>I've been following this "thread" about new country versus old country
>that spawned from WKKG's PD Scott Micheals' comments. While in many ways
>I do tend to agree with Scott, BEFORE you all start flaming me just hear
>me out. You never hear about Motown artists complaining about today's pop
>radio not playing their music, even though their music, just like country
>music from the same time period is nothing short of legendary. Alabama
>has been on country radio for YEARS. On the pop-rock stations the same
>can be said for The Rolling Stones. These artists have kept up with the
>times and "rolled with the changes" Age has nothing to do with good or
>bad music.
>A radio station is a business, and a business has to make money to STAY
>in business. How long would a retail store keep their employees and
>remain open if they sold "great" items that only a few people purchased?
>-----Greg Breeden
>WKHK
No flames here but I happen to know Greg and I also happen to know that
Greg, one of the better air talents in Virginia, was a part of the only
station to take WKHK down a notch or two in the last ten years, a station
called "The Bear" which was, according to Arbitron, slowly but steadily
eroding KHK's market share, enough so that it was bought by and shut down by
KHK. The Bear was closer to Real Country music with a mix of currents
thrown in than anything around and it had a 50 or 100K signal on a big (make
that giant) stick. It was best said by the line "Listeners' memories go
much farther back than most station research." And it takes people who know
and understand country music and the country audience (and every market is a
bit different) to program stations that can be successful, not Hot A/C or
Rock programmers lured by big $. The HNC stations are dropping like flies
off a meat wagon that was the ride to the top and is now the ride to
mediocrity. Only when country stations get local and back in touch with
their audience, put radio people in charge of radio stations and start
demanding from Nashville music the listeners really want to hear, will
country radio have a chance to make another return to the top. I seriously
doubt this will happen as too much consolidation has left the companies with
debt loads that are forcing generic programming into hundreds of stations in
a misguided attempt to save a buck. I'll never believe that a consultant in
New York or LA can tell me what my audience wants to hear, the only thing a
consultant can tell me is what the labels are paying him to tell me. Bring
any consultant to my market and walk down main street with me, leave your
ears open and learn something.
Mike Hays
P.S. As for the Motown artists, I can hear them in damn near any market I go
to, it's called the oldies format, no wonder they aren't complaining
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