Typical misconception of how things really are in Atlanta. The Black population of Atlanta is so big that it is not a single, monolithic bloc in which everyone shares an identical "urban" perspective. I had been told this by Black people about Atlanta before I moved here, but when I arrived, I soon learned the truth of it. In Atlanta, being Black doesn't mean very much. It means next to nothing. The Black community is as fragmented and segmented as the White community. Black people don't automatically tune in the "urban" stations because it's expected of them. They don't let people dictate to them what they're expected to like and support.
As for "Hispanics", when you remove the illegal aliens from consideration, there aren't as many as you might think. But of the people here who come from countries where Spanish is the dominant language, some are Mexicans and many others are Cubans, Puerto Ricans, or are from other Caribbean, Central and South American countries. People from Ecuador, Peru, Columbia, Argentina, or any of the other non-Mexican Spanish speaking nations aren't automatically going to embrace stations that play Mexican music. That would be like expecting all people of European ancestry to want to listen to Polkas, even if their ancestors were Greek or Norwegian.
Excellent post, as usual Avid.
Most black folks I know in my pier group don't listen to Atlanta radio at all. My boss is black and if she listens to radio, it's online either V-103 out of not Atlanta but Chicago or WBLS from NYC. I asked why not any of the many "black" stations in ATL and she said "they don't play anything I like". It's either that or she jams to her wide selection of MP3 files like most everyone else these days. My best friend, who also happens to be black and my age, never listens to terrestrial radio and gave up on it about 10 years ago. Same reason: nothing of interest to him. When he is in the car, he has a hard drive he connects to his stereo. His musical genre ranges from 1960's Motown to modern hip-hop and local hip-hop DJ mixes, again NEITHER of these are available to him on OTA radio.
My other black friends who do listen to OTA radio in this market listen to Kiss 104. I asked my one female friend who is 41 why not V-103, or Hot 107.9 "too much hard core hip-hop and I'm old school, and I don't have an MP3 car stereo so there really isn't anything else to listen to on the dial". Yet I've listened to Kiss 104 and they you'll hardly ever hear anything from any R&B artists before 1990. Certainly no MoTown or 70s disco. But she settles for what is there, but once she has a choice (and gets a new stereo or car), will she still tune in? Doubtful.
So "white" audiences are just as ignored in this market as so-called "black" ones. I personally miss Jammin 107.5 when Radio One first put it on the air in 1997/1998. It was a deep reaching playlist not heard anywhere else. 99.3 is about as close as it comes to this, but with a w e a k translator of a class C AM, will people like my friends shut off their crystal clear MP3 collections to put up with static crashes and ads? I doubt it. Most radio listeners tune out if a signal is full of static and when the first obnoxious ad comes on, hitting the next preset button for whoever is playing MUSIC or CONTENT they find interesting. This market's dial is lined with homogeneous corporate big stick formats full of babbling right wingers, lame voice tracked music stations, or even crappier sounding translators with poor audio quality and even poorer playlists. (97.9, what a waste of RF.)
The way this market is programmed is caustic when it comes to music formats and all it is doing is causing people to just say "fork it" with OTA radio. It's not like any of the content is local anymore. All voice tracked from somewhere else and all carefully selected by a computer programmed by some suit in Dallas, TX or NYC or the butt crack of America for that matter.
If people want to listen to "carefully selected computer programmed" music, they can get that on their I-whatever with the exact playlist THEY want when they want it, without the blaring ads for sleazy title pawn brokers and "natural male enhancement" spots.
Gone are the local DJ's who interacted with the listeners and made radio fun. Maybe if there was some local compelling CONTENT more people would tune in.
Oh wait, we had that, it was called Album 88 and Georgia State and the gold dome good ol' boys put the brakes on that.
(okay here's where all the corporate suit "experts" are gonna tell me I'm wrong so have at it)
