a personal invitation.

[ChannelFlipper]

All I know, after listening to KRTH for many years, is that Roy Orbison never had a hit besides Oh Pretty Woman, and Brenda Lee and Pat Boone and Connie Francis and Herb Alpert never had any hits at all.

None of those artists had any hits among people under 55*.

* Orbison, as part of the Traveling Wilburys, did have a hit that the under-55 demo would likely know, but he needed Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne,and Tom Petty to make it happen,

Whoa Nelly, hold on a minute there David. I think you are referring to his hits with the great Traveling Wilbury's ("Handle with Care" and "End of the Line"), however "You Got It" from Roy Orbison's 1989 album, Mystery Girl reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the AC chart. Although, Petty, Lynne and Harrison are in the backing band for him on that album (Dylan is not), it is a collection of his songs and he did not need the Wilbury's "to make it happen".

Let's be careful before we start dissing true Rock and Roll legends, eh?

 

[davideduardo]

Whoa Nelly, hold on a minute there David. I think you are referring to his hits with the great Traveling Wilbury's ("Handle with Care" and "End of the Line"), however "You Got It" from Roy Orbison's 1989 album, Mystery Girl reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the AC chart. Although, Petty, Lynne and Harrison are in the backing band for him on that album (Dylan is not), it is a collection of his songs and he did not need the Wilbury's "to make it happen".

Let's be careful before we start dissing true Rock and Roll legends, eh?

Still, the Wilbury colaboration was the key to Orbison having major hits long after his first visits to the charts... thus my attribution to the "gathering" as the key element of his later comeback.

 

[nmoore6676]

Would they?

No.

Would it be accurate if they did?

Yes.

Do you really think their listener base tested and approved all those deep cuts they are playing?? No.

I assume by that, you mean KRTH.

Do I think KRTH has tested everything it plays and doesn't play the songs that don't test well? Absolutely.

Do I think KRTH tested and got good scores for the deep cuts KFXM is playing? If so, they'd be playing them.

But remember, that banner that you love so much doesn't say that. It says:


"We do not have consultants to tell us what to play. We answer to a higher authority; The Listener"


KRTH doesn't have consultants to tell them what to play.

We know for a fact KRTH conducts quarterly music tests with a statistically valid sampling of their listeners and people in the demographic target in their listening area, and then uses that listener input to determine its playlist. In other words: They're answering to the listener.

I doubt KFXM does that kind of testing. It would be prohibitively expensive. It's infinitely more likely that Chris (who is to be applauded for the hard work that goes into such a venture) started with a huge library and plays the ones he gets requests for a bit more and the ones he gets complaints about a bit less.

Given the small signal and thus limited potential listening audience (only a fraction of whom would be actives who would give input), most often KFXM is playing a song Chris thought they should play. If you think a DJ should pick his own music, this is good news. If you think a station owner, General Manager or Sales Manager shouldn't be deciding what records get played, this is bad news, because Chris is all those things.

So it's actually more accurate for KRTH to say what that banner says than it is for KFXM.

Unless things have changed in the past couple of years, KFXM-LP has only ONE rotation. When the station is in auto-mode, the entire library plays and then at the end, it starts over again, and the same songs repeat in the exact same order.

So if you heard Oh Pretty Woman followed by Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb), every time you hear Oh Pretty Woman on the station, it'll be followed by Kookie Kookie...AFAIK, there are no different categories or rotations when the station is on auto-pilot..

Maybe but not usually true. I listen to a number of stations which use automation during at least part of the day and that may sometimes happen, the same songs in the same order, but not always. There are provisions in most automation programs to schedule songs, such as a request, even when there is no human operator present. Even the el cheapo system I use to play music for the people in our community room lets me resort the songs when I want and move them around.

Back in the dinosaur age when I was an active participant in broadcasting, the old tape based automation would repeat the same songs in the exact order because the music was mostly on big reels of tape and cuing them to a particular song was nearly impossible. So the only change was swapping out the music tapes with others with either different music or at least the same songs recorded in a different order.

As for one man programming, it is Chris' baby but if he is trying to please an audience and I believe he is then he will not just program his preferences. But a lot of the somewhat rare DJ programmed classic rock or country shows I listen to are still based upon the DJs preferences. For KRTH however they rely on research and they are of course subject to corporate pressure so any private operation such as KFXM at least has the potential for more variety and to offer a greater depth of material.

I support anyone doing what these guys (KFXM and WSWO, for example) are doing because that is the spirit of what community radio should be. Even if I am not liking what I hear, there probably is someone who does so I just tune elsewhere. Which is why most of my listening now is on the Internet and not over the ether-waves. Because quite frankly what is available on my radio just plain sucks.

 

[Thomps2525]

KRTH plays the same songs every day, every week, every month, every year. On weekends there's a "theme"---same songs as always, just in a slightly different order. This weekend KRTH is having a "Remake Rewind Weekend." Two whole times an hour---big whoop---they play a remake of a hit song, followed by the original version. At 3:57 this afternoon, Shotgun Tom Kelly said, "Coming up at the top of the hour is a remake that you're going to hear and think it is the original." For a fleeting moment I thought KRTH might actually play the Isley Brothers' Twist & Shout, one of the few pre-1964 songs on their playlist, followed by the Top Notes' original. Then I remembered that this is safe, boring, repetitious, predictable KRTH.

They played the two versions of I Say A Little Prayer---Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick.

You're right, Shotgun. Probably nobody knew that Dionne had the original version.:-\

 

[oldies76]

KRTH plays the same songs every day, every week, every month, every year. On weekends there's a "theme"---same songs as always, just in a slightly different order. This weekend KRTH is having a "Remake Rewind Weekend." Two whole times an hour---big whoop---they play a remake of a hit song, followed by the original version.

Gotta start listening to small market stations, they "at least" have bigger playlists and a broader selection of hits.

I stopped listening to KRTH back in the late 80's after they cancelled those big and well-known holiday weekend specialties, in favor of those fake specialties you mentioned above that they have done since. Can't fool us....

Radio is not for the listeners, it's for themselves.

 

[michael hagerty]

KRTH plays the same songs every day, every week, every month, every year. On weekends there's a "theme"---same songs as always, just in a slightly different order. This weekend KRTH is having a "Remake Rewind Weekend." Two whole times an hour---big whoop---they play a remake of a hit song, followed by the original version.

Gotta start listening to small market stations, they "at least" have bigger playlists and a broader selection of hits.

I stopped listening to KRTH back in the late 80's after they cancelled those big and well-known holiday weekend specialties, in favor of those fake specialties you mentioned above that they have done since. Can't fool us....

Radio is not for the listeners, it's for themselves.

No, it's for the listeners.

I'm really beginning to wish I had the hours of researching and explaining the answers to what I thought were earnest questions posed in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding back....