Name: terrestrial radio
Age: 98
Occupation: supposed entertainers and informers of the public
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: still making mistakes
Age: 98
Occupation: supposed entertainers and informers of the public
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: still making mistakes
---
Last week, a big deal was made in the world of radio.
No, it didn't involve any AM or FM radio stations.
SiriusXM announced that they were buying Pandora for $3.5 billion. In recent times, Pandora has seen a decrease in listeners to Swedish-based Spotify. At least with Spotify, you can create stations based on your likes and preferences as opposed to Pandora telling you to enjoy the same songs over and over.
I'll admit that as a former subscriber of Sirius, this makes me wonder if they will use Pandora as a free, commercial version of them. In other words, do what Spotify's doing: make it a free service with commercials or pay to have them removed.
Thanks to Spotify, I can create my own stations and play the music I love as opposed to having a programming director tell me what to listen to. Plus, with Spotify and Pandora, you can do something you can't do on terrestrial radio or even SiriusXM: skip songs you hate or are just too damn tired of hearing for the 316,732nd time. Right now on my Spotify favorites station, the playlist is at 925 tunes.
A lot of times, I ask myself, "where was this technology 20 years ago when I was forced to live in northern Michigan?" We had the internet, but cable internet and even wi-fi was still years away. Smartphones were also years away. Living in northern Michigan and being a fan of bands like KoRn, Rage Against the Machine and Tool, I felt homeless since the only rock stations in town - KLT, The Bear and The Zone - either played way too much classic rock, Lilith Fair shit or both.
KLT's problem was its owners, the Gokey family from Minot, ND. They felt that northern Michigan wasn't the best place for new rock, even though KLT didn't have a problem playing Huey Lewis and The News and U2 in the 80s. True, North Dakota was the state that gave us two great radio legends: Shadoe Stevens - who built a homemade radio station when he was ten - and the late, great Ed Schultz. Sadly, the Gokeys should have stuck to bottling Pepsi instead of telling northern Michigan what rock should sound like.
Thankfully, northern Michigan does have a decent rock station in Rock 105/95-5 now. But sadly, KLT is quickly turning into the Bill Knapp's of rock radio. Every time I go up north, I usually talk with people around my age (37) about how shitty KLT is. I look at the playlist and out of ten songs, maybe there's three I might like. The rest is all shit nobody under the age of 60 listens to, or should be listening to.
I remembered when the Gokeys flipped 106.7 The Peak to adult contemporary. Their young listeners abandoned it while they failed to attract new ones. Several format flips later, they're now ESPN sports. Today, the north has two CHRs in long-standing 106 KHQ and Z93. Sadly, the playlists of both stations are ho-hum comparing to 104.5 WSNX here in Grand Rapids. Hell, I cringed when I was listening to Z93's internet feed recently and they aired a liner read by pRick Snyder! WOW! Nothing like reaching women 18-49 by having the scumbag governor of Michigan read a liner between songs. No wonder why their ratings suck! KHQ's ratings are down, too, probably because they've gotten too fucking vanilla. You know, whites do like black music, too!
Of course, the Gokeys were supposed to sell KLT, along with ESPN Up North and 94.3/92.5 The Fox to Blarney Stone Broadcasting, the owners of rock Q100 and sports Y101 out of Grayling two years ago. People wondered why the sale kept taking so long. Turns out that the Gokeys wanted way too much fucking money. They wanted BSB to buy not just the stations, but their transmitter sites as well. The two sides tried working out a deal, but no can do and the deal was recently called off. Now, it was announced on Monday that BSB is now operating AC WLDR 101.9 (dropping their "The Bay" moniker), 99.3 WOUF (now WQAN and simulcasting Q100) and 92.3 WBNZ (now simulcasting Y101 with the two stations rebranded as "Up North Sports Radio"). To me, this is great news, especially since 99.3 and 92.3 have been either silent or simulcasting WLDR for the past decade. It's not known whether or not BSB is buying the stations outright (I did leave a voice mail with owner Jerry Coyne). But if they are, it's probably the best news in northern Michigan radio history, given their current owner's history of leaving downtown Traverse City with a massive hole in the ground for nearly a decade, lying to the FCC, physically and verbally abusing employees and attacking those who speak the truth about him.
You know, I like Q100 and its massive playlist. Hell, I was listening to them just now and they're having a tribute to Tom Petty, who died one year ago today. They're also not afraid to play newer music (they just played Royal Blood's "I Only Lie When I Love You"), although KLT now plays Greta Van Fleet on a daily basis (probably because of their resemblance to Led Zeppelin). Sometimes, I wonder why Coyne wanted to buy KLT. The good news is that 99.3's signal will help Q100 bring more of an audience to Traverse City and the surrounding areas. I wish them the best!
Granted, there is *some* good news about northern Michigan terrestrial radio and its war against digital media. But since I live in Grand Rapids, where about 90% of all the radio stations is owned by three companies, the news is more, well, something else. True, there ARE some local station owners, but sadly, they're all religious. Sometimes, I wonder how many people actually listen to WFUR 102.9. 50,000 watts and when they subscribed to Arbitron, they were usually the lowest-rated station in town.
My big beef right now is WGRD. Their playlist is repetitive and has too much classic rock for an active rocker. Then again, it's a problem that there are stations that report to the trades as active rock and yet they play bands that have ZERO place on a modern hard station like Kansas and Styx. Hell, GRD's ratings have fallen since those changes were made.
Sadly, Grand Rapids is a radio market where nothing exciting happens. Hell, when I bought my new car last week, I bought an FM transmitter for my phone because the radio didn't have an auxiliary jack or Bluetooth. My Dad even asked me, "can't you just listen to the radio?" Of course, I told him that radio here is simply too boring.
So, there you go. Radio needs to know why people are indeed leaving in droves. I was told by somebody that he worked at a station that once had a 25 share. When internet radio came around in the mid-90s, it was half that rating.
You see, if radio can work out a strategy to bring listeners back, great. It seems to be working for Q100 since the Coynes have worked hard to expand their media empire. But like any business, if it sounds fake and like everybody else, people will indeed leave. No listeners will equate to no advertisers. Some stations don't subscribe to Nielsen and can't prove that they have ratings. I read radio ratings regularly. If I owned a business and somebody from a radio group comes in and can't prove that people are listening, they ain't getting my money. In this society where people judge by not just word of mouth, but the internet as well, if you can't perform well, it's time to make a HUGE change.
At least one radio station owner in northern Michigan is FINALLY doing so.
---
Last week, a big deal was made in the world of radio.
No, it didn't involve any AM or FM radio stations.
SiriusXM announced that they were buying Pandora for $3.5 billion. In recent times, Pandora has seen a decrease in listeners to Swedish-based Spotify. At least with Spotify, you can create stations based on your likes and preferences as opposed to Pandora telling you to enjoy the same songs over and over.
I'll admit that as a former subscriber of Sirius, this makes me wonder if they will use Pandora as a free, commercial version of them. In other words, do what Spotify's doing: make it a free service with commercials or pay to have them removed.
Thanks to Spotify, I can create my own stations and play the music I love as opposed to having a programming director tell me what to listen to. Plus, with Spotify and Pandora, you can do something you can't do on terrestrial radio or even SiriusXM: skip songs you hate or are just too damn tired of hearing for the 316,732nd time. Right now on my Spotify favorites station, the playlist is at 925 tunes.
A lot of times, I ask myself, "where was this technology 20 years ago when I was forced to live in northern Michigan?" We had the internet, but cable internet and even wi-fi was still years away. Smartphones were also years away. Living in northern Michigan and being a fan of bands like KoRn, Rage Against the Machine and Tool, I felt homeless since the only rock stations in town - KLT, The Bear and The Zone - either played way too much classic rock, Lilith Fair shit or both.
KLT's problem was its owners, the Gokey family from Minot, ND. They felt that northern Michigan wasn't the best place for new rock, even though KLT didn't have a problem playing Huey Lewis and The News and U2 in the 80s. True, North Dakota was the state that gave us two great radio legends: Shadoe Stevens - who built a homemade radio station when he was ten - and the late, great Ed Schultz. Sadly, the Gokeys should have stuck to bottling Pepsi instead of telling northern Michigan what rock should sound like.
Thankfully, northern Michigan does have a decent rock station in Rock 105/95-5 now. But sadly, KLT is quickly turning into the Bill Knapp's of rock radio. Every time I go up north, I usually talk with people around my age (37) about how shitty KLT is. I look at the playlist and out of ten songs, maybe there's three I might like. The rest is all shit nobody under the age of 60 listens to, or should be listening to.
I remembered when the Gokeys flipped 106.7 The Peak to adult contemporary. Their young listeners abandoned it while they failed to attract new ones. Several format flips later, they're now ESPN sports. Today, the north has two CHRs in long-standing 106 KHQ and Z93. Sadly, the playlists of both stations are ho-hum comparing to 104.5 WSNX here in Grand Rapids. Hell, I cringed when I was listening to Z93's internet feed recently and they aired a liner read by pRick Snyder! WOW! Nothing like reaching women 18-49 by having the scumbag governor of Michigan read a liner between songs. No wonder why their ratings suck! KHQ's ratings are down, too, probably because they've gotten too fucking vanilla. You know, whites do like black music, too!
Of course, the Gokeys were supposed to sell KLT, along with ESPN Up North and 94.3/92.5 The Fox to Blarney Stone Broadcasting, the owners of rock Q100 and sports Y101 out of Grayling two years ago. People wondered why the sale kept taking so long. Turns out that the Gokeys wanted way too much fucking money. They wanted BSB to buy not just the stations, but their transmitter sites as well. The two sides tried working out a deal, but no can do and the deal was recently called off. Now, it was announced on Monday that BSB is now operating AC WLDR 101.9 (dropping their "The Bay" moniker), 99.3 WOUF (now WQAN and simulcasting Q100) and 92.3 WBNZ (now simulcasting Y101 with the two stations rebranded as "Up North Sports Radio"). To me, this is great news, especially since 99.3 and 92.3 have been either silent or simulcasting WLDR for the past decade. It's not known whether or not BSB is buying the stations outright (I did leave a voice mail with owner Jerry Coyne). But if they are, it's probably the best news in northern Michigan radio history, given their current owner's history of leaving downtown Traverse City with a massive hole in the ground for nearly a decade, lying to the FCC, physically and verbally abusing employees and attacking those who speak the truth about him.
You know, I like Q100 and its massive playlist. Hell, I was listening to them just now and they're having a tribute to Tom Petty, who died one year ago today. They're also not afraid to play newer music (they just played Royal Blood's "I Only Lie When I Love You"), although KLT now plays Greta Van Fleet on a daily basis (probably because of their resemblance to Led Zeppelin). Sometimes, I wonder why Coyne wanted to buy KLT. The good news is that 99.3's signal will help Q100 bring more of an audience to Traverse City and the surrounding areas. I wish them the best!
Granted, there is *some* good news about northern Michigan terrestrial radio and its war against digital media. But since I live in Grand Rapids, where about 90% of all the radio stations is owned by three companies, the news is more, well, something else. True, there ARE some local station owners, but sadly, they're all religious. Sometimes, I wonder how many people actually listen to WFUR 102.9. 50,000 watts and when they subscribed to Arbitron, they were usually the lowest-rated station in town.
My big beef right now is WGRD. Their playlist is repetitive and has too much classic rock for an active rocker. Then again, it's a problem that there are stations that report to the trades as active rock and yet they play bands that have ZERO place on a modern hard station like Kansas and Styx. Hell, GRD's ratings have fallen since those changes were made.
Sadly, Grand Rapids is a radio market where nothing exciting happens. Hell, when I bought my new car last week, I bought an FM transmitter for my phone because the radio didn't have an auxiliary jack or Bluetooth. My Dad even asked me, "can't you just listen to the radio?" Of course, I told him that radio here is simply too boring.
So, there you go. Radio needs to know why people are indeed leaving in droves. I was told by somebody that he worked at a station that once had a 25 share. When internet radio came around in the mid-90s, it was half that rating.
You see, if radio can work out a strategy to bring listeners back, great. It seems to be working for Q100 since the Coynes have worked hard to expand their media empire. But like any business, if it sounds fake and like everybody else, people will indeed leave. No listeners will equate to no advertisers. Some stations don't subscribe to Nielsen and can't prove that they have ratings. I read radio ratings regularly. If I owned a business and somebody from a radio group comes in and can't prove that people are listening, they ain't getting my money. In this society where people judge by not just word of mouth, but the internet as well, if you can't perform well, it's time to make a HUGE change.
At least one radio station owner in northern Michigan is FINALLY doing so.
---
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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!
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