| November 1st, 2005 10:25 PM |
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| Soldatti |
Rock Radio on the Slide
When Stern ditches FM, the country will lose one of its biggest rock stations
When Howard Stern escapes FM radio on December 16th for the uncensored world of Sirius Satellite Radio, New York loses more than its most famous shock jock -- it also loses K-Rock, the last major station to regularly play new rock music. On January 3rd, former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth will take over Stern's WXRK-FM morning show, and the station will switch to talk radio, leaving classic Q104.3 as New York's last remaining commercial rock station.
K-Rock is just the latest casualty for rock radio. Listenership declined sixteen percent from 1998 to 2004, according to Arbitron, despite a slight resurgence for the first half of 2005. Major rock stations in Washington, D.C., Miami and Houston have folded in the past year and a half. In February, Philadelphia's twelve-year-old modern-rock fixture Y100 switched to hip-hop, and in June, New York's thirty-three-year-old oldies station WCBS-FM fired its veteran DJs and transformed into the new format, Jack, which plays a jukebox-style mix of pop and rock hits from the last three decades. "It's like a slap in the face," says Doug Podell, operations manager for Detroit rock station WRIF-FM. "Those stations were just so big, with so much rock history -- and it was wiped out in a matter of moments."
Changing demographics, most notably a surging Latino population in New York, Chicago and other major cities, are in large part responsible for reshaping the radio landscape away from rock. In New York, three of the top four stations are R&B and hip-hop, and WCAA's reggaeton format is rising steadily. "We're in a cultural shift," says Michael Papale, manager and head of radio for the Firm, the management company that represents Korn, Audioslave, Weezer and others. "Of course it's a concern. You have to find other ways to get exposure."
Infinity Broadcasting, the nation's second-largest radio company after Clear Channel Communications, still has twenty-four rock stations, including Los Angeles' alternative fixture KROQ, San Francisco's KITS and Boston's WBCN; K-Rock will continue to play music on weekends. "Rumors of rock's death are greatly exaggerated," says Rob Barnett, Infinity's president of programming.
Infinity made its K-Rock changes to herald the hiring of Roth and Loveline host Adam Carolla as Stern's replacements. Roth will be heard on seven stations, mostly on the East Coast; Carolla will air on six West Coast stations; and magician-comedian Penn Jillette will do a one-hour talk show on eight stations, in New York, Chicago and elsewhere. Barnett says Infinity considered "dozens and dozens" of replacements for Stern -- who regularly draws 6 million listeners each week on twenty-seven U.S. stations -- including Daily Show host Jon Stewart, and Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park, but the biggest names declined. Roth, who has been volunteering as an emergency medical technician in New York since last November, "auditioned" for the job with a three-hour on-the-air stint one night this year in Los Angeles.
Roth declined interview requests, but Carolla calls the former Van Halen frontman "sort of nutty, narcissistic, but interesting and potentially funny." And unlike his bosses at Infinity, the acerbic Carolla believes K-Rock's switch from rock to talk is part of a larger trend that's likely to continue. "I don't know what year folks are living in," he says. "If you want to hear music, get an iPod. If you want to hear talk, get a radio. That's my feeling."
RollingStone.com
STEVE KNOPPER
(Posted Nov 01, 2005)
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| November 2nd, 2005 07:25 AM |
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| corgi37 |
Rock is dead.
Long live rock.
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| November 2nd, 2005 10:45 AM |
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| gimmekeef |
Satellite radio is where its at now.Stern (like/loathe him) is smart enough to get there and make big bucks.I have XM and the digital sound and wide choice of stations including some great commercial free rock is worth the monthly fee....Commercials,car cd players and hip hop have driven most over 25's away from over the air radio... |
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