It's not about the style of the music, vchimpanzee. It's an emotional attachment to the holiday memories of the songs that goes way back to childhood. The songs that get play in all-Christmas formats have pretty much never left the airwaves, so even people in their 20s grew up with them. It's a soundtrack, not a personal preference of musical style.
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The ideal adult standards format
- Thread starter vchimpanzee
- Start date
Same reason hardly anyone eats candy corn after Halloween or pumpkin pie after Thanksgiving or even corn dogs and funnel cakes once county fair season is over. All these foods are liked, but they also have a strong association with specific pleasant, seasonal events -- just like Christmas music.
I'd be interesting in knowing the target audience of WHVN. I heard "Sunrise Serenade" today. While I have no way of knowing whose recording it was, when I first heard it on Stardust I believe I heard someone say it was by Frankie Carle. That's 1938. Glenn Miller's version was 1939. The sound quality, of course, is what you would expect. So many big band numbers have been done in recent years in great-sounding versions.
Other songs I have heard today were "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Charlie Rich, "Classical Gas" by (probably) Mason Williams (though there were a couple of minor differences from the familiar version played on America's Best Music), "Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand, "Tenderly" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (there's no mistaking Louie, but I have to assume the woman was Ella), "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" by Perez Prado, "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis, "I'm Beginning to See the Light" by a woman, "'s Wonderful" by a woman, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" by a man, "Because of You" by (probably) Tony Bennett and another song by Bennett I can't remember now which was done when sound quality had improved. And I think I'm remembering correctly that "Since I Fell for You" by Lenny Welch was also played. There are several big band songs I also heard but can't identify. And there was four or five Christmas songs too.
Other songs I have heard today were "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Charlie Rich, "Classical Gas" by (probably) Mason Williams (though there were a couple of minor differences from the familiar version played on America's Best Music), "Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand, "Tenderly" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (there's no mistaking Louie, but I have to assume the woman was Ella), "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" by Perez Prado, "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis, "I'm Beginning to See the Light" by a woman, "'s Wonderful" by a woman, "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" by a man, "Because of You" by (probably) Tony Bennett and another song by Bennett I can't remember now which was done when sound quality had improved. And I think I'm remembering correctly that "Since I Fell for You" by Lenny Welch was also played. There are several big band songs I also heard but can't identify. And there was four or five Christmas songs too.
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Most of them are listening along with the station's former proprietor, Billy Graham. That is, if there are radios where Graham is now.
Billy Graham never owned this station. His people bought the station that was playing this music prior to 2018.
I just remembered. There are no ads, but we hear what sort of sound like commercials. One tells us to make sure we take prescriptions correctly.
Well, I'm not sure there really is one.
The owner, George H. Buck, died back in 2013 and a trustee was appointed to carry out Buck's will, which ordered the sale of the two stations (standards WAVO and Christian WHVN) to raise funds to care for Buck's widow. By 2014, WAVO had to beg listeners for $15,000 to cover its ASCAP and BMI music licenses. In 2018, even listeners couldn't keep it afloat, and it began simulcasting WHVN's religious format.
In seven years, the trustee never found a buyer for WHVN, but did manage to sell sister station WAVO to a subsidiary of the Billy Graham Ministry.
WHVN went dark in March, the tower was dismantled and the land it and the transmitter sat on were sold and re-zoned.
Last month, WHVN got approval from the FCC to come back on the air using a long wire antenna behind the building. The idea now is to simply keep something on the air until a deal can be made to sell WHVN. Having the money from the transmitter land sale takes some of the pressure off in terms of caring for Mrs. Buck. And having the music library from WAVO (probably already on hard drive) allows them to very cheaply feed something through the antenna.
Whatever WHVN sells for, it won't be much, but live stations sell for more money than dead ones. This isn't about attracting or serving an audience.
Those things that sound like commercials? Those are public service announcements. Stations run them for free.
You might as well. Maybe they'd give again.
Then what's the point?
I mean if a radio station in 2020 really played those songs intending to reach an audience.
They stopped giving, which is why the simulcast happened in 2018. One of the drawbacks of appealing to a much older audience is that they sooner or later go on fixed incomes, move to be closer to children and grandchildren who can provide care, go into long-term care, and die. It's reasonable to assume that a significant number of the donors who helped the station meet the ASCAP and BMI license payment weren't around by 2018.
To keep their license. The FCC requires a certain number of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in the course of a week. Most stations bury them in weekends and overnights. A sure sign a station is having trouble selling commercials is when you hear them between sunrise and sundown on a weekday.
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As I've said before, apart from people like you and me, who are younger and like the music, you're aiming at people over 90.
80-year-olds (born 1940) are partial to the first era of rock and roll. 70 year-olds (born 1950) were "Summer of Love" teenagers. 60 year-olds (born 1960) came up through pop, funk, disco and album rock.
And as for you and me---you might listen 24-7. I wouldn't. I like too many other kinds of music. So, maybe they get an hour of my time a week. But even if I was a constant listener, being 26 years younger than the starting age of the mass audience for this buys them absolutely nothing---because the universe of advertisers trying to reach 64 year-old men is not big enough to make a profit.
I like other kinds of music but if I had the chance I believe I'd listen to this music a lot.
I forgot two of the songs I heard yesterday. Jack Jones was just played on America's Best Music and that reminds me I heard "Wives and Lovers".
And I remembered the other this morning but forgot it again. All I know is I think it was a solo performance by a woman from the late 50s.
I forgot two of the songs I heard yesterday. Jack Jones was just played on America's Best Music and that reminds me I heard "Wives and Lovers".
And I remembered the other this morning but forgot it again. All I know is I think it was a solo performance by a woman from the late 50s.
If Generation Z knew about "Wives & Lovers", it would be out in the streets, protesting!
I know. Also Dusty Springfield's "Wishin' and Hopin'".
I'm 65 and, honestly, I could not name a single song he did. The only exposure I can recall having to him was when he was singing "What a beautiful New Yorker ... it's the talk of the town ..." in an '80s (I think) car commercial. And that's only because he was identified as Jones at the start of the ad.
You don't know about "The Love Boat"?
I've been listening to Jack Jones for years. America's Best Music still plays "Call Me Irresponsible". Not necessarily his version, but a version of it was used in a commercial. Now that I think of it, I might have heard 'The Impossible Dream" yesterday. If not, it was the last time I listened to WHVN.
I'm a pretty serious Bacharach-David fan, but Hal really needed to do better than those lyrics.
Burt: "What is it you're trying to say, Hal?"
Hal: "I don't know, Burt....something like if you still have your hair in curlers when your husband leaves the house at 7 in the morning, don't blame him if he nails his secretary."
Burt: "Hmmm....I dunno. That's a little edgy for the radio. We want to make some money here. What if he just runs off with the secretary instead?"
Hal: "And the wife never sees him again! Perfect! Thanks, Burt!"
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I saw him around 1978 or '79 at Harrah's in Reno. He'd had a couple of cocktails before going on and was pretty loose. Dedicated "What I Did For Love" to "the people who just came in from the roulette wheel" and began it with "Kiss your a@@ goodbye......" (the actual lyric is "Kiss the past goodbye").
Come to think of it, when I saw Bacharach at Harrah's around the same time, he was drunk on stage, too.
Alternate version of the "Wives and Lovers" songwriting session with Burt Bacharach and Hal David:
Burt: "What is it you're trying to say, Hal?"
Hal: "I don't know, Burt....something like if you still have your hair in curlers when your husband leaves the house at 7 in the morning, don't blame him if he nails his secretary."
Burt: "Hal, is everything okay at home between you and Anne?"
Hal: "Back off, Burt. Not all of us are dating Angie Dickinson, okay?"
Burt: "What is it you're trying to say, Hal?"
Hal: "I don't know, Burt....something like if you still have your hair in curlers when your husband leaves the house at 7 in the morning, don't blame him if he nails his secretary."
Burt: "Hal, is everything okay at home between you and Anne?"
Hal: "Back off, Burt. Not all of us are dating Angie Dickinson, okay?"
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