Why the scene isn't heard on local stations

After Scott Gilmore moved to Raleigh from Austin, Texas, four years ago, he scanned the radio dial in search of a particular kind of station. He was 30 years old, an active music consumer and club-goer.

Gilmore wanted to find a commercial station reflecting that sensibility -- one playing a mix of local and national acts, plugged-in to the local music community. He was looking for a Triangle equivalent to KGSR (www.kgsr.com), Austin's flagship "Adult Album Alternative" (Triple-A) station. KGSR plays current acts such as Beck and Gomez alongside Kris Kristofferson, Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely and other Texas acts, plus adult-alternative standbys including John Hiatt and Shawn Colvin.

He never found anything like KGSR in the Triangle, at least not on the commercial end of the dial.

"The closest thing we have to that here is college radio, which is so minute by comparison," says Gilmore, who works as local director of operations for Sonic Drive-In. "When I go back to Austin, it's almost like you can get the current pulse of the live venues and music scene there just from listening to KGSR. ... This cool inter-dependency between the local scene and the radio, they both help each other out."

"But that's Austin," he concludes. "Here and most places, it's like there's no individuality between stations anymore."

It's true that there's nothing like KGSR among the Triangle's commercial stations. Even when "The River" (WRVA, 100.7 FM) called itself adult alternative before switching to classic rock last month, it played few songs you didn't hear elsewhere on the commercial dial. The lack of a true Triple-A station in the Triangle seems strange, especially when you compare it to Austin.

Austin is the 42nd-largest radio market in America; Raleigh-Durham is right behind at No. 43. Raleigh and Austin are both state capitals, college towns and high-tech centers. Both have bustling music scenes that draw national attention. And the dominant commercial stations in both markets play country music.

"It's really odd that there isn't a Triple-A station in Raleigh," says Richard Harker of Harker Research, a Raleigh-based media research firm. "Given the college population, age and makeup of the town and all that, you'd think it's a natural."

What counts in Austin

KGSR isn't a ratings powerhouse. In Arbitron's just-released summer ratings, it registered a 3.1 share (representing the station's percentage of the total listening audience over age 12 during an average 15-minute period). That puts KGSR 12th in the market, well behind the 7.2 share of top-rated country station KVET-FM.

In terms of revenue, however, KGSR performs well for its corporate owner, Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications. According to the trade paper Inside Radio, KGSR's projected advertising revenue for 2006 is $5.5 million -- more than higher-rated Top 40, dance, adult-hits and classic-rock stations in Austin.

Triple-A stations may not draw the most listeners, but the format's audience tends to be loyal and demographically desirable.

"Triple-A is a format that can breed incredible loyalty, and it builds well," says Inside Radio editor Tom Taylor. "Very much like sports stations, which also have very loyal fans. Sports and established adult-alternative stations tend to outbill their ratings."

In the Triangle, another point in Triple-A's favor is that something similar is already on the public-radio dial. Public station WUNC (91.5 FM) gives its weekend nights over to "Back Porch Music," an acoustic-roots variant on Triple-A similar to KGSR.