Bring Project 9-6-1 back! (Atlanta, Perry: transfer, club, safe)

[Craziaskowboi]

What a brilliant move by Clear Channel, flipping Project 9-6-1 over to "Power 96.1," Atlanta's new hit music station! 'Cuz we don't already have Star 94 and Q100 to listen to if we want pop music! So now we have three Top 40 stations and zero current rock stations! Brilliant move, *******s!

Time to defect to satellite radio.

[ATLTJL]

Don't forget Wild 105.7, which is actually by far the best pop station in Atlanta.

Or did Clear Channel just move 105.7 over to 96.1?

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Don't forget Wild 105.7, which is actually by far the best pop station in Atlanta.

Or did Clear Channel just move 105.7 over to 96.1?

Ah, I forgot about them. No, it wasn't just a frequency transfer; Power 96.1 is all new. So now this means I can get my Top 40 fix on 94.1, 96.1, 99.7 and 105.7, not to mention 100.1 here in Athens! Yes! Five stations with the same ****ing format, and not a single station that plays any rock music that's less than 20 years old!

I guarantee you Clear Channel will explain their decision by talking about ad revenue potential, because Top 40 stations have a higher revenue ceiling than rock stations. It's why Cox Radio Athens threw away Bulldog 100.1 in favor of Power 100.1 in 2009. In other words, they'd rather have a mere slice of the big pizza than have the entire small pizza to themselves. May they go hungry.

So if you're a girl between the ages of 15 and 34, congratulations. You own terrestrial radio now, every other demographic cohort be damned.

[onemanarmy]

I bought a new car 3 years ago. I had a 6 months free trial of XM. In the beginning, I thought it was cool. So my subscription expired, and I felt lost in my car. I only drive 7k miles a year, and my commute is 3 miles from work. It's worth it if you have an "Atlanta" commute, and I have a pretty myopic view on music, i.e. Hip Hop, R&B, & Reggae...some pop. However, I pay around 8 bucks a month, and yes XM is worth. I rarely listen to FM anymore.

[ATLTJL]

They are a business and made a business decision. They must think Atlanta is a big enough market to support 4 pop stations....hmm, that's hard to imagine. But I do think there are subgenres. Like the reason I like 105.7 is because it has much more dance club sensibility than the other pop stations, it will play more dance oriented music, mix in some hip hop, and even have real DJs do mixes.

Q100, and to a larger degree Star 94, tend to play safe pop music. They'll play the same Katy Perry and Maroon 5 records over and over all day long. At least 105.7 skews a little trendier.

My guess is that rock is really a genre that is being so well served by satellite and services like Pandora that it doesn't make sense to put on terrestrial radio anymore. Since pop changes so frequently, it makes more sense to program it. People need to be programmed to so they are forced to hear what is hot and new. It also lends itself to easier advertising and partnerships since most of Atlanta's nightlife is centered around the mainstream. Pop music is also one of the formats where localization matters because so much of it is centered around local clubs, local concerts, and the personality of a location. Sometimes different tracks get much more or less popular in different markets. So it's much more difficult to pull off on a national scale.

My point is, Clear Channel didn't just decide they don't like rock so they pulled the plug. It must have made more business sense to go pop. If it turns out there is money to be made in rock, I'm sure someone else will step up and launch a rock station.

[DTL3000]

I hated Project 9-6-1 and it's emo-aggro-buttrock aimed at meth heads.

I miss the old 96 Rock a little. I really miss Z93 which begs the question: Are people who are stoned out of their minds even capable of operating an XM receiver?

[sofjwp]

Power 99, did u say?

[westau]

This is terrible.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

They are a business and made a business decision.

Businesses make dumb decisions all the time. Simply being a business decision doesn't automatically grant it legitimacy.

Originally Posted by DTL3000

I hated Project 9-6-1 and it's emo-aggro-buttrock aimed at meth heads.

I miss the old 96 Rock a little.

So you don't like "butt rock for methheads," but you miss 96 Rock? How ironic.

Originally Posted by sofjwp

Power 99, did u say?

The difference is, the switch from Power 99 to 99X filled a void in the Atlanta radio market, while the switch from Project 9-6-1 to Power 96.1 created a void in the Atlanta radio market.

[berkeleylake]

Bad news even if I don't listen to 96.1 a whole lot. Bummer.

I abandoned most commercial radio here in Atlanta some years ago. It's been a downward slide in the Atlanta market for several years and probably everywhere else anyway given what has happened to big media. I like satellite radio, but I don't like paying for it. I just listen to my own music in the car, problem of crappy radio format resolved for me.

I use radio mostly to listen for traffic reports and those are best to catch on news radio stations.