Sure you can, but others don't play them that way for obvious reasons.
But this thread is not about that, it's about KRTH introducing 2000's music for the first time and I'd like to keep it that way, please!
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KRTH playing 2004 music!
- Thread starter oldies76
- Start date
Sure you can, but others don't play them that way for obvious reasons.
But this thread is not about that, it's about KRTH introducing 2000's music for the first time and I'd like to keep it that way, please!
I actually like "Breakfast in America". Even though it reached #62, I believe it was a bigger hit in SoCal, since I do remember hearing it frequently in 1980 on Top 40.
It is a wonder why they've decided to play "It's My Life" lately, considering they've not even begun to really dig into the 90's yet, or even the late 80's for that matter.
4 KRTH songs are played on KBIG. 125 songs are shared between KRTH and KOST, or about 1/3 of the library of each.
KRTH sharing of persons 18+
KCBS FM (Highest at about 20% of cume of KRTH also listening to KCBS-FM)
Next (all 10% to 20%)
KSWD
KIIS
KAMP
KBIG
KOST
KLOS
KTWV
KROQ
KLVE
There are 9 more stations that share between 5% and 10%.
In general, KRTH has no dominant sharers, and has more mid to low level sharing than most. In other words, part of its success is that it is many people's second choice station. In the pPM with its focus on cume, this is a very effective strategy.
There is no relationship between the amount of music shared and cross cuming.
Years ago, when there were three or four Top 40s all playing the same songs, I could tell a definite difference from the presentation of each station. Regarding your other point of the importance of chart position: A song that peaked at #62 probably wasn't heard initially by very many people and wouldn't test well unless some circumstance caused it to be known at a later time or it did well on a different format such as AOR, for instance.
The chart number is a national number, and as someone else pointed out, the song got more airplay in LA than other places. And yes, it's possible that the station is attempting to appeal to listeners who listened to other popular formats 30 years ago.
If the station is playing low charting songs that don't test well, it will show up in the ratings. So far, it hasn't.
It's a nod to the old KNX-FM, which had the song in their on-air library for years. Of course KMET and KLOS did too but only as a rotating album cut; not as much as KNX-FM.
KNX-FM specialized in that laid back, Southern California lifestyle and groove of the late 70's and early 80's which has not really been picked up by KRTH and other oldies stations, because they all have to be upbeat all day long. That is unfortunate because they are missing out on some good music along the way.
KNX-FM specialized in that laid back, Southern California lifestyle and groove of the late 70's and early 80's which has not really been picked up by KRTH and other oldies stations, because they all have to be upbeat all day long. That is unfortunate because they are missing out on some good music along the way.
Heck, many upbeat songs are missed out. One of my early 80's favs..."You Should Hear How She Talks About You".....gone from the airwaves. You are right Flipper.
In "Breakfast In America"'s case, you're looking at a number one album that went quadruple platinum. By 1980, anybody who wasn't looking at the LP charts as much as if not more than the singles charts was missing the picture of how songs were really performing. And in 1980, in Los Angeles, it was an AOR world, with KMET and KLOS together pulling almost a 7 share, and KNX-FM (which played "Breakfast") adding another 3....so a 10 share.
But ultimately, that doesn't matter. That was 35 years ago. The question is, do 35-45 year olds like it when they hear it today?
Classic hits stations should be 1970-1989 with a splattering of 1960s. I don't care if people say "1960s music is for 71-year-old geezers in nursing homes", even 11-year-olds know who The Beatles is.
Any classic hits station, like this one in Los Angeles, that plays music from *2004* (really?!) I blacklist. KRTH can just flip to Soft Rock for all I say. By 2016, watch them add "Sexyback" Justin Timberlake, and "Dynamite" Taio Cruz...
-crainbebo
Any classic hits station, like this one in Los Angeles, that plays music from *2004* (really?!) I blacklist. KRTH can just flip to Soft Rock for all I say. By 2016, watch them add "Sexyback" Justin Timberlake, and "Dynamite" Taio Cruz...
-crainbebo
Personally, I think the jump to 2004 is too drastic and too sudden, compared to the few 70's and 80's they already play. They've barely touched the 90's, so why the 2000's already? Maybe it's a temporary thing. Granted, it's one song but I think it kind of sounds out of place on this station.
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85% of the spins on KRTH are from 1976 to 1985. The rest is just flavor, no doubt under a criterion based on "does it sound like it fits" or a statistical analysis process to determine "fit".
In the last 7 days only 8 songs newer than 1990 were played, amounting to 11 spins or less than 1% of total spins for the week. Pre-1970 songs amounted to 14 titles and about 5% of all spins.
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Thomps2525
Guest
I know one of those pre-1970 songs was Brown Eyed Girl. I bet that when KRTH's playlist eventually has only one '60s song remaining, it will be that one. *Sigh* oldies76 says it is "too drastic and too sudden" for KRTH to be playing a song from 2004. (It's My Life debuted on the Hot 100 in the final week of October 2003 and peaked at #10 in the last week of January 2004.) I think KRTH is more concerned with songs that fit their format than with the years the songs charted. I said a few years ago that KRTH should play uptempo songs by 1980s-90s pop groups such as Aqua, Ace Of Base, a-ha, Real McCoy, Londonbeat, Deep Blue Something, No Doubt, Black Box, the Bangles and the Spice Girls. I still think that's a good idea.
If they do, it'll be because they can maintain their ratings doing it.
Because the audience doesn't (for the most part) know or care the year....and doesn't have a pre-conceived notion about KRTH playing years....they want KRTH to play music they like that isn't a current hit. For most of Top 40's existence, "oldies" or "goldens" were as recent as the year before.
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Thomps2525
Guest
And that leads to an interesting question: Who decided that songs of the 1950s-60s are "oldies" and songs of the 1970s-80s are "classic hits"? And what cute lil' name can we use to describe the music of the 1990s-2000s? I agree with Michael: To me, an oldie is any song that has been off the Hot 100 chart for at least a year. Don't most people still refer to old songs as "oldies"? I seldom hear anyone outside of the radio industry call them "classic hits."
Michael, of course, will remember when KFWB called them "Flashbacks."
Michael, of course, will remember when KFWB called them "Flashbacks."
"Oldies" wasn't exactly a term in most people's lingua franca, either. "Classic Hits" came about only as a way to differentiate from Oldies.
And next to no average person is going to say/think "I'm looking to hear some classic hits."
I disagree. Little Ceasar and the Romans' "Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me Of You" (#9, 1961) put the term into circulation among baby boomers...and I doubt they made it up. Art Laboe's "Oldies But Goodies" series cemented the term in most people's minds. By the time I got my first gig as a jock, in 1971, if someone was calling in to request a song that wasn't current, many of them would say "it's an oldie".
Only through the magic of airchecks, Steve. My parents listened to KMPC, Bob Crane on KNX and the Dodger games on KFI...and I didn't start tuning around to see what else I could find until the summer I was 11....which was 1967. By that point, I was in Bishop, KFWB's signal, even at night, was pretty hopeless, but I stumbled on KHJ. So in terms of actual listening, I don't think I ever heard KFWB, unless someone I was around had it on (and I was not paying attention), and really didn't hear KRLA (which had an iffy nighttime signal in Bishop) until probably late fall '67 or so on a visit to L.A. By that point, KFWB was so far gone, if I was aware of it, I probably thought of it as an also-ran to KMPC.
But I do remember Dick Whittinghill calling them "recall records" and Gary Owens calling them "memory floggers".
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