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Could FM Bring back a Music Radio Station like the old WABC ?
- Thread starter xmradiopro
- Start date
Yup. First GM I worked for (back around 2005) told me that by 2015 there would be almost no 1960s music on the radio. I told him he was smoking pot -- that 60s music were a staple of music radio since the dawn of FM. Boy, did he turn out to be right!
I think I've now heard Nirvana on the oldies station in my city. Tons and tons of late 1980s and tons of Journey songs. Basically no 1960s songs (except an occasional Beatles track).
If you want "real oldies" try streaming a station from a small non-PPM market in the countryside.
LOL He may have been anyway
Perhaps the last gasp for oldies here in the Northeast -- on AM or FM -- was Mark Simone's Saturday Night Oldies Show on WABC. I found it a wonderful listen, as I found his talk shows to be (carried on local WAEB Allentown). Simone has done it all in his career, and (imo) done it well.
Jackson Armstrong's recent show on WWKBW Buffalo may or may not have pre-dated Simone's show. People here will know. His show was voice-tracked, but it was still a swell listen. My wife was slack-jawed listening to his 250 MPH routine. To her it didn't matter if he was in Buffalo or in Tennessee or Saudi Arabia doing the show. He was playing 'her songs'.
But the Mr and Mrs here are out of any sensible sales demo for such AM radio frolic (by a couple of weeks). So for us it's the internet stations Top Shelf Oldies and Good Time Oldies.
Jackson Armstrong's recent show on WWKBW Buffalo may or may not have pre-dated Simone's show. People here will know. His show was voice-tracked, but it was still a swell listen. My wife was slack-jawed listening to his 250 MPH routine. To her it didn't matter if he was in Buffalo or in Tennessee or Saudi Arabia doing the show. He was playing 'her songs'.
But the Mr and Mrs here are out of any sensible sales demo for such AM radio frolic (by a couple of weeks). So for us it's the internet stations Top Shelf Oldies and Good Time Oldies.
This post answers your question:
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/sh...ver-55-why-radio-does-not-program-for-seniors
I'm a boomer and I don't like it either, but ... that's the way it is.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/sh...ver-55-why-radio-does-not-program-for-seniors
I'm a boomer and I don't like it either, but ... that's the way it is.
Baby Boomers were never considered, per se, a key demo. When most were under 55, they were targeted. As more and more aged out of the demos advertisers seek, they were no longer in the target.
With the tail end of the Boomer generation being somewhere around 1964 (different sources vary), practically all the Baby Boomers are over 55 now and not a very profitable advertising target.
Some stations and advertisers do. That's why you have hour-long infomercials selling reverse mortgages or medical therapies on certain stations. You're not going to hear Coke or McDonalds commercials aiming at seniors, because they typically don't use those kinds of products except for their grandchildren. The commercials are aimed at the grandchildren, who talk their grandparents in buying them happy meals.
There's an interesting column on RadioInk about the "absurdity of selling 18 to 49."
https://radioink.com/2017/12/12/absurdity-selling-18-49-demo/
The point is the popular sales demo crosses several lifestyles. The 18 to 25 group is very different point in life from 40 to 49. Targeting the whole block might be convenient for some advertisers, but isn't particularly effective. There's a lot of collateral damage. Which is why some radio formats target a narrower chunk. Certainly CHR stations are narrower than 18 to 49. Country and AC stations are narrower than 25 to 54. But as you go to the upper reaches of the demo, the ad pool gets smaller, and the advertising approach is "talkier" than what you hear in younger demos. The net result is the advertisers need to hammer older listeners more, in the way public stations hammer their audiences during pledge periods. Not very entertaining, but once again, older demos are at a different point of life. You need to convince them, and that takes more time. Along the way, that approach is a huge turn-off to the younger folks, who have shorter attention spans.
https://radioink.com/2017/12/12/absurdity-selling-18-49-demo/
The point is the popular sales demo crosses several lifestyles. The 18 to 25 group is very different point in life from 40 to 49. Targeting the whole block might be convenient for some advertisers, but isn't particularly effective. There's a lot of collateral damage. Which is why some radio formats target a narrower chunk. Certainly CHR stations are narrower than 18 to 49. Country and AC stations are narrower than 25 to 54. But as you go to the upper reaches of the demo, the ad pool gets smaller, and the advertising approach is "talkier" than what you hear in younger demos. The net result is the advertisers need to hammer older listeners more, in the way public stations hammer their audiences during pledge periods. Not very entertaining, but once again, older demos are at a different point of life. You need to convince them, and that takes more time. Along the way, that approach is a huge turn-off to the younger folks, who have shorter attention spans.
You're assuming baby boomers all want to listen to oldies, but they don't. I'm 61, I'd listen to current CHR before I would listen to an oldies or classic hits stations, although I really prefer country, both old and new.
There are some stations playing music for boomers, but they don't have very many listeners.
One is "Cruisin' 1430" in Denver, owned by Entercom. They have a 0.6 6+, so not even very many boomers could be listening to them.
Here's a sample hour of their playlist:
I Got You (I Feel Good) James Brown & His Famous Flames
Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? The Lovin' Spoonful
There's A Kind Of Hush Herman's Hermits
Stay Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) Looking Glass
Gimmie Some Lovin Spencer Davis Group
Singing the Blues Guy Mitchell
Dancing in the Street Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
La Bamba Ritchie Valens
A Summer Song Chad & Jeremy
Ruby Baby Dion
I Can't Help Myself ( Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) Four Tops
A Groovy Kind of Love The Mindbenders
Dream Baby Roy Orbison
That Boy Beatles
I'm sure there are boomers that don't like oldies, and there are probably some 18-34 that do. To me the demo never made sense. Just because you get older doesn't mean you just drop dead, but to the advertisers you do. My grandmother at 102 always complains about there being nothing to watch on TV, and complaining about too many car commercials. I tell her, that's because they don't want you to watch anymore.
Older people still need to buy things and I just wonder how effective the targeted advertising really works. Most people don't just switch brands once they found what they like, and that goes for any age.
The advertisers are the ones spending the money. They get to decide how they spend it, even if it seems dumb.
Old people still need to buy things, but the issue is if advertising influences their buying decisions. I've seen lots of studies to say it doesn't. If it doesn't, then why should an advertiser spend money to reach the?
Some older people -- and I guess at 62, I qualify -- have largely switched from name brands to generics and house brands for most groceries and such. What use am I to an advertiser at all?
Is advertising influencing anyone the same way it did 30 years ago. A lot of younger people buy based on word of mouth and what their friends buy. Not so much on what they see on TV or hear on the radio since most younger people are not watching or listening the same way. Sure I can see Bud Light every Sunday during football season but that doesn't make me want to drink it any more. Yes the commercials are good but they are not getting my to the store.
To me there are two factors, ad penetration, are people seeing the ad and talking about it, vs actually buying the product.
The advertisers spend lots of money to find out what's effective. If it was up to us in radio, we'd rather just deduct a monthly fee from the bank account of every listener in the country. Much easier. That's how Sirius works. But that's not the system we work with. So we play whatever gets the audience they want.
Not regularly. Cut the cord in 2010, so no cable and very little local TV watching, and I'm a habitual button pusher on FM -- that is, when I'm not listening to NPR stations or SiriusXM channels. About the only ads that still reach me are billboards along the road on my daily commute -- and many of those these days are hawking Christianity in some form or another. There's a grandstanding publicity hound of a priest here in central Connecticut named "Father Ed" who pays for billboards reading "Mary, pray for me!" or "I believe in Jesus!" along with a phone number. I see them, but can't say I'll ever buy the product.
@ Don CT : 'Quality' also counts in a lot of instances.
I recently turned 70, and have been drinking beer since the Navy days. If I have the money left in the monthly SS check, I'll buy the quality stuff (imo) : Heineken, LaBatt Blue, Lowenbrau, Becks, for me and visitors.
If the funds are scarce, then and only then will I go for Miller, Schlitz, Rolling Rock.
(But puh-TOOEY -- never for Coors Light or Bud Light anymore. My set-in-ways experiences has determined that these and other brands are simply wizz-water).
Beer is just one example of domestic vice, of course. But I and many other retirees will vote and spend their wallet or their purse on whatever food or service gets the job done. We know where to find the necessities and the gratification. We've done this for decades, with or without radio advertising's help.
Paraphrasing Bob Dlyan : 'Your grandpas and grandmas are beyond your control'.
I recently turned 70, and have been drinking beer since the Navy days. If I have the money left in the monthly SS check, I'll buy the quality stuff (imo) : Heineken, LaBatt Blue, Lowenbrau, Becks, for me and visitors.
If the funds are scarce, then and only then will I go for Miller, Schlitz, Rolling Rock.
(But puh-TOOEY -- never for Coors Light or Bud Light anymore. My set-in-ways experiences has determined that these and other brands are simply wizz-water).
Beer is just one example of domestic vice, of course. But I and many other retirees will vote and spend their wallet or their purse on whatever food or service gets the job done. We know where to find the necessities and the gratification. We've done this for decades, with or without radio advertising's help.
Paraphrasing Bob Dlyan : 'Your grandpas and grandmas are beyond your control'.
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