AM Only/America's Best Music airchecks

[kwthom]

Well said, and concise to boot.

Thanks. Sometimes, I get lucky...

Listeners like the Chimp are essentially doomed. And no amount of complaining or criticizing is going to alter the reality the business is in.

Yet, even if SXM doesn't have a channel that can satisfy the listening desires of 10,000 listeners just like Chimp, then the reality is, gotta provide your own media to enjoy. Until the end. Which, for some, isn't far away at all.

 

[vchimpanzee]

There are other online options. Commercial radio may have few choices, though a local station where I live has local advertisers and many of the songs are good. Another local station just has good songs but it's too far away for a really good signal.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Yet, even if SXM doesn't have a channel that can satisfy the listening desires of 10,000 listeners just like Chimp, then the reality is, gotta provide your own media to enjoy. Until the end. Which, for some, isn't far away at all.

And that makes an even stronger point than I believe you intended it to.

Those 10,000 listeners are scattered across the country. If anyone was going to try to reach them all, they would have to do so using a nationwide platform. There certainly aren't enough of them in any individual market for terrestrial radio to find them to be a viable advertising market.

Hence the increasing number of stations dropping those formats, some even going permanently silent. Broadcasting to narrow demographics is no longer a good business model.

 

[kwthom]

Look, certainly not pickin' on ol' Chimp (or the two or three others that probably lurk on this forum) that have those desires for radio to be one it once was 40, 50, 60 years ago. Honestly.

Those complaints, however, are falling on the ears of nobody on *this* discussion forum that can do jack s#!t about the situation.

It is what it is. Money.

Perhaps there needs to be a sub-forum....

Maybe we're here.

 

[ted chittenden]

I both agree and disagree with you, David. My intent with the statement I made is that once you decide whatever it is I am programming on a station isn't what you want, and you go somewhere else, it's just not right to criticize ad nauseum. I don't mind parting shots, but if you're still badmouthing a station you decided didn't fit your personal tastes -- especially if it turns out to be a mass audience success -- that falls into the category of "sour grapes".

And I prefer sweeter grapes.

Actually, @davideduardo is quite correct. I've discovered as I've grown and aged (I'm 62 now) that there are many things that people say and do that I disagree with but it doesn't mean they don't have the right to say them. I've learned (though it took me a while) to let the criticisms fall off of me like water rolling off a duck's back. As for personal musical taste, well, I do have my own record and CD library that I've collected over the years, some of which I've paid for and some of which I didn't, and I find that putting my favorites onto cassette tapes (how's that for old technology?) is a great way for me to hear my outlying favorites! I still use radio to hear NPR and BBC news and a few music shows ("American Top 40 - The 70's, anyone?) but most of my music listening is done now with my own music collection with sometimes additions from Youtube.

Again, I am an outlier and neither commercial broadcasters nor their advertising agencies really want to hear from me so I've learned to create my own entertainment that is not reliant on them. And whether or not I like the music played on the 80s channel and KRKE in Albuquerque, I must (and do) respect both you and the station's owner as it is that music that is keeping advertisers and helping to make the station profitable.

 

[KilowattKat]

Hey, at least we still have some things left in the world that hasn't changed...some even going back to 1886!

Historic Saugus Cafe Reopens with New Owner in Santa Clarita | KFI AM 640

The Saugus Cafe, Los Angeles County's oldest cafe, has reopened under new owner Eduardo Reyna after a brief closure.

kfiam640.iheart.com

But radio isn't one of them...

 

[K.M. Richards]

Again, I am an outlier and neither commercial broadcasters nor their advertising agencies really want to hear from me so I've learned to create my own entertainment that is not reliant on them. And whether or not I like the music played on the 80s channel and KRKE in Albuquerque, I must (and do) respect both you and the station's owner as it is that music that is keeping advertisers and helping to make the station profitable.

Thanks, Ted. That is a well-reasoned POV. The difference between you and what I was objecting to is that far too often, the criticism from those who disagree with a station's programming is phrased as if we had gone out of our way to deliberately irritate them by playing the "wrong" songs.

You don't like our programming? Fine. As long as we have enough listeners who do, and who patronize our advertisers so that they are kept happy, I respect your decision to not listen to us. Just don't scream about it every chance you get, because it gets old really fast.

That's the issue I have with the Chimp and others like him. Every other post sounds like a criticism, it's always the same criticism, and it's always phrased as "they won't play the music that I want" ... as if there aren't exponentially more listeners who want what we are playing.

So perhaps what I should have said originally is: You have the right to criticize. Once, maybe twice. But I'm not going to sit quietly when you say the same thing for the 27th time, while the programming you are railing against is making a lot more people very happy.

 

[kwthom]

<...>
So perhaps what I should have said originally is: You have the right to criticize. Once, maybe twice. But I'm not going to sit quietly when you say the same thing for the 27th time, while the programming you are railing against is making a lot more people very happy.

Along with - I hope - making the owner a few dollars in doing so.

The broadcasting business is *not* charity, never has been.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Along with - I hope - making the owner a few dollars in doing so.

I've been programming KRKE in Albuquerque (remotely from L.A.) for three years as of this past October, and the station owner (who I had done some work for back in 2014-15) literally asked me to install my format on what was a new sign-on in 2022. He says it's the easiest sell he's ever had ... has even gotten buys from cold calling a business when the owner identified 93.7 as their favorite station.

Given that we are in the advertising business, we both think that advertiser reactions are the real ratings. If they like the programming, they will develop a mindset that other listeners to same will be good customers for them. The philosophy works: We routinely get renewals.

And the owner is happy enough to have added a retainer to my compensation to consult a bunch of smaller stations he owns around the state of New Mexico. So he must be pleased with the revenue.

The broadcasting business is *not* charity, never has been.

Nope. Nor are the listeners our customers, despite their believing they are. In reality, they are what we sell to the advertisers; my job is to get as many of them as possible to be sold. And I do.

 

[cc333]

I'm an outlier like @vchimpanzee with similar musical preferences (I grew up mostly on standards and 50s/early 60s oldies), and as such I also don't care much for what's on the radio nowadays. However, I don't blame programmers like @K.M. Richards for that problem. They're working hard to program their formats as best as they can so that people listen and advertisers buy in, and I respect that because of that, they can't really pander to the demands of outliers like vchimp and myself. In other words, they're just playing songs that a majority of people want to hear, based on research. If all they did was cater to us outliers, the stations they program would probably run out of money in no time, unless said stations were listener-supported non-coms or something, maybe.

That said, in the increasingly few instances where stations do play the stuff we outliers like, they're often relatively small and located in tiny markets that don't subscribe to Neilsen for ratings. If it weren't for streaming, at least for me, the options would be slim to none (KYNO is the one saving grace for me; if I tire of listening to the news while driving home at night, I can tune to 940 and enjoy).

If I ever had the opportunity to program a commercial station airing a mainstream format (classic hits, AC, whatever) where ratings were a factor, despite my dislike of most new music, I would probably have to set that aside and play what must be played to get the ratings that must be gotten. It's how stations make their money.

Even so, I probably would try to sneak in some of my favorite stuff here and there, if enough people like it and it fits whatever the format of this hypothetical station is.

c

 

[bringbackthe80s]

Okay, this is weird. "Doctor My Eyes" by Jackson Browne in 1996? This is the same station that played "Hot Toddy" (not sure if it was the Ralph Flanagan version because the DJ didn't say) and "Would I Love You" by Patti Page. And there were several others that stood out as songs I didn't think I would hear on ABM.

I believe this was a mistake on Chick's part. He must have loaded in the wrong CD or cued up the wrong track. The reason I think this is because: the song was not a local insert as the station had rejoined the network at that point, the song was truncated early, and no mention of it was made when Chick was listing the songs that had just played.

 

[RMarino]

Okay, this is weird. "Doctor My Eyes" by Jackson Browne in 1996? This is the same station that played "Hot Toddy" (not sure if it was the Ralph Flanagan version because the DJ didn't say) and "Would I Love You" by Patti Page. And there were several others that stood out as songs I didn't think I would hear on ABM.

I just got around to listening to this aircheck, which is part of the WSSP collection. I think Doctor My Eyes was a fill song during a local avail. I noticed the songs I heard during this spot every hour were frequently faded early, as Doctor My Eyes was as well. As for Hot Toddy, yes I believe that was Ralph Flannigan, but it wasn’t the original recording. It was likely a later re-recording that he did.

While listing to those WSSP airchecks, I noticed quite a difference between the 1996 and 1998 airchecks as far as music selection. It just goes to show you that the format was always evolving, year after year.