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2023 Format Changes
- Thread starter MVB13
- Start date
Country, Alternative, Standards and Active Rock will return....maybe not all in 23 but by 25....
If Michael Kay retires, I see 98.7 ESPN Radio rebranding, but not dropping sports.
Country and standards are no starters around here, for the millionth time.
I know most people on this forum don’t want to hear this : Throwback Dance. KTU is already doing it in slight variations. I was going to do a thread about this but this subject keeps coming up. It’s not going to happen though so I’ll happily go back to my SiriusXM.
Same goes for Alternative. I can't think of a format that failed more times in NYC, not to mention nationally.
While country has decent overall advertiser appeal, it has never been sellable in this market.
If Dance had the same Corporate support that Alternative has had…. And I say that as someone who listens to Alternative.
Btw this is NYC. Do you know how many House/Freestyle/Dance artists are native to this market? I follow Freestyle artists on FB and their calendar is packed every weekend with shows.
Actually, I’m kinda glad this music went back to being underground. It helped it from becoming cookie cutterized.
Btw this is NYC. Do you know how many House/Freestyle/Dance artists are native to this market? I follow Freestyle artists on FB and their calendar is packed every weekend with shows.
Actually, I’m kinda glad this music went back to being underground. It helped it from becoming cookie cutterized.
The owner of 98.7 is pretty committed to the ESPN brand in all of the markets where they own stations.
I predict John Sterling retires before Michael Kay.
Alternative should never return to NYC. While I like the format, it's been mostly a flop nationwide with many stations flipping from the format. The genre is too fragmented. I belong to the "Billie Eilish isn't alternative" group
While we can all argue forever on whether Alternative should be of terrestrial radio in New York, I disagree that the format is a failure. Your assertion that the format is too fragmented doesn't fly. The corporate Aternative format is so safe and pretty heavy on the (Alt) classic rock side these days. I was one of those who actually enjoyed the music that Alternative radio was pumping out. The format sounded fresh and actually appealing, even for the 50 year old, that I am. I am on the side of Billie Eillish IS Alternative. In my opinion, Alternative has only been seen as a "male" format, because thats what the owners wanted. A true Alternative station has a wide gender spread, able to appeal to both male and female.
Yet when Billie Eilish started getting airplay, only the men objected. Very loudly.
You've essentially written a description of why alternative ISN'T a viable format. No consensus from which to build.
Formats are not created based on what you believe are "corporate" agendas. They are built on what owners believe can deliver meaningful numbers of listeners that are sought after by advertisers.
The problem with that is Alternative Rock from the '90s is now being played by... you guessed it... Classic Rock stations. And the pre-grunge-era New Wave stuff is being played by Classic Hits stations -- an even a few Classic Rock stations who are adventurous enough to play A-Ha, the Human League, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, etc.
Corporate radio is all but incompatible with an Alternative format. The fact is corporate radio is all about serving the masses while the very meaning of the term, "Alternative" is to say it's not mainstream. The whole point was to play new music and not play it safe, that's why it doesn't work when the conglomerates try to run it according to their playbook.
The best Alternative stations in history were not started by huge corporations.
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I forgot to mention Dance! Good one!
Billie Eilish is Alternative absolutely.
Maybe. At the time Infinity bought KROQ, it was a huge radio corporation. It became even bigger in the 90s. But KROQ flipped to alternative under Infinity ownership.
You focus on ownership, but the fact is that the alternative audience was a lot more tolerant in the 90s. Fans of KROQ were fans of the station and its presentation, not just specific artists or bands.
I knew someone was going to bring up KROQ.
I didn't grow up in California so my knowledge of that station's history is limited to what I have read, but I'm pretty sure it was playing edgy rock and new wave long before Infinity bought it in 1986. At that time its heritage would have been well established, even if "Alternative" wasn't in the radio/music lexicon yet. Also, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that relaxed ownership caps was still ten years in the future so while Infinity was a big company, it was not yet 'huge' like today's conglomerates.
Alternative wasn't always seen as a male dominated format. Remember the 90s with Sheryl Crow, Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette and others making it more of a modern A/C-AAA leaning format?
If a playlist is "safe" and earns crap ratings, is it really safe?
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