New York's K-ROCK Undergoes Format Flip

This actually isn't the first station in NYC to recently tweak its format...WPLJ recently has begun adding a lot of cuts from the 70's and even occassionally the late 60's, and deeper cuts from the 80's that often were relegated to it's 80's specialty shows. CD 101.9 has been adding more and more "chill" music, while WBLS 107.5 has removed all hip-hop from its playlist in favor of classic soul and r&b. Lite FM has added more classic dance, probably in response to Mix 102.7 going all-classic dance and reducing "younger" music. WCBS 101.1 is playing a very tight 300-song oldies playlist, with nothing pre-1964 or post-1982, and heavily emphasizing the 70's. Last year, another modern rock station, 92.7 WLIR was sold to Univision, and now it rebroadcasts Latino Mix 105.9 FM,


What do these changes have in common? The changing demographics of radio listeners. NYC currently does not have any new rock stations, while there are five urban-formatted stations, two Top 40 stations, two Classic Rock stations, two stations with various forms of "Lite" music, etc. This reflects a couple of things: radio's realization that it is going up against satellite, internet and ipod's, removing primarily younger audience from their listener base, and b, the people that mostly listen to free radio are either older, or come from poorer demographics where computer/ipod/satellite radio penetration isn't high (yet).


However, in this case I do feel that K-Rock is *still* flawed. Many critics have come out and said that K-Rock is finally playing the music the Howard Stern demographic listens to. What for? Stern is leaving terrestrial radio in January, never to return again. At that point, Stern's listeners won't have to stick around on K-Rock and hear a mishmash of Linkin Park-esque new rock, metal, hair bands and classic rock, when other, better, more focused stations exist in the area (Q104.3 from New York City, 105.5 WDHA and G Rock 106.3 in New Jersey, WRCN, WBAB and The Bone on Long Island, The Peak and 101.5 from Westchester, WPLR, The Fox and I-95 from CT, etc.) I actually think that what K-Rock was doing to its playlist in the few weeks *before* the format change was a good move...a mix of new and modern/alternative rock from the early 80's until today....with less Linkin Park and Green Day, and more Cure and Beastie Boys. Especially since this sort of music also attracts listeners within the coveted 25-54 demographic, as well as the 18-24 bracket, and also because it would have basically no competition in the NYC area. Westchester does not have a new rock station. Neither does Northern New Jersey. The current reincarnation of WLIR on Long Island only covers the East End on 107.1. Connecticut lost its new rock station last year when Radio 104 became Power 104. Heck, even Philly lost Y-100, a few years after losing 103.9 WDRE (a repeater of WLIR). No new rock there either. It's a sad day when the newest rock on the NYC airwaves (sadly including the non-commercial band) is on Z100. At least Long Island still has WUSB :)

I'm not to thrilled with the change its just corporate decisions, im a huge fan of all the local stations here on Long island and in the city, there's everything from KTU Party105 and WBAB the choices are endless and one regular rock station in the city of all places is the last thing it needs in my opinion they should stay unique to their style. I just won some 02 wireless tickets from a local station so im out of here for a little vacation soon.