WE’RE NOT BLOWING SMOKE to say that Alan Cross is what many people think of when the term “New Music” comes to mind.
His “Ongoing History of New Music” has become a Canadian radio brand, really. People coast-to-coast know the show, which will tape and air its 500th episode later this year. A new CD, Cool Britannia, comes out today.
But Cross’ full-time gig is that of program director at CFNY-FM – 102.1 The Edge. A self-described CFNY “lifer”, he spent years as a jock there (starting in 1986) before moving on in 2001-’03 to a bit of self-imposed exile as PD at Hamilton’s classic rock station Y108. Instead of a station airing the latest from the likes of Weezer, the White Stripes and Coldplay, Cross was programming the latest, and not-so-latest, from John Mellencamp, AC/DC, and The Rolling Stones.
But, in January of 2004, Corus Radio drew him back to Toronto as PD of the station he loves. His mandate: to make sure the station maintains and grows its leadership in new music, not to mention its ratings among the 18-to-34 year-old set.
The Spring 2005 ratings confirmed the station’s heading, as The Edge looks to be keeping its edge.
What follows is an edited transcript of cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien’s chat with Alan Cross last week where he talks about new music, life as a PD and those “stupid white ear buds.”
Greg O’Brien: You’ve been back at The Edge for how long now?
Alan Cross: Since January of 2004.
GOB: What’s the return been like?
AC: A lot of fun. It’s like coming home. I’ve spent almost half my entire life somehow associated with this radio station and there’s something about this place that when you become a hard-core employee here you’re always a hard-core employee, no matter where you may travel. It’s like being a marine.
GOB: Who are the others like that?
AC: There’s Martin Streek. I guess you would say Rob Johnston, our creative director – and he’s the guy who produces the Ongoing History – there are a couple of sales guys that way. Even alumni from the radio station will always somehow manage to identify themselves as a member of The Edge or CFNY team at some point in their careers.
GOB: It was a long-standing independent known for its new music roots.
AC: Yes it was. The station was an underdog for decades, always in the shadow of Q107 or CHUM-FM and a lot of other radio stations. Before everything became so consolidated we stuck out like a sore thumb – and nobody ever really made a whole lot of money working here back in those days. It was all about the music, all about passion – it was a pretty cool time.
GOB: Any surprises since your return?
AC: Not really, no. Except that now I understand what it’s like to be on the other side of the program director’s desk. For many decades I was on the other side wondering why all my bosses were so stupid and short-sighted: I have completely amended my viewpoint on everything that anybody has told me to do, or anything I’ve ever been required to do because I now know the other side of the story – and it all makes sense now.
GOB: Anything specific?
AC: Dealing with clients more, dealing with corporate more. Dealing with the multitude of personalities that you’ll have working at any creative place. It’s just interesting – my eyes have been opened wide to the complexities of running such a place.
GOB: Have you been happy with the ratings?
AC: Yeah. Right now we’re the number three cumeing radio station in Toronto. We, for the first time in maybe 20 years, out-cumed CHUM FM, and we remain number one in our demographic of adults 18-to-34 and men 18-to-34, so we’re happy.
What’s interesting though is with the changes in methodology and the changes in ratings periods: How is this going to affect everything? One thing we found surprising with this last survey is that EZ Rock was able to be number one with an 8.5 share.
GOB: So, new methodology was used this time?
AC: It’s now in place. So the Spring books, which normally started mid-February and went to mid-April actually started in the beginning of February and went to mid-March. And now there’s a May-June book that we’re in right now. There’s a two-part summer book and then we’re back into the traditional fall book.
Next year, we’re going to see the winter book start on January the 9th which is rather interesting, so we’re seeing how this is going to play out. And, with technology being what it is, with Internet radio and satellite radio and iPods and everything else, what’s going to happen with the BBM numbers?
GOB: And from your demographics point of view… young people have been said to be avoiding radio. What do you see out there?
AC: We actually had a really nice big bump in 18-to-34s. It shows that if you can get to these people, their primary source of new music seems to still be radio, which is very encouraging. We’re doing very well in that regard.
But… it’s something we’re going to have to watch and cultivate because one of the problems the entire industry has is that it has focused on that 25-to-54 pie for so long that they have completely forgotten to grow new 25-to-54 listeners.
GOB: There are now enough Jack and Bob FMs out there to support my age group I think.
AC: Absolutely, that’s where all the money is. But you have so many people chasing that piece of the pie that you don’t even have to be a monster to do well. Eventually, those people are going to get old and die and where do the new radio listeners come from?
GOB: How is it different keeping track of what’s new in music these days as compared to your early days.
AC: It’s a whole lot easier thanks to the Internet. Back, let’s say in the ’80s when Ivar Hamilton was doing “The Original Import Show”, we’d line up at the door of The Record Peddler across from Maple Leaf Gardens because we knew that Tuesdays or Wednesdays, the new imports would come in. We’d only heard about them or maybe there was a quick blurb in a magazine or somebody had been over in England and heard about this group and this record that everybody over there was talking about. Then we’d order it and wait for two or three weeks for it to come in and put it on to see if it sounded any good.
Now it’s like: “here, I’m publicizing this band and…” a couple of clicks and I can make up my mind right now. Some of the mystery has gone out of it. Some of the anticipation has gone out of it, but it’s certainly a whole lot easier from a logistical point of view.
GOB: And how has the definition of new or alternative music itself changed over the years?
AC: Quite a bit. Alternative music used to be the alternative to the mainstream rock in the ’70s or ’80s but thanks to your Pearl Jams and Nirvanas and Soundgardens in the early 90s, the alternative scene more or less supplanted the entire mainstream scene. So what was once alternative is now very very mainstream. You can see the White Stripes in Entertainment Weekly. You can see Trent Reznor just about anywhere these days. Weezer is worthy of Inside Edition or something.
That’s a little different, so (The Edge) is now New Rock, which is an alternative to classic rock and the hot AC and the pop that’s out there. That being said, there are also many stratified genres of stuff that is bubbling below the radar, and there has never been more music available. We have never seen this many people making music. We have never seen this kind of interest in music – there is just something for everyone.
The difference is that it all doesn’t have to be funneled through traditional radio anymore, you can find it in many different ways.
GOB: So, how do you deal with those many different ways?
AC: One of the things that’s interesting about the whole Internet business is that for the first time in the history of radio, we are no longer tethered to a single programming stream coming from a transmitter at a defined geographic location.
The Internet, Internet radio, podcasting, all those things, and eventually things like WiMax (digital broadband wireless web, with a far wider area of coverage than today’s WiFi), are going to allow radio to grow above and beyond anything it’s ever been able to do. Smart radio companies will embrace this as an opportunity to grow bigger and stronger. Other people will say ‘no, the Internet is going to completely supplant traditional over-the-air radio.’ Well, maybe, but not without a fight.
And people are thinking that these Internet companies are going to come out of nowhere and completely obliterate the radio companies. Ain’t gonna happen, because the radio companies, ours anyway, are certainly very hip to the potential and the exciting revenue potential of being able to service the audiences of the 21st century with 21st-century technology instead of stuff, let’s face it, from the 19th century.
GOB: Tell me a little bit about where “The Ongoing History of New Music” stands.
AC: We are heading rapidly towards show number 500, which will be the Thanksgiving long weekend. There is a new CD coming out this Tuesday (today) called Cool Britannia, which is focused on this new renaissance we’re seeing in British pop and rock right now with groups like the Kaiser Chiefs and Kasabian and Thirteen Senses.
I’m not planning on doing any books anytime soon simply because thanks to the Internet, the bottom has fallen out of the market for non-fiction music, so it’s not worth the work. But we’re always toying with ideas for DVDs of with television shows or whatever, but you need a certain critical mass for those things to happen.
GOB: So what’s the next big thing then?
AC: I believe there will not be a next big thing in music, simply because there are too many different streams and strands of music out there and because people’s access to music is so infinitely customizable. Not only can you go out and find anything you want, but thanks to those ear buds, you can also avoid anything you don’t like.
One of the things I think is a downside of MP3 players and iPods and those stupid white ear buds is what’s going to happen to music that requires repeated listening for full appreciation?
There’s nobody in the world, for example, who “gets” jazz the first time out. There are very few people who get classical music the first time out. Or, if you want to look at rock, and throw a band like The Mars Volta on – and you’re not going to get it the first time. So, if you’re one of these short-attention-span people with the white ear buds who use the iPod to seal out anything disagreeable, you’re not going to have an opportunity to be exposed to things multiple times so that you finally clue in and go ‘oh, I get it now!’
So, what I worry about is a large drop in the sophistication of musical tastes, simply because people won’t allow themselves to be exposed to something they don’t like on first listen.
GOB: Do you have an iPod?
AC: I have two.
GOB: So, what’s on yours?
AC: There’s a band from the UK called Archive that I like very much, They’re like Radiohead meets Pink Floyd and their album called Noise is very good. I’ve discovered a group called Youth Group and they’re on Epitaph and have a new record out called Skeleton Jar, which is very good.
I’ve been listening to bits and pieces of the new Oasis album – I quite like it – and the other record I quite like is the Kaiser Chiefs – their debut record called Employment.
