That's probably because they haven't released an album or a single since 2006, and only recently began touring again, so they're not exactly a hot current artist. Their last album was 2006's "Taking the Long Way" which won Grammys for Album, Record, and Song of the Year, and hit #1 on the Billboard 200, going 2X Platinum. Classic Country stations haven't expanded into the 2000's yet, much like how Classic Hits stations haven't (and many are trying to navigate the 1990's)
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Do lower charting songs make good recurrents/golds?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
That's probably because they haven't released an album or a single since 2006, and only recently began touring again, so they're not exactly a hot current artist. Their last album was 2006's "Taking the Long Way" which won Grammys for Album, Record, and Song of the Year, and hit #1 on the Billboard 200, going 2X Platinum. Classic Country stations haven't expanded into the 2000's yet, much like how Classic Hits stations haven't (and many are trying to navigate the 1990's)
The AAA station here had "Not Ready to Make Nice" on their playlist (which I saw on their website at the time), but I can't say that I ever heard it played there (or anywhere, for that matter). They accepted advertising for the DC's upcoming show at the time, and they played the Courtyard Hounds. Heard that song at least once.
"Sharp Dressed Man" only made it to #56, but ZZ Top's other hits from around the same time did much better. All of those songs seemed to be doing equally well when classic hits became a popular format. Not rock-based, but oldies that included the 80s.
I consider all songs that ranked high on the charts thru the years to be hits, regardless of personal taste. I dislike "Footloose" and "Go Your Own Way".....but they are still hits, just not hits I enjoy listening too. Debby Boone has her hit just as the Eagles have theirs.
"Had".
I don't remember ever seeing a video for I Melt With You, ever.
But yeah, that song got a lot of airplay when I was growing up. We had one AOR station (KDKB) that played a lot of new wave cuts (staged with a "Rock of the 80's" sweep) and played I Melt With You along with Culture Club, The Flirts, Berlin, and other New Wave staples. Their daytimer AM sister station was all new wave/punk/reggae before we called it alternative, and they crossed some of those songs over to the FM. But that experiment ended when the owners decided it wasn't making enough money.
The major top 40 station (KZZP) took notice and started playing a bunch of those songs, too. That helped set itself apart from its competition, KOPA, before KOPA went classic rock. So in all of its monophonic glory, before the re-recording and re-releases, the original I Melt With You got a crapload of airplay in Phoenix, and that song was a part of my youth.
There had always been a lot of alternative and new wave crossovers on Phoenix top 40 radio. We had another AM Alternative station (KUKQ) that broke a lot of records which helped songs cross over. In the late 80's we had three top 40 stations in the market, so they were always trying to one-up each other. We talked to the local record stores and clubs. That plus call-out was more important than the Hot 100.
But when you look back at the new wave years (82-83), there were fewer stations in the market and a lot of shared audience. The top 40 stations dayparted heavily to get at work listening, and they avoided a lot of the disco backlash by adding compatible songs that the AOR stations in town were playing. (And yes, the same CHR that played I Melt With You in afternoons and nights would play The Beatles in middays because they could get away with it.)
I can't tell you why I Melt With You tests well outside of LA and the cities with a heavy LA influence like Phoenix... but anywhere in Southern California and Southern Arizona, we all grew up with that song on the radio and there wasn't anyone to tell us it wasn't a hit.
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However, the Dixie Chicks' first three albums were before 2000, so those songs are getting played on some classic stations.
I don't think I've heard the Chicks yet on iHeart's "Foggy Mountain" HD2 format-in-a-can (carried locally on WWYZ), but I'd imagine iHeart would be the last people you'd expect to lift the more-than-decade-old boycott. They do get plenty of airplay on SiriusXM's Prime Country and Y2Kountry, the channels that cover the '90s and '00s. If Liberty Media -- which holds controlling interest in SiriusXM -- is OK with playing the Chicks, maybe iHeart will do the same someday. FYI, the Chicks were a very good and very respected bluegrass act before crossing over to country, and they brought a lot of that bluegrass harmony over to country.
I think most older country listeners at the time were OK with or even fans of their music, certainly more than were accepting of Shania Twain as a country act. Unfortunately, what one of the Chicks said over in England offended country's core demographic and radio had no desire to defend the group (by, say, reminding the righteously outraged about the First Amendment), so it took the easy, spineless way out and stopped playing music that just months earlier had been wildly popular with a broad spectrum of country listeners.
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There never was a boycott of the Chicks music by iHeart. That false story came about from a quote by Bob Edwards in the Washington Post which was wrong.
The actual boycott was by a station owned by Cumulus that was located near a military base.
It's worth noting that a lot of other formats (apparently) dropped them, too, just with a lot less fanfare. They had said that they only wanted a core base of fans; looks like that is what they have now.
Only one station? I was under the impression many stations dropped the group -- if not under orders from the big bosses of a major chain, then as individual choices. Are you saying that many country stations continued to play them afterward?
"Hideaway" from Kiesza came in at #17 in the Billboard 2014 year end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, #19 on the Dance Club songs.
I was responding to the comment about iHeart. There never was an iHeart or Clear Channel boycott.
What I know is that when they released the song "Not Ready To Make Nice," it charted as high as #36. So quite a few stations played that song even though it was critical of country radio. Country radio liked them. Talk radio didn't.
Based on conversations with friends "in the format" in the aftermath of the statements, the problem was that many listeners called country stations with the message that they did not want to hear the group any more. I did not dig too deeply into the matter, but attitudes may have been more or less severe in different parts of the country.
In any case, most stations made a local, listener based decision on playing... or not... the Chicks.
Having been through listener reactions of a similar nature, the best response is usually to do what listeners ask you to do. (I programmed in Miami in the era when playing any artist that visited Cuba could spark violence. And I lived in Ecuador when playing any artist from Perú had the same reaction... so this is noting new or particularly unusual),
That must have been a largely sales-based figure. I never heard it played, even on the AAA station that I mentioned earlier that had it listed on their online playlist for a couple of weeks.
So to answer the OP's original question, "Do lower charting songs make good recurrents/golds?, the answer (at least in this case) is no. I definitely never heard it once its brief chart run was over.
Nope...it's the Billboard Airplay chart, based on monitored airplay, not sales.
Still not very impressive.
But back to the title of this thread. Do lower charting songs make good recurrents/golds? Generally the answer is NO. Why continue to play a song that didn't succeed? Recurrents are usually huge hits that still demand airplay well after their peak. Isn't this the common radio definition of a "recurrent"? Of course there are those odd songs that come back to roost after not succeeding at first, but they are few and far between. The MTV thing is 30+ years old now, so it isn't relevant. (but, yes, many MTV hits that were never radio hits are famous today, and deserve airplay on classic formats). I would offer that radio airplay today is based not on chart position so much as researched testing. Oh, wait, it has been that way for decades. Nothing new here, really.
YOU kids are having way too much fun for today's radio....
So, this is thread is actually a really interesting topic. Dealing with an oldies format that has "no new music" has it's issues. I want to maybe get everyone to talk about a perplexing issue of what I call "obvious overkill" vs. "tried and tested." These terms lead to such groups as the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Hall and Oates. There are obviously a ton of charted HITs from these groups. But, I contend the smart way to process these hits are to look at each song and attempt to "play them," but not run an already run song back into the ground for the billionth time. "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "Tusk" and "Landslide" are good examples of a band with numerous songs that could be part of an oldies format. The songs all test ok. "Don't Stop" is a song that tests, but also has been overplayed. The way to avoid tune out, in my opinion is to program it to not play the song during the same jock's shift each week and only play it three or four times a week. It's there, but not every 18 hours. "Landside" tests positive. But, it does not have the extreme burn out factor. It get's close to the same number of plays a week. It has less fatigue. Of course groups or artists with just one or a few hits that have stood the test of time require air play to complete the format, so it lessens the options if it was obviously a one hit wonder.
No matter what song you play, you always know there are people who love the song and those that hate the song. It's the ones in the middle that are actually the most tough listeners. So, I guess my thought on this is that often, slightly lower charting oldies seem to be more humane on listeners ears than those in the Top 5 that have been played every day some where on a station in a market for 40+ years. Some hits you still want to eagerly hear. Other hits have just become hard to hear again. But, you have to play them if you are a greatest hits-style format. Then, there are songs that charted for maybe a week or two and disappeared. Those are the songs we in the business may know, but the listeners would have no idea what the song is or why we are playing them, so they tune out. Gotta play the hits, but you have to figure out how to not overplay the overplayed. A little time out of rotation is a conversation for another time.
So, this is thread is actually a really interesting topic. Dealing with an oldies format that has "no new music" has it's issues. I want to maybe get everyone to talk about a perplexing issue of what I call "obvious overkill" vs. "tried and tested." These terms lead to such groups as the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and Hall and Oates. There are obviously a ton of charted HITs from these groups. But, I contend the smart way to process these hits are to look at each song and attempt to "play them," but not run an already run song back into the ground for the billionth time. "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "Tusk" and "Landslide" are good examples of a band with numerous songs that could be part of an oldies format. The songs all test ok. "Don't Stop" is a song that tests, but also has been overplayed. The way to avoid tune out, in my opinion is to program it to not play the song during the same jock's shift each week and only play it three or four times a week. It's there, but not every 18 hours. "Landside" tests positive. But, it does not have the extreme burn out factor. It get's close to the same number of plays a week. It has less fatigue. Of course groups or artists with just one or a few hits that have stood the test of time require air play to complete the format, so it lessens the options if it was obviously a one hit wonder.
No matter what song you play, you always know there are people who love the song and those that hate the song. It's the ones in the middle that are actually the most tough listeners. So, I guess my thought on this is that often, slightly lower charting oldies seem to be more humane on listeners ears than those in the Top 5 that have been played every day some where on a station in a market for 40+ years. Some hits you still want to eagerly hear. Other hits have just become hard to hear again. But, you have to play them if you are a greatest hits-style format. Then, there are songs that charted for maybe a week or two and disappeared. Those are the songs we in the business may know, but the listeners would have no idea what the song is or why we are playing them, so they tune out. Gotta play the hits, but you have to figure out how to not overplay the overplayed. A little time out of rotation is a conversation for another time.
I hear you on this. I personally live in a smaller market where there is a variety station that goes deep. I mean really DEEP!. Guess what, I love it. But I have programmed radio stations for many decades, and I remember some of these non-hits and enjoy hearing them. But as an industry insider, I am not your average listener. So your point is taken.
Bottom line, "Old Time Rock n Roll" by Seger, "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen, "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac, (your example), and many other tested tunes dominate classic stations. I immediately tune out, but again, I am not typical. Are there other listeners like me? Of course, but they don't usually show up in numbers high enough to support such a diversified playlist.
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