My sense is that the student staffers have no say in the programming of the station.
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Why no Triple-A radio in Seattle?
- Thread starter MarciaX
- Start date
My sense is that the student staffers have no say in the programming of the station.
The website is ambiguous:
We are a commercial-free, listener-supported station broadcasting from Emerson College to Boston and beyond. WERS is student-run with the guidance of a professional staff, who, together, produce award-winning programs. We have consistently been cited as the mostly highly rated and critically acclaimed college radio station in the country!
WERS has an eclectic block playlist featuring a Triple A (adult album alternative) daytime format and sultry R&B, slow-jam and soul-filled evening programs. We feature more than 20 different musical styles, conduct interesting interviews and offer more live performances than any other station in the region.
The profiles of the staff, however, show no program director or music director, although the AM drive jock is not a student but Boston radio veteran George Knight, so it's entirely possible that Knight is putting the playlists together, at least on the AAA side.
Consider the superficially high cost of the FM signal in a major market and the debt load risk incurred to program an intelligent AAA format. That's part of what killed Seattle commercial AAA. The other part was analysis paralysis and lack of proper metering of music playlist. Was it too deep, or not deep enough? Are the rotations too tight for TSL'rs or not tight enough for the AQH'rs? The AAA format varies widely depending on PD. Never a mass appeal format like Mc Oldies, Mc Rhythm, or Mc Classic rock. Its a music format you evolve to as adults, but never start out with as a kid. The Seattle Market was always special because Seattle was very early on the Triple A with KZAM in the 70's and then KEZX in the 80's. It should have, and could have survived here on Commercial free FM after the demise of KMTT in the 00's. There are several outlets that could have made it work successfully such as KBCS, or even KSER. But, adjusting those stations to an actual format, instead of a community cluster schizoid format would start WW3 amongst its small group of dedicated livers and breathers. The Seattle market is just ripe and waiting for a dedicated "triple A" version of KEXP and a rich man to make it happen. However, do not count out KBCS in the future. Carol Handley, former KEZX,KMTT,KWJZ, has successfully morphed the KBCS afternoons into AAA within the last year, with music carburetor adjustments by Allman Bros, john Hiatt, Fleetwood Mac etc, and less of the world beat rhythms. Has this been successful with the donations and memberships?
Another station carrying its Triple A weight is KAPY LP 104.9FM (valley1049.org) Duvall/Carnation. Besides our dedication to community news, select hand crafted music shows, community events and info, we have taken the cream of the crop of Seattle heritage AAA playlists and assembled them within an updated AAA old school/new school format including the Valley Fresh Music File. Just because we are LP does not mean our costs are low and survival is easy and we can afford to do this. Wolves are always at the door, and always just a few key staff changes away from changing our intelligent inclusive AAA programming to the neighborhood burnout wannabe playing his AC DC collection. Funding is the key for us now. We are also looking for a couple intelligent AAA educated air staffers as well.
Donations and comments are always welcome and appreciated at Valley Community Broadcasting PO Box 442 Duvall Wa 98019.
Here is a recent hour 'tween 4:30 and 5:30PM Fri:
Joe Jackson-Breaking us in Two
Donna Lewis-Without Love
Donovan-Jennifer Juniper
Patty Griffen-No Bad News
Beck-Colors
Willie/Lucas Nelson-Just Breathe
Michael Franti-Get Myself to Saturday
Neil Young-Sugar Mountain
Sera-Cahoone-Up To Me
Bob Marley-No Women No Cry
Karla-Bonoff-I cant hold On
Robert Plant-Carry Fire
Ray Davies-I Heard that Beat Before
kd Lang-Luck In my Eyes
-Scott Salvatori
Nobody has brought up the KBCS afternoon music block from noon to 8pm ish. It's about as AAA as it gets with good hosts too. I suppose as referenced people like the format to be the same 24/7 which is not the case with KBCS as they have a variety of "not as heavy as KEXP" genre's in the other dayparts and alt-left progressive talk from 9am to noon. Their weekend programming is where most of the niche stuff goes, bluegrass, blues, Hawaiian, Brazilian, etc.
KBCS musically is as close to the old KEZX as you can get today. But historically, they've always been the folk station around here. Seattle's answer to WUMB.
And getting back to KFOG, are they really even AAA anymore? I checked their current/recurrent playlist and it’s almost all Alternative product now. I looked at the recently played on their website and the gold material is standard Alternative fare (what kind of AAA plays Staind or Linkin Park). Not to mention, they’ve added Woody in mornings, who’s been making his rounds on Alt stations lately. At this point, I think AAA is pretty much just a Mediabase term for the station now. Not really sure why they’re going head to head with perennial loser KITS, but that’s for another thread. My point is that it looks like another heritage AAA is leaving the format, so that certainly doesn’t bode well for new major market entrants to the format.
I agree. They fired their PD a week or so ago, and replaced the market manager last month, so clearly the station has a new direction. They may be a bit more currents-based than KITS, but they're basically playing the same songs. Makes no sense to me.
I want to make a correction here. I don't know how much of BBN is preaching and how much is music, but I think a lot of the programming on BBN is music. And it's the good kind of Christian music, at least in my opinion. It would appeal to the people over 65, but there has to be an alternative to the noise on most Christian radio stations.
The more they become like folk and less like rock (such as Nathanial Rateliffe), the less likely they'll be heard on commercial radio.
In my observations of the charts, any mini folk music boom on the charts is a warning to brace yourself for a big change. They occurred right before The British Invasion, Disco, Grunge and Nu-Metal
But all that was before popular music went relentlessly uptempo and rhythmic. There had always been a place for ballads on the pop chart until the past decade or so.
Exactly! and what goes around comes around. Just follow the music tracks of history.
.....and that Nathaniel Rateliff "You worry me" is some pretty tasty rotation stuff right now on KNDD, KBCS/Carol, and KAPY/Valley 104.9. Folk, is that what you call it? Kinda like CSN, JT, Joni and Dylan in the early 70's. Seattle circa 2020, Another triple A commercial station breaks through the FM Mc Clutter, as the rip rap rhythm and the boy band production fake country age 20 something's move on to less contrived musical pastures ? Feel free to envision.......
AAA means (usually) Adult Alternative. The 'Adults' of 2020 that would be a AAA stations primary audience will be the ones we call Millennials today.
You know -- the hip hop generation.
I sort of doubt they're all going to embrace a form of folk music. AAA is sort of like New Age or Smooth Jazz. It's done. Specialty show only.
You know -- the hip hop generation.
I sort of doubt they're all going to embrace a form of folk music. AAA is sort of like New Age or Smooth Jazz. It's done. Specialty show only.
As much as I used to love this format, I have to agree with the sentiment.
Somebody mentioned the XM channel "The Loft" upthread. It's been 10 years since I have listened to that channel. I just don't get into the folk stuff anymore.
I worked for a major market AAA back in the early 90s. We kind of did our own thing when we didn't have any debt; we could pay the bills and turn a decent profit. Once we bought a couple more stations and had to pay a bank note, the musical adventure was over and we shifted to Hot AC because we needed more money coming in.
That's what I'm taking away from this conversation. If you're in a small market with the right lifestyle group (or you're a non-comm) and little to no debt load, you can take this format on if you can find enough direct business. But any decent signal in a major market comes with the debt load built in, and that kind of precludes narrow boutique formats.
I get my new age fix from a podcast these days. I still use as much broadcast radio as I used to. My use of new media has basically replaced my CD collection, not my radio listening.
If you build a radio station to be a mood service but people only use you once a week when they're in the mood for something acoustic, that's not an efficient use of a radio station.
I thought this was interesting and relevant to this conversation. Today NARAS announced it was adding some categories and changing others in order to get more diversity in the Grammy Awards. So one of the categories they're changing is Alternative. Here's how the describe it:
It is now defined as “a less intense version of Rock or a more intense version of Pop,” which “may embrace a variety of subgenres or any hybrids thereof and may include recordings that don’t fit into other genre categories.”
It is now defined as “a less intense version of Rock or a more intense version of Pop,” which “may embrace a variety of subgenres or any hybrids thereof and may include recordings that don’t fit into other genre categories.”
"Alternative" as a genre name is so dated. You mention alternative and the first thing people think of is Nirvana, Soundgarden and the usual Seattle grunge depression of the '90s and today's stuff is nothing like that. It's more indie pop than anything, musically much closer related to early '80s skinny tie power pop than Black Sabbath.
I'd agree with you -- except like you, I remember the 1990's, and the wide variety of stuff that was played on The End, as well as other alternative stations.
I'm not so sure how dated the term Alternative is, because it was always a wide format. Bands and artists like Weezer and Beck and Everlast really didn't sound all that much like grunge. Grunge was just a part of the mix, although it was the part of the genre that kicked the mix into the mainstream.
Today's alternative is also all over the place, and probably more than it was in the 90's, except today's alternative doesn't seem to have any heaviness to it -- there are no Pearl Jams, Nirvanas, and Soundgardens. So in that respect you are correct.
But there was a lot of indie pop in the Modern Rock and Alternative format back in the 90's and 00's, it's just that the rock has disappeared from the format.
One thing the Big A mentioned a month or so ago was that alternative is too nichified and wide -- they don't have any core artists that grab the mainstream. That is why it is struggling in many places as a format. I think I'd have to agree. Whatever core artists Alternative has aren't necessarily household names as they were 20 years ago. Formats seem to need that to be super viable.
If you don't have a core artist that grabs the mainstream or is a household name, is it really a core artist?
If your core artists can only pack small clubs, you probably will have trouble paying the bills.
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