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Grex > Music2 > #101: The Demise of Classical Music Radio, and Other Radio Complaints |  |
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krj
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The Demise of Classical Music Radio, and Other Radio Complaints
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Nov 24 16:15 UTC 1997 |
This seems to be a thread that won't stop, so I decided to give it its
own home, even though it is old news by now.
For those who joined us late: WQRS-FM, Detroit's commercial classical
music station, converted to a rock format late last week.
Previous ranting can be found in the Music conference's Radio item,
response #77 -- resp:music,25,77 for you Backtalkers --
and in the "I'm Bummed, Man" item in Agora, beginning at response #345 --
resp:agora,6,345
I'll stick in some of the most recent discussion from Agora for
seed material...
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#361 of 370: by Autolycus (rogue) on Sun, Nov 23, 1997 (18:44):
Why would they care about protest letters? They were not getting the
audiences advertisers want.
"I'm a classical music fan. I listened to WQRS. Put classical back on the
air or I will boycott your new rock format station." Compelling...
#364 of 370: by Steve Gibbard (scg) on Sun, Nov 23, 1997 (23:23):
How do radio stations figure out how many listeners they have? Protest
letters may make them aware of listeners they didn't know about. OTOH, it
may do nothing.
As far as I can tell WQRS's new format is just trying to clone some of the
other successful radio stations in the area. I imagine it may be a tough
sell to get people to switch to them, or at least to get people to stay
with them during commercials when they can just flip to another
identical station.
#366 of 370: by Rane Curl (rcurl) on Mon, Nov 24, 1997 (00:24):
Apparently WQRS thinks they will be "different" by having some nuance of
difference in the rock they sell - like the differences between granite,
diorite, gabbro, rather than the differences between limestone, shale
or sandstone.
#367 of 370: by Patrick Gibson (gibson) on Mon, Nov 24, 1997 (01:12):
rane is that written in stone?
#368 of 370: by Leslie Smith (arabella) on Mon, Nov 24, 1997 (01:48):
The company that bought WQRS also recently performed the same
stupid manoeuvre on Philadelphia's former commercial classical
station, WFLN. My mother is crushed (she lives in Philly).
The local NPR station, which used to broadcast a lot of classical,
has swept all that away in favor of nationally syndicated talk
shows, much like WUOM here in Ann Arbor. Basically, radio sucks,
and continues to suck even worse as we lose what few interesting
and individualized stations we used to listen to.
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| 107 responses total. |
krj
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response 1 of 107:
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Nov 24 16:19 UTC 1997 |
((( more late responses from Agora -- krj )))
#369 of 372: by Mike McNally (mcnally) on Mon, Nov 24, 1997 (02:33):
re #361: You're correct that they probably don't care a lot about the
loss of a small number of vocal listeners compared to the audience they
seem to think they'll pick up but one hopes, at least, that a lot of
pissed off music fans could have a say when it comes time for FCC license
renewal.
#370 of 372: by No en tu mano! (omni) on Mon, Nov 24, 1997 (10:41):
Actually, public comment doesn't have a factor in radio station
re-licensing. That's reserved for TV stations.
#371 of 372: by Autolycus (rogue) on Mon, Nov 24, 1997 (11:13):
#364: They figure out number and type of listeners via a survey company,
I believe. Kind of like Nielsen's for TV. With regards to cloning
other successful radio stations: 20% of 1,000,000 rock listeners
is more than 80% of 100,000 classical music listeners. Add to that
the age of the listeners and it makes sense.
#369: Vocal listeners don't buy any more of the advertisers' products than
non-vocal listeners. Vocal listeners don't show up any more on the
ratings than non-vocal listeners. Vocal listeners in this case are
simply people complaining about what has happened after the fact.
They have little or no leverage financially or politically.
If a classical station makes a lot of *business* sense, people should start
one. It would be the only one around.
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krj
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response 2 of 107:
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Nov 24 16:20 UTC 1997 |
((( Agora #105 is now linked to Music #101. )))
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krj
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response 3 of 107:
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Nov 24 16:30 UTC 1997 |
People might *want* to start a classical music station. According to the
Detroit Free Press' initial article on the WQRS conversion,
the classical station was making about $2 million a year in profit, and
had the #12 audience share in the Detroit radio market. (From memory,
but I think those numbers are correct.)
However, if I were to get together with a few like-minded listeners and
open a classical radio station, men with guns would come to shut me down...
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rogue
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response 4 of 107:
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Nov 24 16:43 UTC 1997 |
I believe I read the same article you did. I don't believe it was clear that
it was making $2 million in net profit.
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mcnally
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response 5 of 107:
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Nov 24 17:15 UTC 1997 |
You don't address what I think is Ken's more significant point, which
is that radio broadcasting is not a free market that anyone can enter
at will and test the strength or weakness of the product they offer.
Instead it's restricted, by the laws of physics and the regulations of
the FCC, to a relatively small number of competitors who operate with
the blessing of the federal government.
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dadroc
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response 6 of 107:
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Nov 24 17:36 UTC 1997 |
Modern radio is slave to the drive time commercials. Sound like time to start
a public radio station.
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orinoco
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response 7 of 107:
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Nov 24 17:53 UTC 1997 |
Re#6: What mcnally said.
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danr
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response 8 of 107:
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Nov 24 18:51 UTC 1997 |
What's interesting to me is that with all the talk of how media is
becoming (or has the potential to become) more personalized, almost
the opposite is happening. The economics seem to be driving it to
become more "mass-oriented" than ever before.
Having said that, it seems that people really don't want classical
music. WUOM is the best example of this. After changing their format
from mostly classical music to mostly news and talk, the amount of
money pledged to the station increased dramatically. They set another
new record during their fall pledge drive with recently ended.
If there are enough people to support a classical music station, someone
will figure that out sooner or later, buy a station, and make some
money at it.
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rogue
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response 9 of 107:
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Nov 24 19:40 UTC 1997 |
#5: And those people are motivated by greed and fear (those two evil words
again) and will do whatever is most profitable for them, including
selling their station to people who want to broadcast classical music.
Look -- if the station was making $2 million a year, you can buy a
station for, say, $5 million, spend another million on miscellaneous
stuff and have a return on investment of 33% a year, assuming no
debt. That is a huge return. If you leverage the deal with debt, you
can increase your ROI even more. You don't have to start one from
scratch.
Just because the bandwidth is regulated it does not mean it is not a
free market. There are barriers to entry but they are not overwhelming.
A plant to manufacture memory chips costs over $1 billion. The cost of
developing the next Intel chip is going to be about $10 billion. Those
are severe barriers to entry.
PS: I don't think WQRS was making $2 million a year in net profits.
#8: The question is not "whether or not I can make money with a classical
music station" but "whether I can make more money with a classical
music or rock music station?" If you can make $1 million a year with
a classical music station and $3 million a year with a rock music
station, which would you run?
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krj
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response 10 of 107:
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Nov 24 19:55 UTC 1997 |
This is from the November 17th Free Press article. My copy is
from their web site:
"The station reportedly turned a $2-million profit in its first year
under Greater Media. (((that would be 1996, I think -- krj)))
However, Steve Schram, vice president and general manager of WNIC,
termed that as 'just not that much' for an FM station with a
powerful signal in what is currently the country's 11th-largest ^U
radio market based on ad revenue.
"In the October Arbitrend rating, the station had a 2.2 rating, down
from a 2.4 in September, in listeners age 12 and over. The station
drew a high-income, well-educated but older audience and ranked only
18th in Detroit's very competitive radio market."
I think that article also sums up the motivation for the format
change: the new format at WQRS is to "complement other Detroit
properties owned by Greater Media, a New Jersey-based broadcast
group -- album rock WRIF-FM (101.1) and classic rocker WCSX-FM (94.7)."
So Greater Media can now to go Anheuser Busch or the Michigan Lottery
and say, "We can sell you a comprehensive ad package, with a classic
rock station, an alternative station, and a hard-rock station."
The listeners? Screw the listeners. They only exist to buy beer.
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