Baffling music selections on KOLA

[victorres43]

Look, I know that this is the LA board, but I can't help but notice that KOLA sounds very strange for a "Classic Hits" station.

Granted, Classic Hits stations have to move into the 90s and early 2000s, but the music selections on KOLA are very odd. For instance, how can one justify playing Katy Perry (who isn't a classic artist) more often than, say, Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Eminem, et al? Speaking of that, at the same time, it seems that KOLA skips over a chunk of top 40 hits that were popular in the 90s/early 00s, whether rap, adult contemporary, pop rock, or teen pop. Even Latino artists like Enrique Iglesias, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, and Shakira are all but skipped over despite Riverside/San Bernardino having a heavy Latino population. Yet they are playing Sublime's Santeria, which didn't even impact Top 40 radio!

KOLA is lucky to have a format monopoly on the Inland Empire (KRTH is a distant signal, and has no intentions on having listeners in Riverside or San Bernardino.), because I'm not sure they will get away with such decisions if they face a direct competitor.

 

[davideduardo]

KOLA is lucky to have a format monopoly on the Inland Empire (KRTH is a distant signal, and has no intentions on having listeners in Riverside or San Bernardino.), because I'm not sure they will get away with such decisions if they face a direct competitor.

KRTH has as good a local signal over the cities of Riverside and San Bernardino as it does over Irvine and Santa Clarita. While they don't go specifically after the local Riverside / San Bernardino market they certainly have a good enough signal to do that if they wanted to.

But in normal times, KRTH bills over $30 million a year. The whole Riverside / San Bernardino market... all "home" stations... only will do about $38 million in total billing this year. Why would KRTH even care about serving a market where there is no money to be obtained?

The best signal in that market decided 25 years ago that being a fringe signal in LA was better than trying to be the leading station in the Inland Empire.

And if KOLA were not serving local needs, KRTH would totally destroy them as KRTH has a totally competitive signal in the Metro Survey Area.

 

[Robnoxious]

I pop in and out of KOLA on my presets when I'm driving. I can't say I've ever heard a Katy Perry song spun. I seem to catch more Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" in heavy rotation.

KOLA leans heavily toward 80's hits much like KRTH but KOLA will go more pop with Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T." and "Wanna Be Starting Something" but still hold true to "Melt With You" by Modern English which has been burnt to a blackened bacony crisp as much as "Hotel California" in the KRTH-verse.

What I do tend to enjoy is when KOLA rebroadcasts "American Top 40" on Sunday nights where the late great Casey Kasem counts down some often truly forgettable tracks that have not been heard since they debuted in the year Casey acknowledged them the first time around.

The music time capsule sometimes boggles the mind more than KOLA's current playlist.

 

[victorres43]

I pop in and out of KOLA on my presets when I'm driving. I can't say I've ever heard a Katy Perry song spun. I seem to catch more Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" in heavy rotation.

KOLA leans heavily toward 80's hits much like KRTH but KOLA will go more pop with Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T." and "Wanna Be Starting Something" but still hold true to "Melt With You" by Modern English which has been burnt to a blackened bacony crisp as much as "Hotel California" in the KRTH-verse.

What I do tend to enjoy is when KOLA rebroadcasts "American Top 40" on Sunday nights where the late great Casey Kasem counts down some often truly forgettable tracks that have not been heard since they debuted in the year Casey acknowledged them the first time around.

The music time capsule sometimes boggles the mind more than KOLA's current playlist.

Now, in particular, Hot and Cold isn't exactly burnt to a crisp on this station, but they play it more than hits like Oops! I Did It Again, The Real Slim Shady, Maria Maria, Bye Bye Bye, Livin' la Vida Loca, and Lose Yourself. IMO it's premature to move on to 2008 without covering the late 90s and early 2000s in full.

A playlist on a typical day: KOLA 99.9 On Air Playlist from Aug 05, 2021

On that playlist, I noticed Billy Joel, a staple of the format, only played once. Also, they play No Doubt and Lady Gaga, but not Springsteen?

 

[asugeorge1]

Now, in particular, Hot and Cold isn't exactly burnt to a crisp on this station, but they play it more than hits like Oops! I Did It Again, The Real Slim Shady, Maria Maria, Bye Bye Bye, Livin' la Vida Loca, and Lose Yourself. IMO it's premature to move on to 2008 without covering the late 90s and early 2000s in full.

A playlist on a typical day: KOLA 99.9 On Air Playlist from Aug 05, 2021

On that playlist, I noticed Billy Joel, a staple of the format, only played once. Also, they play No Doubt and Lady Gaga, but not Springsteen?

I’m sorry, but any station playing Lady Gaga is not a classic hits station. It’s a station that is seriously confused about it’s identity.

 

[CTListener]

I’m sorry, but any station playing Lady Gaga is not a classic hits station. It’s a station that is seriously confused about it’s identity.

Her recording career started in 2008. Thirteen-year-old songs don't fit the standard definition of "classic hits," but I hear them a lot on local stations nonetheless, referred to as "throwbacks" -- too old to be recurrents, not old enough to be gold. Maybe KOLA (and, I assume, similar stations elsewhere) are expanding the definition as a way to find more songs that click with their target audience, regardless of year of release. Since fewer songs became hits in the '90s and '00s compared to the '70s and '80s, as new methodology turned the pop chart to sludge, and the rock/rhythmic divide became a chasm, I can see this as something a lot of classic hits stations will be doing to chase that always-moving demographic target.

 

[victorres43]

Her recording career started in 2008. Thirteen-year-old songs don't fit the standard definition of "classic hits," but I hear them a lot on local stations nonetheless, referred to as "throwbacks" -- too old to be recurrents, not old enough to be gold. Maybe KOLA (and, I assume, similar stations elsewhere) are expanding the definition as a way to find more songs that click with their target audience, regardless of year of release. Since fewer songs became hits in the '90s and '00s compared to the '70s and '80s, as new methodology turned the pop chart to sludge, and the rock/rhythmic divide became a chasm, I can see this as something a lot of classic hits stations will be doing to chase that always-moving demographic target.

But is Bad Romance really a better song to play than songs like Gangsta's Paradise, I Swear, Wannabe, Macarena, Because You Loved Me, Un-Break My Heart, My Heart Will Go On, Mambo No 5, and Waiting For Tonight?

 

[michael hagerty]

Are we really gonna make the same mistake we made in this forum discussing KRTH ten years ago? Listeners aren't sitting at home with Whitburn chart books saying "It's too soon! KOLA hasn't played enough 90s yet to be playing this!" Radio stations play what the target audience likes most within a genre. And the only reason 13 years doesn't seem old enough is that the concept of oldies/classic hits got really off the track when Boomers' tastes calcified and 40-year-old records were the ones in hot rotation.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I pop in and out of KOLA on my presets when I'm driving. I can't say I've ever heard a Katy Perry song spun. I seem to catch more Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" in heavy rotation.

KOLA leans heavily toward 80's hits much like KRTH but KOLA will go more pop with Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T." and "Wanna Be Starting Something" but still hold true to "Melt With You" by Modern English which has been burnt to a blackened bacony crisp as much as "Hotel California" in the KRTH-verse.

What I do tend to enjoy is when KOLA rebroadcasts "American Top 40" on Sunday nights where the late great Casey Kasem counts down some often truly forgettable tracks that have not been heard since they debuted in the year Casey acknowledged them the first time around.

The music time capsule sometimes boggles the mind more than KOLA's current playlist.

SiriusXM 70s on 7 replays Casey's countdown from this date in 197x a couple of times on the weekends, plus another randomly selected show on Thursday evenings.

And now, back to countdown.

Oh, I can't let this topic go without mentioning my favorite promo of all time:

Casey: "Join us this Saturday morning and every Saturday morning at two. TWO??!!"

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Are we really gonna make the same mistake we made in this forum discussing KRTH ten years ago? Listeners aren't sitting at home with Whitburn chart books saying "It's too soon! KOLA hasn't played enough 90s yet to be playing this!" Radio stations play what the target audience likes most within a genre. And the only reason 13 years doesn't seem old enough is that the concept of oldies/classic hits got really off the track when Boomers' tastes calcified and 40-year-old records were the ones in hot rotation.

This board has seen a lot worse mistakes than that.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Are we really gonna make the same mistake we made in this forum discussing KRTH ten years ago? Listeners aren't sitting at home with Whitburn chart books saying "It's too soon! KOLA hasn't played enough 90s yet to be playing this!" Radio stations play what the target audience likes most within a genre. And the only reason 13 years doesn't seem old enough is that the concept of oldies/classic hits got really off the track when Boomers' tastes calcified and 40-year-old records were the ones in hot rotation.

No I am not going with this mistake but I seen people here especially on the WABC-AM threads talk about oldies as in when WABC-AM is supposed to be pre-1982. But we keep having to explain to a certain audience that 2000's music as classic hits/oldies are up for debate in this decade to attract the remainder of people listening to FM radio such as older millennials and younger end GenX as the median money demos.

 

[CTListener]

SiriusXM 70s on 7 replays Casey's countdown from this date in 197x a couple of times on the weekends, plus another randomly selected show on Thursday evenings.

The channel's audience is paying to hear it, and there are apparently enough of them to sustain the dedicated decade-channel concept. If SXM is still around in, say, 20 years, I'd fully expect 50s/60s/70s to be combined into one nostalgia channel, much like the service's standards channel.

 

[gr8oldies]

SiriusXM 70s on 7 replays Casey's countdown from this date in 197x a couple of times on the weekends, plus another randomly selected show on Thursday evenings.

And now, back to countdown.

Oh, I can't let this topic go without mentioning my favorite promo of all time:

Casey: "Join us this Saturday morning and every Saturday morning at two. TWO??!!"

There is also a Twitter chat that has developed around the noon Eastern Saturday airing. Look up #AT40. For non SiriusXM subscribers, someone links videos of the songs as they go. Look up #AT40

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

But is Bad Romance really a better song to play than songs like Gangsta's Paradise, I Swear, Wannabe, Macarena, Because You Loved Me, Un-Break My Heart, My Heart Will Go On, Mambo No 5, and Waiting For Tonight?

Yes.

 

[Greg Strickland]

How are they doing in ratings and revenue? How much of the revenue is local business? How engaged is their audience with the station? They could have a good thing going. If they are successful with something unique I think that is wonderful.

I know of a station about as eclectic as they come. Based on what I know about the situation they are doing exactly the right thing, for their dignity, spirit and community.

 

[CTListener]

Yes.

"I Swear" was nearly as big a country hit (for John Michael Montgomery) as it was a pop hit. Yet it's not played as a throwback on the iHeart country station here -- all but a couple of the hits of the past played in those slots are high-energy tunes such as "Indian Outlaw," "Chattahoochie" and "Fancy." The only straight-out ballad I ever hear is Garth Brooks' "Unanswered Prayers," for obvious reasons -- it's Garth, and it's one of the seminal songs of the New Traditionalist/Hat Act era. So the preference for uptempo must extend to today's country listener as well as today's AC listener.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

The channel's audience is paying to hear it, and there are apparently enough of them to sustain the dedicated decade-channel concept. If SXM is still around in, say, 20 years, I'd fully expect 50s/60s/70s to be combined into one nostalgia channel, much like the service's standards channel.

I have heard that the decades channels are still among their most popular. In 20 years you will probably be able to program your own station on XM from a genre and/or song list. Fans of older music will be provided multiple ways to get it, and there will always be someone who wants to hear "Midnight at the Oasis" and program it right in.

Frankly, I think they already do a better job of this (creating niche stations that combine eras or formats) than Amazon, Spotify, or other streaming services, which is fairly impressive given the fact that they have bandwith issues, and the others do not.

 

[victorres43]

Yes.

How so?

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

If that’s what the data says the audience prefers, and accepts within their expectations of the station, those are better choices.

Just because something was a hit then does not mean it is a hit now. There is no magic rule that says X number of songs from Y date range must be part of the rotation, etc.

Give the audience what it wants so you can sell the desired audience to the people paying the bills.

 

[victorres43]

If that’s what the data says the audience prefers, and accepts within their expectations of the station, those are better choices.

Just because something was a hit then does not mean it is a hit now. There is no magic rule that says X number of songs from Y date range must be part of the rotation, etc.

Give the audience what it wants so you can sell the desired audience to the people paying the bills.

I kind of thought these 90s hits would have multiple spins, given that 90s nostalgia runs fairly strong among millennials and younger Gen-Xers. Many AC and Classic Hits stations nationwide are playing at least some of the songs listed.