The River ...

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Wed, 07 Aug 2002 12:35:24 -0400, RadioTony@aol.com said:

> I listen to the River and I haven't really noticed a MAJOR 
> shift. A slight move, maybe. But they still are playing a lot 
> of "alternative rock" that would have been played on WFNX 
> before they went metal on us. 

I think they wobble around a bit -- probably depending on the
promotional opportunities available during each book.  They've always
been more on the rock end of the AAA spectrum, as compared to stations
like WMVY that lean towards the neo-folkies.  (It was interesting
listening to WNCW while in North Carolina a few months ago; it was
close to Grammy award time, and they were playing most of the nominees
in many of the categories.  When they got to the Male Rock Vocal
Performance category -- Lenny Kravitz was this year's winner, with a
song I think 'XRV overplayed -- the jock opined as to how that song
was not the sort of music normally plated on the station, but in the
interest of completeness, here it was.  But come time for Album of the
Year, they skipped right over Outkast.  WNCW tends more towards the
Americana side of things, so the ``O Brother'' soundtrack was very
popular with their listeners.)

I think one way in which radio people may misjudge the format in
general is by taking too much account of what other, higher-burn
formats are playing at the same time.  AAA stations tend to be
programmed on the assumption that they do not share much if any
audience with other music formats, so songs that may be burnt
elsewhere are not necessarily even overplayed with respect to the core
AAA audience.

-GAWollman