Why no Blues Radio Stations?

[ardgedee]

When I lived in Michigan, WEMU was a public radio station that primarily played jazz on weekdays and blues and R&B on weekends. Looking at their schedule, it looks like that's still pretty much what they do.

The greater Detroit area was at one time a phenomenal place for jazz on the radio, with multiple 24-hour jazz stations playing all possible jazz genres from all eras, but it's been slowly losing that local character for a while now. If there was going to be anywhere in the country where an all-blues station could make a go of it, Detroit would be a prime candidate, and as far as I know it never happened.

 

[KenD]

My very first introduction to blues on the radio was as a young kid growing up on the prairies in Southern Alberta. When the atmosphere was just right a station from Chicago used to bounce in (can't remember the call sign). That's how I first heard this and it imprinted indelibly:

 

[N4860]

Here in Ontario we have Jazz FM which features but nothing that is 100% blues. It's a great station though for anyone in Southern Ontario.

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

Quite possibly. Here in the Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas area we have a wonderful listener-supported public radio station - KNON 89.3 "the voice of the people." Programs only stay on the air when they have enough money pledged to be self-supporting. I think we're lucky to have the Texas Blues Radio show on three days a week !!

I worked for a Public Radio station. Local programming, mostly classical, non-NPR.
Next to classical in amount of air time, we had an evening Jazz show Mon.-Fri. Good show, well informed host, extensive library. But the Jazz listeners wouldn't ever pony-up. So when things got tight, the Jazz be, like gone daddy-oh.
I can see places like Texas getting behind blues programming. Up here, not so much. 'Sides... D/FW has more population than our whole state.

 

[gln1955]

A one to two hour Blues show once a week is about all we get.

Ours was two or three hours once a week.The station also does jazz, bluegrass, Celtic music, World music and a couple shows that play a potpourri of music that doesn't necessarily fall into any genre. They also have local musicians play live. It's a great station if you want to get away from radio drivel. I can't see any of those genres as full-time fare around here.

 

[-Stingray]

Because radio survives on advertising revenue?

 

[Beej]

I love the blues, but don't listen to it much these days. It ceased being popular music around 25 years ago, and that was only because of the upsurge in blues in the late 80s early 90s with a few bigger names. It died 20 years before that too. The greats are pretty much all dead now and so everything is rehashed, reworked, etc. Just no demand any longer, not in the popular musical culture.

Again, I love the blues, but I also don't see a lot of Ragtime stations either.

 

[Sam Reese]

WXCS 92.9FM, Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania plays blues every day.

 

[51PRI]

Same reason there aren’t doom metal radio stations - not enough listeners to support them.

.....I love the blues, but I also don't see a lot of Ragtime stations either.

Probably not a lot of polka radio stations, either!

 

[Pings Bass]

Blues is a niche within a niche. Radio exists to sell ads. You sell ads by attracting listeners. Blues is usually relegated to a subcategory of jazz. Most jazz stations are non-commercial, membership supported, because there isn't a big enough market to sell ads.

Source: Streaming growth boosts R&B/hip-hop share of global recorded-music sales

 

[ardgedee]

Probably not a lot of polka radio stations, either!

There's at least one online streamer operating 24/7! Looks like it's entirely Polish polkas, no German or other eastern European polkas, never mind British Isles or Mexican.

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

101.1 the fox has blues every sunday night.

 

[mikewalker]

In the last ten or so years (since I got back to Canada) I have only ever heard one blues show on the radio (this one on CBC once a week) Of course, back when I was a yute, if I wanted to hear any blues I had to go to the public library and sit in their music area spinning LPs with a set of headphones...

Invalid Link Removed
These end tables used to be turntables, and you had to sign out the headphones and the records too!

 

[5StringBlues]

Ah, the old "blues gets boring after 3 songs" cliché , "it all sounds the same".




Expand your horizons, kids.

 

[two fingers]

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.

I worked in radio for a while in the 90s. It's a finicky business. If something doesn't sell ads, it doesn't exist.

Station owners have access to LOTS of data. They can gauge pretty well whether or not a station will work in a given market.

Blues is WAY down the pecking order of genres that sell. WAY down. Like.... not even on the first page.

 

[Low-End Steve]

Like someone said upthread, Sirius/XM has a 24/7 blues channel. They play a good variety, from Robert Johnson and other "pioneers" to current artists. Here in Atlanta, one of the public radio stations, WRFG, has four hours of blues every morning, 6-10 am.

 

[Pings Bass]

Like someone said upthread, Sirius/XM has a 24/7 blues channel. They play a good variety, from Robert Johnson and other "pioneers" to current artists. Here in Atlanta, one of the public radio stations, WRFG, has four hours of blues every morning, 6-10 am.

Streaming is the answer to the commercial non-viability of non-commercial music. I don't want to listen to ads, anyway.

 

[Rib 13]

Ah, the old "blues gets boring after 3 songs" cliché , "it all sounds the same".




Expand your horizons, kids.

agreed.....but it doesnt help that many blues guitarists tend to differentiate songs by solo content instead of groove and have no problem throwing I-IV-V shuffle after shuffle after shuffle after shuffle at you in a set....Like, "Gee, guys, ever heard of Keb Mo?"

 

[badinage]

I don't think there's much agreement on what "Blues" is. I think B.B. King and The Nighthawks had among the best bar performances I've ever seen. I'll put Powder Blues in there too.

Very different bands that many selfstyled "blues purists" would not ever accept as ALL even listenable, much less "great".

 

[5StringBlues]

agreed.....but it doesnt help that many blues guitarists tend to differentiate songs by solo content instead of groove and have no problem throwing I-IV-V shuffle after shuffle after shuffle after shuffle at you in a set....Like, "Gee, guys, ever heard of Keb Mo?"

Agree fully. Albert Collins funk? Ever heard of a rhumba? How about some swing? Blues ballad?





Guys that just want to do slow blues and shuffles aren't trying very hard.