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KOST 103.5
- Thread starter 30james
- Start date
They have all moved to HD2 land via Sunny Radio (which is over the air in Detroit, so you'll have to listen online in LA)
Radio stations with long standing formats don't age like we do.
Still programming to the 18 to 34 age group while we age out of the station and move on.
Still programming to the 18 to 34 age group while we age out of the station and move on.
KOST is hardly programmed to 18-34. It's traditionally a 35-54 main target, particularly women. Secondary is women 25-34 although that is the target of two of iHeart's other contemporary stations, KIIS, a CHR which is mainly aimed at women in their 20's and earlier 30's and Hot AC KBIG aimed mostly at women 25-44. The three cover women from 18 to 54 and are called in the business "the wall of women".
Right. And the center of 35-54 is 45-ish. So that woman:
Was born in 1976.
Graduated high school in 1994.
Graduated college in 1998.
Rod Stewart and Elton John aren’t her mainstream.
Rod Stewart and Elton John are both 70s artists, but Rod Stewart did have Have I Told You Lately and Reason To Believe in 1993, and Elton John had Can You Feel The Love Tonight and Circle of Life in 1994. Not to mention the popularity of Elton John's tribute to the late Princess Diana.
But given that a 45-year-old woman is the central target of KOST, it's a bit surprising that KOST has seldom played Spice Girls or the Backstreet Boys, or songs like Tubthumping or Bitter Sweet Symphony. I believe KOST has a strong affinity for 80s music, although the station is not as soft as before.
None of which were monster records for an 18-19 year old.
“It’s Impossible” by Perry Como was top 10 in 1971. It made #3 at KHJ. It didn’t go on to get airplay on K-Earth 28 years later. Or on any station trying to attract Boomers between then and now.
Well, in a strange way, Elton John is back on the current charts, thanks to the new track with Dua Lipa ;-)
No, meaning fewer ballads and more songs with a bit of tempo.
Keep in mind the a lot of the music you speak of is over 40 years old. Today's average 30 something female probably cares little for 70's/80's music.
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Yes, in the 35-54 core of KOST, even a 50-year-old would have been just 10 in 1980. We do have to remember that, since the later 60's, contemporary music stations have played a lot of gold. So a person who became a teen in the 80's or 90's heard an amount of older music. So that 50-year-old will know and like quite a few 70's and early 80's songs.
And, through play today, the 35 to 40 year old will be familiar with them. If they test, despite the age, they are eligible for play.
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I was born in '72. I will be 50 next year, Maths out by 10 years, maybe.
Yeah, off by 10. I fixed it. The point is that airplay of gold by contemporary stations, whether AC, Hot AC or Top 40, always included some gold. So a person often heard songs ten to twenty years older than them, and if they were "likable" they added them to their personal favorites.
My daughter is in this age group and when in her car she generally listens only to news on KPCC or music on KCRW. Her taste ranges from Classic Rock to, 60s/70s and Current Folk Rock, to Americana. There's essentially nothing of interest to her on commercial FM here in the LA Market...and this goes for most of her friends. She streams most of her music from Spotify.
That's because many programmers thought or think that Mr Como is or was of interest only to the WWII generation (Boomers' Parents).
You think they were wrong?
If you have an HD radio, KOST-HD3 plays a great iHeart music service known as "The Breeze." It's on about 30 iHeart HD stations, including WKTU-HD2 New York and on the iHeart app. (Actually the app plays KSNE-HD2 Las Vegas. The music is the same but the legal I.D. is simpler.) So if you want Chicago, Lionel Richie, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Adele and Gloria Estefan, The Breeze fits the bill.
There are a few analog iHeart stations known as The Breeze as well, including KISQ San Francisco and KBEB Sacramento, that do well in the ratings. But I'm not sure if their playlists are quite the same as the national Breeze music service.
There are a few analog iHeart stations known as The Breeze as well, including KISQ San Francisco and KBEB Sacramento, that do well in the ratings. But I'm not sure if their playlists are quite the same as the national Breeze music service.
Possibly, in the years prior to KMPCs switch from music to talk, the station would not play anything from Linda Ronstadt's outstanding LPs of music from the Great American Songbook. Why? Because "Our audience doesn't like Linda Ronstadt- she's a rock/ pop artist". It apparently didn't matter what genre of music it was. Obviously it would have fit their format perfectly.
As this demonstrates many stations like the above were only Artist Driven, and not Music Driven.
I don’t know who that quote is from, but the correct answer was that KMPC’s music format in the 1980s and 1990s was a gold format. Every track was at least 20 years old. Linda’s albums, while lovely, were cover versions of songs the KMPC audience preferred to hear the originals of. Being surprised about this would be like wondering why KRTH didn’t play “Live and Let Die” by Guns N’ Roses when it came out in the 90s.
Go back to the mid-70s, before KMPC became a nostalgia outlet and was still trying to attract 18-49 year old adults and you’ll find they weren’t playing Perry Como anymore—-but Linda Ronstadt was a core artist.
Both were decisions based on the different audiences the same station was trying to serve at different points in its existence.
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