I had fully intended yesterday's post to be my last. Then, Sean posted this. Sean analysis of 99X's ultimate decline demands whatever modest additional exposure I can give it here:
... in the mid 90’s, upwards of 50% of the music 99X played was new based. This meant that every other song was new or no older than 3 months old. Recently 99X has been operating with a max of 19% new music. That means that you get 3 new songs an hour, and many of those were ill focused for the 99X music community. In the end, it seems that Cumulus was in fact programming 99X like an AC station with alternative rock hits, in the hopes of securing a 25 – 54 year old add buys. Focusing on 25-54 with a station that was built to accrue 18 -34 year old is like putting a bicycle on the track in a stock car race. Peddle as hard as you want… you lose the race… by miles.
Looking from a music stand point it seems like Cumulus couldn’t understand the fact that Bush, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and their ilk were the bands of yester year, and were not the building blocks for the current music generation. It felt like that they were trying to recreate the 90’s. The 90’s are gone. They couldn’t understand what bands like the Shins, Silversun Pickups, Band of Horses, Arcade Fire, The Bravery, Interpol, Spoon, Against Me, Rise Against, etc had to do with 99X. These are bands that sell out medium sized venues in Atlanta with little or no airplay; they have massive internet and magazine prominence. These are the same types of building blocks we used in 1992; these are today’s building blocks for this music generation.
