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Post by Nivro™ on May 14, 2015 22:26:06 GMT -5
**First I want to say if this isnt allowed then TRW or Jack Specific feel free to lock it, Ill understand**Last Thursday while at work I was rocking out to our modern rock station on the radio. For nearly 20 years this station has been a huge part of not only my life but also many others. It opened my eyes to a whole new genre of music that at the time I knew nothing about. Last Thursday I got into my truck and the station was nothing but static....a few hours later I head back into the truck for lunch and my modern rock station is blasting country music. The first thing I did was contact a friend I have working at the station and asked what the deal was. Apparently the parent company out of Wisconsin (which is nowhere near Knoxville, TN btw) came in and fired all the on air staff and converted it to country. A lot of people lost their jobs and A LOT of local bands lost any public backing that they had. Now Im not here to bash country music. I enjoy country music and I especially enjoy the era of country this station is now playing...however there are 6 country stations in this market alone. 1 classic Rock and 1 rap/hip hop. We had 1 modern rock station and it was completely taken away from us. Arguably the #1 Country music station in the United States is based right here in Knoxville, TN. Switching over to country music to go head to head with them is essentially like me taking 30 homeless guys to a flea market and trying to go head to head with WWE & Wrestlemania....its just not going to work and it hasnt with any other station in 20+ years. Now Im not wanting to make this a this music vs that music debate. Im all for music diversity. However they've completely removed this entire genre of music out of the market. As soon as the switch was made fans went straight to facebook and started a petition to get OUR station back. We're currently just a hair short of the 5k target and I was hoping that my Wfigs friends could help us over the top. We've had a lot of great feedback from this. Eric Zane and the members of the Free Beer and Hot Wings morning show have all signed the petition. This was the station they were broadcasted on. The members of Shinedown have all signed (Lead vocalist Brent Smith is a Knoxville guy). The band 10 Years, whom got their start because of our station has signed the petition as well as the band We are Harlot. So if you can take less then 2 minutes out of your day to help all of us out, I would greatly greatly appreciate it. Link to Petitionwww.change.org/p/midwest-communications-stations-duke-fm-bring-back-the-modern-rock-format-to-95-7-fm?recruiter=5695603&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-no_msgLink to Facebook pagewww.facebook.com/weloveourradio?fref=nf
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Post by bad guy™ on May 14, 2015 22:32:54 GMT -5
Sadly this happens more than you would think. Radio is dying to begin with but normally new owners will try to keep their fan base and draw in new listeners but sometimes, depending on the area, they'll try to play more to the demographic of the area than the loyal listeners.
Like Pittsburgh for instance. We have about 1,000 country stations because that's the most popular genre here. And people will listen to certain stations because maybe they hate the DJs from one, or prefer the 150 repeated Kenny Chesney songs on one station compared to the 150 repeated Taylor Swift songs on the other.
Our rock station survives because of Mark Madden (yes, that one) and Pittsburgh Penguins games. Our pop station survives because it's KISS and Ryan Seacrest owns the world. The rest is country or NPR type news/oldies.
If one of those channels was bought and the station owner wanted to make money, they would play country music. So it sucks really bad. And it does come out of no where entirely normally, which sucks too though.
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Post by theMOESIAH on May 14, 2015 23:23:31 GMT -5
SiriusXM is the last bastion of rock radio. I cannot reconnect it highly enough. Spotify is also another good choice, but in my experience, they're bad with repetition. Even with my own saved/favorited songs I get the same ones over and over (yes I subscribe to both Sirius and Spotify). I've tried a few other streaming services -- such as Rhapsody and Xbox Music -- and I didn't like them at all. It's been years since I've used Pandora so I can't speak on how it is now. I've just taken Amazon up on their free month of Prime promotion; I'll reply to this thread again after I've had some time with their music service.
Has anyone used Google's music service?
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Post by Tim of thee on May 15, 2015 0:36:01 GMT -5
Sadly this happens more than you would think. Radio is dying to begin with but normally new owners will try to keep their fan base and draw in new listeners but sometimes, depending on the area, they'll try to play more to the demographic of the area than the loyal listeners. Like Pittsburgh for instance. We have about 1,000 country stations because that's the most popular genre here. And people will listen to certain stations because maybe they hate the DJs from one, or prefer the 150 repeated Kenny Chesney songs on one station compared to the 150 repeated Taylor Swift songs on the other. Our rock station survives because of Mark Madden (yes, that one) and Pittsburgh Penguins games. Our pop station survives because it's KISS and Ryan Seacrest owns the world. The rest is country or NPR type news/oldies. If one of those channels was bought and the station owner wanted to make money, they would play country music. So it sucks really bad. And it does come out of no where entirely normally, which sucks too though. It's so funny when I travel and I turn on the local radio while I'm driving. Sooo many country stations where I've been. Most of our channels in SD are pop and hispanic music. |
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2015 4:35:31 GMT -5
I work at a radio station and have some insight on things like this.
First thing to know is the owners will play whatever content that they can get that's cheap. Music, sports, news or whatever.
The owners of my station also own at least a dozen other stations. We broadcast both an AM and FM channel at ours. Last year the AM station played ESPN 24/7 and we had a decent sized listening audience. Late last year they dumped that for talk radio. The reason why was because they had a contract with ESPN on one of their other owned stations and just played it at ours at no extra charge (They just paid for it once and were allowed to play it for free at any of their other stations). Once that deal was up the price had increased to carry ESPN. So they switched to cheaper programs like Fox News, religion and Glenn Beck stuff. Our audience dropped drastically.
We got complaints too. The owners would not change a thing because they still had the same number of businesses advertising at the station. As long as these businesses pay then it doesn't matter what is played or how many people are tuning in to listen.
The owners have also changed to prerecorded automated programs on the FM station instead of using live DJ's. We went from having 4 people on the air live to 2 people, 1 live and 1 half live and half prerecorded. Instead of being on from 5am to 10pm Mon-Sun we now just have someone on from 5am to 5pm Mon-Fri.
The new programming is cheaper. Playing automated content and paying less employees less hours is cheaper.
The only thing that will get a radio station to change what it plays is if the businesses stop advertising there and the owners lose money.
Good luck with the petition. But if the owners of that station are like the owners of the one I work at then they likely won't care how many signatures there is as long as they still have cash flow coming in with what they are playing.
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Post by specterkev on May 15, 2015 4:38:31 GMT -5
happens alot and it sucks.. my fave rock station went latino like 12 years ago and still is... sad to say.. but there is hope... another rock station did the same thing and after about three years..it came back! and it;s still as it is. so don;t give up hope!
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Post by The Mask of Truth on May 15, 2015 5:14:13 GMT -5
That's why I don't listen to the radio anymore...
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Post by ¡Twist Of Cinnamon! on May 15, 2015 5:24:59 GMT -5
Weve got two major rock stations over here, The Rock FM and Radio Hauraki. The latter changed format to an indie rock / techno / hip hop / crap station. Granted I hardly listened to it, but the hardcore listeners complained about the new format and were pretty much told to expand their horizons and get over it.
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Post by T R W on May 15, 2015 6:19:35 GMT -5
Yeah as others said, it happens all the time. Being old, I have seen local stations in Atlanta change repeatedly. One big station in my life has gone from hard rock, to pop, to country, to rap, to classic rock, to Sports Talk Radio. Another went from classical music to soft rock, to pop, to classic rock.
Again it's all about getting advertisements and cutting costs. If on air talent has gotten too expensive, easier to re-format and let them all go. They get lots of complaints but as long as it doesn't impact ads, they don't care at all. Sometimes you will see them re-format to one genre as a temporary measure as they plan to transition later to something else entirely different.
As someone else said, I can't recommend Sirius XM enough. I pay about $5 a month for it and it is totally worth it. And there are multiple channels for every genre.
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Post by Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion on May 15, 2015 6:29:52 GMT -5
We're in a similar situation in my hometown however we have 6 Top 40/"Adult contemporary" stations. It drives me up the wall. Thank god for Satellite radio and iPods.
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Post by The Yes Man on May 15, 2015 8:18:47 GMT -5
My favorite station is the classic rock station. It's the only one I actually like listening to. Then there are 3 modern country stations, 2 gospel stations, a pop and hip hop station and that's it.
It's awful.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2015 10:34:23 GMT -5
I've seen that movie.  |
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Post by theMOESIAH on May 15, 2015 12:51:54 GMT -5
Yeah as others said, it happens all the time. Being old, I have seen local stations in Atlanta change repeatedly. One big station in my life has gone from hard rock, to pop, to country, to rap, to classic rock, to Sports Talk Radio. Another went from classical music to soft rock, to pop, to classic rock. Again it's all about getting advertisements and cutting costs. If on air talent has gotten too expensive, easier to re-format and let them all go. They get lots of complaints but as long as it doesn't impact ads, they don't care at all. Sometimes you will see them re-format to one genre as a temporary measure as they plan to transition later to something else entirely different. As someone else said, I can't recommend Sirius XM enough. I pay about $5 a month for it and it is totally worth it. And there are multiple channels for every genre. How are you paying $5 a month? I'm paying more than that. |
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Post by T R W on May 15, 2015 13:15:05 GMT -5
Yeah as others said, it happens all the time. Being old, I have seen local stations in Atlanta change repeatedly. One big station in my life has gone from hard rock, to pop, to country, to rap, to classic rock, to Sports Talk Radio. Another went from classical music to soft rock, to pop, to classic rock. Again it's all about getting advertisements and cutting costs. If on air talent has gotten too expensive, easier to re-format and let them all go. They get lots of complaints but as long as it doesn't impact ads, they don't care at all. Sometimes you will see them re-format to one genre as a temporary measure as they plan to transition later to something else entirely different. As someone else said, I can't recommend Sirius XM enough. I pay about $5 a month for it and it is totally worth it. And there are multiple channels for every genre. How are you paying $5 a month? I'm paying more than that. Call and threaten to cancel because the price is too high. They have a 5 months for $25 price they will do. But maybe your channel selection is higher than mine too. |
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Post by JC Motors on May 15, 2015 14:37:58 GMT -5
I don't listen to the radio anymore. Only time I do is when I'm riding in my dad's car. Also the local Classic hits station now plays songs from the late 90s
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Post by poindizzle on May 15, 2015 15:28:21 GMT -5
All the radio stations I grew up on have gone away of changed format so drastically that I gave up on them. There is one radio station that plays Classic Country, generally no newer than the 80's, that I really like, but the variety station sucks now, the oldies, modern rock, and 80's stations disappeared. It's a terrible thing. I'm sorry you lost something like that, never ever will you find me undervaluing the power and significance of music.
Edit: Also, how could I forget the classic rock station dropping Zeppelin out of rotation to play Green Day. Just like the other modern station and variety station still play.
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Post by Nivro™ on May 15, 2015 16:34:53 GMT -5
I realize that this is kinda the norm for radio stations. Like I said with WIVK around we've had probably 20 country stations come and go in as many years. The problem is this was our only modern rock station. We realize that we're probably not gonna get the company to switch back over but at least hopefully we can get the attention of another company who can bring us a modern rock station back.
As for streaming/satellite radio, while that would technically work for a personal ride, most of my listening as well as many others is while at work and Im at the mercy of the company on that.
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Post by Chip on May 15, 2015 17:03:21 GMT -5
any station that's responsible for 10 Years being around is good for me.
Petition signed.
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Post by Last Trent Barreta Fan on May 15, 2015 17:08:49 GMT -5
My local rock station did this too but another one popped up not too far from it. It plays classic rock instead of modern rock so it's not too bad of a change
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Post by Last Trent Barreta Fan on May 15, 2015 17:10:42 GMT -5
Wait
Midwest Communications runs OUR radio stations up here, wtf
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