🎶 2022-03-16 01:01:26 – Paris/France.
Mike Kaplan quit as program director at KROQ, the station he revamped after joining in 2020 – with disastrous results. Senior vice president of programming at Audacy (formerly Entercom) and head of brand for New York alternative outlet WNYL joined the company after its 2017 acquisition and subsequent revamp of former CBS radio station . He later added KROQ stripes, but quit his role as supervisor of the Los Angeles rock station.
Said an Audacy representative, “Mike Kaplan has decided to step down as Chief Brand Officer of KROQ. Mike has come to the conclusion, personally and professionally, that this is what is best for him. He also thinks KROQ deserves a brand-only Brand Manager who lives in Los Angeles 24/24. Mike will continue as Brand Director at Alt 7 in New York and as Vice President of Alternative Formats at Audacy. Our search for a new VP of Programming for KROQ begins today. »
Indeed, a job posting on Audacy seeking a vice president of programming lists "a once-in-a-lifetime opening for a creative genius to lead the famed KROQ." The company is looking for: “a big thinker, highly detail oriented and dynamic leader” who has “a passion for music, entertainment and culture and is immersed in the latest social media trends and marketing shifts”.
KROQ had resisted major changes under Kaplan, who took over the station after the departure of longtime program director Kevin Weatherly. The beloved Weatherly left in 2020 after 28 years (on the heels of a proposed pay cut) for a job at Spotify. Most notably, Kaplan was at the helm when morning host Kevin Ryder was fired after three decades on the job.
With Kaplan officially taking over as chief brand officer for KROQ in February 2020, the executive initially steered the station away from its rock and alternative roots towards more pop fare, riding the wave of hits launched by TikTok. But as the ratings plummeted following the release of Ryder and the change in music, KROQ had more recently returned to a heavier rock sound, with a focus on recurring staple artists. like Muse and Foo Fighters.
"Rock music is part of what we do, it's part of the alternative, but it's not the only part of the alternative," Kaplan said. Variety in a May 2020 article titled "This is the end of the famous KROQ as we know it". "We're not just looking to play four white guys in a band. Our audience is more diverse than ever and our playlist should be too. Whether it's Billie Eilish or Lana Del Rey or rappers making alt tracks like 24kGoldn and Dominic Fike, we're bringing together what millennials and Gen Z fans want. a single thing. It's a lifestyle and an attitude.
But by targeting a younger audience, which traditionally does not listen to the radio in large numbers, the station has lost a significant portion of its core audience. The most recent rating report lists KROQ's January 2022 year-to-date at 1,4, up from 1,9 six months earlier. Among Los Angeles radio frequencies, KROQ ranks 26th while its competitor KYSR-FM (“Alt 98.7”), an iHeartRadio station, ranks at No. 16 for the same period, with a cumulative 2,4.
KROQ's morning woes didn't help; after dropping “Kevin in the Morning with Allie & Jensen” – a revamp of the popular three-decade-old “Kevin & Bean Show” (with Allie Mac Kay and Jensen Karp filling the void after the release of Gene “Bean” Baxter), Kaplan moved its afternoon show, featuring Kevin Klein and Ted Stryker, to the morning. But Stryker left later and upgraded to Alt 98.7.
In many ways, Kaplan has been cast as the personification of radio's decline, as the medium's reach shrinks and its corporate overlords tighten their belts by thumbing their noses at expensive on-air talent. For that, he's been dubbed "Mike the Show Killer," as recently voiced by morning jocks Cane and Corey, who were fired from New York's Alt 92.3, KROQ's East Coast version, also programmed by Kaplan.
KROQ has been a mainstay of SoCal since the early 1980s, when it championed left-of-center artists and made a name for itself as a genuine — and cool — alternative to mainstream pop via its “Roq des 80 years ". In the 1990s, the alternative music format reached its peak with the success of bands like Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. KROQ became one of the most streamed stations in the country (up to $68 million in 2005), a model for alternative radio across the country. By the 2000s, KROQ had soared to the top of LA radio's ratings, and as recently as 2014, "Kevin & Bean" was still the #1 morning show in Los Angeles.
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SOURCE: Reviews News
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