Alternative or Country to reappear in NYC

[Tony Santiago]

Does the fact that a dance format can't make any money figure into this discussion?

No it doesn't, for the reasons why I've listed.

[MarcR]

With the way things are going, you'll probably see a dance station come 2012.

 Maybe I'll ask Mitt Romney if I could borrow $10,000 so I can bet you that we *won't* have a current-dance formatted station by the end of the year! 

[MarcR]

  Stations such as 92.3 Now have become more dance leaning in their CHR presentation. 

 And Now-FM also performs quite poorly (for a CHR station) in the ratings. Any switch to a full dance format would probably result in even worse numbers.

[MarcR]

New York is not a rock town unfortunately.

 New York certainly isn't an Active Rock town, but the Alt-Rock format, when executed properly, has advantages that other Rock formats lack, the most important of which being its appeal to women. I think I read in Billboard that the Alt-Rock format has an audience composition of 60% male and 40% women, which could make such a formatted station competitive even in an otherwise Rock-ambivalent market like New York City.

[Seltzer]

Well I'll open up the can of worms: If you want to put on a format that would have high female appeal, features more artists that people actually like than any other genre in America, has strong cross over appeal evidenced by the artists that have been successful, and has artists from OTHER genres interested in crossing over to it, then a very current based Hit Country station is the way to go. You'll make your money in the suburbs.

NYC has enough urban based stations. Enough AC type stations. If I'm a bottom feeder in the ratings going nowhere, why NOT give it a shot?

[Jersey Maiden]

Anyone think that if 101.9 decides to flip they'll flip either back to Alternative Rock or to Country? With the sale of BLS do you think that they'll switch to country or alternative? 103.5 KTU do you think they will go back to leaning more dance to protect Z or flip to Alternative as Radio 103.5 like their sister station Radio 104.5 in Philly? Do you thihk that 105.1 will flip to Alternative as Radio 105.1?

Well, other people have already went over KTU.  WWPR does better than WQHT in overall ratings (although it's not that way for Middlesex-Somerset-Union) so why would CC flip it?  And I like WWPR's morning show so I don't want to go anywhere. 

Does the fact that a dance format can't make any money figure into this discussion?

I'm sure it will make more money than vagina news.

New York certainly isn't an Active Rock town, but the Alt-Rock format, when executed properly, has advantages that other Rock formats lack, the most important of which being its appeal to women. I think I read in Billboard that the Alt-Rock format has an audience composition of 60% male and 40% women, which could make such a formatted station competitive even in an otherwise Rock-ambivalent market like New York City.

There's also the fact that any active rocker in New York would have to compete with suburban stations like WDHA.  They do well in north Jersey so to go up against it would be foolish.  DHA serves my active rock needs just fine, now all I need is someone to play the alternative I've been missing since WRXP got sold.  As for whether they'll come back in the future, I guess that depends on whether Emmis' financial situation improves.  From my understanding, they still have a minority share in WEMP (Merlin is LMAing).  I'm sure the station will go back to Emmis if Merlin fails.  I can't imagine the station flipping to anything other than rock (their final share was 2.5 and 3.0 for Middlesex-Somerset-Union) unless Emmis tries to sell it again. 

[TheWitch]

In this day and age, the lines have been blurred between Alt rock, and any other rock. Why can't there be a great rock station that plays it all? NYC IS a rock city. There's just no rock radio that's worth listening to for the avid rock fan, that wants to hear it all. It has to be properly programmed by rock music programmers who know how to do it, without consultants and testing messing it up. It ends up sounding like every other channel and that's why they fail. Instinct & great ears, is how they did it back then. Plenty of artists were played on the radio because the DJ, yes the DJ decided to take a chance, and play a song that he/she thought we'd like. I can't tell you how many times I hear new songs that work perfectly with a classic. It's a lost art form. It needs to come back.

[Tony Santiago]

  Stations such as 92.3 Now have become more dance leaning in their CHR presentation. 

 And Now-FM also performs quite poorly (for a CHR station) in the ratings. Any switch to a full dance format would probably result in even worse numbers.

Two words MarcR....

STOP HATING!!!!!

It's like a broken record, I swear.....

[Tony Santiago]

In this day and age, the lines have been blurred between Alt rock, and any other rock. Why can't there be a great rock station that plays it all? NYC IS a rock city. There's just no rock radio that's worth listening to for the avid rock fan, that wants to hear it all. It has to be properly programmed by rock music programmers who know how to do it, without consultants and testing messing it up. It ends up sounding like every other channel and that's why they fail. Instinct & great ears, is how they did it back then. Plenty of artists were played on the radio because the DJ, yes the DJ decided to take a chance, and play a song that he/she thought we'd like. I can't tell you how many times I hear new songs that work perfectly with a classic. It's a lost art form. It needs to come back.

I hate to say it but NYC is not a rock town.  New York is more of an urban city if you're going to get right down to it.

That doesn't mean that rock won't work out.  But, unfortunately, rock doesn't have that strong hold as it used to.  Certainly not on the generation under the age of 25 right now.  However, since we are going to get to an alternative rock discussion that some of you MAY flip out on....if an alternative station WERE to happen, it would be VERY smart for them to include "dubstep" into the format.  Most people do consider dubstep as EDM (Electronic Dance Music) and I get that.  However, the sounds involved in it certainly spell out angst and "rebellion".  The sound has become HUGE amongst college age students.  Skrillex, the main producer in this genre, has been nominated for 5 grammys this year.  People in dance music either really love it or really hate it, but for what is worth, since yes the lines have been blurred, alternative stations would be missing the boat if they ignored dubstep.

Back to rock real quick, mainly so that MarcR doesn't accuse ME of hating, I'm spelling out that facts based on trends and not on hate because if there is anything that is true, NO MUSIC STINKS.  It is all relative based on one's tastes.  I may not like a certain sound but I'm not going to bash anyone for loving it.  And damned that I won't fight back on comments from people such as a MarcR.

TS

[TheWitch]

I'll always know & argue the point, that NYC is a rock town. The clubs I go see bands in, are always packed with people in their 20's to people in their 50's! Webster hall was packed when I went to see the Black keys a short time ago. That's just one example. People are craving good rock music. Rock music & rock fans still live on, in NY.