Posted by steve frederick on February 06, 2008 at 11:51:46:
In Reply to: 101.9 RXP: Where Is The Audience? posted by Allan Sniffen on February 06, 2008 at 08:27:25:
I keep hearing "New York is a so and so town" and "New York is not a so and so town." Is this a function of studies and empirical data? I think it is more a function of, particular stations having failed at a particular format. As I have said in the past, there can be a variety of reasons, most likely a failure to develop a station that people can call home. WNEW-FM was home until it "failed" (a decade or more ago!). Why? Yes, the music was a component. It was not, however, the be all and end all. It was the personalities, the very same folks who continue to be heard on a variety of different stations and formats. Al Bernstein, for example, was a rock DJ who contributed to a hugely successful station that was as far from rock as you could get, demographically. It was also the chemistry and mix of the personalities. Throw in, for good measure, the marketing efforts that forged the identity. You knew when you went to a concert that your radio station, WNEW-FM, was sponsoring it or, perhaps airing it and/or promoting it with a live in-studio appearance. Calendars. T-shirts. It was the aggregate. Granted, it is more difficult doing that today when the audience to whom you broadcast -- or, more accurately narrowcast -- is so splintered. The point is that it is naive and simplistic to define an entire demographic by the songs to which they listen. One final thing, what is a "suburban format" and who is the target listener? Suburban connotes "not urban." Let me remind you that New York is unlike any other market in its makeup. That is, you are just as, if not more likely to find the same folks who live in the suburbs living in "the City." This does not hold true in Boston, Philly, etc. So, to define a potential listener as a suburbanite an opposed to a city denizen is just plain silly.