Re: why i dont listen to rock radio
> > > The decline in rock radio is actually a sea change.
> > >
> > > The traditional audience for rock stations, young adult
> > men,
> > > are now more likely to tune-into rap and hip-hop.
> > >
> > > Also, some markets have seen an explosive growth in the
> > > Hispanic population over the last few years.
> > >
> > > Put both of them together, and you get an idea why rock
> > > radio is in trouble. It's traditional target audience is
>
> > > less likely to liusten to it, and there is a growing
> > > Hispanic audience that some broadcasters feel they'd
> make
> > > more money serving than rock fans.
> > >
> > The growing Hispasnic population is the biggest threat,
> > depending on the market, but I don't think teens and 20
> > somethings are listening to hip hop more, but rather to
> the
> > CHR that apears to have a fair content of rock, along with
>
> > the hip hop and rap. WKSE in Buffalo NY may be a good
> > example of that.
> >
> > Wild 101 was supposed to take the hip hop listener away
> from
> > Kiss 98five(WKSE) but that failed. Now both stations are
> > very CHR...it'll be interesting to see what happens there.
>
> > (Wild is adding more rock to their CHR format)
> >
> i am one of those young men. well 30 something anyway
..i
> dont listen to rap. i hate rap! but i rarely listen to
> classic rock fm radio. not because of another format. but
> because of the fact that they all play the same 200 songs
> over and over again. same with active rock except the format
> only plays about 40 songs over and over again. and i just
> plain hate alternative music. i prefer 80s metal or classic
> country. 1 of the 2 i can find on the radio..but again due
> to repetition i rarely listen to it. all that being said my
> music now usually comes from 1 of 3 sources. 1. my cds. 2.
> live 365. 3. xm radio i still aircheck fm but rarely do i
> actually sit and listen to it for any lenght of time. its
> hard to break old habits. i have been airchecking since i
> discovered wls am 89 in 1979. i will probably do it as long
> as the radio exists. my tsl per station usually ..less than
> 10 seconds. or if the station is new like 1067 new
> orleans..20 minutes..
>
Personally, I've seen the white guys into the rap but I see a lot of them are starting to get tired of rap with the football moms listening to eminmem and the other main artists, as well as rap in general right now starting to fall into the same traps rock has fallen into with predicatble beats (however with rap I find it is actually more limited) as the rap crowd hasn't had a real breakthru sound since the New Orleans Bounce/Dirty south type sound a few years ago.
I agree the Hispanic crowd is growing in numbers and in areas that say 15 years ago we didn't expect to see them in numbers. I find the radio companies will flip any underperforming station or one that isn't hitting in the 25-49 demo even though it may be hitting else where in good numbers..Hince new rock stations usually getting the axe.
The traditional audience of rock radio is actually experimenting with a few formats including country music and classic rock I find. and will flip between those two, hip hop and new rock in just a few songs in a mash up that even "Jack" can't fathom.
We need more variety in the rock or the playlist to keep people IMO as terrestrial radio has been stuck on the same 200 no matter if it's classic or one of the new rock stations and stations that play lesser known hits are usually hidden in the country away from big city audiences.
People have been turning to sat radio, but I find with any medium you need some familiar songs with that wider playlist to get people to stay and sat radio depending upon the channels sometimes does that but with rock I know XM stays with groups/songs not normally seen on radio (or at least when I've tuned for new rock) which is all and fine but most people IMO like a little familiarity that XM and sirius sometimes don't offer...
The situation in New Orleans was weird... the alt rock station was doing better in the cluster than another station that was loosing listenership..but I think they had the country station on tap for a radio station the company was planning on purchasing but fell thru and with the alt rocker already off 4 months due to Katrina, made it easier on which one to flip... There are currently those who liked both old (new rock) and new (country with an attitude) stations..I'm one of them and many former listeners are announcing the displeasure of loosing the new rock station to the suits here in New Orleans..but It won't due any good unless they flip the station loosing listenership (which is one of the managers pet projects and is the station most new rockers would love see flip back to the rock format).
I'm just waiting on another owner to flip to new rock and prove the company what mistake they made
RFLA