DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
Age: ??
Occupation: radio station owner/CEO
Last Seen: possibly Ohio
Bee-otched For: making rock music disappear
---Great. Once again, New York is without a radio station playing new rock.
Even more, Chicago's rock choices have been now shortened to two butt rock stations and a AAA station for the Starbucks drinker.
On Friday, a new company called Merlin Media took control of three rock radio stations owned by Emmis Communications in Chicago and New York. The affected stations are Classic Rocker WLUP (97.9 The Loop), Alternative WKQX (Q101) in Chicago and adult-leaning Alternative WRXP 101.9. Emmis retains two Urban stations in New York - Rhythmic CHR WQHT (Hot 97) and Urban AC WRKS (98.7 Kiss FM) - even though they will own a minority stake in the new company.
WLUP is safe, but Q101 and RXP are toast. Both stations' jocks have been let go and both stations are in stunt mode. Q101 is still playing music for the time being while WRXP is playing AC with the liner "101.9 FM New". It's speculated that both stations will flip to a News format rivaling WCBS in New York and WBBM Chicago, both CBS O&Os. Already, CBS announced that they will abandon the AC format on WCFS (Fresh 105.9) in Chicago
The man behind the changes is none other than former Clear Channel head honcho Randy Michaels, who is the new CEO of this big media venture. Michaels will only own 1% of the new company with equity firms and Emmis owning the rest. Michaels made media headlines recently as the CEO of Tribune, where he was told to leave due to corruption within the company. Many Tribune employees complained of the negative atmosphere within the company with reports of bad management decisions, weird memos being passed along and the fact that he had Kevin "Pig Virus" Methany run WGN 720. There was even a massive poker party held in the Tribune Tower, which angered many.
Michaels - real name Benjamin Homel - also owns Radioactive, LLC, which owns a few radio stations in small towns in Michigan's upper peninsula, such as CHR WUPZ (94.9 The Bay) in Marquette.
With the recent moves, New York is once again stuck with only one rock station: Clear Channel Classic Rocker WAXQ (Q104.3). Poor management decisions from CBS already left the Big Apple without 92.3 WXRK (K-Rock) and 102.7 WNEW. WRXP came onto the scene in 2008 and it was gaining audience. In the June 2011 Arbitron book, it had a 2.6, good for 19th place.
Q101, on the other hand was around for 19 years. It started in 1992 with the song "Friday, I'm in Love" by The Cure and ended with that song Friday night when all of their jocks exited. It was tied in 21st place with WCFS, but its cume was higher than News/Talk WLS 890 or Spanish WOJO.
Chicago's sole rockers are now The Loop, Hubbard's WDRV (97.1 The Drive) - both Classic Rock - and CBS AAA outlet WXRT 93.1. True, WXRT does play a lot of indie acts (and yes, indie's quite popular), both expect them to spin anything from Metallica, Disturbed or Five Finger Death Punch anytime soon.
True, WRXP and Q101 were both mid-packers, at least they kept the rock alive. The tragedy here is that this is a crappy time for rock because hard rock fans aren't into indie and vice versa. Not to mention, alternative fans tend to stay away from regular terrestrial radio and the ratings prove it. Case in point: my Alexa.com internet ratings chart for Detroit. While 89X is only mid-pack in the Detroit ratings, it's the #1 internet radio station amongst surfers. Also, look at the Billboard rock charts; the #1 rock album in the country's the latest from Bon Iver, and so far, radio's ignoring them.
I think the problem is simple: radio just needs a better model to keep rock fans happy. There's a reason why people love Bon Iver, so why aren't they playing them? Who's calling the shots at the radio stations: the label or the idiot programmers and consultants? Something's gotta have a good reason.
Here's something to think about: if the Supreme Court overturns the FCC's indecency rules, I would wish and hope for radio stations to start playing the full, uncensored versions of their tunes. People want rawness in their music, not toned-down shit. No wonder why rock radio's dying: it's because satellite and internet radio's better-programmed.
Or maybe it's just people love shitty music nowadays. At least New York STILL doesn't have a Country station.
Even more, Chicago's rock choices have been now shortened to two butt rock stations and a AAA station for the Starbucks drinker.
On Friday, a new company called Merlin Media took control of three rock radio stations owned by Emmis Communications in Chicago and New York. The affected stations are Classic Rocker WLUP (97.9 The Loop), Alternative WKQX (Q101) in Chicago and adult-leaning Alternative WRXP 101.9. Emmis retains two Urban stations in New York - Rhythmic CHR WQHT (Hot 97) and Urban AC WRKS (98.7 Kiss FM) - even though they will own a minority stake in the new company.
WLUP is safe, but Q101 and RXP are toast. Both stations' jocks have been let go and both stations are in stunt mode. Q101 is still playing music for the time being while WRXP is playing AC with the liner "101.9 FM New". It's speculated that both stations will flip to a News format rivaling WCBS in New York and WBBM Chicago, both CBS O&Os. Already, CBS announced that they will abandon the AC format on WCFS (Fresh 105.9) in Chicago
The man behind the changes is none other than former Clear Channel head honcho Randy Michaels, who is the new CEO of this big media venture. Michaels will only own 1% of the new company with equity firms and Emmis owning the rest. Michaels made media headlines recently as the CEO of Tribune, where he was told to leave due to corruption within the company. Many Tribune employees complained of the negative atmosphere within the company with reports of bad management decisions, weird memos being passed along and the fact that he had Kevin "Pig Virus" Methany run WGN 720. There was even a massive poker party held in the Tribune Tower, which angered many.
Michaels - real name Benjamin Homel - also owns Radioactive, LLC, which owns a few radio stations in small towns in Michigan's upper peninsula, such as CHR WUPZ (94.9 The Bay) in Marquette.
With the recent moves, New York is once again stuck with only one rock station: Clear Channel Classic Rocker WAXQ (Q104.3). Poor management decisions from CBS already left the Big Apple without 92.3 WXRK (K-Rock) and 102.7 WNEW. WRXP came onto the scene in 2008 and it was gaining audience. In the June 2011 Arbitron book, it had a 2.6, good for 19th place.
Q101, on the other hand was around for 19 years. It started in 1992 with the song "Friday, I'm in Love" by The Cure and ended with that song Friday night when all of their jocks exited. It was tied in 21st place with WCFS, but its cume was higher than News/Talk WLS 890 or Spanish WOJO.
Chicago's sole rockers are now The Loop, Hubbard's WDRV (97.1 The Drive) - both Classic Rock - and CBS AAA outlet WXRT 93.1. True, WXRT does play a lot of indie acts (and yes, indie's quite popular), both expect them to spin anything from Metallica, Disturbed or Five Finger Death Punch anytime soon.
True, WRXP and Q101 were both mid-packers, at least they kept the rock alive. The tragedy here is that this is a crappy time for rock because hard rock fans aren't into indie and vice versa. Not to mention, alternative fans tend to stay away from regular terrestrial radio and the ratings prove it. Case in point: my Alexa.com internet ratings chart for Detroit. While 89X is only mid-pack in the Detroit ratings, it's the #1 internet radio station amongst surfers. Also, look at the Billboard rock charts; the #1 rock album in the country's the latest from Bon Iver, and so far, radio's ignoring them.
I think the problem is simple: radio just needs a better model to keep rock fans happy. There's a reason why people love Bon Iver, so why aren't they playing them? Who's calling the shots at the radio stations: the label or the idiot programmers and consultants? Something's gotta have a good reason.
Here's something to think about: if the Supreme Court overturns the FCC's indecency rules, I would wish and hope for radio stations to start playing the full, uncensored versions of their tunes. People want rawness in their music, not toned-down shit. No wonder why rock radio's dying: it's because satellite and internet radio's better-programmed.
Or maybe it's just people love shitty music nowadays. At least New York STILL doesn't have a Country station.
---
Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com !
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
No comments:
Post a Comment