What's going on with Atlanta radio? (Perry, Jackson: purchase, universities, live)

[architect77]

You think atlanta radio is bad now, back in the early '90s when some moron replaced Power99 with a new 99X (gag), there was no Top40 radio station at all for 7-10 years. NONE! Can you believe that? Star94 was even more (Female, 30's, rural-flavored) than it is now.

North Georgia suffered from a dearth of radio stations, literally 1 station per genre, and even the black/r&b was lame compared to big cities (and small ones too like every metro of NC)

The only morning show was "steve and Vicki", god-awful.

Now, the radio dial is full of stations and Q100 and Star94 are adequate for me. I wish Q100 was like the top 40 station in San Francisco, which plays a slightly special version of current hits. It gives SF a world-city, extra special-ness.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by architect77

You think atlanta radio is bad now, back in the early '90s when some moron replaced Power99 with a new 99X (gag), there was no Top40 radio station at all for 7-10 years. NONE! Can you believe that? Star94 was even more (Female, 30's, rural-flavored) than it is now.

North Georgia suffered from a dearth of radio stations, literally 1 station per genre, and even the black/r&b was lame compared to big cities (and small ones too like every metro of NC)

The only morning show was "steve and Vicki", god-awful.

Now, the radio dial is full of stations and Q100 and Star94 are adequate for me. I wish Q100 was like the top 40 station in San Francisco, which plays a slightly special version of current hits. It gives SF a world-city, extra special-ness.

This. Those that did not grow up in Atlanta in the early 90's have no idea how much worse it really was. No Top 40. Only V-103 (for R+B, Soul, Hip-Hop)--and when they mainly catered to the the "grown" crowd..."quiet storm" would start right after Ryan Cameron's Top 8 at 8...and they would even play go to sleep music in the middle of the day...all the time.

Hot 97.5 did not come into existence until the latter part of 1995...! It was the competition that V-103 needed.
I had a college friend who grew up in Northern Bartow County without cable--he is an extreme music fan. When Power99 got taken off the air, it was almost like he had been sent to prison (since he had no access to new, emerging music--except overexposed "grunge.").

[AcidSnake]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

Well, I have seen you on this board a good bit, so I take your comments with alot thought.

Many of the two threads are just venting from a change they don't like personally... no matter what caused it. They are lashing out at the big bad corporations, but they aren't fully analyzing the situation or looking at the economics of the market from an unbiased perspective and what choices can mean for everyone within the whole population. They are simply venting, which is understandable.

The issue is that you and I are disagreeing on what is causing the changes. And a lot of these postings on these two Atlanta-related threads may very well be venting, but it's justifiable. The corporate radio/media industry doesn't exactly lend much creditability these days. So as far as I'm concerned, the onus is on them to justify what's going on, not on Joe Average to understand.

After all, people were sold on the idea in the early 1990s that lifting the radio cap on ownership of radio stations and allowing companies to own different genres in different markets would lead to more variety in programming and content. You do acknowledge that, right?

But that's not what is going on. And I've noticed something...you have not tried to debunk my argument in this area. Why is that? And do please try to address that issue, because it seems like you are skirting it.

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

Just be careful... you're entering arguments based on making value judgements based on what you personally want, but not what more people want within the market. A companies reaction to listeners is made to benefit the most number of listeners total. Alot of people demand alot of pop music, they get alot of pop music..

You keep coming back to this point....And I will keep disagreeing. That "what the market wants" excuse is just that...an excuse. So maybe you should give this point a rest already. We've already beaten this dead horse silly.

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

103.3 and 107.9 are mostly complimentary products (in economics terms). This means they are competing for the same listener's attention in which they can sell to advertisers. They are very much in competition from one another.

They do have different strategies. Their programming isn't exactly alike, but similar. They probably both have listener bases that spend their time with mainly just one of those stations and then groups of people that switch back and forth alot.

I think WVEE spends more money on their programming and have more high quality talk talent, as well a history of trust with a demographic, that is harder for any new incomer to copy (like 107.9). However they can pay those added costs easier, since they are one of the top performing station in the market.

If you want to see free station ratings for a -few- of the radio stations in Atlanta go to stationratings.com. You'll have to sign up, but its free.

I don't think these two stations are competing directly for the exact same listeners. There is a good bit of overlap for sure, but when you take a critical look at the content & programming for V103 versus Hot 107.9, you will find that there is a stark difference.

V103 in my opinion appeals to mostly black women, likely in their early 30s and upward, and also caters to the baby boom generation black audience(men and women) who grew up listening to the station in its early pre-CBS radio days(so I agree with you partly in this area).

But HOT 107.9 however, is significantly different. It caters to the young black demographic. It's programming is not as..."heady" in a certain ways as V103. It doesn't even pretend to try to compete with V103. So to me, it would be a mistake to think that both stations are competing with each other in a traditional sense...and it boggles my mind why folks keep trying to say that they are.

So I have no doubt that there is a significant difference between the amount of listeners on V103 versus the amount of listeners on Hot 107.9, and I wouldn't need to visit a website to see that. But to say that there is real competition going on between the two stations is quite honestly...a major misrepresentation of the inner dynamics of corporate radio, especially as it relates to the black audience.

The reality is, the corporate owners(Radio One) of 107.9 are just comfortable with what they have. They are not trying to take away CBS Radio's competition with V103. There is no true competition with those two entities in the rap/r&b formats. Radio One/Hot107.9 are simply eating the scraps that CBS radio/V103 chose to not take, and that's all that it is.

Because if V103 did try to adopt a lot of Hot 107.9's programming? It would be a veritable turd-storm from the babyboom black audience. CBS radio would be assaulted with visits from the SCLC, the NAACP, and any other alphabet soup of civil rights groups that exist out here.

So no competition here. None what-so-ever.

I think the only real problem is that the rock/metal audience in my opinion is almost as large as the Hot 107.9 audience, if not even larger...but somehow corporate radio thinks that it's okay to simply toss this audience's listening desires to the wind. No one is asking why that is. Well I am...but no one else is...

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

If you find a way to mandate the market to hold onto a particular genre, you're taking a way a limited resource (radio spectrum) from even more listeners. Go to the above website. What you are going to see is WKLS has a sizable number of listeners, enough for a station in Atlanta. However, this is where people get confused. The frequencies on the dial, the location of a transmitters, and the strength of it (as mandated by the FCC) cover different geographic areas better and carry different values and operating costs. The classic rock stations are on lower values transmitters (that is why they originally moved the old 99x from 99.7 to 100.5 and made 99.7 a pop station; transmitter value). I'll be very surprised if 100.5 or 92.9 don't make a big push to bring listeners from the WKLS format change.

Which is all the more reason to re-instititute caps on the amount of radio stations that Corporations are allowed to have. The limited spectrum that is out there is being taken over by large corporations under this dubious notion(that I disagree with you on) that some formats are more worthy of overwhelming coverage than others. I will never believe that excuse.

And unfortunately, there is no truly independent media out there that will get to the bottom of this situation. Too many so-called independent reporting entities are "on the take" so to speak. Everyone from CNN to the Wall Street Journal, is being mum on the pros & cons of the de-regulation of media issue, because everyone in some way or another is benefitting from it.

America is a crony capitalism market, especially when it comes to media. Always has been and always will be, for the foreseeable future. Agree or disagree if you want, but you'll be hard-pressed to convince me of anything different.

Believe it.

[Onthemove2014]

Originally Posted by atlantamoi

I actually don't care much at all anymore about ANY radio stations in Atlanta where music is the main pull. When I was a kid in the 70's I couldn't get enough of it. Ended up DJing in high school and college and loved every minute of it. Likely due in part to my age, but I thought Project 96 was one of the worst sounding stations I've ever heard. I'm still a music fiend. Love past and current bands, but not that bland, homogenized, 2nd rate Pearl Jam/Creed dung. I'm probably a bit too picky, I admit. I do have XM radio and find most of the stations I listen to lacking in variety as well (Underground Garage is crazy good, though). So, when I jump in the car, 95% of my listening goes to talk radio. But at home, while goofing off on the computer, I probably listen to two or three hours of music from my own files and use blogs to catch up with newer sounds. While terrestrial radio went with smaller playlists, I switched mainly to my iPod in the car for tunes. My own massive radio station that even XM can't compete with.

I agree with this post.


I think most of these posters arguing and getting angry over the radio just have terrible taste in music don't know how to find new stuff that isn't forced on them by the radio.

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by Onthemove2014

So I'll ask you the same question since you made that last statement; what cities actually do better then Sattlite or spotify? What is your taste in music so we have a reference or comparison to go by.

I prefer primarily indie-type stuff I suppose. Also, house music and post-rock (love me some Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and also Sigur Ros, but I'm not sure I'd call them post-rock). Occasional stuff like the old Killswitch Engage. The National had a killer album a few years ago that I never get tired of. Etc, etc, etc...

So yeah, I get your point. Of course radio is going to suck if that is my reference point.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by 10 feet tall

I prefer primarily indie-type stuff I suppose. Also, house music and post-rock (love me some Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and also Sigur Ros, but I'm not sure I'd call them post-rock). Occasional stuff like the old Killswitch Engage. The National had a killer album a few years ago that I never get tired of. Etc, etc, etc...

So yeah, I get your point. Of course radio is going to suck if that is my reference point.

You and my youngest daughter would get along famously.

[mike7586]

Originally Posted by architect77

You think atlanta radio is bad now, back in the early '90s when some moron replaced Power99 with a new 99X (gag), there was no Top40 radio station at all for 7-10 years. NONE! Can you believe that? Star94 was even more (Female, 30's, rural-flavored) than it is now.

North Georgia suffered from a dearth of radio stations, literally 1 station per genre, and even the black/r&b was lame compared to big cities (and small ones too like every metro of NC)

The only morning show was "steve and Vicki", god-awful.

Now, the radio dial is full of stations and Q100 and Star94 are adequate for me. I wish Q100 was like the top 40 station in San Francisco, which plays a slightly special version of current hits. It gives SF a world-city, extra special-ness.

Q100 is a horrible top 40 station and Star94 doesn't really count... which is why Clear Channel flipped Project to Power 96.1... Power 96.1 - Atlanta's New Hit Music Station

Sounds like it'll be more like the SF top 40 station you like.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by architect77

You think atlanta radio is bad now, back in the early '90s when some moron replaced Power99 with a new 99X (gag), there was no Top40 radio station at all for 7-10 years. NONE! Can you believe that?

Uhhhhhhhhhhh, I'm almost speechless.

You would rather have a station that simply plays the most popular songs as opposed to something original? I would support any unique station in Atlanta, regardless of genre. I could hate the music and rather see something Atlanta can be proud of vs. some DJs playing the billboard top 40 list!

To each their own and all, but WOW

[atlantamoi]

Originally Posted by architect77

You think atlanta radio is bad now, back in the early '90s when some moron replaced Power99 with a new 99X (gag),

lol, that is probably the only moment in the 23 years that I've lived here where I thought, "It's about damn time!". KROQ in Los Angeles had been around forever before Atlanta gave it a shot on commercial radio. Sure, Album 88 was always there, thankfully. 99X was never quite the station I'd hope they'd be (a bit too safe at times) and by the late 90's it was pretty bad.

[Onthemove2014]

Originally Posted by 10 feet tall

I prefer primarily indie-type stuff I suppose. Also, house music and post-rock (love me some Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and also Sigur Ros, but I'm not sure I'd call them post-rock). Occasional stuff like the old Killswitch Engage. The National had a killer album a few years ago that I never get tired of. Etc, etc, etc...

So yeah, I get your point. Of course radio is going to suck if that is my reference point.

Yeah, broadcast radio was never really for us outside of college stations with our taste. That's why I don't even care what stations do as long as I have my talk and to a lesser extent college stations it never has anything to do with me getting the music thr I want.