• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

A/C Losing Ground In At-Work Listening

landtuna said:
Lauper's "Time After Time" made number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984[SUP][/SUP] and remained there for two weeks. The song is currently considered Adult AC genre although I have heard it on Classic Hits as well.
Click to expand...

Right. That was probably her first AC chart record ("She Bop" certainly wasn't), but there's an outside chance "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" might have been.

Unfortunately, the entire run of back issues of Billboard on Google Books from that record's chart life are missing and her singles discography omits the AC chart, so we don't know for sure.
 
Cyndi Lauper's AC hits: Time After Time #14, True Colors #5, All Through the Night #4, What's Going On #29. I just found it in the chart section of the Billboard site.
 
Right now as I'm typing this, my local AC station is playing "All Through The Night". It's still a great song, even if they obviously used some editing to produce that unhumanly loooooong last note.
 
Lauper had three additional AC hits---if you have a very loose definition of "hit": I Drove All Night (#43, 1989), the awkwardly-titled Who Let In The Rain (#33, 1993), and a remake of Time After Time with Sarah McLachlan (#14, 2005).

Michael, would it be fair to say the AC format has evolved to the point where it is now more "contemporary" than "adult"? (Contemporary in musical sound and styles, at least---not necessarily contemporary as far as playing a lot of current hits.) The format is so different now than during its previous incarnations as "middle of the road" and "easy listening," perhaps some day there will be a new name for the format.
 
LARadioRewind; said:
Michael, would it be fair to say the AC format has evolved to the point where it is now more "contemporary" than "adult"? (Contemporary in musical sound and styles, at least---not necessarily contemporary as far as playing a lot of current hits.) The format is so different now than during its previous incarnations as "middle of the road" and "easy listening," perhaps some day there will be a new name for the format.
Click to expand...

No, not as long as adults embrace it.

And it's really no more contemporary now than KFMB in San Diego was when Jack Woods and then Bobby Rich were programming it (1972-1976).

Again, the format had a long run with the sound Jhani Kaye created for KOST, which caused a lot of people to think Adult Contemporary was soft. But it didn't start out that way in its first decade with stations like KFMB, WGAR in Cleveland, WTAE in Pittsburgh and WNBC. It was then what it is now...Top 40 with the six hardest records left out.

And that wasn't an evolution from MOR. It was a tidal wave that overwhelmed MOR. KMPC was playing Andy Wlilliams in 1972 but Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" in 1973.

Stations that tried to stay MOR (KOGO in San Diego) got steamrollered by the new ACs. It's very much a parallel with what's happening now.
 
Last edited:
Adult Contemporary is still more adult than contemporary because it's still 35-54 whereas it used to be 25-44. The idea was to play to 25-34 year olds without offending 35-44 year olds. Try offending 35-44 year olds, musically, now. Go ahead. I want to see this. :) You're welcome, Michael. It's nice to give something back, especially if it doesn't cost me anything. :)
 
michael hagerty said:
But it didn't start out that way in its first decade with stations like KFMB, WGAR in Cleveland, WTAE in Pittsburgh and WNBC. It was then what it is now...Top 40 with the six hardest records left out.
Click to expand...
That's what WBT in Charlotte, NC was like. I found a history of the station that said it was Top 40. And it upset a lot of people for them to change from Full-Service MOR (though they never stopped being Full-Service, I don't think). I added this information to Wikipedia and it got changed to AC. But the station was honored as an AC station not long after the change.

What's really confusing is that the leading Top 40 station, WAYS, was described as "adult contemporary" in a list of Charlotte radio stations in the late 70s. I heard WBT and it was AC the way AC sounds now (in relation to how the Top 40 songs of the time sounded), and WAYS was distinctly different.
 
semoochie said:
Adult Contemporary is still more adult than contemporary because it's still 35-54 whereas it used to be 25-44. The idea was to play to 25-34 year olds without offending 35-44 year olds. Try offending 35-44 year olds, musically, now. Go ahead. I want to see this. :) You're welcome, Michael. It's nice to give something back, especially if it doesn't cost me anything. :)
Click to expand...

I am 52 and I've been offended by AC for years. It's worse now. I couldn't believe the garbage in my bank branch. At least the volume was low. But there is a local station that's very well suited to workplace listening and the bank advertises there--except this particular branch is never mentioned in the commercials. They must use the old commercial where the other branch is the only one mentioned, even though I told a manager at my branch they were getting left out of the advertising.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I am 52 and I've been offended by AC for years. It's worse now. I couldn't believe the garbage in my bank branch. At least the volume was low. But there is a local station that's very well suited to workplace listening and the bank advertises there--except this particular branch is never mentioned in the commercials. They must use the old commercial where the other branch is the only one mentioned, even though I told a manager at my branch they were getting left out of the advertising.
Click to expand...

Well, as we saw in the Edison Research study, the concept of what is suitable for at-work listening has changed drastically. And since AC is aiming 12 years younger than you, it shouldn't be too big a surprise that you're not enjoying it.
 
It's also aiming at women. Hey what's this I saw the other day? The top choice for at work listening is Top 40 and AC isn't even in the top five!
 
vchimpanzee said:
I am 52 and I've been offended by AC for years. It's worse now. I couldn't believe the garbage in my bank branch. At least the volume was low. But there is a local station that's very well suited to workplace listening and the bank advertises there--except this particular branch is never mentioned in the commercials. They must use the old commercial where the other branch is the only one mentioned, even though I told a manager at my branch they were getting left out of the advertising.
Click to expand...

Only 52?
 
There's a Harris Teeter store in my area that has been playing classical music from its MUZAK player. Maybe it's a response to customer complaints.
 
Same information but in a more readable format. When a thread is on its third or fourth page, who the heck ever goes back to read the first page? And why did I suddenly think of the Beatles lyric "He blew his mind out in his car"?
 
LARadioRewind said:
Same information but in a more readable format. When a thread is on its third or fourth page, who the heck ever goes back to read the first page? And why did I suddenly think of the Beatles lyric "He blew his mind out in his car"?
Click to expand...

If you don't go back to read the initial post (if not the first page), then you're replying to replies, not to the initial topic. And we all know how far off the track the conversation can get in three or four pages.
 
How about AC music playing Robin Thicke "Blurred Lines", how would you explain to your kids about this song? Taking about offensive for AC music.
 
Today's 40-year-old woman is Tyra Banks, not June Cleaver.

Figure a third of them don't know the lyrics but love the groove. Of the other two-thirds, a sizable chunk are more concerned about explaining that copy of "Fifty Shades Of Gray" in the nightstand (70 million copies sold...most to women between 25 and 54) to Joshua or Jennifer than they are the lyrics to "Blurred Lines"(which, in the radio edit, are a lot more tame than what the kids have been hearing for years on CHR).

AC is one thing and one thing only: Whatever 40-year-old women want to hear. It doesn't have to be "family friendly" unless they want it to be. Right now, they just wanna dance.


e-dawg said:
How about AC music playing Robin Thicke "Blurred Lines", how would you explain to your kids about this song? Taking about offensive for AC music.
Click to expand...
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom