The reason it’s not done anymore is because radio largely isn’t live. It’s voice tracked.
If young people aren’t listening, especially to Classic Hits stations, why promote the hell out of the iHeart Music Festival during nearly every break?
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iHeartMedia clusters that have zero local personalities
- Thread starter victorres43
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For what it’s worth, as someone who travels extensively - I never remember seeing the McPizza anywhere besides Orlando. I could be wrong, however. But to this day, one can get white rice at McDonald’s in Hawaii.
Even live stations aren't taking calls or running phone-based contests anymore.
The term is "open avails".
And yet the classic hits format is among the most popular, most listened to formats of all radio. So my sense is the complaints you're hearing are coming from people who don't listen to the radio anymore. If they don't listen anymore, the stations aren't programming to them anymore.
By definition, a format is based on repetition. That's what makes it a format. So there is a pattern of songs that get played so many times a day, so many times a week, and that's the format. If they seem repetitive, it's because they are. Radio is not going to change how it works for the 1 or 2 % who find it too repetitive. The people who complain are the ones who don't listen, because they've already made their choice. There is no programmed radio service that isn't repetitive, unless the user creates the playlist. So if you're listening to Sirius, or any other automated music distribution service, it will follow a pattern, and it will be repetitive.
The format is also based around a consistent sound. That means you will typically hear one kind of music as part of that format. So if you want variety, it requires the user to change the station to find that variety. The days of one station playing everything ended in the 1970s when format radio began. Even AOR rock radio narrowed its focus by the end of the 1970s so that you didn't hear random album cuts, but specific focus cuts that were usually decided by the record labels.
Were there stations playing odd album cuts back then? Sure. Were they popular? No. They might be college stations or small market stations. But the big stations that got ratings were the ones that focused their music on a sound and a group of songs.
You’re completely twisting what I’m saying. I never said anything about “odd album cuts.” If artist X had five number one songs, and a Classic Hits station plays only one of those songs, the other four are not “odd album cuts.”
You also make false assumptions about the people with whom I have contact when it comes to radio listening habits. You might love extreme repetition and tight playlists. I hate it. We are both entitled. And my overall point in this thread is that such extreme repetition did not exist 25 years ago. And that, to me, made radio, much more pleasurable. A format does not have to include only one number one song of five from artist X. I don’t know how you’re not sick of the same 150 songs and heavy rotation on, say, K-Earth 101.
I don't love it or hate it. It's my job and I do it very well based on what is expected of me. Running a radio station is a job. I get paid to do it. I make decisions based on knowledge, experience, and information. When I'm at home on my own time I might do things differently. If you hate it, that's your prerogative and you're welcome to listen to some other form of music delivery. It isn't going to change how I do my job. Repeating popular songs achieves the goals that are set, and so that's why we do it.
In point of fact, the KRTH playlist is about 350-400 songs per week, and those songs change every week, drawing from a library of about a thousand songs that cycle in and out every week. Plus the frequency of the spins changes every week. So care is taken to vary the songs and how often they are played. This is one of the most popular stations in Los Angeles, so they must be doing something right.
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I should say MOST live stations, especially that play music in the morning, are fewer and further between. Unless it's an AM talk show like Elliott in the Morning with music the rest of the day. The point is; there's a reason you won't find a lot of live jocks or phone interaction. And it's not just because of voicetracking.
You’re completely ignoring frequency of rotation. The songs that K-Earth keeps in heavy rotation are played far too much. 13 times a week is overkill.
It all starts with a live jock. It’s impossible to take calls if you lack a live body in the studio.
You don't see the numbers I see. The rotation changes every week. The most played songs this week drop next week.
Thirteen times a week is twice a day. That's very low in terms of formats. Top 40 stations play over 100 times a week.
Country is between 50-70. AC is around 25-30. So 13 is low. Most people listen for 6-7 hours a week.
That's not true. Lots of radio stations take calls automatically. Having said that most large market stations have live bodies in the studio during the day. Just having a live body in the studio doesn't mean that person is going to take calls.
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That, and the general public isn't interested in calling radio stations. Participation is via social media. Phone calls are so 2000.
I only saw the McDonald's Beefsteak (available after 4pm) in Sarasota in 1980. I tried McNuggets when they were test marketed in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
And if the songs are rotated properly and you are listening at pretty much the same time every day for 6-7 hours a week total, you're never going to hear a song twice in that week.
Didn't we spend about 200 pages on this subject a few years ago?
The two stations I listen to most often here have live jocks in p.m. drive. All contest entries are taken through texting, all requests for the 5:00 feature are taken through the website.
Once every few years is light rotation for this message board topic, compared to "Why doesn't anyone play '50s and '60s oldies anymore?" and "Why won't country music work in New York?," which sprout new threads every few weeks.
I was listening to KTUC (which is actually standards) as much as 4-5 hours a day three times a week and hearing pretty much the same songs every time. WERT is also standards but I only hear a few songs more than once in a given week. The problem with WERT is they play too many songs I don't like (leading me to change stations or turn it off for a while), most of which in my opinion don't belong in a standards format. Over the years most of the songs America's Best Music added were songs I got used to and accepted as standards, but the ones on WERT just don't sound right at all. But WERT plays so many really good songs I haven't heard on KTUC.
But the keep the basic menu. Heck, they even have a "McPalta" in Argentina... a Big Mac with avocado on it. And they have mate as well as coffee. But the rest of the menu could be in Rapid City, SD.
Indicating that they were struggling to do as well in the rimshot market as in the home market.
The transmitter is not home to the market, and about half the market is right on the edge of the 60 dbu signal. For in-home listening, you really need a 65 dbu.
That was nearly three decades ago. The influence of streaming services changed everything, as did the lack of good research at some stations.
There have always been stations with small owners that ignored research, did absurdly large playlists and thought that they could "make hits". With deeper programming support staff, as soon as those stations got bought they generally improved with either local or shared research and better programming practices.
Remember that 1995 was when full consolidation began. The reason that step was approved was that over half of all US radio stations were not profitable... and that was in the pre-Internet and pre-mp3 world. The Docket 80-90 proliferation of new stations made it hard for small and medium market stations to be profitable and all the upgrades and move-ins added many more stations to markets like Austin or Jacksonville or Phoenix; when there is no profit, programming suffers.
I take it you don't live in Van Wert, Ohio?
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