls.

Actually, if you really want to make an argument: CMT went MTV. Incidentally, there's a new show on Comedy Central called "The Naked Trucker and T-Bone Show". For the show being rebroadcast on sister station CMT, Vegas has the line set to next month.

Do they still play Reba, George Strait and Alan Jackson? Probably not. Too country.

You don't know what you're talking about. You can't turn on a country station without hearing "Give It Away" or an A.J. classic.

 

[JohnnyPancakes]

Real country music is becoming Classic Country. Unfortunately, you won't find that on the radio anywhere now. This mainstream crap that's on now is the basically catering to the giggling 15 year old girl crowd, but just a different kind of music. Country music now caters to teenage cowgirls, while rap and hip hop caters to the teenage [EDIT] genre.

[EDIT-inflammatory]

 

[UncleBozzle]

Everything evolves so why would a musical genre be any different? Older country songs have a placed at the table, but geeze, move on with the times. Country no longer caters to farmers and cowboys, it's a far more suburban listener than most on this board ever want to admit. WXTU won't be going anywhere. Beasley is smart on this one, they own the format in Philly, giving it up would only open the door for Clear Channel or Greater Media. Now if they'd only blow up Wired and make 96.5 the "traditional" country station they might really seem smart.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Would this mixture of Country Gold work in Philly/Wilmington/Trenton metro

Given how advertisers seem to only want the younger set, maybe 96.5 could go Country, but take a different approach as WXTU plays mostly the newest music with an occasional "oldie" from the 90's. Why not have a 96.5 country gold station that plays about 4/5'ths of their country music from the 70's-90's. Then add only the best new Country music that fits the style and sound of the oldies to balance out the format. So it would be country gold, but also would bring in a younger demo than a purely oldies country station would, yet not as young as WXTU's format.

 

[UncleBozzle]

I think it makes sense Mike from Delaware. Why not own the entire piece of the pie? This way you know nobody will flip a station to compete against you. You could certainly sell advertising as a package for the two stations. Why waste anymore money on Wired? It's going nowhere fast. As time evolves you could fine tune WXTU and move the older music to 96.5. In essence never lose that listener.

 

[Frasier]

I think it makes sense Mike from Delaware. Why not own the entire piece of the pie? This way you know nobody will flip a station to compete against you.

Yes, but for how long? For years in Tampa, WQYK was the country leader. Then CBS flipped 92.5 to another country format to "protect" WQYK; their ratings never amounted to much due to its signal. Enter Clear Channel, who flipped CR WTBT to "US 103.5", and eventully took their Bucs and their beloved Skip Mahaffey. 92.5 eventually went Spanish, and 103.5 is making a dent in 99.5's listenership.

Be careful what you wish for...

 

[Keith Thompson]

As someone who was in country radio for 20 years, and now has been out of it for the last seven months...here's my $.02. Since after getting blown out of the country station I worked for until last June, I haven't listened to country radio at all. Part of it is out of frustration over getting let go from the station I worked at for 14 years, ...part of it is general burnout over a format that is not my first choice as a listener (especially after the Dixie Chicks fiasco)...and part of it is after being an insider for so long I wanted to experience the format as an outsider (that is...from someone who isn't a listener). I wanted to experience what the average non-country music fan experiences and what I have noticed is that there really isn't a whole lot of country music exposure outside the format right now. As a karaoke host, I can sometimes get a feel for what people are listening to and the only new country song (that is, the only release that has come out since I exited country radio) that any of the karaoke regulars are singing is the latest Carrie Underwood ("Before He Cheats")...and that's even coming from bars that primarily have country fans. Whatever exposure I've had to country music and its performers has been over non-music related issues such as Keith Urban's alcoholism treatment and Sara Evans' divorce and departure from "Dancing With The Stars". Except for Carrie Underwood, I haven't detected any sort of buzz over anything musical that has come out of the format in the last 7 months. Country music has always fluctuated over being hip and not being hip and right now, it seems like the format is not very hip with listeners outside the format (like it most recently was when Gretchen Wilson was hot)...either that; or as a former insider, I used to view the format with rose colored glasses (to paraphrase John Conlee).

 

[mjdecastro]

Re: Would this mixture of Country Gold work in Philly/Wilmington/Trenton metro

Given how advertisers seem to only want the younger set, maybe 96.5 could go Country, but take a different approach as WXTU plays mostly the newest music with an occasional "oldie" from the 90's. Why not have a 96.5 country gold station that plays about 4/5'ths of their country music from the 70's-90's. Then add only the best new Country music that fits the style and sound of the oldies to balance out the format. So it would be country gold, but also would bring in a younger demo than a purely oldies country station would, yet not as young as WXTU's format.

Greater Media tries to do this with relation to rock music with MMR & MGK. The results seem spotty at best. So why should Beasley do this with relation to country?

 

[Beejus]

Re: Would this mixture of Country Gold work in Philly/Wilmington/Trenton metro

Given how advertisers seem to only want the younger set, maybe 96.5 could go Country, but take a different approach as WXTU plays mostly the newest music with an occasional "oldie" from the 90's. Why not have a 96.5 country gold station that plays about 4/5'ths of their country music from the 70's-90's. Then add only the best new Country music that fits the style and sound of the oldies to balance out the format. So it would be country gold, but also would bring in a younger demo than a purely oldies country station would, yet not as young as WXTU's format.

Greater Media tries to do this with relation to rock music with MMR & MGK. The results seem spotty at best. So why should Beasley do this with relation to country?

It does work in some occasions. Wilks (whomever they bought out in Kansas City... I think it was CBS?) has two Country FMs in Kansas City... Q104- "Young Country" and 94 KFKF- "Todays Best Country and All Time Favorites." Plus there is the Entercom owned 106.5 The Wolf (WDAF). LAst book, it was WDAF, then Q104, then KFKF... all within .5 12+

They've got a nice selling package with the country stations. But this IS Kansas City... and there's a larger audience for Country.

 

[UncleBozzle]

Precisely why it would be worth doing here. Nobody will ever have the guts to take them on. If they did we wouldn't have Rumba 104. The other companies are interested in other segments of the audience, so why not have both be country? Why keep fighting for the urban piece of the pie?

 

[kenhawk1160]

With NY being without a country station for over 10 years, the demize of country in LA and SF as of late, could country be on a downward trend in Philly?
I know XTU does well but the recent book shows a slight downward trend.
In a highly urban market and with the hispanic population on the rise, I wonder if country in Philly will continue to bill well.

If country is programmed locally to the market, and not by an outside consultant with a 'one format fits all' approach, it can work. Of course, management has to keep their expectations realistic, as well.

 

[AnaHadWolves]

WXTU: Like A Rock! Or, is that like a crock?

Without quoting exact numbers, WXTU seems to perigee about the low 3's and apogee about the mid-4's, 12-plus, like a sine wave, as regular as can be. For years, they've been one of the true cash cows for the Beasley empire and can count on a loyal audience. Since they share quite a bit of the WOGL audience (demo), a loss for one might explain a bulge for the other.

WXTU isn't going anywhere, though, unless George Beasley is offered from 80 to 120 million Benjamins. Having said that, we all know that George would sell his Grandmother...if the price were right.

 

[chuckydoll]

XTU's secret weapon -- NASCAR

If country is programmed locally to the market, and not by an outside consultant with a 'one format fits all' approach, it can work.

A lot of big-signal country stations carry NASCAR racing. XTU is one of them.

NASCAR can bring in listeners and ad dollars on Sundays once the Super Bowl is out of the way.

 

[Weezknight]

I really like the idea of the 2 Country Stations. My wife is a country fan and she has been a little disenchanted by the recent country fare that is being released. We recently went to Sirius and she loves having the options of listening to some of the newer stuff on their "New Country" or listening to the stuff she really loves on "Prime Country" which is all of the hits from the 80's & 90's.

I think country radio could reestablish a growth pattern by offering those options, but it would probably be more suited to HD Radio with subchannels, than by claiming 2 FM dial stations.