Why Is Radio In Atlanta Horrible? (home, move, bills)

[TheFuzz]

NPR is 90.something....though I refuse to listen to it.

I'm usually listening to AM750 or AM680. However, if I listen to music I'm listening to 99.7 or 96.1.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by poplartree2014

What!!?? No Jazz, no smooth jazz, no NPR, no classical. .

WRAS 88.5 (GSU) has a big band show on Sunday mornings at 10 (I think), followed by "The Blue Note" jazz show which runs from noon - 2 pm.

WREK 91.1 (Ga tech) plays classical from 7am to 9am and their "Just Jazz" show from 9 am to noon every weekday. They tend to play the type of jazz that would scare/annoy most listeners. (I might be slightly off on those time slots.)

WCLK 91.9 (Clark University) is a jazz station. They spend too much time on smooth jazz for my tastes, but they play real jazz, too.

WRFG 89.3 (community radio) has a jazz show. I'm not certain when the show airs. Thursday night at 10, maybe. They seem to stick to the classics.

[globalnomad]

My teenagers and I agree that radio in Atlanta is horrible.

During our half hour drive in the morning to school (and then again in the afternoon), there is nothing to listen to on Atlanta radio stations. Almost no songs are played (or they play the same ones over and over again until we all want to scream in agony).

The radio personalities are very annoying as they *** away mindlessly without playing music and breaking frequently for ads.

My kids are so disgusted that they ask for National Public Radio (NPR)! They'd much rather listen to music, but sadly there's little to listen to.

[SEAandATL]

San Diego's radio stations are bad too. The reception is poor for one thing. Also, all the stations seem to have 1 CD that play 15 songs and they just keep it on repeat all day. One station has been playing "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt 1000 times a day for a whole year. It was getting to the point where I was about to call that station and curse them out if I ever heard that song again. Another thing is that there hasn't been much good music coming out period the last few years, which is why they've been playing a lot of crappy music, and that's when they actually play music. Most of the time its commercials and DJ talk. That is why I don't even listen to the radio much anymore.

What I notice about Atlanta specifically is that they change the format of the radio stations every few years. I remember when 97.1 was an old-school and contemporary R&B station (HOT 97.1 Jamz), then became the River (oldies). Also back in the late 90's there was HOT 97.5, which Ludacris used to be the DJ of (his name was Chris Lover-Lover). ATL radio was at its best back then. Another thing that led to the change in radio (for the worse) is the Clear Channel programming.

[atlantamoi]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

Also, all the stations seem to have 1 CD that play 15 songs and they just keep it on repeat all day.

I can't remember exactly, but there was a report recently about The River (97.1) only having 300 songs on their classic rock playlist. That's hilarious to me. I might tune in for a couple of minutes in my car, but I'd rather kill myself than leave that station on for a couple of hours every day.

[LoveMiami]

guys invest some money and hook your ipod into your car and enjoy. at least you do not need to listen commercials

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by darkone

To those replying to the OP, sorry but don't get defensive. I agree that Atlanta FM radio is definitely lacking for such a large market. It is fit for some small town quite frankly. Boston area stations have much, much more to offer than Atlanta's, the comparison is not even worth considering.

Gotta agree completely here. Moved to the Atlanta area from the Boston area a month ago, and I've stuck almost completely to XM since arriving. Radio in Atlanta is very lacking in quality and variety when compared with many areas of the country of similar size.

[xavier132487]

I can tell you why we don't have an oldies station: demographics.

In other parts of the nation, the average age is going up, and the proportion of 18-25 yr olds is going down. In Atlanta, the age is fairly constant (and much lower than the rest of the country), and there are actually MORE 18-25 yr olds as well as 26-35 moving in for work, etc. (again, other parts of the country are stagnant or negative in this area).

As someone else said, broadcast companies like Clearchannel, Cumulus, Infinity and Viacom just don't think oldies stations in a younger-than-average market would generate much revenue.

[GF72]

The problem is that people assume young people don't like oldies...

Music from the 60's and 70's especially is extremely popular with teenagers and college-age people, from my experience much more so than most of today's parent-age population who actually grew up in the 60's and 70's.

Early 90's music is also very popular among the younger crowd.

80's music and late 90's though, that's a different story...

[xavier132487]

It is fairly popular with us... that's why I said the BROADCAST COMPANIES think it won't bring in revenue