With Labor Day around the corner, it’s that time of year when we delve into nostalgia programming. This isn’t a countdown but rather a core list of 1000 songs presented in alphabetical order. This list paints as close a picture to all the changes I’ve seen in today’s Greatest Hits format. I agree with the overall direction the format has taken and I believe with the right, skilled programmer and management team, the format can be competitive in 25-54. Tenacity can bring about a winner!
I’ve been fascinated with radio music programming for as long as I can remember. Where I grew up, “survey day” was Tuesday. This is when new songs were heard. Perhaps there was a new #1 song. Some songs were never heard from again. I kept track of all of it.
My batting average was pretty good in figuring what songs would make it big and which ones would fizzle out. I’ve always been big into overall “sound” and I’ve witnessed time and time again stations/formats that have a consistency in sound and refrain from making too many changes sending mixed signals to listeners are the ones that are the most successful over time. This certainly holds true today. There are lessons learned. Some never learn.
What I don’t believe has changed by generation is listeners/consumers will gravitate to and support what they truly enjoy and perceive as being high quality. Obviously, when I was growing up before the tech toys world, I didn’t have a lot to keep me amused. Tag…radio was it! Even there, we didn’t have too many station choices especially before FM became the dominant music band.
By accident when the atmosphere and time of year were right, I came upon a station known as CKLW (800 AM) out of Windsor, Ontario across the river from Detroit. I picked up a number of Midwestern stations but CKLW was my absolute favorite.
When I talk of the importance of a consistent sound, CKLW had it. Eventually, I learned this was a part of “Boss Radio” and Bill Drake programming that had proved very popular in a number of markets. CKLW also played the new hits in advance of NYC. It was an incredibly interesting station to listen to especially given their Motown/Soul/R&B lean which has been a forever favorite music genre of mine.
One night I heard “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5. That song pulled me in and excited me like no other song heard at the time. It was like hearing The Beatles for the first time. I bought a lot of records in my youth and I had a great relationship with the record store owner. He never heard of the Jackson 5. That would change very quickly. The song was not yet heard in NYC Metro but he did order a number of records. It took only 2 weeks as I recall for that song to go from nowhere to #1. A new music phenomenon was born. I was delighted “Guardians of the Galaxy” chose this song in their "Awesome Mix" montage.
I brought up my personal past to bring up some points. As I’ve followed Greatest Hits song programming among the top stations in the country, there’s a good number of tunes of which I wasn’t always familiar. Upon hearing them, I loved some immediately. Some didn’t fit into the overall sound I envision for Jax.
With decreased frequency, I am asked what has happened to Jacksonville radio for older adults. Most now shrug their shoulders (like me) realizing there is nothing anyone can do to change anything. I read this recently.
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/radio-habits-are-different-in-small-towns/
Maybe that can shed some light on the subject. Perhaps people are listening less because no one in the market is allowed to do smaller market radio well anymore. Do people listen less in Jax? I can't say for sure but I would suspect they do. There's a lot I don't understand. Overall, personality radio along with creative and innovative programming are illusive. There’s syndication, voice tracking, automation, too many of the same songs on multiple stations, satellite fed generic programming and what I perceive as less relevance to increasing numbers of people.
The A-Z presentation follows and I’ll explain what I attempted to create based on certain assumptions, feedback from listeners and the market as a whole. I hope you enjoy what follows. There's significant changes from last year's list.
I’ve been fascinated with radio music programming for as long as I can remember. Where I grew up, “survey day” was Tuesday. This is when new songs were heard. Perhaps there was a new #1 song. Some songs were never heard from again. I kept track of all of it.
My batting average was pretty good in figuring what songs would make it big and which ones would fizzle out. I’ve always been big into overall “sound” and I’ve witnessed time and time again stations/formats that have a consistency in sound and refrain from making too many changes sending mixed signals to listeners are the ones that are the most successful over time. This certainly holds true today. There are lessons learned. Some never learn.
What I don’t believe has changed by generation is listeners/consumers will gravitate to and support what they truly enjoy and perceive as being high quality. Obviously, when I was growing up before the tech toys world, I didn’t have a lot to keep me amused. Tag…radio was it! Even there, we didn’t have too many station choices especially before FM became the dominant music band.
By accident when the atmosphere and time of year were right, I came upon a station known as CKLW (800 AM) out of Windsor, Ontario across the river from Detroit. I picked up a number of Midwestern stations but CKLW was my absolute favorite.
When I talk of the importance of a consistent sound, CKLW had it. Eventually, I learned this was a part of “Boss Radio” and Bill Drake programming that had proved very popular in a number of markets. CKLW also played the new hits in advance of NYC. It was an incredibly interesting station to listen to especially given their Motown/Soul/R&B lean which has been a forever favorite music genre of mine.
One night I heard “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5. That song pulled me in and excited me like no other song heard at the time. It was like hearing The Beatles for the first time. I bought a lot of records in my youth and I had a great relationship with the record store owner. He never heard of the Jackson 5. That would change very quickly. The song was not yet heard in NYC Metro but he did order a number of records. It took only 2 weeks as I recall for that song to go from nowhere to #1. A new music phenomenon was born. I was delighted “Guardians of the Galaxy” chose this song in their "Awesome Mix" montage.
I brought up my personal past to bring up some points. As I’ve followed Greatest Hits song programming among the top stations in the country, there’s a good number of tunes of which I wasn’t always familiar. Upon hearing them, I loved some immediately. Some didn’t fit into the overall sound I envision for Jax.
With decreased frequency, I am asked what has happened to Jacksonville radio for older adults. Most now shrug their shoulders (like me) realizing there is nothing anyone can do to change anything. I read this recently.
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/radio-habits-are-different-in-small-towns/
Maybe that can shed some light on the subject. Perhaps people are listening less because no one in the market is allowed to do smaller market radio well anymore. Do people listen less in Jax? I can't say for sure but I would suspect they do. There's a lot I don't understand. Overall, personality radio along with creative and innovative programming are illusive. There’s syndication, voice tracking, automation, too many of the same songs on multiple stations, satellite fed generic programming and what I perceive as less relevance to increasing numbers of people.
The A-Z presentation follows and I’ll explain what I attempted to create based on certain assumptions, feedback from listeners and the market as a whole. I hope you enjoy what follows. There's significant changes from last year's list.
