Why no Blues Radio Stations?

[COYS]

Sirius has Bluesville. There are streaming options and such. Otherwise, blues isn't popular enough to sustain a whole station on its own.

Generally the people who are interested in blues are very few, and they skew toward retirement age rather than the 18-34 demographic that advertisers are most after.

 

[Doug P]

I’d try college stations. They might have a blues hour or…..

 

[basseux]

Well, sure, online...but even that disappeared after a short run. Is blues WAY more of a niche genre than a lot of musicians think it is?

I am in France and I just saw Saturday a blues band playing at a restaurant I front of the beach.
French old man's band, they had records.
I think people like and respect the blues, but it's difficult to not make it too much repetitive.
That's always what I though about blues, and a radio would probably suffer from that perception.

Maybe a blues radio should play whatever songs that sounds bluesy, from Black Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, to Miles Davis, Rolling Stones, whatever.

 

[wysiwyg248]

Thank you, that was enlightening. Here is the bass I bought there many years ago. Note the cardboard case, is probably a trademark of Kalamazoo LOL.

 

[Polish Thunder]

Interesting article about Gibson Guitars and Kalamazoo.

Look back at Gibson Guitar’s rich Kalamazoo history as Hard Rock plans new hotel

 

[Cave Puppy]

CMU????? Go blue! LOL

Fire up, Chips!

 

[primusfan1989]

Practically every US town, or region, has a country radio station, a Top 40 station, maybe an oldies and gospel station, but I don't ever recall any blues radio station. (Not an online station)

I wonder why that is.

Supply and Demand, if there was a higher demand for Blues music more stations specializing in that music would exist.

 

[Michedelic]

Practically every US town, or region, has a country radio station, a Top 40 station, maybe an oldies and gospel station, but I don't ever recall any blues radio station. (Not an online station)

I wonder why that is.

Have you been all over the US? You know that broadcast radio is an atrophying format, right? That what remains is going to be the lowest common denominator programming, because ultimately it’s not about music(if it ever was), it’s about offering nothing challenging so that you’ll stick around for the ads(the most important thing). I don’t know where you might be, but I’d guess there’s little or no Spanish or Asian language stations with related music, but I’m within close proximity of many.
Whether you want to accept it or not, streaming, niche genre radio is where it’s at, as many have mentioned so far, Sirius being the prime example. Other than that, listener supported or college stations have been the place to find blues(and jazz, and a variety of other stuff), and they have broadened their reach through their websites. Two that I can recommend is KCUR, with this show run by a friend of mine, for over 35 years…
Fish Fry

Then, in my general area, for years, blues all weekend…
KJazz 88.1 Mobile - America's Jazz and Blues Station

 

[Michedelic]

If there was money to be made from a blues-based radio station there would be ten of them in every town large enough to have a dog catcher.

There’s a bit of irony that you referenced a song that is, at its core, a blues formatted tune.

 

[51PRI]

Have you been all over the US? You know that broadcast radio is an atrophying format, right?....

Is it, though? I don't know of any land radio stations around here that have gone out of business.

 

[5StringBlues]

All these old people need to get out of the way so my Bon Jovi tribute band can play!

 

[Michedelic]

Is it, though? I don't know of any land radio stations around here that have gone out of business.

It’s certainly not the main event any longer, and its significance is diminishing…
https://variety.com/2021/music/news/radio-signal-fading-streaming-1234904387/
https://variety.com/2021/music/news/radio-signal-fading-streaming-1234904387/

Is radio dead?

Reasons U.S. and Canadian consumers using less radio 2021 | Statista
https://www.statista.com/statistics/750084/radio-decline-reasons/
These are just a few of many discussions. But the thing us, it is being discussed(let alone acknowledged), and has been for quite some time now.

 

[ardgedee]

Is it, though? I don't know of any land radio stations around here that have gone out of business.

That's because radio allocations are like real estate. Patches of land don't go out of business, they just get different owners. Radio stations tend to get taken over rather than die off, in part because if the station owner is deeply in debt the value of their allocation might be more valuable than the rest of the business combined, so selling out is the most efficient way to go out of business. It also coincidentally means there's little or no downtime when the station changes hands.

Most of the die-off in radio happened in the 90s. If you can't reacall any stations around you going out of business, can you recall any that arbitrarily changed format? Because that usually means they were taken over by a conglomerate. If you can't think of any, it probably already happened when you weren't paying attention.

 

[51PRI]

It’s certainly not the main event any longer, and its significance is diminishing…....

Maybe so, but to me its like when people say network TV is dying It isn't, but there ARE now other choices. Internet radio is neat. I listen to a chill station in Switzerland. But my local Top 40 radio station plays the hits and also keeps me informed about whats happening locally. NPR goes in depth about public issues. IMO radio is a long way from being dead.

 

[KenD]

There’s a bit of irony that you referenced a song that is, at its core, a blues formatted tune.

Perhaps so but I consider it to be more in the derived genre of rhythm & blues.

 

[MisterFabulous]

The Boston area has WUMB 91.7 FM with a number of weekly shows featuring blues: Saturdays 5-9p.m.

 

[Ostie]

When you look at the market share of hip hop and R&B, blues is a drop in the bucket.