I'm asking about 96.5 FM-KYPT in Seattle. From around January 2000
until Monday December 22nd 2003, it was an 80s station called The
Point. When it came online, there were a few stations that had a mix
of 70s, 80s, and more recent stuff, but after the others gradually
shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.

The station has never been very friendly in the customer relations
department as far as letting listeners know what is going on. About a
year and a half ago, they fired virtually their entire on-air staff
one day in the middle of the week with absolutely no warning to the
listeners or to the people who were getting the axe, I'm sure. When
people tuned in for the morning show the next day, there were two guys
who didn't know what the heck was going on fielding calls from
confused and irate listeners, and their web site was suddenly down for
several months 'for construction'. Their new web page at
www.965thepoint.com continues this trend by being decidedly
un-informative. I'm not asking why this station in particular changed
format, but rather what factors may have prompted the change (for the
worse, IMHO). The station is owned by Infinity Radio, which owns
several other stations in the area, though they don't have a monopoly.
Strangely enough, Infinity Radio owns another station in the same area
that has classic rock (KZOK), so it would seem that the audience would
overlap significantly.

It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

--


If you can't figure out my address, you need help.

Girl gamer since 1984,

Atari/NES/Genesis/SNES/DC/GBA/GC/PS1-2/Xbox/PC gamer

Arklier wrote in message ...
I'm asking about 96.5 FM-KYPT in Seattle. From around January 2000
until Monday December 22nd 2003, it was an 80s station called The
Point. When it came online, there were a few stations that had a mix
of 70s, 80s, and more recent stuff, but after the others gradually
shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.

The station has never been very friendly in the customer relations
department as far as letting listeners know what is going on. About a
year and a half ago, they fired virtually their entire on-air staff
one day in the middle of the week with absolutely no warning to the
listeners or to the people who were getting the axe, I'm sure. When
people tuned in for the morning show the next day, there were two guys
who didn't know what the heck was going on fielding calls from
confused and irate listeners, and their web site was suddenly down for
several months 'for construction'. Their new web page at
www.965thepoint.com continues this trend by being decidedly
un-informative. I'm not asking why this station in particular changed
format, but rather what factors may have prompted the change (for the
worse, IMHO). The station is owned by Infinity Radio, which owns
several other stations in the area, though they don't have a monopoly.
Strangely enough, Infinity Radio owns another station in the same area
that has classic rock (KZOK), so it would seem that the audience would
overlap significantly.

In looking at the latest ratings from R&R, the station was the
lowest-rated FM in Infinity's Seattle cluster and had pretty much
stayed in the 2 area. Even though The End's ratings have been going
down, Infinity decided that there was still an audience for modern
rock--particularly in Nirvana and Pearl Jam's hometown--that could be
lured away from The End. And so Seattle now has a modern rock format
war raging. Also, the all-80s format's been dying out nationwide for
some time now.

I can understand why you're unhappy with the format changes, but the
nature of the business is such that most of the station owners don't
often want to tip their hands. Also, in the case of low-rated formats
like all-80s with an extremely loyal audience, they'd rather
immediately flip the format and get it over with rather than announce
the flip and risk backlash and campaigns to stop the switch. In the
end, Infinity thought that modern rock would do better for them than
all-80s. It may be disheartening to you, but that's the biz.

Sirius is terrific, but choosing a receiver or a service on the basis of the
band-readiness of your car stereo is a bad idea from the previous generation of
satellite radio equipment. You'll get more enjoyment from a Plug 'n Play unit
that lets you take the music from home to car to office. "XM-ready" or
"Sirius-ready" car stereos are ready only for a satellite-tuner of the same make
as the car stereo, one that limits your subscription to the vehicle. With luck
your receiver has auxiliary input, or perhaps the Sirius jack or the CD changer
jack can be deployed as an aux. Otherwise, PnP's work through the cassette deck
or through FM modulation, and there will be an appreciable hit in sound quality
compared to the car-dedicated unit you have planned for.

Suggestion: ask around at the "Install Garage" area at
www.siriusbackstage.com .

Jerome

"Arklier" wrote in message
...
It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 21:09:19 +0000, Arklier wrote:

I'm asking about 96.5 FM-KYPT in Seattle. From around January 2000
until Monday December 22nd 2003, it was an 80s station called The
Point. When it came online, there were a few stations that had a mix
of 70s, 80s, and more recent stuff, but after the others gradually
shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.


Because Invinity needed to do someting.
It's all about the money.
80's music has no listener appeal.

Ron

I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol


--


Remove "zz" from e-mail address to direct reply.



"Cooperstown.Net" wrote in message
...
Sirius is terrific, but choosing a receiver or a service on the basis
of the
band-readiness of your car stereo is a bad idea from the previous
generation of
satellite radio equipment. You'll get more enjoyment from a Plug 'n Play
unit
that lets you take the music from home to car to office. "XM-ready" or
"Sirius-ready" car stereos are ready only for a satellite-tuner of the
same make
as the car stereo, one that limits your subscription to the vehicle. With
luck
your receiver has auxiliary input, or perhaps the Sirius jack or the CD
changer
jack can be deployed as an aux. Otherwise, PnP's work through the
cassette deck
or through FM modulation, and there will be an appreciable hit in sound
quality
compared to the car-dedicated unit you have planned for.

Suggestion: ask around at the "Install Garage" area at
www.siriusbackstage.com .

Jerome

"Arklier" wrote in message
...
It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

On 1 Jan 2004 17:30:42 GMT, "Steve Stone"
wrote:

I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?

Don't you have a sense of smell? I don't think there's a way to be
absolutely accurate in traffic reporting. I can't count the number of
times I've been returning to New York from a camping trip listening to
one of the all news stations and being told it's backed up for miles
as I breeze along at 65 (being passed by everyone else).

The converse has often been true. Everything is reported as clear as
we sit in bumper to bumper traffic long enough to wish we hadn't had
those last 3 cups of coffee or took the advice of that lady whose
husband is constipated.

Another traffic problem indicator is thick black smoke ahead. You can
assume you be communing with your car for an extended period. Yet
another nighttime clue is miles and miles of red lights ahead of you
that don't seem to be moving forward.

I now live in Western Massachusetts and have no hope during the day of
being told there's a flaming tanker truck heading my way. There's no
all news station and no one dares break away from Rush Limbaugh except
to run a few drug commercials.

I've found the absolute best traffic info comes from Ham Radio
operators chatting on repeaters as they watch their cars boil over.
Get a simple scanner and program the local 2 meter repeaters into it.
Most of the usual conversation is about gout and medical problems
until traffic takes over. It hasn't failed me, yet. As a Ham myself it
has the added advantage of providing me with local directions. Hams
are great people always willing to help even with something as simple
as finding the local carbohydrate palace.

Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

Won't work. You'd be disrupting the search for hookers at truck stops.

Rich
KF2JO

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked
into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

CB Chan 19 is probably the best solution. Broadcast traffic reports hardly
ever helped me.

I listen to Metro Traffic, 455.95 mHz on my Beartrackers.

On 1 Jan 2004 19:10:23 GMT, "R J Carpenter" wrote:


"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked
into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

CB Chan 19 is probably the best solution. Broadcast traffic reports hardly
ever helped me.

Rich - I've got the scoop on traffic reporting and other "breaking news" items on
broadcasting....in many cases, they're bogus.

Traffic reporting, as I've seen, experienced and even participated in, is often so
old that if you take the advice to avoid a backup, you'll often end up just adding
time and distance to your trip, since the cause of the backup and most of the backup
itself is already gone by the time you hear the report on the radio. The whole
reason why traffic reports exist on radio is to make it seem that you're getting
up-to-the-minute reports, and since the majority of the roads covered aren't used by
a specific commuter (how could it be otherwise) there's no way that individual
listeners can check on how accurate the reports really are, and when the alleged
backup on the road travlled seems to have evaporated, said listener simply thinks
they got lucky that time.

"Breaking news" is often as much as 6 hours old, with the major actor(s) already
apprehended or otherwise dealt with. And, as often as not, the newspaper story the
next day will have the actual story, whereas the field reporter, being so far from
reliable sources of information, will have gotten it wrong in the live shot,
breathlessly intro'ed by the blowdried anchor whose closest encounter with a real
news event was the time he was at the Orlando airport when a plane went down....in
Europe.

Yeah, I'm being snide. But these days, with localism all but gone in American radio,
it really is mostly smoke and mirrors. I'll admit that with the trafficams going up
in various major cities it may be easier for the information to be accurate and
timely, but without these tools, you might just as well have a field reporter (or DJ
aspirant...it seems the job of traffic reporter is often filled by failed jocks) call
in to the station while the sound effect of a helicopter plays in the background.
(And I hope I haven't revealed any trade secrets!)
--
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-



"Rich Wood" wrote in message
...
On 1 Jan 2004 17:30:42 GMT, "Steve Stone"
wrote:

I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?

Don't you have a sense of smell? I don't think there's a way to be
absolutely accurate in traffic reporting. I can't count the number of
times I've been returning to New York from a camping trip listening to
one of the all news stations and being told it's backed up for miles
as I breeze along at 65 (being passed by everyone else).

The converse has often been true. Everything is reported as clear as
we sit in bumper to bumper traffic long enough to wish we hadn't had
those last 3 cups of coffee or took the advice of that lady whose
husband is constipated.

Another traffic problem indicator is thick black smoke ahead. You can
assume you be communing with your car for an extended period. Yet
another nighttime clue is miles and miles of red lights ahead of you
that don't seem to be moving forward.

I now live in Western Massachusetts and have no hope during the day of
being told there's a flaming tanker truck heading my way. There's no
all news station and no one dares break away from Rush Limbaugh except
to run a few drug commercials.

I've found the absolute best traffic info comes from Ham Radio
operators chatting on repeaters as they watch their cars boil over.
Get a simple scanner and program the local 2 meter repeaters into it.
Most of the usual conversation is about gout and medical problems
until traffic takes over. It hasn't failed me, yet. As a Ham myself it
has the added advantage of providing me with local directions. Hams
are great people always willing to help even with something as simple
as finding the local carbohydrate palace.

Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

Won't work. You'd be disrupting the search for hookers at truck stops.

Rich
KF2JO

"Arklier" wrote in message
...

shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.

Perhaps the format wasn't enabling them to make money, or if there were
profits, they may have been marginal.


The station has never been very friendly in the customer relations
department as far as letting listeners know what is going on. About a
year and a half ago, they fired virtually their entire on-air staff
one day in the middle of the week with absolutely no warning to the
listeners or to the people who were getting the axe, I'm sure.

It's traditional in the radio biz to NOT tip off anyone to major changes.
As a layman, I can only surmise some reasons for doing this -- one, they
don't want the staff to know, lest they bail out before their firing day,
or end up with a competitor before the format change, or worst of all,
organize campaigns to keep their jobs. There is also the concern that they
might do something on air before their termination; then again, if someone
did, it would lead to publicity for the station, which they might welcome.
It's a strange game, that radio biz.....

When
people tuned in for the morning show the next day, there were two guys
who didn't know what the heck was going on fielding calls from
confused and irate listeners

There was an instance where a local AM station fired the afternoon DJ / talk
show host in the MIDDLE OF HER SHIFT!!!!! She did a drive time DJ stint
from 3-6, then there was a break for news, and she normally did a talk
show from 6:15-7:30. She was promo'ing her talk segment, including
blurbs about an author who was going to be interviewed. When the news
ended, there was a satellator show on from Baltimore. How to handle the
calls? The station took the phone off the hook! (Very courageous move).


, and their web site was suddenly down for
several months 'for construction'. Their new web page at
www.965thepoint.com continues this trend by being decidedly
un-informative. I'm not asking why this station in particular changed
format, but rather what factors may have prompted the change (for the
worse, IMHO). The station is owned by Infinity Radio, which owns
several other stations in the area, though they don't have a monopoly.
Strangely enough, Infinity Radio owns another station in the same area
that has classic rock (KZOK), so it would seem that the audience would
overlap significantly.

It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

--


If you can't figure out my address, you need help.

Girl gamer since 1984,

Atari/NES/Genesis/SNES/DC/GBA/GC/PS1-2/Xbox/PC gamer