But those ads are typically on TV, where seniors are. Not radio.
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58 years of Beautiful Music comes to an end
- Thread starter KilowattKat
- Start date
Here's the thing. If you realize that we're at a point now where 70s AC hits are attracting an upper 70s to mid-80s (in age) audience, you can see Standards has nowhere to go.
If someone came to me and said they had a situation where they could monetize a 55-75 audience and wanted me to program, I'd blatantly rip off 90s KOST, Los Angeles. But as we saw when the "Breeze" stations launched close to that and then had to add tempo and rhythm, even that's too old for 25-54 today.
If someone came to me and said they had a situation where they could monetize a 55-75 audience and wanted me to program, I'd blatantly rip off 90s KOST, Los Angeles. But as we saw when the "Breeze" stations launched close to that and then had to add tempo and rhythm, even that's too old for 25-54 today.
Exactly. In the business it's called: 'Aging-out'.
And that programming is mainly right wing ('conservative') talk radio. The established sweet spot for advertisers interested in reaching that audience. Not BM.
And no doubt why Breeze is being shut down in many markets.
I'm talking about a music format, Kelly.
The other thing nobody is mentioning is there is no material for beautiful music. Beautiful music was always covers of generational songs. The orchestras are not recording and labels are not handing out contracts. Even in the last years of Beautiful Music as a viable format, it became the norm to hire European musicians to arrange and perform newer material. It might have been a competitive edge at first but eventually the artist list became to small to not have this in the mix. What we have is mainly pre-1970s orchestrated music defining a format.
Musically, there was material written for orchestra that was beautiful music that was excellent material but I cannot compare it to Classical (as had been implied at some point). Classical was written and performed as foreground entertainment. Much of the beautiful music was performed to be a background to create a certain environment, even to stay relaxed in the car.
Musically, there was material written for orchestra that was beautiful music that was excellent material but I cannot compare it to Classical (as had been implied at some point). Classical was written and performed as foreground entertainment. Much of the beautiful music was performed to be a background to create a certain environment, even to stay relaxed in the car.
The industry has 'aged out' old farts like us for 100 years, and will continue to do so, even as we as a society become older.
There just seems to be a fair percentage of those that are 'aged out' that honestly don't know they have been 'aged out'.
I'm telling you what I've heard on the radio.
And what I was saying that music formats catering to seniors are generally not widely successful. Right wing talk, on the other hand, is.
Yes. And a very clean presentation. It used to stream but now only streams sports broadcasts because of increased music fees. You can hear it near Joliet once you get away from co-channel WRSB (ex-WLNR) Lansing, Ill., with a tower close to the Illinois-Indiana border.
I'm guessing the spots your noted are sold from a national network feed, not a local North Carolina station. That's the problem. If I owned a station doing music for seniors in Skunk Hollow N.C., I would never ever see any of that advertising.
The problem isn't that seniors won't listen to a music format, it's that it's not attractive to advertisers. Right wing talk, especially post-Sandra Fluke, has created its own ecosystem of advertisers that support the format.
Stations that attempt to do a music format for that age group typically have to scrape by largely on local direct advertising that they can't maintain over the long haul.
Valid point.
North Carolina? I listen to standards stations in Florida, Ohio and Arizona. A lot of the spots are local.
The Ohio station has a lot of ads targeting farmers.
But are the Life Insurance, Medicare Supplemental Insurance, and the other's you mentioned, on those local stations? If so, how do you know those spots weren't on a national satellite music provider like Westwood One? Answer: you don't.
But those weren't the same types of advertisers you mentioned prior, were they?
None of the stations I currently listen to online get their music from Westwood One (they all have more actual standards than America's Best Music, and the Florida station is only actual standards), and the Florida station has local people advertising those products in many cases.
The Ohio station also has the products I mentioned.
The Ohio station has a crazy car dealer. He has an ad that airs every time I start listening. Also, the music is aired from [dealer name here] Studios.
From Wikipedia:
The call letters were first used on WDBN "The Quiet Island" broadcasting from Medina, Ohio (originally under license to Barberton, Ohio from 1960-1965) to the Cleveland/Akron/Toledo markets with an ERP of 188 kW at 94.9 FM from 1960 to 1988.
Oh, I see what happened. I deleted my original post which said I had listened to WDBN. But I had to replace it with something and that wasn't clear.
I knew of an adult standards AM station in a small town in Arkansas. The FM was country and charged $9 for a 60 sec. You could buy the AM for 60 cents more. Sure the AM ran plenty of spots but only billed about $38,000 a year, less than it cost to operate the station. In rare instances a heritage station might still be airing the same format they did in the 1960s and people have always advertised with the station but these are easily outliers much like the term we use to describe that person who gets tossed from music research because their taste seems to be the opposite of everyone else.
Why not test what has been said here so often: call some stations, especially AMs and ask to speak to the GM. Ask them if they'd consider adult standards as a format or beautiful music. When they say no ask them why.
Why not test what has been said here so often: call some stations, especially AMs and ask to speak to the GM. Ask them if they'd consider adult standards as a format or beautiful music. When they say no ask them why.
...and don't be surprised if the answer is something like "We can't find advertisers who want to reach dead people."
(OOOOH! Wait! "Radio Seance"....some kinda supernatural thing....radio from beyond.....)
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