Rock Radio is Back ... but as what??

[Hoosier Daddy]

Rock Radio Is Back . . . But As What?
Entry by Sean Ross


Before PPM, younger targeted Rock Radio (which is to say anything younger than Classic Rock) found itself multiply challenged. Younger listeners were either listening less or just less measurably, while many of those who were still reachable seemed as interested in Classic Rock as today's Rock.

Since PPM results were unveiled in Philadelphia and Houston, the format's prospects are looking a lot better -- as evidenced by a wave of station building in recent weeks. But that doesn't mean the existential question about what Rock Radio means to listeners in 2007 is not still hanging over the format.

This article began as a look at two different takes on launching a rock station: CBS' WXRK (K-Rock) New York and Clear Channel's WRFF (Radio 104.5) Philadelphia. Then, a few days ago, WRFF and incumbent WMMR were joined by the return of music (outside mornings and afternoons) at heritage WYSP. For its part, WRFF is one of a number of launches somewhere on the Modern/Hot AC seam for Clear Channel over the last year, the most recent being WVMX (Radio 94.1) Cincinnati, which is going up against the not-so-different WSWD (the Sound), which covers that same territory slightly differently. (In the interest of disclosure, WMMR is an Edison client.)

If written two months ago, this article would have said that K-Rock and Radio 104.5 were polar opposites -- at least presentationally. K-Rock, even with a properly tight sign-on list, felt very aggressive -- perhaps because of its imaging. Radio 104.5, by comparison, was deliberately low-key, and poppier -- very clearly cognizant of that female-friendly pop/alternative hole that WPLY (Y100) had once occupied in the market. Radio 104.5 had a lot of those "forgotten" mid-'90s songs that are not reliable testers.

Since that time, K-Rock is feeling more accessible, both in terms of music and production. Either new PD Tracy Cloherty has tweaked the station, or I'm getting used to it. And although K-Rock and Radio 104.5 hardly resemble each other, they do share a certain broadness. K-Rock plays Buckcherry's "Crazy Bitch" but still plays Coldplay, Modest Mouse, and the new Silverchair. Radio 104.5 plays oldies by Garbage and the Police, but also plays Chevelle's "Send the Pain Below."

What's interesting in all of this is that WMMR had already staked out the "Everything That Rocks" handle and is certainly capable of playing Puddle of Mudd, Black Sabbath, and the Raconteurs in the same hour. And WYSP, which left the music business as an Active Rock station, has returned with a decidedly centrist position, too, as evidenced by its first segue below -- from Weezer's "Beverly Hills" to Pink Floyd's "Hey You."

Clearly, the decline of Rock radio convinced broadcasters that nobody really needed three stations to control the spectrum and lock down every conceivable position, lest somebody else find a wedge. But it's interesting to see the new broadness taking hold even in markets where you might make a case for staking out something more definable. New York's K-Rock did just fine for many years as an Alternative reporter that also played Ozzy and Van Halen just to prove it could. So why would the new one pigeonhole itself any more? But it's intriguing that Philly now has three broad rockers and two that are on relatively similar turf so far.

To some extent, the new broadness has been made possible by the recent disturbance in the time-space continuum. When the 16-year-old Classic Rock fans started showing up a few years ago, there was no reason for Active Rock to continue to purge Jimi Hendrix and AC/DC. Besides, one of the lessons of the Modern Rock revolution of 1995 was that you could get away with some very retro-sounding music as long as the artist was new. So if both stylistic and artist image prohibitions are gone, why not play everything?

That said, the last several years of "broad is beautiful" thinking has also shown that it's still very possible to stretch a little too far -- particularly when you're broad in terms of genres and deep within those genres. "(You've Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" and "Sweet Emotion" may very well be fine for certain people. "Time to Get Ill" into "Back in the Saddle" is taking it one step further. One of the interesting lessons of WWDC (DC101) Washington, D.C., a few years ago--one of the clear inspirations for Clear Channel's newly broad rockers--is that it's easier to be broad when you're also very recurrent driven.

Rock radio has another issue moving forward. Even if PPM proves that radio didn't lose its viability as a delivery system for music, it still seems to have surrendered its sense of community to the Web. Rock radio still has to create a sense of being plugged in to the action -- and it has to convince listeners again that there's action to be plugged in to. K-Rock had an upcoming Foo Fighters event and has had artists as guest DJs for a shift. WRFF gets good mileage out of its local music feature. But it's going to take some heavy lifting to convince listeners that this is again the format "Where Rock Lives."

Here's WXRK at Noon on Sept. 14

Green Day, "When I Come Around"
Incubus, "Dig"
Tool, "Sober"
Smashing Pumpkins, "Tarantula"
Nine Inch Nails, "Hurt"
Gorillaz, "Feel Good Inc."
P.O.D., "Alive"
Foo Fighters, "The Pretender"
Sublime, "Badfish"
Guns 'N' Roses, "Sweet Child O' Mine"
Flyleaf, "All Around"

Here's WYSP at 10:30 - 11:15 a.m., Sept. 17

Weezer, "Beverly Hills"
Pink Floyd, "Hey You"
Foo Fighters, "The Pretender"
Nirvana, "Polly"
Led Zeppelin, "Over the Hills and Far Away"
Live, "All Over You"
Beastie Boys, "Time to Get Ill"
Aerosmith, "Back In the Saddle"
White Stripes, "The Hardest Button to Button"
Wolfmother, "Woman"
Sublime, "Smoke Two Joints"

And here's WRFF at 11:15-Noon, Sept. 17

Clash, "Should I Stay Or Should I Go"
Modern Mouse, "Dashboard"
Pearl Jam, "Corduroy"
Garbage, "Only Happy When It Rains"
Police, "Canary In A Coal Mine" (Web Only)
Jane's Addiction, "Been Caught Stealing"
Nine Inch Nails, "Capital G"
Hoobastank, "The Reason"
Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Dani California"
Fall Out Boy, "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race"
Weezer, "Buddy Holly"
Papa Roach, "Last Resort"
Smashing Pumpkins, "Drown"

from Radio-Info.com

Thoughts?

[Zak Tyler]

Thoughts?

i enjoyed the article, of course i always enjoy articles that seem to shed a ray of hope on the mainstream rock format (job security issue). it also brings a question to mind. if "broad-based" rock formats are so much the "rage" according to this author, why do active rock stations out-number mainstream rockers at least 3-1???

here are my thoughts on the mainstream rock format...
(my history) i've been a rock music fan since i was 5 years old (1976) when my dad first started managing rock bands around the area here. but, i've only worked the format for just over 2 years.
not sure the exact target audience of all mainstream rock stations. but assuming they're in line with ours, men 28-38, here are my general thoughts on music and playlists. first of all, only the absolute very best of the "classics" from the late 60's and all of the 70's are still worthy of airplay on a mainstream rocker. let the classic hits station play dust in the wind... i'm just sayin'. the target audience graduated between the years of 1987 and 1997. so i go back to a statement i've use before "80's hair and metal is the new classic rock". the one hole, or should i say divot, i see in the format is the grunge era (early to mid 90's). there were only a handful of bands that put out anything that could stand the test of time. most of the bands, and the culture, were so polarizing at the time that you either loved it or hated it. those that loved it, still think it's "kind of ok now", those that hated it either still hate it, or think it's "kind of ok now". BUT, that is still the time frame that defined the musical tastes of the center of the target. in the late 90's and through the early 2000's rock kind of struggled to really find it's identity, but still a few of the bands found it, and flourished, and are still making hits. now in the last few years i really think we're starting to find the mark musically, and getting ahold of the younger end of the demo again, which as everyone in radio knows is the key to a formats success. i'm really worn out by the programmers of the 80's that keep saying "i programmed (insert radio calls here) in Boston in the 80's and we were #1"... blah, blah, blah..." but still think it's the early 80's and won't open their eyes and see it's their sons that are the target audience now, and not them. (putting it in a big bubble and blowing it away)
the one thing that hasn't changed... the mainstream rock audience still loves boobies.

i'm looking forward to reading some opinions on the article, and the format too


[/unfocused ramblings]

[AmpedNow]

The thing about hair metal and grunge is that both genres and subcultures were very polarizing. People either loved it or hated it. But the arrival of grunge was actually an extreme reaction against hair metal. It was as though the powers that be did not like the direction rock was taking, and used grunge to steer it totally in another direction.

Anyone remember MTV proudly proclaiming that "the music revolution will be televised"? I literally woke up one day in 1992 and hair metal and everything associated with that subculture was all at once very uncool.

Today's rock is still very much influenced by grunge. Grunge also revitalized the alternative format, which before then was pretty much niche music for geeks and weirdos. After grunge began to lose some luster in the mid-90s, the format had an identity crisis for a couple of years, playing virtually everything. And that was when I really began listening to alternative music. I loved that I could hear Sarah McLaughlin and Nine Inch Nails on the same station (WHFS, rip) (though never segued together)...

Today, there's still a lot of mainstream crossover into alternative. I promise you that alternative will be spinning the next Metallica single along with active when it's released... Conversely, there's a lot of alternative crossover into active as well. (White Stripes, Smashing Pumpkins, etc). The lines once again are very blurred.

I say why not have fun and experiment by going wider (but not necessarily deeper) into the decades if rock stations are more free to do this now.

On the flip side, I can't help to wonder if rock in general is losing steam, or if something big akin to grunge is about to happen... We are way past due another "music revolution".

All it takes is one band to set the rock world on fire (i.e. Nirvana)...

[Dave Allen]

Quick totally unrelated Nirvana memory..

I remember Erik Raines walking into WMUL (Marshall's station) in 1991 or so with the album (yes he said ALBUM) "Nevermind", His words were "this is going to change music forever". I thought it was the biggest piece of crap I had ever heard (and still do), but I guess he knew more than I did. I was hoping he was talking about the new Warrant CD, but, alas, I was wrong again.

[Bob Campbell]

At the risk of sounding like Arp for a second, no matter what the delivery system of the music is, a collection of songs on vinyl, cd, mp3, or what have you is indeed an "album".

[Zak Tyler]

Today, there's still a lot of mainstream crossover into alternative. I promise you that alternative will be spinning the next Metallica single along with active when it's released... Conversely, there's a lot of alternative crossover into active as well. (White Stripes, Smashing Pumpkins, etc). The lines once again are very blurred.

I say why not have fun and experiment by going wider (but not necessarily deeper) into the decades if rock stations are more free to do this now.

On the flip side, I can't help to wonder if rock in general is losing steam, or if something big akin to grunge is about to happen... We are way past due another "music revolution".

All it takes is one band to set the rock world on fire (i.e. Nirvana)...

TONS of crossover, alt., active, mainstream.... but i wouldn't say blurred, more like shared. in most of the bigger markets there's def. enough room for 4 rock stations alt, active, mainstream and classic. each one could carry a large audience, although the audience would definitely be highly shared as well.

i'm definitely looking forward to the new Metallica ALBUM

so, what do you mean "go wider" (trying not to assume)?

i also feel rock is about to break out again, but not sure if it's gonna be a new distinct "sound" or just a flood of great stuff from all over the "rock page"

[Big Media]

Quick totally unrelated Nirvana memory..

I just finished watching "The Last 48 Hours of Kurt Cobain" on a channel I never knew I had, Ovation. This is a very good doc.

Nirvana did change music. Just not forever. It amazes me that the hair bands era is coming back into chic. Mostly because we can't f-cking stand the emo shit that is played to death on rock and pop stations alike.

Speaking of shit, are we done playing Rock Star by Nickleback, yet? WTF? Enough!

[Zak Tyler]

Speaking of shit, are we done playing Rock Star by Nickleback, yet? WTF? Enough!

oh, you're just jealous because you don't have a bathroom you can play baseball in.....

[Jay Nunley]

People like what they like.

Only audiophiles and music nerds give a damn about "genre."

I'm not saying there have been no trends or mutations. The pendulum swings back and forth and the trends get all twisted up and mixed in.

In my teenage years and early twenties classic rock was old, dusty, and was to be made fun of. Hair bands were the thing for awhile and then became a joke. Grunge, pop punk, and "alternative" were suddenly the only way to go.

For the generation before mine classic rock was their "alternative".

For the generation after mine classic rock and hair bands are their "alternative."

We can all take positions or advocate a "genre." We can argue endlessly about the qualities of every kind of rock down to specific albums and songs. It's all just so much blather. Most of the blather itself is more about the blatherer's personal taste than it is about reality.

People like what they like.

The one and only trend that matters for rock and rock radio is the convergence of all these generations, tastes, and tunes. It is no longer rare for a 14 year old to call me and ask for a Doors tune. It is no longer rare for a 45 year old to call me and ask for System of a Down.

Not one single civilian (non-radio/non-audiophile) gives two shits about genre, era, texture, segues, rotations, spin rate, category, or how it sounds when you play Slaughter into Linkin Park.

People like what they like.

[lastone]

AMEN !

[Arp2]

At the risk of sounding like Arp for a second, no matter what the delivery system of the music is, a collection of songs on vinyl, cd, mp3, or what have you is indeed an "album".

Thank you!

I've had people tell me I'm old because I say "album." I, of course, tell them, "Regardless of delivery format, it's still 'an album!' I'm not 'old;' you're wrong!"

It's just my way of winning friends and influencing people, you know......

Not one single civilian (non-radio/non-audiophile) gives two shits about genre, era, texture, segues, rotations, spin rate, category, or how it sounds when you play Slaughter into Linkin Park.

People like what they like.

....which is why I continue to go against the grain du jour and keep histories a much bigger priority than the dream of a "perfectly-balanced" quarter hour within a "perfectly-balanced" hour. Who even knows for sure what those are?

When has more than just one freakish listener ever said, "Man, I loved hearing four of my all-time favorite songs in a row! I'm just amazed how my favorite radio station does that so often! One thing I noticed, though, is that the songs were '85 style A, '94 style B, '07 style C, and '01 style D; I think it really should have been '01 style C, '85 style B, '07 retro-sounding style A, and '94 ahead-of-its-time style D. If that would have happened, my enjoyment would have been even greater, and I know 10,000 other people would have tuned in right at that moment, enjoyed it just as much as I, and permanently become P1s for you!"

No, what you hear is, "Everytime I get in my car to go home from work, they're playing 'Song A.'" Or, "It seems like they play 'Song B' most Monday mornings right as I get to my desk, and I now hate 'Song B' because it means my weekend is definitely over."

Construct your clocks and categories and rules to help mix things up, try to make sure people don't hear the same song on both sides of work, watch the histories very closely, keep a somewhat attentive eye on the rest, and, otherwise, get on with life.*

Uh, unless you're doing "Jack."

* That's not to say you can be lazy about it...if you have to manually schedule almost every dang song to pull that off, then that's just what you have to do.

But this is about rock, and I don't know anything about rock...

...except what I like and that I like what I like and don't like what I don't like.

[genlock]

When I was a kid, classic rock was, well, rock.
Alternative was, modern jazz.
Oldies was big band.
I still like big band.

[lastone]

When I was a kid my gal dumped me for this stud named Adam. I never forgave Eve for that!

[Big Media]

One thing I noticed, though, is that the songs were '85 style A, '94 style B, '07 style C, and '01 style D; I think it really should have been '01 style C, '85 style B, '07 retro-sounding style A, and '94 ahead-of-its-time style D.

Dude.. That's deep. I noticed it, too.

[/passes the pipe]

The one and only trend that matters for rock and rock radio is the convergence of all these generations, tastes, and tunes. It is no longer rare for a 14 year old to call me and ask for a Doors tune. It is no longer rare for a 45 year old to call me and ask for System of a Down.

That sums it up nicely. Adding to that, the same 14 year old who requests a Doors tune might also request Maroon 5.

And what's with the numbers making a comeback? Eve 6, Maroon 5, the 4 Freshman, the Dave Clark 5...

Perhaps some day we will be referring to Metallica as James Hatfield and his Metal Orchestra.

[Dave Allen]

I think this here Internet thingy has changed things a lot, too. All those songs, at your fingertips. I was amazed last year when speaking to Logan High students how many of them had great love for things as diverse as Elvis to hair bands to Johnny Cash, Skynyrd, Bon Jovi, etc.

[AmpedNow]

so, what do you mean "go wider" (trying not to assume)?

Playing old gems that might have been forgotten or in very low rotation that wouldn't normally be played.

But not going too deep into stuff that nobody has heard of.

i also feel rock is about to break out again, but not sure if it's gonna be a new distinct "sound" or just a flood of great stuff from all over the "rock page"

I sure hope so... This year seems like an off year for rock, at least compared to last year.

Nirvana did change music. Just not forever. It amazes me that the hair bands era is coming back into chic. Mostly because we can't f-cking stand the emo shit that is played to death on rock and pop stations alike.

That would be so ironic if hair metal came back as an extreme reaction to the emo stuff... If you think about it, the emo sound is just about where hair metal was by 1992: tired, redundant, yesterday's news.

Just a side thought here... Remember the MTV "attitude" when grunge broke big. Look at them now. They have become the very thing that they used to laugh at.

Or maybe I'm just getting old.

People like what they like.

Only audiophiles and music nerds give a damn about "genre."

Agreed. Trends do come and go.

My reference point always seems to go back to the seismic shift between metal and grunge around 1992, because it was huge, and happened very quickly. Rock to this day is profoundly influenced by this. The only other time in rock history when this happened may have been the mid-60s Beatles invasion, which also changed rock forever.

For a long time, I assumed that something like this would happen every 10 years or so, but now realize that these events are rare. We are now 15 years out from 1992, and there's still no definitive shift on the horizon. OTOH, you really can't see them coming until they start happening.

The rock world is ripe for another one. But at this point, I don't know if it will be in this decade, or at the start of the next one.

full disclaimer: I am a bona fide music nerd.

[Bob Campbell]

Oh god, I think I'm falling in man love with ARP.
Song Histories....yes yes yes. Move the bitches around, keep the pattern complex. The alt in Charlotte WEND, which by the way, is still powering "Rock Star" is so predictable I can walk into my Promotions guy's office and tell the time of day by the artist they're playing. "If it's Foo Fighters it must be 11:45".

Shit, I've agreed with Arp twice in one day. I need a drink.
Yeah, I love to toss "it's an album" at people as often as possible.

[SHOCKLEY]

Nirvana was VERY VERY VERY VERY OVER RATED!!

The only reason why some people talk about how Nirvana "Changed Music Forever" is because he blew his damn brains out and never lived to have more people see him for the hypocrite that he was..

Nirvana wasn't even the 1st, 2nd or 3rd best band from SEATTLE!!

Cobain regularly slammed bands that were vastly superior to his own (Pearl Jam to name one) and whined about them "Selling Out" meanwhile, here he was doing covers for cheesy assed magazines with his version of Yoko/Nancy, the succubus known as Courtney..

In then end, Kurt Cobain died a whiney little, too faced, Hypocritical coward, that regularly threw pity parties for himself, while leaving his innocent baby daughter to be raised by his junkie wife, and causing other kids to follow his lead and kill themselves..


To Hell with Kurt Cobain...

[Lee]

Nirvana was VERY VERY VERY VERY OVER RATED!!

The only reason why some people talk about how Nirvana "Changed Music Forever" is because he blew his damn brains out and never lived to have more people see him for the hypocrite that he was..

Nirvana wasn't even the 1st, 2nd or 3rd best band from SEATTLE!!

Cobain regularly slammed bands that were vastly superior to his own (Pearl Jam to name one) and whined about them "Selling Out" meanwhile, here he was doing covers for cheesy assed magazines with his version of Yoko/Nancy, the succubus known as Courtney..

In then end, Kurt Cobain died a whiney little, too faced, Hypocritical coward, that regularly threw pity parties for himself, while leaving his innocent baby daughter to be raised by his junkie wife, and causing other kids to follow his lead and kill themselves..


To Hell with Kurt Cobain...

AMEN!!!!

I always thought that Alice in Chains was the best band to come out of that genre, Soundgarden was a close 2nd.

[Bob Campbell]

Kick it Shockley. Hell, I think Foo Fighters are better than Nirvana.