A question about the audience

[PirateJohnny]

Are there really people out there in the radio audience who, upon hearing the announcer say "We've got some Van Morrison for you right after this", breathe a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that they are going to hear "Brown-eyed Girl" and are in no danger of being exposed to "Domino", "Moondance", or "Jackie Wilson Said"?

Now, to answer the OP. Actually I would prefer Domino and I would be delighted to hear Jackie Wilson Said. Just checked my personal library. Van Morrison is on my shopping list now.

Are you understanding what Michael and David have been patiently explaining for these many months? The average listener is a fan of the SONG "Brown Eyed Girl," not necessarily of Van Morrison. They'd have liked the song if it had been recorded originally by James Brown, Donovan, Elvis Presley or any other late-'60s chart notable you can name. Maybe it would have become one of the two James Brown songs on your local oldies station, instead of "I Got You (I Feel Good)" or "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." But it cetainly wouldn't open the playlist 40 years later to all those other Brown (Donovan, Presley) songs that charted in the late '60s.

OK, if they like the song but don't know who sings it, how would they be "secure in the knowledge that they are going to hear "Brown-eyed Girl"" when told that Van Morrison is coming up? I've been following David and Michael through several threads and have learned quite a bit from them. Personally, I like "Brown-Eyed Girl", and crank it up when I hear it, but I remember his other releases and like to hear them from time to time, too. If I heard the Van Morrison was coming up, I would be hoping for something besides "Brown-Eyed Girl"

Oh, BTW, who has heard the alternate version of "Brown-Eyed Girl" that Van recorded?

 

[michael hagerty]

Are there really people out there in the radio audience who, upon hearing the announcer say "We've got some Van Morrison for you right after this", breathe a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that they are going to hear "Brown-eyed Girl" and are in no danger of being exposed to "Domino", "Moondance", or "Jackie Wilson Said"?

Now, to answer the OP. Actually I would prefer Domino and I would be delighted to hear Jackie Wilson Said. Just checked my personal library. Van Morrison is on my shopping list now.

Are you understanding what Michael and David have been patiently explaining for these many months? The average listener is a fan of the SONG "Brown Eyed Girl," not necessarily of Van Morrison. They'd have liked the song if it had been recorded originally by James Brown, Donovan, Elvis Presley or any other late-'60s chart notable you can name. Maybe it would have become one of the two James Brown songs on your local oldies station, instead of "I Got You (I Feel Good)" or "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." But it cetainly wouldn't open the playlist 40 years later to all those other Brown (Donovan, Presley) songs that charted in the late '60s.

OK, if they like the song but don't know who sings it, how would they be "secure in the knowledge that they are going to hear "Brown-eyed Girl"" when told that Van Morrison is coming up? I've been following David and Michael through several threads and have learned quite a bit from them. Personally, I like "Brown-Eyed Girl", and crank it up when I hear it, but I remember his other releases and like to hear them from time to time, too. If I heard the Van Morrison was coming up, I would be hoping for something besides "Brown-Eyed Girl"

Oh, BTW, who has heard the alternate version of "Brown-Eyed Girl" that Van recorded?

First, some know it's Van, some don't.

Second, I haven't heard a jock billboard an artist like that in at least 10 years. Doesn't make sense to in a song-based format.

The alternate version is an edit, replacing the line "making love in the green grass" with "laughin' and a runnin'" from earlier in the song. I heard both growing up, depending on which station I was listening to, just as I heard both the "cherry cola" and "Coca-Cola" versions of "Lola".

I see there's also an alternate take that's been released as part of a compilation of Van's early stuff. Background on that is that they recorded 25 takes of the song...and decided to release take 22 as the single. The others weren't attempts by Van to re-interpret, just the natural work in progress leading to finished product. The alternate take that's been released is on YouTube...just some instrumental and phrasing differences.

P.S.: To illustrate the point about people not knowing who recorded hit songs...I was looking up the "Brown Eyed Girl" edit to make sure I had the facts straight. On one of the websites, there are comments. And one of the comments was "I always thought the Rolling Stones did Brown Eyed Girl".

 

[semoochie]

That's because he "moves like Jagger".

 

[CTListener]

Second, I haven't heard a jock billboard an artist like that in at least 10 years. Doesn't make sense to in a song-based format.

That's something DRC-FM has been doing for years, right after the top-of-the-hour song. The jock tells us who he/she is and then goes, "Coming up this hour we've got Michael Jackson, the Pretenders, Kool and the Gang, Billy Joel and right now, Chicago on Hartford's Big D!" (and into "Colour My World") I never realized this was considered an outdated approach. Usually it's just 3 or 4 minutes past the hour, but the afternoon drive jock, Floyd Wright, goes into every stopset with an artist billboard framed as a trivia teaser: "Next, a song by an artist who died in a plane crash in Louisiana 30 years ago! It's next on DRC-FM!" (into commercials, then, eventually, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown")

The one thing I have noticed is that one-hit wonders never make it into the billboarding. If "Do You Know What I Mean" or "867-5309/Jenny" is coming up, it will be a surprise, because Lee Michaels and Tommy Tutone won't be teased beforehand.

 

[cd637299]

I may be a different breed, but when I hear a DJ saying "we have [names of 5 different artists] coming up", it's a turn-off for me; I like the element of surprise.

A few years ago in south FL, we had an AM station called WJNA which did some frequency-hopping, but I think that used 1040 when I listened. They were kinda oldies/standards/AC and they claimed the largest playlist in South FL. Once the DJ said, "We have Bob Luman coming up!" (the guy who had the 1960 hit "Let's Talk About Livin' ")----I betcha that none of you here ever heard *that* teaser, or will ever hear it again!

cd

 

[firepoint525]

Too many of you to quote on this one, but I believe that I have mentioned this before. About the only major artist that I can think of who has covered "Brown-Eyed Girl" would have to be Jimmy Buffett. His version is similar to Morrison's, but I am thinking that his cover was primarily intended for the country charts.

Live version here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elQlvF8I6kc

 

[firepoint525]

It was Firepoint 525 that mentioned Hippie Radio....It's wonderful too!

Thanks for the shout-out! There is also a Hippie Radio down in Chattanooga. Don't know whether or not there is a connection between that one and the one here in Nashville, but they both seem to have similar logos.

 

[CTListener]

I may be a different breed, but when I hear a DJ saying "we have [names of 5 different artists] coming up", it's a turn-off for me; I like the element of surprise.

Same breed. If I'm in the car and that shtick starts, down goes the volume!

 

[firepoint525]

I don't mind if a dj mentions the name of five different artists coming up, as long as they have more than one song by each of those artists on their active playlist. Too many times, radio makes de facto "one-hit wonders" out of many of the groups that they play. They like being able to refer to so-and-so as a "one-hit wonder," even if that artist had a few more hits that I know, love, and remember. Just because radio doesn't "remember" them doesn't mean that the rest of us don't remember them! :

 

[deltas69]

As far as I know, which is very little, the Chattanooga Hippie is under the same umbrella as Nashville http://hippieradio.net/default.asp On a sidebar note to billboarding songs coming up..I'll be listening to Vol State..and things are cooking along pretty well format wise..then all of a sudden..here come Ronnie Milsap..or another country artist,..then back to the regular format..I don't understand why this is done..And this morning, on Hippie...running just fine..then Johnny Cash "One Piece at A Time'..Pretty sure WSM is not gonna throw Joe Cocker, or Skynerd in their mix...Just curious as to why ??

 

[CTListener]

Second, I haven't heard a jock billboard an artist like that in at least 10 years. Doesn't make sense to in a song-based format.

That's something DRC-FM has been doing for years, right after the top-of-the-hour song. The jock tells us who he/she is and then goes, "Coming up this hour we've got Michael Jackson, the Pretenders, Kool and the Gang, Billy Joel and right now, Chicago on Hartford's Big D!" (and into "Colour My World") I never realized this was considered an outdated approach. Usually it's just 3 or 4 minutes past the hour, but the afternoon drive jock, Floyd Wright, goes into every stopset with an artist billboard framed as a trivia teaser: "Next, a song by an artist who died in a plane crash in Louisiana 30 years ago! It's next on DRC-FM!" (into commercials, then, eventually, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown")

Surprised nobody's picked me up on this yet. Jim Croce's plane crash was -- yikes -- 40 years ago!

 

[CTListener]

As far as I know, which is very little, the Chattanooga Hippie is under the same umbrella as Nashville http://hippieradio.net/default.asp On a sidebar note to billboarding songs coming up..I'll be listening to Vol State..and things are cooking along pretty well format wise..then all of a sudden..here come Ronnie Milsap..or another country artist,..then back to the regular format..I don't understand why this is done..And this morning, on Hippie...running just fine..then Johnny Cash "One Piece at A Time'..Pretty sure WSM is not gonna throw Joe Cocker, or Skynerd in their mix...Just curious as to why ??

"One Piece at a Time" crossed over to pop, peaking at No. 29. Milsap had several pop crossovers in the '70s and '80s. Cocker and Skynyrd got zero country airplay as currents. I'm not sure Cocker fits even the broadest definition of country as an oldie now.

 

[firepoint525]

Yeah, Hippie Radio plays the occasional crossover from the "baby boom" era, but fortunately no Ronnie Milsap (yet), at least not that I have heard. I really don't think that Milsap would fit their format, nor would other country "crossovers" of his day.

Don't know if these links will work, but here is a copy of Hippie Radio advertising brochure, front and back.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nash_...de=tn&order=ordinal&start=81&count=20&dir=asc


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nash_...de=tn&order=ordinal&start=81&count=20&dir=asc

I do, however, recall working at a country station in the early '90s, and we indeed played one Skynyrd song ("Pure and Simple") as a current. I can't recall having heard it since then.

The Vol State station WVCP http://www.wvcp.net is a cool station, too, but it is student run. They may either allow the students more leeway in picking tunes to play, or the management may require students to play "crossover" tunes, since those were "crossover" hits back in the day. As long as they don't go too deep into crossover, I am okay with it. I live just far enough away from them that I cannot pick up their signal here at home, but they are a cool station, for what they do.

 

[Biondi4Mayor]

Second, I haven't heard a jock billboard an artist like that in at least 10 years. Doesn't make sense to in a song-based format.

I've heard WCBS, WOMC, WJMK, WLS, and KRTH all do that within the last week. It's annoying as heck, but that's about all the jocks are still allowed to say.

 

[PirateJohnny]

It was Firepoint 525 that mentioned Hippie Radio....It's wonderful too!

Thanks for the shout-out! There is also a Hippie Radio down in Chattanooga. Don't know whether or not there is a connection between that one and the one here in Nashville, but they both seem to have similar logos.

When Hippie first came on the air here in Nashville, I Googled it. I found a website for the Hippie franchise, like jack-FM. The site had a list of recommended VT announcers (I can't call them DJs or jocks).

 

[landtuna]

What is "Hippie Radio"? Some sort of attempt to connect with the 60's? It makes no sense. There never was "Hippie" music nor any sort of business associated with Hippies except perhaps the growing and smoking of a certain (then) illegal substance - oh, and the absence of jobs and showers.

 

[PirateJohnny]

What is "Hippie Radio"? Some sort of attempt to connect with the 60's? It makes no sense. There never was "Hippie" music nor any sort of business associated with Hippies except perhaps the growing and smoking of a certain (then) illegal substance - oh, and the absence of jobs and showers.

It's Imaging aimed at "Baby Boomers" ,and they admit it on the air. I've heard everything from Daddy Dewdrop to Led Zeppelin. Nashville's Hippie is available online:

http://hippie945.com/

 

[landtuna]

It's Imaging aimed at "Baby Boomers" ,and they admit it on the air. I've heard everything from Daddy Dewdrop to Led Zeppelin. Nashville's Hippie is available online:

http://hippie945.com/

Seems like very negative branding to me. The Hippies had a very unsavory reputation as unwashed bums and unpatriotic to boot. I can't imagine any reputable business wanting to adopt their nickname.

It would seem to me if the target audience are the kids growing up in the 60's and 70's that "Boomer Radio" or something similar would be much more positive and to the point.

 

[firepoint525]

What is "Hippie Radio"? Some sort of attempt to connect with the 60's? It makes no sense. There never was "Hippie" music nor any sort of business associated with Hippies except perhaps the growing and smoking of a certain (then) illegal substance - oh, and the absence of jobs and showers.

Seems like very negative branding to me. The Hippies had a very unsavory reputation as unwashed bums and unpatriotic to boot. I can't imagine any reputable business wanting to adopt their nickname.
It would seem to me if the target audience are the kids growing up in the 60's and 70's that "Boomer Radio" or something similar would be much more positive and to the point.

My initial concern was that it would be all "war protest songs," and while they have played some of those, they certainly haven't been limited to that.

Playing "Hurts So Good" by John Mellencamp right now, so they play some '80s.

 

[CTListener]

It's Imaging aimed at "Baby Boomers" ,and they admit it on the air. I've heard everything from Daddy Dewdrop to Led Zeppelin. Nashville's Hippie is available online:

http://hippie945.com/

Seems like very negative branding to me. The Hippies had a very unsavory reputation as unwashed bums and unpatriotic to boot. I can't imagine any reputable business wanting to adopt their nickname.

It would seem to me if the target audience are the kids growing up in the 60's and 70's that "Boomer Radio" or something similar would be much more positive and to the point.

"Unpatriotic" was the way the "establishment" described the hippies. They were anti-war -- specifically anti-Vietnam War -- to teens and tweens like me (I was 12 during the "Summer of Love") and any hippie association the music or the radio station had made it just that much cooler, in my eyes. It's only looking back that I saw how silly and stupid and, ultimately, fraudulent the movement was. But if you're going to brand a format as representative of an era centered in the late '60s, Hippie Radio isn't the worst label to use. Oh, and I never thought of myself as a "Baby Boomer" until I was at least 25 years old.

Speaking of hippie marketing, the racetrack in San Francisco, Golden Gate Fields, had a great full-page ad in the Daily Racing Form over the weekend. It advertised next weekend's big race, the San Francisco Mile along with a "Pick Four" betting sequence of four turf (grass) races in a row. The lettering was pure psychedelia, it looked like a Bill Graham Fillmore Auditorium concert poster. And the whole thing was framed in a puffy white cloud drifting up from the word "GRASS" in "ALL GRASS Pick 4"! Loved it!