Satellite radio has also focused on rock listeners since its inception. Rock is the single biggest category on SiriusXM, a whopping 23 channels, including single-artist or artist-"curated" channels for the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, Pearl Jam, Jimmy Buffett and Tom Petty. New rock can be heard eight on channels, splintered into as many styles. I'm sure all these channels as a group attract many subscribers, but the numbers for each channel are likely underwhelming. Such is the state of rock today, sadly.
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It's sad that New York radio cannot honor the dead superstars in rock.
- Thread starter Gunsmoke
- Start date
Satellite radio has also focused on rock listeners since its inception. Rock is the single biggest category on SiriusXM, a whopping 23 channels, including single-artist or artist-"curated" channels for the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, Pearl Jam, Jimmy Buffett and Tom Petty. New rock can be heard eight on channels, splintered into as many styles. I'm sure all these channels as a group attract many subscribers, but the numbers for each channel are likely underwhelming. Such is the state of rock today, sadly.
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Groove1670
Guest
Rock is big for satellite radio. Most of the subscribers are white 50+ guys that are bankers, or in administrative jobs. Most gave up terrestrial radio a long time ago.
@ Boombox 4, regarding your lament:
>> ' It's just kinda sad when GenX music is beginning to be relegated to the music of has beens. I didn't think that would happen so quickly... And I suppose that says more about me than it does about radio itself... ' <<
By my own unofficial tallies -- I'm guessing I've got a decade or so on you, young fella....
The Standards (non-rock and roll pop) was in place for ~ 35 years as a viable contemporary thing.
Rock and Roll had maybe a current shelf-life of ~ 15-17 years as a current chart-topping entity
AoR 's most efficient male + female listener vehicle went ~ 7 or 8 years.
Late 70's radio and music niching, which probably began a few years earlier than that, was to dice up the pop-radio-music spectrum further, into even tinier half-lives (or halves-life).
Gen X therefore wound up chronologically having to settle for less of the 'product' being issued for airplay.
(Don't hit me. I like grunge, and always did. Am just sayin .... It ain't you feeling the plod of 'progress')
>> ' It's just kinda sad when GenX music is beginning to be relegated to the music of has beens. I didn't think that would happen so quickly... And I suppose that says more about me than it does about radio itself... ' <<
By my own unofficial tallies -- I'm guessing I've got a decade or so on you, young fella....
The Standards (non-rock and roll pop) was in place for ~ 35 years as a viable contemporary thing.
Rock and Roll had maybe a current shelf-life of ~ 15-17 years as a current chart-topping entity
AoR 's most efficient male + female listener vehicle went ~ 7 or 8 years.
Late 70's radio and music niching, which probably began a few years earlier than that, was to dice up the pop-radio-music spectrum further, into even tinier half-lives (or halves-life).
Gen X therefore wound up chronologically having to settle for less of the 'product' being issued for airplay.
(Don't hit me. I like grunge, and always did. Am just sayin .... It ain't you feeling the plod of 'progress')
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I wonder if the GenX demo being smaller numerically than the boomers or millennials has an effect on the viability of GenX rock and alt-rock (or pop, for that matter). I heard there are maybe 20% less GenXers than boomers. And millennials are outnumbering the other generations rather quickly. Not being a demographer, I don't know if that's true, but I heard a demographer on the radio say that about five nights ago.
There are many formats that hit the top of one generation and the bottom of another.... like CHR, Hot AC and AC. Or Urban AC. The issue is not generations but the size of the appeal group for a format. After all, is an early Millennial totally different from a late Gen X person? There is no wall between those generations, but, rather, a fade in and fade out of influences.
Where there is a big difference is in Millennials in most parts of the nation where the demo is significantly more HISPANIC, Black and Asian than for Gen X and Boomers. That, more than anything, changes music tastes.
Actually, one of the biggest (if not the biggest) user groups is truckers. Otherwise, due to costs, the subscribers tend to be a bit more affluent. That is why cheaper Kia's have (last I checked) a 90 day trial and a BMW gets you a full year.
Truckers, especially those with the big companies and significant experience, make good money -- solidly upper middle class in income, even if they don't fit the lifestyle stereotype.
Long-haul truckers earn from the high 50's to the mid 70's. That is mid-Middle Class. Upper middle class begins at $100,000 in low cost of living states and around $120,000 to $150,000 in places like NYC, metro LA, Metro San Francisco, Boston and other high cost of living locations (Hawaii, Puerto Rico, too).
Showing my age, I guess. To me, a six-figure income takes you out of the middle class entirely. Failed to account for several decades worth of inflation, not to mention that I've never come close to a six-figure salary!
But -- with the size of the actual GenX demographic being smaller than the Boomers or Millennials, does that figure in to this subject? I mean, the local classic rock station that seems to cater more to GenXers than Boomers is lower in the ratings than the one that caters more to Boomers. Would the size of the GenX demo have anything to do with that difference? Or is it just because rock appeals more to men.
Radio stations don't cater to arbitrary generation labels. They appeal to sales demographics such as 18-34, 25-44, 18-49. Many formats appeal to segments of two of those generational labels, in fact.
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Groove1670
Guest
I've had two bankers that I've pitched our station, and both were avid satellite listeners hence my statement.
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