I think that a lot of it has to do with people moving to streaming rather than the radio ever since the pandemic when it comes to Pop radios low ratings.
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Atlanta Radio Ratings: September 2023
- Thread starter pjc1961
- Start date
So? The audience has aged. The content has changed as a result.
To reiterate, for what seems like the millionth time that has been said to you personally on this board…
The current iteration of 99X is classic alt, NOT all new and only new alt. Those behind the effort knew that focusing on classics would work better in the market than playing music that does NOT test well. That is literally why this station is doing well - if it played all new and only new alt, you would not see the numbers that were just released. They’d be a perennial 20ish placed station, be a terrible biller, and change formats in a few years.
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I wonder why WSB dropped so fast from 2020 to 2021? Going from #4 biller to #12 is big drop. Where were they in 2022?BIA puts out an annual press release that features the Top 10 Billing stations in the US.
For more info, you'd have to cough up a few thousand dollars to access their reports.
@DavidEduardo can shed more light on this.
For example: WSB-AM was the #4 national biller in 2020 and #12 in 2021:
WTOP Top Biller in 2020 - Radio Ink
With $62 million in revenue in 2020, Hubbard Radio's WTOP in Washington, DC was by far the top billing radio station in 2020, according to new data from BIA Advisory Services. iHeartMedia's KIIS-FM in Los Angeles was next at $38.9 million.radioink.com
All News Captures Four Of BIA’s Top Ten Billing Stations In 2021.
For an eighth consecutive year, Hubbard Radio’s WTOP-FM Washington, DC (103.5) was the top billing radio station in 2021, according to BIA Advisory Services. The news giant pulled $70 millionwww.insideradio.com
No revenue from presidential/congressional election campaigns probably explains it.
Yep. Tons of money being poured in. No point wasting your dollars on Wyoming.
Then how come 91X has terrible numbers with classic alt? I don't want all new and only new, you need a mix of both.
screw your tests, you gotta appeal to music lovers and young people
Also reminder they put these wonderful gentlemen appealing to the youth and local atlanta scene out of a job by changing their format.
Though as much as I am salty by this blandening of alt radio across the country, I will say 99X's mix is more interesting than 91X, but it's also interesting they do play stuff like Kongos, Of Monsters and Men and stuff which was 2010's. I love that, but it seems weird they can't at least play SOME new songs they might think the audience could like, Organic X seems to a bit.
Alternative charts are not even bad, and there's always something great going on.
Alternative charts are not even bad, and there's always something great going on.
1. Radio is a business. Testing is a part of that, especially if you want to keep your job and the ad $ rolling in.
2. No, you don’t have to target young people for every single format.
But sure, play a bunch of new and only new alternative on a commercial, full-powered frequency (not a translator) in 2023, and see how that works.
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Yet some hosts of specialty programming could also be working in sales or another off-air position, but go on.
1. How does the testing work specifically? Do they test audiences of local markets? How many people? It might be flawed imo.
2. Alternative has always been a youth-appealing format, are you daft?? Who was the people listening to it back in the 90s, pretty sure it wasn't gen x's parents. How come there's lots of bands with a devoted young fanbase I see on my feed all the time on Twitter? (Fall Out Boy, Twenty One Pilots, IDKHOW, Lovejoy, Boygenius, etc. etc., all current alternative acts)? How come there's hundreds of thousands of saves for alternative playlists? What about bands like Glass Animals, Foo Fighters, etc having 10s of millions of listeners on Spotify? Or critically acclaimed Indie singer-songwriter Mitski starting to blow up with her song "My Love Mine All Mine" on the Spotify top charts? Explain this to me.
@garrettloudin is working for a small dallas country station, Evan Brando I'm not sure if he's even working for 99X anymore, I talked to him before.
It is funny however how the cool local music show had more engagement on social media than 99x's tweets about goo goo dolls or whatever. Such a barren twitter page.
But even if they do a different position, I wouldn't be surprised if some young worker for the station is like "damn, I miss when we played new music".
I talked to 2 91x people who do marketing when I went to resurrection sunday's live meetup, they missed new music and told me to "keep fighting the good fight".
I talked to 2 91x people who do marketing when I went to resurrection sunday's live meetup, they missed new music and told me to "keep fighting the good fight".
1. Focus groups and call out testing - David Eduardo can explain more than me.
2. Don’t call me daft, buddy. (I’m not that much older than you.) (And no, alternative has always targeted a diverse audience, young and old.)
3. What’s popular on Spotify and streaming doesn’t always translate to radio airplay.
4. All those bands/artists (except for Boygenius and Lovejoy) have been around for some time - Gen Z and people in your age group are finally coming into their own and discovering them either through their parents or on their own.
5. Not all new songs are that good and/or memorable - that’s why they’re either never played, or get spun for a week or two, then dropped. You know what helps with that? Testing, so you know the audience will actually like or tolerate them. Playing a bunch of new crap (for the lack of a better term) and expecting the already barely existing and what remains of a longtime stable core audience to even sit through it for something better because it’s what you specifically want is not a recipe for disaster. (Did you completely forget about what Audacy did with their alts during the height of the pandemic, and how it backfired on them?) If you were a PD, it would cost you your job.
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Well i find it to be unfair, since it's all a matter of opinion. If EVERY song that's new gets that testing, then I think it's unfair in general, because outside of radio they seem to have devoted people who love listening to those songs?? I really just see it as bias for how alternative is "dead" or something. which i heavily disagree. Why would people just want to hear the same stuff over and over? It's boring.
Also I find the way corporate alt stations spin their new tunes to be very flawed, I noticed 94.9 (an audacy station) plays half of their currents late nights only... are those supposed to be the songs that don't do well with focus groups?? How the hell do they know if the local audiences or not like them? What about 91x spinning their currents about 3-4 months? Does that mean 91x listeners like it or they don't?
I find a lot of new stuff to be memorable and good, people have ridiculous standards nowadays on what should or shouldn't be on this format, it's so dumb.
I find a lot of new stuff to be memorable and good, people have ridiculous standards nowadays on what should or shouldn't be on this format, it's so dumb.
It isn’t dead, but it’s not the same format that had dominant power and influence as it did in the 90s.
And why do people want to hear the same stuff over and over? Because familiarity works and sells - human beings are guilty of it.