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Seattle's "Rock" Station

A

Andy Travis

This afternoon on KISW within about 60 minutes, according to the online playlist:

Insane in the Brain - Cypress Hill

Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz

Jump Around - House of Pain

Not criticizing or approving. Just interesting.
 
This seems to be the direction that many rock stations with an “alternative” lean are going. It’s not really my cup of tea, but I think the same issues that plauge alternative also apply for active rock.
 
Andy Travis said:
This afternoon on KISW within about 60 minutes, according to the online playlist:

Insane in the Brain - Cypress Hill

Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz

Jump Around - House of Pain

Not criticizing or approving. Just interesting.
Click to expand...
Odd choices for an Active Rock station. I could see it if there wasn’t an Alternative station in the market, but they’ve got one in the same cluster.
 
CFOX 99.3 in Vancouver BC has a better music selection if you ask me, but they also don’t have another alternative station in their cluster. They combine rock and alternative pretty well, making use of the best of each “genre.” What KISW does so well is program great personality driven shows. I’d say KISW provides a good example of why personality still plays an important role in radio, as I don’t think music drives their ratings.

As for Audacy Seattle, they probably wouldn’t mind flipping 107.7 to something else, but there’s nothing else to flip it to. Many fans of the alternative format have dropped off with the evolution of the format and now they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
 
fordranger797 said:
What KISW does so well is program great personality driven shows. I’d say KISW provides a good example of why personality still plays an important role in radio, as I don’t think music drives their ratings.
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And that's my question: How are their personalities presenting this music that is obviously a bit outside the genre? What are they saying about it, or are they just dropping it in without comment?
 
TheBigA said:
And that's my question: How are their personalities presenting this music that is obviously a bit outside the genre? What are they saying about it, or are they just dropping it in without comment?
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Well, considering that mornings and afternoons are all talk with limited music mixed in, the conversation rarely makes reference to the music. Outside of the talk shows, I am not entirely sure. However, I would venture the guess that they only reference music that they want to rotate heavily, while using the other tracks to fill up the rest of the time.
 
fordranger797 said:
I would venture the guess that they only reference music that they want to rotate heavily, while using the other tracks to fill up the rest of the time.
Click to expand...

You made me curious, so I did a Mediabase search of their playlist to see how often they played the three artists in the OP. Here's what I found:

Cypress Hill: 4 spins total all week.
House of Pain: 3 spins total all week
Gorillaz: 2 spins all week.

They play Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix more often than any of the above. So my conclusion is it ain't no big thing.
 
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Do you have any data on when they began playing those titles to begin with? This is the first I'd seen it but I'm not a frequent listener outside of the afternoon show.
 
Andy Travis said:
Do you have any data on when they began playing those titles to begin with? This is the first I'd seen it but I'm not a frequent listener outside of the afternoon show.
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They’ve played these tracks for a while. I don’t think they fit the genre perfectly, but they aren’t jarring. I think most listeners are perfectly happy sitting through these songs. I’ve heard worse (in terms of jarring music selection) on Audacy classic hits stations.
 
Andy Travis said:
This afternoon on KISW within about 60 minutes, according to the online playlist:

Insane in the Brain - Cypress Hill

Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz

Jump Around - House of Pain

Not criticizing or approving. Just interesting.
Click to expand...
Simple: Yesterday's progressive is today's classic. Very similar to what happened with grunge.
Music ages with the audience.
 
I'd say that's pretty poor programming for all three of those songs only played a handful of times a week to all appear in the same hour, but I'm not surprised. When we had our house worked on, one of our contractors had on KISW and that's the first I heard House of Pain on that station, though I listened extremely rarely when in the market. This was in 2015.
 
bobdavcav said:
I'd say that's pretty poor programming for all three of those songs only played a handful of times a week to all appear in the same hour, but I'm not surprised. When we had our house worked on, one of our contractors had on KISW and that's the first I heard House of Pain on that station, though I listened extremely rarely when in the market. This was in 2015.
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Seems like your contractor wasn't offended by the music mix. Maybe you should consider broadening your horizons by listening more often?
 
3 lightly played library songs an hour doesn't seem to be excessive. Actually seems like a good way play the hits while keeping your sound fresh.

Don't forget that they make their money as a lifestyle station, playing no music at all for 8 hours a weekday. I know the branding is "rock" and they may be labeled as "Active Rock", but that is not their backbone. They are a talk station that plays harder edged classic rock, with occasional forays into new releases. The music is more attitudinal than anything, and the 3 songs you mentioned certainly fit that attitude even if they don't really fit the definition of rock. I am sure all 3 songs test well with the intended audience, or they wouldn't be heard.
 
Hmm, I guess I haven't really thought about the way things are actually done. I never said I or the contractor were offended by hearing House of Pain on KISW, but to me it seems odd that these three songs that don't fit the format all appeared in the same hour. I wouldn't have even commented had the period of discussion been three or six hours. I'm not sure if KISW plays it at all, but one I'd hear every once in a while on KFOO when that station was around was Lose Yourself by Eminem. Again not rock, but also again not one played that often. While that music isn't my cup of tea usually, I thought KFOO was quite well done.
 
bobdavcav said:
Hmm, I guess I haven't really thought about the way things are actually done. I never said I or the contractor were offended by hearing House of Pain on KISW, but to me it seems odd that these three songs that don't fit the format all appeared in the same hour. I wouldn't have even commented had the period of discussion been three or six hours. I'm not sure if KISW plays it at all, but one I'd hear every once in a while on KFOO when that station was around was Lose Yourself by Eminem. Again not rock, but also again not one played that often. While that music isn't my cup of tea usually, I thought KFOO was quite well done.
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Again, you are tying your thinking into an idea of a music format, and that format is active rock. These songs absolutely fit the format of KISW, but that format is "male oriented talk and music that resonates with that same crew in the off hours."

Their brand is the Rock of Seattle. They use music that "rocks" their listeners as a branding reinforcement. The fact that the songs that rock are not necessarily or always rock songs is immaterial - I believe they bill quite well as they are delivering some pretty key demographics.

Not saying I am disagreeing with your feelings here, Bob- I am a rock fan from long ago. But this is not a rock station. It is a Rock(TM) station. If somehow Taylor Swift tested well against The Men's Room demos- then Taylor would be on 99.9
 
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