K-Rock, the Place Where Rock No Longer Lives

(MoneyWatch)  A Mediaweek story on CBS Radio's decision to change New York's 92.3 K-Rock into a Top 40 station has caused a comment string you don't usually see on most trade sites; 46 comments strong, it's certainly not populated with insights from the radio execs who might read Mediaweek. Instead, it's dominated by fans of K-Rock, not all of them stunningly articulate, who aren't exactly happy about the decision:

... [K-Rock was] the only decent radio left in the NY market. Instead 92.3 will be just another generic, corporate, boring, sterile, regergitated [sic] crap that is destined to fail. They just don't get it. No wonder the whole radio industry is dying. Everthing [sic] has to be so pc and safe. So boring. I might as well listen to my Ipod... why would I want to hear another Brittney [sic] Spears song?

There's also a lot of tweets devoted to the topic, many of them bemoaning the loss of morning jocks Opie and Anthony, who have already left the building.

Unfortunately, there's nothing new about format changes at radio stations; what does strike me as new here is how we're seeing social media tools allow formerly voice-less radio listeners be heard by those who would pull the plug on their favorite station.

There's long been something weirdly authoritarian about corporate radio. Anyone who's woken up one morning to find their favorite station suddenly transformed into Lite-FM knows what I mean. The weirdness gets even stranger as the rest of the world changes. Go take a look at the the K-Rock Web site; there's not even the slightest acknowledgment that Pearl Jam is about to be traded in for Kate Perry. Meanwhile, Opie, on his Twitter feed, says: " I'm officially on the warpath. Who wants to join me? Info when I can...." I'm not expecting any of the listener and DJ, uh, input about K-Rock's demise to change anything -- according to Arbitron, the station is no. 21 in the New York market, and the other contemporary rock station in town is also ratings-challenged, at no. 27. But it's still somewhat astounding, in an era when TV programmers and marketers alike have made the internet the new focus group, that radio stations still engage in the the time-honored surprise switcheroo. I'm not a K-Rock listener; my preference is for the public radio station WFUV. Maybe part of it is that it's one place where the listeners rule the roost. (Like BNET, K-Rock is part of the CBS empire.)