There are listeners, who, throughout their lives, have heard songs from before their time and liked them. Before I got into radio I listened to a Top 40 station (in the late 60s) that did "Memory Making Weekends" and heard a lot of songs that consultants today say I should not be familiar with and therefore should not like. Wrong! Playing Herman's Hermits or The Dave Clark 5 today is much different than playing Benny Goodman or Glenn Miller in the 70s.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
It's 2015! Time to get rid of the '70s.
- Thread starter CurtisNEPA
- Start date
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Very well stated, Avid. Now please make the rounds of the agencies on Madison Avenue with the above and convince them to loosen up some ad buys for stations with largely 55+ audiences.
This is what continues to be ignored in these threads, no matter how often it is said. If there was advertising revenue to be made from programming 50s-60s-70s oldies -- or any other format targeted at the Boomers -- we would be doing it already. But the people that pay us need the money from that advertising in order to pay us, so we're given the directive to create programming that brings in revenue.
I happen to be a Boomer myself (born in 1956) and I personally love a lot of the songs that cracked the Hot 100 in the 1960s and 1970s. But I don't program for my own personal listening, I program for a mass audience and hope to get enough listeners in the demographics that the agencies are buying ad time to reach as I can.
The problem is not the programmers, or "the suits". It is the advertising community. Go convince them.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Four of the songs on your list ...
... happen to be part of The Eighties Channel format.
... happen to be part of The Eighties Channel format.
Consultants generally don't make judgment calls like that.
Familiarity is not the issue in selecting songs for airplay. The key is whether the song is still a "hit" today. That means that, besides being familiar, the song is liked in the consensus view and loved by many.
I am familiar with "Big John". I even know it was a big hit. That does not mean that I like it.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
A
Avid Listener
Guest
Again, hogwash. We Baby Boomers were a diverse bunch of people in decades past when we were the prime demographic. We're a diverse bunch of people now. Some of us have changed a little over the years, but we're still the same people. If advertisers don't recognize how valuable we are as consumers, maybe they need someone to convince them to pull their heads out of their asses!
M
Music Lover
Guest
Good for you. At least you're trying not to be a leech.
Same way with downloading mp3's. Mostly I buy mine from iTunes. I've also bought some from Amazon.com. Some indie artists I've bought from www.cdbaby.com.
I've noticed some of these Internet stations I've come across have music royalties paid by Pronetlicensing.com, like this one's website has: http://joy995.com/Joy_99.5/Home.html
Last edited:
In the movie "Foster", that was actually a gimmick that worked and saved a toy company.
Advertisers know that as people mature, they tend to develop both brand preferences and greater resistance to impulse reactions to advertising. In other words, they become more skeptical on several levels.
So it takes more advertising to create a sale. More advertising costs more money. At some point, the cost of the sale exceeds the profits on the sale.
Major advertisers track sales results based on very solid analytical data that correlates with all marketing efforts. Because of that data, essentially no radio budgets are allocated against 55+.
It's amazing how many otherwise reasonable people believe that "I don't behave that way, and none of my friends behave that way, so therefore, nearly everyone must not behave that way" is valid logic. I am nearing 60, love deep oldies, yet have managed to grasp and deal with the facts. I also am much less likely to buy on impulse, and tend to buy either the same products I've been buying for years or generic/house brand equivalents. As my income decreases, these habits will only become more dominant. I'm really not sure there is a way to make people my age and older buy anything on impulse anymore. Most of us just aren't as free-spending anymore, even if we've been conscientious savers -- after all, those saving have to be conserved for when our health becomes the major expense in our lives.
I like most of those songs.
Getting back to the original topic, "You're So Vain"--really? On a station that has changed from a soft AC to almost a Hot AC?
And I was going to expand on some earlier posts.
Just because it is soft doesn't mean I will like it. I turn on "Weekend Edition" so I won't miss the start of "Car Talk". I was reminded yesterday I can't stand new age.
And other songs I like that aren't soft: "Jump, Jive and Wail" and "Rock This Town", both involving Brian Setzer.
Just because it is soft doesn't mean I will like it. I turn on "Weekend Edition" so I won't miss the start of "Car Talk". I was reminded yesterday I can't stand new age.
And other songs I like that aren't soft: "Jump, Jive and Wail" and "Rock This Town", both involving Brian Setzer.
A
Avid Listener
Guest
Apparently they don't realize that when the Baby Boomer generation aged, it did not follow the exact same patterns that The Greatest Generation followed when it aged. And, apparently, they're too stupid to realize that there are effective ways to exploit consumer skepticism to make it work in your favor. It also goes without saying (though I'll say it anyway) advertising to persuade someone to buy more of their favorite products actually helps sales, as does advertising to inform potential customers that your store has better prices on the brands you already want to buy.
Since when is persuading people to "buy on impulse" the only goal of radio advertising? I'll admit to being a little more careful in how I spend my money, so an advertisement informing me of a special sale can be very effective at convincing me to shop at a different store, or to buy something I've been wanting this week instead of waiting a few months.
Last edited:
M
Music Lover
Guest
M
Music Lover
Guest
Those I would find too cheesy and be turning the station.
A
Avid Listener
Guest
The thing is, I would have also changed the station when any of them came on back when they were new.
M
Music Lover
Guest
My dad's the frugal one.
My mom's the impulse collective buyer. She collects a lot of primitive crafts and snowmen.
My mom's the impulse collective buyer. She collects a lot of primitive crafts and snowmen.
M
Music Lover
Guest
Maybe because it's uptempo, perhaps?
- Status