Many stations that claim to play 80s and 90s hits hardly play any 90s hits. Is this just a demographic thing? Here is an example: 95.7 Big FM/Milwaukee. Today, between 1:33 PM and 2:53 PM, they played not a single 90s track. Their moniker states that they play 80s and 90s hits. Most hours have 2-3 90s songs at most.
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80s and 90s Stations That Hardly Play 90s Music
- Thread starter AM-FM-DXer
- Start date
I just checked the WRIT webpage for "Recent Songs." In the last two hours there were four 90s songs...
The Cranberries -- Dreams (1992)
Natalie Imbruglia -- Torn (1995)
Alanis Morrissette -- Ironic (1996)
Mr. Big -- To Be with You (1991)
Four songs in two hours isn't a lot. That's out of 18 songs played. But it still has WRIT telling the truth that the station plays "80s and 90s."
The Cranberries -- Dreams (1992)
Natalie Imbruglia -- Torn (1995)
Alanis Morrissette -- Ironic (1996)
Mr. Big -- To Be with You (1991)
Four songs in two hours isn't a lot. That's out of 18 songs played. But it still has WRIT telling the truth that the station plays "80s and 90s."
These stations tend to bill themselves like they play an equal amount of 80s and 90s tunes. They almost never do. Perhaps I should not read so much into it.
This is probably good. It’s not like they’re saying flat-out it’s a 50/50 mix (which would be silly anyway 😁). If they’re using data to understand where their audience’s sweet spot is, and the data tells them it skews 80s, skew that way and work from what they tell you they do and don’t want to hear.
From what I've heard - and this info might be a little bit out-of-date - but 80s songs still test well but not as many 90s songs, so that's why you get more of the former in the playlist.
For whatever reason, the 80s have held on to that nostalgia sweet spot. Though the mid-90s are going to be 30 years old this year, and it always feels like that 30-year window tends to drive what's retro. For example, the Levi's store at the outlet mall I visited recently was selling clothes for young folks that I would've worn in the mid-90s, so maybe that time period will be popping back up!
For whatever reason, the 80s have held on to that nostalgia sweet spot. Though the mid-90s are going to be 30 years old this year, and it always feels like that 30-year window tends to drive what's retro. For example, the Levi's store at the outlet mall I visited recently was selling clothes for young folks that I would've worn in the mid-90s, so maybe that time period will be popping back up!
With a certain demographic, which is how broadcast radio works. In terms of the reason, perhaps its because it was the one decade when radio was at its peak, working in conjunction with the music industry to promote music in a creative and positive way. It was also a decade when that same music had additional reinforcement from MTV and other video services. All of this began to fall apart towards the end of the 80s and into the 90s. This may be why you hear so much 80s music being played on classic rock, classic hits, adult hits, and adult contemporary radio stations.
I have also read that 90s music was too "all over the road" to find a mass audience. If you look at CHR logs from the mid-90s, some stations played everything from Alternative to Hip Hop. I remember a word from journalism class that probably describes it - demassification. Perhaps that describes 90s music.
Yes, there was a shortage of pop music that was replaced with alternative music. It led to a lot of confusion at MTV where they added shows like MTV Raps in order to incorporate the music in the channel. American Top 40 ran into problems with rap music in the chart that didn't fit the CHR format. Plus at the same time, you had country music exploding with Garth Brooks and others charting in the Hot 100. Very similar to what's happening now.
Remember, "testing" is a specific process. A station tests music with people in the age ranges they want to reach (as well as considerations such as gender, ethnicity, along with limiting participants to those who like that "kind of music").
AND thats why Top 40 lost its way...when it was too many things for too many people, it was nothing for anyone. Enter 1997...N Sync, The Backstreet Boys, Brittany Spears and Christin Aguilera brought the pop back to the format. Everything else was able to balance better.
As a programmer of a "70s, 80s and 90's station" there arent that many 90s titles that fit. We play about 75...and 400 80s and 70s (although the 70s are getting slimmer and slimmer) hard to justify playing 50 year old songs to a 35 year old woman....
Although one would say it was simply doing what it had done in the 60s, which was playing popular songs without regard to genre. That was a time when Top 40 stations played Johnny Cash, Louie Armstrong, The Beatles, and The Seekers. Talk about all things for all people.
Radio doesn't have control over the music. When there's no pop music being made, the only thing radio can do is go deeper into oldies, which is what it's doing now.
If anything, I feel that's actually more '90s friendly than most Classic Hits stations, as I think most stations in the format still play more '70s than '90s, though that may be slowly changing.
It seems some time back I was told that there weren't that many consensus 90s songs. Is that something that's changed?
Most of the '90s songs played on Classic Hits are pop/rock songs that were crossover hits from the Alternative format. I think this makes sense, as they're definitely the closest you can find to consensus '90s hits, given that they appeal to both men and women as seen by their success across multiple formats (Alternative, CHR/Pop, Hot AC). Some of these songs even managed a bit of Rhythmic airplay!
I think that's what I was saying. The popular music didn't necessarily fit into the organized radio formats. It may be why these 80s-90s stations are mainly playing 80s songs. That was the last decade of music made for radio. This is why some classic hits listeners get freaked out when they hear rap music on KRTH.
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