• 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

A New Format Hole That Might Now Be Here

R

Retro

On a different group, someone posted a Sarah Maclaughlan song and mentioned that their isn't any major radio stations playing her right now.

While I do realize that this was hearsay, however if this in indeed true, then that mid/late 90's, and I guess that one could say the 2000's if a music format yet to be explored!

Now I realize that most of you on this board would disagree, however I think that it is now a format worth looking into!
 
Her "I Will Remember You" was a staple of AC formats for several years until the rhythmic/uptempo takeover of AC started. There's little room for any reflective music of that sort, especially by female artists, anywhere these days. When's the last time you heard Jewel? Ten years ago, you couldn't avoid "Foolish Games" and "You Were Meant for Me" on AC. Whether these songs and artists would come back on a 2000s-format station is doubtful. I would think that the format would be relentlessly uptempo and beat-driven. Maybe Natasha Bedingfield would start getting airplay again, but not McLachlan.
 
TheBigA said:
What would you call it? Lilith Fair? Could you come up with 400 well tested songs that would fit? It sounds like NPR to me.
Click to expand...

Barenaked Ladies, Matchbox Twenty, Michelle Branch, Liz Phair, Third Eyed Blind, Sara Bareilles, Sugar Ray, etc, etc.
 
Many of those artists are still played at times on Triple-A stations. In the Boston area commercial AAA 92.5 WXRV “The River” and for the somewhat more Americana/Folk end of the format, public radio AAA 91.9 WUMB.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Many of those artists are still played at times on Triple-A stations. In the Boston area commercial AAA 92.5 WXRV “The River” and for the somewhat more Americana/Folk end of the format, public radio AAA 91.9 WUMB.
Click to expand...

Just 2 things here: they play lots of other stuff too, and because of those other artists, they sound rather drab instead. In fact, other than Mix, I do not remember the last time that I actually heard them even played at all? Does anyone have access to a recent playlist from The River?
 
WXRV has been sneaking in 60s oldies quite a bit lately. They’re normally few and far between, but Sunday seemed to have a larger number of them. There were even a few from Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett!
 
jlehmann said:
WXRV has been sneaking in 60s oldies quite a bit lately. They’re normally few and far between, but Sunday seemed to have a larger number of them. There were even a few from Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett!
Click to expand...

Sunday mornings before noon is a weekend specialty show called “Brunch By The River”, a somewhat “free form” show that is off of their regular format where the DJ picks all the music for that show. Often includes blues, R&B, jazz/pop, roots music, alt-country and Americana, ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s oldies, nostalgia pop standards crooners (Sinatra, Bennett, etc...)... a wide variety of genres not on their regular playlist at other times.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Sunday mornings before noon is a weekend specialty show called “Brunch By The River”, a somewhat “free form” show that is off of their regular format where the DJ picks all the music for that show. Often includes blues, R&B, jazz/pop, roots music, alt-country and Americana, ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s oldies, nostalgia pop standards crooners (Sinatra, Bennett, etc...)... a wide variety of genres not on their regular playlist at other times.
Click to expand...

The only songs that stick out since 9 a.m. today are the Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden" and Paul Simon's "Me and Julio." No '50s or '60s titles at all. Must be a station that knows it attracts a certain number of over-55 listeners and gives them a bit of nostalgia a few times a day but not so frequently as to risk driving more marketable listeners to a more current-heavy alternative.
 
Barenaked Ladies is one of those bands that lost their staying power once the demo grew up. Those other late 90's acts just got lost in the category of a changing music demo.
 
I understand the thinking behind some "roots of rock" oldies in a Triple A context, especially non-comm - and I understand the logic behind classic rock hits also. Mainstream KBCO/KINK/WXRT style AAA outlets have a solid library of classic rock.

But some of XRV's musical choices of late baffle me. Today's rotation (non brunch) included Run Around Sue by Dion. Also of note was "Hotel California" - in a market with its fair share of classic hits & classic rock, seems an odd choice for XRV. And some pretty generic "nu rock" in the mix lately - Staind and the like.

I'm not making these points out of musical snobbery, my point is that even for how this specific station's been sounding in the past year or so, a lot of these tracks seem unusual and outside the brand of what the station was. The counter point could be they're trying to grow audience, but I'm not sure how becoming less cohesive and more random as a brand really fits with what they've built already. Is it a Triple A - Jack hybrid? A music discovery station?

Just puzzling. I know Triple A gets its share of criticism on the boards but it's not like the stations still doing it don't have it figured out - I thought WXRV sounded fine over the past year.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom