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All Beatles Format?

Markxxx

Markxxx

I overheard a conversation on the bus today and one of the gentleman said, when he was a teen they had a radio station that played an "All Beatles Format." I assume by this he meant only Beatle's songs. My question is has there ever really been a radio station which had that as a format.

Even though the Beatles had a lot of product, I find it hard to believe that they'd have enough to have a radio station play it as a format.

Has anyone else heard of something like this? Also perhaps I am not understanding and an "all Beatle's format" does not mean only songs by the Beatles rock group.
 
Many stations stunted with all-Beatles (along with Beatles' solo works) as an attention-getting temporary format. Some did it as a more-or-less permanent format, including:

KYST AM 920 in Houston was all-Beatles from May to October of 1983. It never actually changed its call letters, but branded as "KBTL, K-Beatle"

KTCY 104.9, which rimshotted Dallas, went all-Beatles during the first few months of 1997 as "Fab 105"
 
Markxxx said:
I overheard a conversation on the bus today and one of the gentleman said, when he was a teen they had a radio station that played an "All Beatles Format." I assume by this he meant only Beatle's songs. My question is has there ever really been a radio station which had that as a format.

Even though the Beatles had a lot of product, I find it hard to believe that they'd have enough to have a radio station play it as a format.

Has anyone else heard of something like this? Also perhaps I am not understanding and an "all Beatle's format" does not mean only songs by the Beatles rock group.
Click to expand...
SiriusXM has had an all-Beatles channel for years.
 
Markxxx said:
<...>
Also perhaps I am not understanding and an "all Beatle's format" does not mean only songs by the Beatles rock group.
Click to expand...
True - could be two definitions:

1. 100% Beatles, 0% anything else (John, Paul, George, Ringo post-Beatles output, etc.)

2. "Now for the first time, the most popular band in history presents their own channel. All things Beatles, 24/8. All of their hits, album tracks, rarities & solo songs, along with the records that influenced them and music inspired by them."

So, you can look here to see what the ratio is on SXM's Beatles Channel, for example:

xmplaylist.com

The Beatles Channel Recently Played and Playlist - xmplaylist

Recently played songs from The Beatles Channel: John, Paul, George, and Ringo changed music forever. The songs, stories, influences and legacy of the Beatles - 24/8!
xmplaylist.com
 
While I have heard the occasional terrestrial station here and there do a "Beatles Weekend" with wall to wall Beatles music, explanations of which album and stage of their careers particular songs or segments came from and a bit of background and even interviews, I'm guessing it'd be tough to find a large enough audience and/or advertiser support for an "all Beatles station" on terrestrial radio.

The Beatles were active from the early 60s, appeared in the US on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964 and were together until infighting and Yoko tore them apart about a decade after they'd formed. While their music in many ways is timeless and has a large audience, and they went on to perform individually and in smaller partnerships after the breakup, truth is that their heyday happened several decades ago. Lennon left us in 1980, or 43 years ago. While I do recall Beatles music making somewhat of a resurgence in the 1990s, it was probably because the kids of the folks who followed them back in the day were coming of age and it was more their nostalgia than anything. Even those people who enjoyed the resurgence in the 1990s are now pushing 50 - an age that most advertisers aren't interested in.
 
There have been a few Beatles stations and typically it included solo works and even material where a Beatle played an instrument. Most formats I have heard played everything (all album tracks) but a heavy mix of known material.

While KYST's PD intended it to be the format until ratings drop, it seems Roy Henderson pulled the plug, as I was told.

In Dallas/Fort Worth, the Beatles format was non-commercial and intended to keep the station on air until it sold.
 
Markxxx said:
I overheard a conversation on the bus today and one of the gentleman said, when he was a teen they had a radio station that played an "All Beatles Format." I assume by this he meant only Beatle's songs. My question is has there ever really been a radio station which had that as a format.

Even though the Beatles had a lot of product, I find it hard to believe that they'd have enough to have a radio station play it as a format.

Has anyone else heard of something like this? Also perhaps I am not understanding and an "all Beatle's format" does not mean only songs by the Beatles rock group.
Click to expand...
CHR's hyped that up when Beatles were having a concert in their area at that time. In 2023 having an all Beatles format is impossible because of Demographic reasons. Or is this when oldies stations in the 1990's were hyping up the Beatles when one of the surviving members like Paul McCartney were visiting their area for a solo concert.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Even those people who enjoyed the resurgence in the 1990s are now pushing 50 - an age that most advertisers aren't interested in.
Click to expand...
The key advertising agency radio target age range is 25-54. So people "pushing 50" are totally of interest and a prime advertising demographic target.

Almost all agency buys in radio are somewhere in the 18-49 or 25-54 ranges. They may be tighter, such as 25-54 men or 18-34 Spanish dominant Hispanics or Women 35-54. But "pushing 50" is very definitely a major target area.
 
Kelly A said:
SiriusXM has had an all-Beatles channel for years.
Click to expand...
And that channel plays solo Beatles tracks, covers of Beatles songs, original versions of song the Beatles covered, and a wide variety of songs by artists who influenced the Beatles or who were influenced by the Beatles. It's very well done, but the audience must be nearly all over 60 and TSL must be brief. For me, it's one of those presets I punch occasionally to see if a song I like is playing, and if one isn't I don't stick around to hear what's next.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The key advertising agency radio target age range is 25-54. So people "pushing 50" are totally of interest and a prime advertising demographic target.

Almost all agency buys in radio are somewhere in the 18-49 or 25-54 ranges. They may be tighter, such as 25-54 men or 18-34 Spanish dominant Hispanics or Women 35-54. But "pushing 50" is very definitely a major target area.
Click to expand...
Apologies, perhaps my wording was off for that particular sentence. I hope the overall point of my post was more clear. If you were in your late teens when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, you're now in your late seventies. If you were in your early 20s when the Beatles broke up, you're now in your mid-70s. Even the ones that were around when Beatles saw some resurgence are getting up there. Really wasn't intending to cause an academic discussion about ad buys, but I'll stick to my overall original point that such a format may not work long-term, full-time on terrestrial radio as it may not find a large enough audience and/or advertisers to support it.
 
Mikey Radio said:
Apologies, perhaps my wording was off for that particular sentence. I hope the overall point of my post was more clear. If you were in your late teens when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, you're now in your late seventies. If you were in your early 20s when the Beatles broke up, you're now in your mid-70s. Even the ones that were around when Beatles saw some resurgence are getting up there. Really wasn't intending to cause an academic discussion about ad buys, but I'll stick to my overall original point that such a format may not work long-term, full-time on terrestrial radio as it may not find a large enough audience and/or advertisers to support it.
Click to expand...
Much clearer and a good point. And agency accounts don't generally buy against anyone over 55, so the groups you identified are not attractive to them. Many local accounts are not so restrictive but they generally spend less money and pay lower rates.
 
For almost eight months in 1997, 1260 AM in Los Angeles (then with its original callsign of KGIL), carried an All Beatles format. That station is now in its third stint as classical formatted KMozart, with the call letters KMZT.
 
michael hagerty said:
KGIL's all-Beatles format was Saul Levine doing what was supposed to be a one-month stunt leading up to an all-show tunes format. It got so much attention, it lasted almost eight months.

The show tunes format lasted nine months.
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So in your view, would that be considered a long-term, ad-supported success?
 
michael hagerty said:
Not even close.

I think the last format on that frequency to be a long-term, ad-supported success stopped being one around 1975.
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Exactly. What a lot of listeners/hobbyists/armchair PDs don't realize, is it's really expensive to change formats. The last thing anyone wants to do is experiment with something like a single artist/band format 24/7 when history has shown it's likely not going to last even one full year.
 
CTListener said:
<...>
It's very well done, but the audience must be nearly all over 60 and TSL must be brief. For me, it's one of those presets I punch occasionally to see if a song I like is playing, and if one isn't I don't stick around to hear what's next.
Click to expand...
When the SXM was active in the car, I drove for the better part of two hours, enjoying that channel. When the car stopped, I was asked by my wife "Don't do that again..."

For the rest of that trip, I complied. :LOL:
 
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