What's Wrong With Local Radio? What ISN'T?
As I am now officially a grad student-to-be at one of the most prestigious communications schools in the country (name withheld because I'd rather they not toss me out before day ONE due to this blog), and I've put in my time in the radio business, I'm declaring myself an authority on the local radio scene here in Syracuse. It's time for the future professor to weigh in on what is indeed a sorry state of affairs in market #80.
Now I'm going to try not to get into a technical discussion about formatics and such, cuz I know most of you could not care less, so let me hook you with this... When I hop in my car and put on the radio (which these days is the only time I do listen to the radio), I just want to hear good music that hasn't been overplayed to death. Sometimes I want to hear older stuff, sometimes I want to hear newer stuff, and I want to hear different kinds of music. The DJ's are secondary, but my only real requirement for them is that they just have the ability to sound like they know what they're doing. Now how many of you out there are like me in these simple requirements? Probably a lot...
Every station in town flunks on at least one of these counts.
First of all, no station has all live DJs from 6am-midnight anymore. Not in this town. Every station has at least one DJ who is pre-recorded and computer-fed to the masses. I don't listen to every radio station in town, because I don't like light adult pop (otherwise known as "elevator music") or country, but I know enough about those stations to know that at minimum one part of the day, DJ "such-and-such" is actually DJ "such-and-such in a can". But hey, all these big and small radio companies have to save a buck somewhere, so this is where they've chosen to do it... by reducing DJs to pre-recording their shows so they can do other things while their show airs... or worse yet, get sent home because they've done their day's work in the 30 minutes it took them to pre-record.
Now we'll just narrow down to the ones I listen to. I'm a rock fan, so my 3 choices are TK99, the "classic rock station", 95X, the regular rock station, and K-Rock, the so-called "alternative" station. At least there is choice between these three stations, so you'll never hear the same beaten-to-death AC/DC or Scorpions song on all 3 stations at once... but even 2 out of 3 is too much for me. I'm sorry but when was it decreed that AC/DC and the Scorpions are core rock station artists? I used to LIKE AC/DC, but that was before every song in the catalog got thrown on rock stations and you couldn't go more than 90 minutes without hearing one of them. And the Scorpions had 3 hit songs... there is no need to put every non-hit they put out on the radio... and definitely not every 90 minutes.
TK's DJs are a pretty solid group, and I love Mimi Griswold's "Blue Moon Cafe" on Sunday mornings, perfect light music for that time slot. 95X's DJs? Ouch. Stone is okay; the others sound like all they know how to do is read a card that says "Give name of artist and name of song, then the name of the album it came from." And that's all they say, every time they turn on the microphone. Yeah, that's something that probably only bothers radio vets like me, but still, it's irritating. Good move, however, putting "Opie and Anthony" on in the mornings.
So that takes care of my problems with TK and X, which leaves the "so-called" alternative station, K-Rock. I am currently listening to an Internet stream of DC101 in Washington, one of the most well-known alternative stations in the country... they are playing "When You Were Young" by the Killers, which was the #1 alternative song in the country for several weeks last fall. K-Rock NEVER PLAYED IT. Over the past two years, this station has morphed from one that had actual diversity in its playlist to one that plays one type of rock and that's it... hard rock. Nothing that sounds even remotely pop-sounding. Zero female artists. If a current hit song does not fit the one type they're looking for, they don't play it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of K-Rock's "core" artists, and K-Rock refused to play the song "Snow", which also went to #1; they played a different album track instead, one that was harder. As of today, I haven't heard the new Incubus hit ("Dig") on K-Rock... as it's a lighter song, I doubt they'll play it at all.
And the final straw... they just added NASCAR. Alternative stations DO NOT RUN NASCAR RACES!!! The typical NASCAR fan does not want to hear the Killers or the Red Hot Chili Peppers... they want to hear Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet. Galaxy Communications, the owner of K-Rock, also owns TK... and wouldn't it make actual sense if NASCAR was put on the station that played the music NASCAR fans want to hear? Which leads me to this conclusion... K-Rock will change format within 6 months to become another regular rock station like 95X, and Syracuse will truly be without an alternative rock station. Although we're pretty close to not having one already...
93Q is the heritage pop station, but in recent months it has traded the ratings crown back and forth with Hot 107, its more R&B/rap-flavored rival. Since most pop music for me is unlistenable, I only listen when they play a song I like. 93Q's morning show is BEYOND unlistenable, and I'm willing to bet it may be why Hot beats them in the ratings. You have a station that from 10am-6am plays music aimed at young adult women (and kids, of course), and then from 6-10am you have a show that sounds like it is aimed at middle-aged soccer moms, and ONLY them. So your morning audience (sizable though it may be) doesn't follow you to the rest of the day and the audience the rest of the day tunes out then.
A quick word about AM's... WSYR does a good job of providing entertaining talk and good news coverage... but the weekend news people are AWFUL. I know this is where you get the college kids doing their first professional job, but at least make sure they sound good enough to go on air before just throwing them on. WHEN is a decent station, but corporate owner Clear Channel cooked their goose when they made WHEN fire Brent Axe just to cross off another line on the balance sheet.
So there ya go... radio in this town, for the most part, sucks. So what's the alternative? Well, for many it's satellite radio. I've toyed with the idea of getting one of those, but I fear it will just become another "toy" I don't use enough. So I listen to CDs, and a growing number of people are doing that too. You would think this would alarm the local stations so that they would do something to get these people back. Well, no; they're too lazy to do this, either that or they laid off their whole research departments a long time ago. So they just focus on the listeners they have left and what those people want... which leads to these one-flavor radio stations, and more frustrated fans leaving to find diversity. It's a vicious cycle.
Thing is, I don't really know how to fix it. Perhaps when I have a Masters, the answer will magically come to me...
Now I'm going to try not to get into a technical discussion about formatics and such, cuz I know most of you could not care less, so let me hook you with this... When I hop in my car and put on the radio (which these days is the only time I do listen to the radio), I just want to hear good music that hasn't been overplayed to death. Sometimes I want to hear older stuff, sometimes I want to hear newer stuff, and I want to hear different kinds of music. The DJ's are secondary, but my only real requirement for them is that they just have the ability to sound like they know what they're doing. Now how many of you out there are like me in these simple requirements? Probably a lot...
Every station in town flunks on at least one of these counts.
First of all, no station has all live DJs from 6am-midnight anymore. Not in this town. Every station has at least one DJ who is pre-recorded and computer-fed to the masses. I don't listen to every radio station in town, because I don't like light adult pop (otherwise known as "elevator music") or country, but I know enough about those stations to know that at minimum one part of the day, DJ "such-and-such" is actually DJ "such-and-such in a can". But hey, all these big and small radio companies have to save a buck somewhere, so this is where they've chosen to do it... by reducing DJs to pre-recording their shows so they can do other things while their show airs... or worse yet, get sent home because they've done their day's work in the 30 minutes it took them to pre-record.
Now we'll just narrow down to the ones I listen to. I'm a rock fan, so my 3 choices are TK99, the "classic rock station", 95X, the regular rock station, and K-Rock, the so-called "alternative" station. At least there is choice between these three stations, so you'll never hear the same beaten-to-death AC/DC or Scorpions song on all 3 stations at once... but even 2 out of 3 is too much for me. I'm sorry but when was it decreed that AC/DC and the Scorpions are core rock station artists? I used to LIKE AC/DC, but that was before every song in the catalog got thrown on rock stations and you couldn't go more than 90 minutes without hearing one of them. And the Scorpions had 3 hit songs... there is no need to put every non-hit they put out on the radio... and definitely not every 90 minutes.
TK's DJs are a pretty solid group, and I love Mimi Griswold's "Blue Moon Cafe" on Sunday mornings, perfect light music for that time slot. 95X's DJs? Ouch. Stone is okay; the others sound like all they know how to do is read a card that says "Give name of artist and name of song, then the name of the album it came from." And that's all they say, every time they turn on the microphone. Yeah, that's something that probably only bothers radio vets like me, but still, it's irritating. Good move, however, putting "Opie and Anthony" on in the mornings.
So that takes care of my problems with TK and X, which leaves the "so-called" alternative station, K-Rock. I am currently listening to an Internet stream of DC101 in Washington, one of the most well-known alternative stations in the country... they are playing "When You Were Young" by the Killers, which was the #1 alternative song in the country for several weeks last fall. K-Rock NEVER PLAYED IT. Over the past two years, this station has morphed from one that had actual diversity in its playlist to one that plays one type of rock and that's it... hard rock. Nothing that sounds even remotely pop-sounding. Zero female artists. If a current hit song does not fit the one type they're looking for, they don't play it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of K-Rock's "core" artists, and K-Rock refused to play the song "Snow", which also went to #1; they played a different album track instead, one that was harder. As of today, I haven't heard the new Incubus hit ("Dig") on K-Rock... as it's a lighter song, I doubt they'll play it at all.
And the final straw... they just added NASCAR. Alternative stations DO NOT RUN NASCAR RACES!!! The typical NASCAR fan does not want to hear the Killers or the Red Hot Chili Peppers... they want to hear Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet. Galaxy Communications, the owner of K-Rock, also owns TK... and wouldn't it make actual sense if NASCAR was put on the station that played the music NASCAR fans want to hear? Which leads me to this conclusion... K-Rock will change format within 6 months to become another regular rock station like 95X, and Syracuse will truly be without an alternative rock station. Although we're pretty close to not having one already...
93Q is the heritage pop station, but in recent months it has traded the ratings crown back and forth with Hot 107, its more R&B/rap-flavored rival. Since most pop music for me is unlistenable, I only listen when they play a song I like. 93Q's morning show is BEYOND unlistenable, and I'm willing to bet it may be why Hot beats them in the ratings. You have a station that from 10am-6am plays music aimed at young adult women (and kids, of course), and then from 6-10am you have a show that sounds like it is aimed at middle-aged soccer moms, and ONLY them. So your morning audience (sizable though it may be) doesn't follow you to the rest of the day and the audience the rest of the day tunes out then.
A quick word about AM's... WSYR does a good job of providing entertaining talk and good news coverage... but the weekend news people are AWFUL. I know this is where you get the college kids doing their first professional job, but at least make sure they sound good enough to go on air before just throwing them on. WHEN is a decent station, but corporate owner Clear Channel cooked their goose when they made WHEN fire Brent Axe just to cross off another line on the balance sheet.
So there ya go... radio in this town, for the most part, sucks. So what's the alternative? Well, for many it's satellite radio. I've toyed with the idea of getting one of those, but I fear it will just become another "toy" I don't use enough. So I listen to CDs, and a growing number of people are doing that too. You would think this would alarm the local stations so that they would do something to get these people back. Well, no; they're too lazy to do this, either that or they laid off their whole research departments a long time ago. So they just focus on the listeners they have left and what those people want... which leads to these one-flavor radio stations, and more frustrated fans leaving to find diversity. It's a vicious cycle.
Thing is, I don't really know how to fix it. Perhaps when I have a Masters, the answer will magically come to me...
posted by Dave | 8:45 PM
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