Soccer Dad

I heard the news today, oh boy.

Last Monday I was listening to WTOP (1500 AM in the Washington area) when I heard the news that big changes were in store for the station.

In March 1500 AM likely will change its call letters to WTWP and become Washington Post Radio. As of Monday WTOP was also broadcasting at 103.5 FM, which will be its new home. Classical WGMS was moved to 104.1 FM and WWZZ FM which played "Modern Rock" is no more.

Personally, I'm not happy with the changes. I like having an all news channel and those traffic reports that I can follow all the way from Baltimore. 103.5 FM is very static-y in Baltimore so I'll probably stop listening to it and hopefully Washington Post radio will carry those traffic reports.

In the meantime the Baltimore Washington area's radio listening community is shaken up once again. First the legendary niche "modern rock" station WHFS switched to Hispanic music. Then Baltimore oldies station WQSR became another Infinity Jack clone.

I know that my cd-player will be getting a lot more action. I am increasingly annoyed with what radio is offering these days. Either there's too much talk or not enough. Apparently the market for the kind of DJ I like, one who informs about the music he/she is playing is pretty small.

Still what are the market forces that encouraged this change?

The Washington Post reported:

Yesterday's announcements underscored the changing nature -- and to some extent, the slow shrinking -- of radio as a music medium. Although radio airs many kinds of music, direct competition among genres is rare. Washington, for example, was left with only one contemporary rock station (DC101, WWDC-FM) after WHFS-FM switched to a Spanish-language pop music format last January, and with one major classical station (WGMS) after WETA-FM switched to news and talk in March.

Z-104 (WWZZ) promoted its format as "modern music" -- a mix of Green Day, Kelly Clarkson, Nickelback and other pop hitmakers -- and competed for much of the same audience and advertisers as rivals Mix 107.3 (WRQX-FM) and Hot 99.5 (WIHT-FM).

Moreover, music stations are in an increasingly tough battle with such music-delivery technologies as iPods, podcasts, satellite radio and cell phones.

WWZZ was a pretty low rated station so shutting it down made sense. However I do question some of this:

Bonneville's repositioning of its stations will strengthen WTOP by expanding its reach, local radio executives said. Broadcasting at 103.5, WTOP's news, weather, sports and traffic reports will blanket the region with one signal instead of the three relatively weaker ones (two AMs and an FM) the station has used.

In addition, the station will extend its signal by broadcasting in a monaural format instead of sonically cleaner but less pervasive stereo. Station officials said WTOP's signal would be the most powerful in the region, with a "footprint" stretching from south of Fredericksburg to north of Baltimore and incorporating parts of Maryland's Eastern Shore.

But that's not my experience. WTOP the AM station reaches to me in Baltimore. WGMS does not. I do not find 103.5 to be that strong at all. And if I'm coming home from NY the chances of catching the news north of Baltimore have now slimmed from little to none.

I've always felt that WTOP favored its audience in Virginia (based on traffic reports) but this decision pretty much confirms it.

The idea of Washington Post radio is interesting too. Standard newspapers have had to acknowledge the web. Now the Post will branch out to radio too possibly giving it better exposure. And I love this description of what Washington Post radio will be like:

"It's going to be NPR on caffeine," he said. "It will be non-drowsy public radio."

(The NY Times, I believe, owns at least one NY area radio station. I wonder how closely the Times will look at this format.)

I suspect an advantage of this format is that at a time that newspapers are becoming more remote to their readership this gives them a chance to connect to their audiences. Hearing a reporter's voice makes him/her more real. (The Washington Post does something like this already with their Live chats, putting their reporters on line to respond to questions from the audience.)

I have to admit that I'm not familiar with all that much of radio and don't have a satellite service. (Of course, maybe that's what's going on; the better stuff is going to satellite radio leaving the dregs behind on "free" commercial radio.)

Columnist Marc Fisher of the Post gives a rundown of more of the forces that effected this change, "FM Stations Try to Talk Their Way Out Of Trouble" especially the demographic:

Z-104 debuted in 1996 as a high-energy pop station with an emphasis on dance music. It was, for Washington, an unusual attempt to cross ethnic divides and appeal to black, Hispanic and suburban white audiences. Radio is one of the most segregated places in popular culture, and Z was what passes for a daring venture in commercial radio: an effort to appeal to white women who liked WASH-FM's soft rock, blacks who didn't want a steady diet of heavy rap and Hispanics who felt left out by programming aimed at the two larger population groups.

The original Z-104 quickly jumped to No. 2 in the market, pumping out the '90s bubble-gum sound of groups such as Hanson ("MMMBop"), Spice Girls ("Say You'll Be There") and Blackstreet ("Don't Leave Me"). But in a micro-niched world, advertisers want to buy a specific demographic group. A station that appeals across ethnic boundaries doesn't seem to have much staying power, at least not in Washington. New York's WKTU, which first carried disco to a broad audience in the '70s, is one of the few stations left in the country that consistently maintains a strong, ethnically mixed audience. In the D.C. market, however, almost every station in town has an audience that is at least 80 percent members of one major ethnic group.

Whatever it is, radio is changing. And from what I hear, not necessarialy for the better.

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