After years of pressure from record labels, both major trade magazines made significant cuts in their chart panels last fall. But while working fewer stations may save the labels some money, it won’t solve the big problems on Music Row.
It wasn’t so long ago that nobody wanted to play hip-hop and R&B on FM in Tampa, Fla., Omaha, Neb., or Knoxville, Tenn. Now those markets have two outlets for that music and even Des Moines has gotten one. So did there really need to be a seminar at last fall’s National Assn. of Broadcasters radio show to help owners “get” hip-hop? Well, being willing to do the format doesn’t necessarily mean you respect it.
Canada’s Jack and Bob stations average 1,000 songs in active rotation. They avoid traditional positioning, as does “deep cuts” Classic Rocker KQMT Denver. So why did those stations resonate with an audience when New York’s WNEW (Blink 102.7) try many of the same things unsuccessfully?
The column that kicked off Ross On Radio’s First Look series. A look at that week’s retooling of WNEW (Blink 102.7) New York and thoughts on why that station didn’t work. This column, written before the station’s subsequent retooling to Mix 102.7, asks whether a station should position itself as “Music Women Love,” a question that has seemingly been answered.