That would make sense. This station in particular seems to play its golds a lot. It seems like at least every few days I hear Chandelier by Sia. KZPT in kansas city seems to be a bit more diverse.
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Why are big hits "lost?"
- Thread starter tall_guy1
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And there we are back to Kansas City.
That's okay, though.
People here are reporting what they are hearing in their regional markets. For example, I'm reporting what I'm hearing in California, etc. When you have listeners joining the discussion, you're going to get reports about playlists from different cities. Or you'll get the older crowd who wants to reminisce nostalgically about how stations changed, etc. It's all good. It's a big website here, with lots of people and lots of energy. It's better than having a message board that is dying, and therefore, there's no one with whom to chat. At least this site is lively, thought-provoking, and entertaining. --- Daryl And obsessing over one particular song.
True, though no one who bought radio in the 70's or most, if not all, of the 80's had any idea that was going to happen. Plus, those who bought then had to find a way to survive that long to cash out. Radio had more than its fair share of bankruptcies in the 80's and early 90's. Even Jacor filed bankruptcy in either 1990 or 91. That was how Zell got his private equity money into the company.
Keep in mind, also, that, when calculating money, you have to bring it to the same point in time to determine how much people are actually spending. A dollar today is almost certainly worth more than it will be worth a year from now. In 1977, KBEQ in Kansas City fetched the record price for a radio station at $7 million. That someone could get a successful large market radio station for a price like that seems almost eye popping today, but that $7 million would be just under $34.5 million in today's dollars. I doubt the same station would fetch that much now. In 2000 dollars, that $7 million was about $20 million. Yes, the prices went up substantially after the Telecommunications Act passed in 1996, but they might not have gone up as dramatically as it looks at first glance. KBEQ's record setting $7 million price tag, by the way, only lasted a few months if I remember correctly.
Today, if you want to buy a radio station, you can probably get one for the price of a nice house in the area surrounding the station. Granted, you're not going to buy KIIS in Los Angeles for a price like that, but there are plenty of stations on the market. Private equity no longer sees radio as a growth medium. So, you don't have nearly as much competition for those smaller market stations.
Sean Ross writes perhaps the final "Lost Factor" column. Given that's how this thread got started, I figured it's worth posting here:
The Last Word on Lost Factor - RadioInsight
The Last Word on Lost Factor - RadioInsight
Minor point: Broadcasters had been lobbying for the FCC to revisit ownership caps for decades.
Still, it's a business. And any smart business person has an exit strategy---getting out at this point in life or if there's an offer of this much money. Radio is no different.
Van Dyke and I lost our morning show 25 years ago in Phoenix because an executive at Nationwide thought the group (then 17 radio stations) should expand to 34, enabling it to compete better. He made the pitch to the board of directors who focused instead on the market value of the 17 stations they already had and said "Screw expansion! Call the broker!" They sold the entire broadcast division to Jacor.
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I did a search for "recently played" on two stations: one Audacy and one iHeart. KMNB Minneapolis (Audacy) played the song once yesterday at 2:15 am. WEZL Charleston (iHeart) hasn't played it yesterday or today.
The problem with this particular song from a programming POV is it's a very lightly produced 4 minute ballad that doesn't go over well in morning drive. To move up the chart, a song needs to not only increase spins, but expand dayparts. That's the only way to get to 100 spins a week. Right now the majority of the spins are in overnight. The only reporter playing it daily in morning drive is Music Choice.
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It's an interesting article and as he says there are limitations to using Mediabase. He says the Decades channels at Sirius aren't monitored. Neither are a lot of small market and lowly rated stations.
Following BigA's suggestion, I've been listening to WDAF-FM Kansas City for the last half hour. The second song I heard was "Something in the Orange," followed by an announcement of his upcoming KC concert and a reminder that you can win tickets to it from the station. Sounds like this Audacy station is more than just paying lip service to Zach.
I wonder why Zach isn't doing the talk-show rounds. Last night, Hardy and Lainey Wilson were on one show, Hailey Whitters was on another, and Elle King was talking with Andy Cohen on yet another. Elle is on GMA tomorrow morning, and Hardy was on Today this morning. I know Zach is kind of anti-establishment in his attitude, but he's got a hit of some note on his hands and major-label distribution, so why isn't he more visible? (Maybe he needs a name change. Country already has Luke Bryan and Zac Brown, so he doesn't exactly stand out.)
I've asked, and was told he doesn't do interviews.
Would including the stats from Hanover/Lebanon/White River and similar small markets where "Something in the Orange" is blowing up in Mediabase's calculations nudge the big market, big chain operations closer to putting in on their playlists? Or do the stations with the most listeners prefer it the way it is?
Guess he's happy with what he has, then. Too bad for his career going forward.
I know network talk hosts can ask stupid questions, but if you want to get your music out there you need to at least sing on TV. Whitters' appearance on Kimmel last night was just a performance of her current song, "Everything She Ain't," with no interview at all. Maybe that's something Zach can agree to do. And there's no excuse at all for him ignoring Nashville-originated shows like "Country, Cody and Coffee" on Circle.
I think the first question would be why are small markets playing the song. This gets back to the article I linked earlier. Stations consider adding a new song an investment. So they want a return on that investment. It sounds like WDAF is getting it with a ticket giveaway. I'd say that would have more impact than what stations in small markets are doing.
He's not based in Nashville, and neither is his manager.
That's true. I know hedging has been around as long as markets have, but I can't imagine too many people hedging on radio as a short-term investment in the 70's and, especially, the early-to-mid 80's. Gambling on the government to do something quickly has always been a fool's bet!
You won't get any argument from me on that. A lot of people who got into radio in the 80's, however, had unrealistic expectations. So many of those Docket 80-90 facilities were so lousy that they'd never have been signed on if any sort of business plan had been required for the investment.
I remember that. Nationwide Communications also had a reputation of operating at a lower margin than its peers. So, from a business standpoint, selling probably made a lot of sense. I'm sure you know the story of Nationwide starting as the Ohio Farm Bureau and getting into radio with WRFD 880 because it thought people might engage in less risky behavior, which would mean fewer claims, if they knew what was going on weather-wise. It wasn't the only company to have that thought. Jefferson-Pilot was an insurance company, too. Both of Nashville's largest AM's were owned by insurance companies at one time with WSM standing for "We Shield Millions" and WLAC for "Life and Casualty." That probably made a lot of sense at the time. Nashville has always gotten worse weather than most people realize. It's not in Tornado Alley, but, last I heard, it got more tornadoes than Dallas and Ft. Worth. Most insurance companies got out of broadcasting a lot earlier than Nationwide and Jefferson-Pilot did. I was always surprised they stayed in as long as they did.
WEZV Myrtle Beach SC played it a lot before returning to soft AC.
Because it was a terribly irritating song for most demos. But apparently scored well with 18-34
Here is the deal. Hits were not formed by listener response. Request lists were not included, never were. It all was based on “adds” by radio stations. If a wide number of top radio stations added the record then it became a hit. Sure some exceptions, but this was the formula. I used to think listeners guided playlists but as I soon discovered it really had nothing to do with it. There were deeper implications as to why some records became hits. I was there, lived it and learned it. I want to use the P word but won’t. But basically a corrupt system.
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Huh? I've seen some songs get a ton of adds and then die in the teens once the research comes in.
Radio can't force bad songs into becoming hits. And by hits I mean the songs that stand the test of time.
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