The Show After The Show
Written Mar. 3, 2008 by Sean Ross in Content + Terrestrial Radio with 3 Comments
It's one of those things that people talk about wistfully when they recall the old days of Rock radio: coming out of a concert and being able to hear those artists on the radio for the ride home.
The Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood tour came through New York last week for three nights, so just out of curiosity, I checked out Classic Rock WAXQ (Q104.3) and new Triple-A rival WRXP (which in some ways invokes the spirit of the old WNEW-FM).
Both stations acknowledged the shows, although Q104.3 did so much more extensively:
Mediabase shows that WRXP had "Layla" playing around the time the shows let out on the second night; I heard them playing Clapton deep cut "The Core" when the show let out on the third night.
Q104.3 did six song sets of Clapton, Winwood, Blind Faith, Cream, Traffic, etc., for all three nights -- starting about 15-25 minutes after everybody would have been back in the car (and after WRXP's briefer tribute had ended).
All in all, I felt better than I did a few years ago when I came out of the musical "Jersey Boys" and couldn't find any place to hear the Four Seasons. WCBS-FM was gone. Suburban WMTR, which played a lot of Four Seasons, was in sports. I finally heard "Sherry" on the now-defunct AM oldies format on WWKB Buffalo, N.Y.
There are undoubtedly going to be some readers who find programming for the concert crowd to be just one more "Two for Tuesday"-style cliché. But it's something I wasn't hearing as much for a while. And it's not a bad way for a station to connect with listeners when those opportunities are becoming rarer.
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
Ironic. I came here due to a mention of the Smooth jazz piece. But here's a perfect example. The crowd leaves a strong, energized, fired up and funky Euge Groove show. I get in my car and the SJ station is playing some nondescript "relaxing" moodscape that could put a person to sleep before they get home!
We've been doing this at KLOS (L.A.) for years now, with Jim Ladd anchoring our "team coverage" of a given hot show. Last October after the first Springsteen show at the Sports Arena, I got in the car and heard Jim playing Bruce already. I called in with my raves and setlist highlights, then a couple more KLOS peeps and some listeners did as well. The shared excitement is unlike anything else you'll hear in any other daypart!
We've been doing this at K Rock in Prince Edward Island as well! When you've got several thousand people all hitting thier cars after a big show it's natural to want to continue to be part of some kind of community not unlike the concert they've just left. Some of the best radio we've done has been after big concerts.