Colorado Media Newsroom
November 18th, 2022, 12:25 PM
From Radio Insight:
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2019/08/KFOG.png?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1What does a format hole even mean now?
In the early ?90s, when I lived in New York, I looked forward to my trips to Long Island, or my drives to Boston along the Connecticut coast, so I could hear Alternative WDRE/WLIR.
In the mid-?90s, when New York lost full-signal Country and the new WYNY couldn?t be heard in my Times Square office building, I first relied on the listen line of KKBQ (93Q Country) Houston, my favorite station in the format under the late Dene Hallam, then KPLX (the Wolf) Dallas after its relaunch.
Now, I have a friend who?s even happier with WNSH (Country 94.7) New York as the HD-2 to WXBK (the Block), because the new station is even more music-intensive. I can still stream 93Q or the Wolf. Or listen to SiriusXM?s The Highway. Or stream KRTY.com, the San Jose station that went online-only. Sometimes I even punch back and forth between KRTY and KBAY, the FM station that succeeded it.
WNYL (Alt 92.3) New York is still on HD-2 (although before 2017, I had the ability to punch between both the then-CBS and iHeart Alternative formats on HDRadio). I have SiriusXM?s Alt Nation. I have KTCL Denver and WWDC (DC101) Washington, D.C., if I want them, too.*
Some New York-area listeners have access to two Triple-A stations. I?m a little too far south to get WXPK (The Peak),but I stream it regularly. In the car, my wife still prefers the ease of SiriusXM?s The Spectrum. Long drives used to be where I confirmed what the CHR hits were from market to market. Now the songs associated with car trips are whatever the Spectrum?s hits are, and what?s on the dial no longer fluctuates from market to market.
Over the years, the changes in the format landscape have been driven both by format boom/bust cycles and whether a company wanted to be in a certain format. In 1996, the success of Infinity in Alternative lured WXRK away from a still-viable Classic Rock format and touched off a chain reaction in New York radio. But when Evergreen considered Country too niche for New York and launched WKTU, it took Cumulus wanting to be in Country to sign on WNSH decades later, and Audacy?s similar commitment to Alternative to bring that format back to WXRK?s frequency.
The land rush on FM now is spoken word, although the first time I sat in a radio station conference room and heard a radio station’s sales manager suggest just bringing his all-sports AM to FM, regardless of ratings, was nearly 20 years ago. Putting all-News WINS on WNYL?s frequency was a surprise for most people only because it didn?t happen five years ago. The most publicized format flips on AM have been for sports-betting formats, expected to generate revenue, but not ratings.*
We still occasionally see quick moves to fill format holes, as with KRTY and KBAY. But San Francisco has lost both Triple-A KFOG and Alternative KITS and replaced neither. Seattle has Throwback Hip-Hop, but no direct replacement for KUBE. Ironically, both KITS and KUBE in their day were stations that helped drive a subsequent format boom. Now, the future of all current-based formats is concerning, and new launches of music FMs that get traction quickly, like ?90s/?00s-gold KZIS (Kiss 107.9) Sacramento,are big news.
Broadcasters have not just the right but the imperative to do what they think is right for their licenses, and one of my tenets as a radio journalist has always been to treat all formats equally, going against the typical trade magazine bias toward current-based formats. At the same time, it is likely that radio listening levels have been impacted by a smaller number of mainstream formats on local AM/FM dials, driven by:
The consolidation of AM and FM stations onto a finite number of FM frequencies;
The replacement of those AMs with lesser rated outlets or stations that are not meant to compete for ratings;
The sale of some FM frequencies to broadcasters who are not driven ratings. (It’s hard to fully judge this when, for instance, EMF’s ratings aren’t published this month, but the initial published numbers for Christian AC K-Love in New York and San Jose were lower than what they replaced.)
The combined impact of these changes is that:
On an infinite dial, AM/FM?s offerings, especially for music feel even more finite these days, feeding the overall sense of radio?s decline.
Radio is in a better position than ever to satisfy listeners who don’t have a local over-the-air choice for a format or have niche tastes, but not always an elegant solution for guiding them through their new choices, following up on all those “download our app” promos, or even making streaming a good user experience.
Even when listeners choose radio’s products beyond the AM/FM dial, those stories aren’t always visible, furthering the notion of radio in public decline.
There are a number of things we could do about this:
We can make sure that, when broadcasters themselves guide audiences to online-only outlets like KRTY, the listening is still measured. Should former Nielsen subscribers continue to be allowed to subscribe on IP only? Should current Nielsen subscribers somehow be getting listening credit for the podcasts that broadcasters generate, in the same way that time-shifted morning shows are counted?
The industry should start to regard SiriusXM as ?radio.? It is radio in its sound and functionality, and people pay for it, making it one of radio’s “beyond AM/FM” success stories.
But mostly we can make IP listening to broadcast radio a better experience after more than 15 years of inaction. The meta-dial shouldn?t be finite, but it should be manageable. Radio apps are great at highlighting listeners’ local choices, but it?s precisely looking beyond New York for Country or San Francisco for Triple-A that should guide our architecture now.*
We can finally address the issue of national brands. Hosted national superstations or local stations that have the charisma and uniqueness to be national brands are still the thing that broadcasters have not fully taken advantage of. And yet, for those who like radio enough to subscribe to it, national brands are what listeners are moving to.
And, yes, we can finally address spotload and the stopset experience.
Listeners who want music not offered in their market have always had options, yet that never stopped them from being glad when that music was available on radio, in part because of the community that stations like WLIR built. Now the option of listening to your own music is easier and more easily shared. Using the virtual dial to take advantage of radio’s expanded choices needs to be easier as well.
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/245223/format-holes-and-the-finite-dial/)
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2019/08/KFOG.png?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1What does a format hole even mean now?
In the early ?90s, when I lived in New York, I looked forward to my trips to Long Island, or my drives to Boston along the Connecticut coast, so I could hear Alternative WDRE/WLIR.
In the mid-?90s, when New York lost full-signal Country and the new WYNY couldn?t be heard in my Times Square office building, I first relied on the listen line of KKBQ (93Q Country) Houston, my favorite station in the format under the late Dene Hallam, then KPLX (the Wolf) Dallas after its relaunch.
Now, I have a friend who?s even happier with WNSH (Country 94.7) New York as the HD-2 to WXBK (the Block), because the new station is even more music-intensive. I can still stream 93Q or the Wolf. Or listen to SiriusXM?s The Highway. Or stream KRTY.com, the San Jose station that went online-only. Sometimes I even punch back and forth between KRTY and KBAY, the FM station that succeeded it.
WNYL (Alt 92.3) New York is still on HD-2 (although before 2017, I had the ability to punch between both the then-CBS and iHeart Alternative formats on HDRadio). I have SiriusXM?s Alt Nation. I have KTCL Denver and WWDC (DC101) Washington, D.C., if I want them, too.*
Some New York-area listeners have access to two Triple-A stations. I?m a little too far south to get WXPK (The Peak),but I stream it regularly. In the car, my wife still prefers the ease of SiriusXM?s The Spectrum. Long drives used to be where I confirmed what the CHR hits were from market to market. Now the songs associated with car trips are whatever the Spectrum?s hits are, and what?s on the dial no longer fluctuates from market to market.
Over the years, the changes in the format landscape have been driven both by format boom/bust cycles and whether a company wanted to be in a certain format. In 1996, the success of Infinity in Alternative lured WXRK away from a still-viable Classic Rock format and touched off a chain reaction in New York radio. But when Evergreen considered Country too niche for New York and launched WKTU, it took Cumulus wanting to be in Country to sign on WNSH decades later, and Audacy?s similar commitment to Alternative to bring that format back to WXRK?s frequency.
The land rush on FM now is spoken word, although the first time I sat in a radio station conference room and heard a radio station’s sales manager suggest just bringing his all-sports AM to FM, regardless of ratings, was nearly 20 years ago. Putting all-News WINS on WNYL?s frequency was a surprise for most people only because it didn?t happen five years ago. The most publicized format flips on AM have been for sports-betting formats, expected to generate revenue, but not ratings.*
We still occasionally see quick moves to fill format holes, as with KRTY and KBAY. But San Francisco has lost both Triple-A KFOG and Alternative KITS and replaced neither. Seattle has Throwback Hip-Hop, but no direct replacement for KUBE. Ironically, both KITS and KUBE in their day were stations that helped drive a subsequent format boom. Now, the future of all current-based formats is concerning, and new launches of music FMs that get traction quickly, like ?90s/?00s-gold KZIS (Kiss 107.9) Sacramento,are big news.
Broadcasters have not just the right but the imperative to do what they think is right for their licenses, and one of my tenets as a radio journalist has always been to treat all formats equally, going against the typical trade magazine bias toward current-based formats. At the same time, it is likely that radio listening levels have been impacted by a smaller number of mainstream formats on local AM/FM dials, driven by:
The consolidation of AM and FM stations onto a finite number of FM frequencies;
The replacement of those AMs with lesser rated outlets or stations that are not meant to compete for ratings;
The sale of some FM frequencies to broadcasters who are not driven ratings. (It’s hard to fully judge this when, for instance, EMF’s ratings aren’t published this month, but the initial published numbers for Christian AC K-Love in New York and San Jose were lower than what they replaced.)
The combined impact of these changes is that:
On an infinite dial, AM/FM?s offerings, especially for music feel even more finite these days, feeding the overall sense of radio?s decline.
Radio is in a better position than ever to satisfy listeners who don’t have a local over-the-air choice for a format or have niche tastes, but not always an elegant solution for guiding them through their new choices, following up on all those “download our app” promos, or even making streaming a good user experience.
Even when listeners choose radio’s products beyond the AM/FM dial, those stories aren’t always visible, furthering the notion of radio in public decline.
There are a number of things we could do about this:
We can make sure that, when broadcasters themselves guide audiences to online-only outlets like KRTY, the listening is still measured. Should former Nielsen subscribers continue to be allowed to subscribe on IP only? Should current Nielsen subscribers somehow be getting listening credit for the podcasts that broadcasters generate, in the same way that time-shifted morning shows are counted?
The industry should start to regard SiriusXM as ?radio.? It is radio in its sound and functionality, and people pay for it, making it one of radio’s “beyond AM/FM” success stories.
But mostly we can make IP listening to broadcast radio a better experience after more than 15 years of inaction. The meta-dial shouldn?t be finite, but it should be manageable. Radio apps are great at highlighting listeners’ local choices, but it?s precisely looking beyond New York for Country or San Francisco for Triple-A that should guide our architecture now.*
We can finally address the issue of national brands. Hosted national superstations or local stations that have the charisma and uniqueness to be national brands are still the thing that broadcasters have not fully taken advantage of. And yet, for those who like radio enough to subscribe to it, national brands are what listeners are moving to.
And, yes, we can finally address spotload and the stopset experience.
Listeners who want music not offered in their market have always had options, yet that never stopped them from being glad when that music was available on radio, in part because of the community that stations like WLIR built. Now the option of listening to your own music is easier and more easily shared. Using the virtual dial to take advantage of radio’s expanded choices needs to be easier as well.
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/245223/format-holes-and-the-finite-dial/)