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And KSUR's next move: All Classical

kevtronics said:
This KSUR listener isn't happy about the format change:


He makes our points about there being no market for Classical music on AM, and the lack of proliferation of HD Radio receivers, especially in L.A. where the majority of listening is in cars, and most vehicles on the road are 10+ years old and don't have HD
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I watched that, like his repair Videos

What was the rating of KSUR before the flip?
 
Tibbs4 said:
Am I to understand that classical is going to be 24/7 with the old call letters from Saul? On an AM station? I can technically see the oldies format, but this is really interesting and not in a necessarily great way.
What is Saul thinking?

Option 1 - he is seeing something with his own life and wants to bring back the heyday memory of something he loved and K-Surf was just a fling.
Option 2 - He is getting a minimal translator and well, this could make a little sense, economically.
Option 3 - He is planning on donating the station at some point to a university.
Option 4 - He is just throwing bricks at a wall and hoping to make some profit and not turn it off.
Option 5 - I don't know....but dang it, this should be bigger news than Tavis, because well this guy is a real radio maverick and in 2020, we need more maverick than moron*.


* not exactly saying that Tavis is a moron. Just more for the situation. I have always liked and respected Tavis. He has a good head on his shoulders and I still feel the real morons are surrounding him.But it's his name on the line.
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Option 5: sell it to DISNEY
 
CTListener said:
Taylor hasn't been a country artist for many years.
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And, as a career cynic I often doubt how "country" she was in the beginning. Just because she had a banjo or a steel guitar in the songs does not mean every tune was country.

What surprised me is that the career lifespan of country artists is generally long for the big names and she had become one of those. In pop, careers are ephemeral. From a business perspective I would have recommended staying with Nashville, not LA.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And, as a career cynic I often doubt how "country" she was in the beginning. Just because she had a banjo or a steel guitar in the songs does not mean every tune was country.

What surprised me is that the career lifespan of country artists is generally long for the big names and she had become one of those. In pop, careers are ephemeral. From a business perspective I would have recommended staying with Nashville, not LA.
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Swift has a way with words and a hook, but what she's best at is generating her own publicity. Her new music drops exactly when its impact will be greatest, and firing off TWO buzzworthy new collections during the pandemic, when most artists are laying low and wondering when oh when they will tour again, is sheer genius. She was about as country as Shania Twain, but Twain didn't have the self-marketing chops to last long after she broke through on pop radio.
 
SarahB98 said:
Option 5: sell it to DISNEY
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Disney is out of radio. They have unloaded nearly all stations and ended the Radio Disney network... and ESPN radio is not expanding.
 
One final word on Shania Twain: When I was a copy editor with a part-time role as a country music critic, I was sent by Mercury Nashville a CD called "Triple Play," containing three tracks each by three of the label's newest signings. One was John Brannen, who had practically no career at all. The other two were Shania -- whose songs at that point sounded fairly country -- and another performer who turned out to have notable staying power, and a knack for getting into headlines: Toby Keith! I wish I remember how I reviewed that disc.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And, as a career cynic I often doubt how "country" she was in the beginning. Just because she had a banjo or a steel guitar in the songs does not mean every tune was country.

What surprised me is that the career lifespan of country artists is generally long for the big names and she had become one of those. In pop, careers are ephemeral. From a business perspective I would have recommended staying with Nashville, not LA.
Click to expand...
As someone who quit listening to CHR a long time ago, I realized sometime last year that although I do know her voice, I couldn't name even one of her hits. I felt a little self-embarrassment about it so one day I had YouTube play her greatest hits on my computer for over an hour while I worked. Although a few tunes were catchy and all were sleekly produced, I couldn't get over how...uninspired they all were. It was an hour of unfiltered schlock, none of which were even close to the quality of product put out by the singer-songwriters of my youth. And I am not the guy who wants to say "everything was good then and everything sucks now (now get off of my lawn!)" - I legitimately would like to like her (and others) music. But I just can't. I must have heard over 15 songs, none of which I wanted to hear again. Most of the lyrics were just banal.

I am truly perplexed because the last time I saw a concert at the Forum, there was a big sign on the wall that said the most consecutive sell-out performances record (12 I think was the number) at the venue belonged to her. I was amazed. I would have guessed that record belonged to Neil Diamond, but times have changed. So clearly her music resonates with a lot of people - and she is a master marketer, no doubt. But I don't get it. By comparison, I'll take Shania Twain (who is hardly a favorite) with all of her flaws any day.
 
The funny thing about your critique is that Taylor Swift is easily the most popular singer-songwriter of this century, and has won a variety of songwriting awards in both country and pop.

She's not a favorite of mine, but I'm happy to listen to some of her stuff, especially from her "country" days.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
The funny thing about your critique is that Taylor Swift is easily the most popular singer-songwriter of this century, and has won a variety of songwriting awards in both country and pop.

She's not a favorite of mine, but I'm happy to listen to some of her stuff, especially from her "country" days.
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In her country days, she wrote for listeners who were about her age, many of whom were going through the milestone experience of having their first serious boyfriend. In "Mine," writing as such a girl whose background was such that she had been afraid of commitment, she tells her guy "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter." In "Love Story," she totally reworked Shakespeare's tragic "Romeo and Juliet" with a completely non-canonical happy ending and lyrics like "Save me, Romeo, they're trying to tell us how to feel. This love is difficult, but it's real." Again, writing for the listener. As she has grown older, her songs have reflected that. She is not writing down to the level of new waves of 16-year-olds, posing as "one of them" when she's long since left that stage behind. She is writing at the level of the 31-year-old she now is and creating songs with broader appeal. What she deals in is more craft than art, but there is much to admire in successful, functional craft.
 
CTListener said:
In her country days, she wrote for listeners who were about her age, many of whom were going through the milestone experience of having their first serious boyfriend. In "Mine," writing as such a girl whose background was such that she had been afraid of commitment, she tells her guy "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter." In "Love Story," she totally reworked Shakespeare's tragic "Romeo and Juliet" with a completely non-canonical happy ending and lyrics like "Save me, Romeo, they're trying to tell us how to feel. This love is difficult, but it's real." Again, writing for the listener. As she has grown older, her songs have reflected that. She is not writing down to the level of new waves of 16-year-olds, posing as "one of them" when she's long since left that stage behind. She is writing at the level of the 31-year-old she now is and creating songs with broader appeal. What she deals in is more craft than art, but there is much to admire in successful, functional craft.
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Oddly enough, it was "Love Story" that I felt was the worst of the worst. Such melodrama for teenagers. Like you said, reworking Shakespeare into such over-the-top schlock must have had Will spinning in his grave. Video equally bad. I thought to myself, "Do teenagers really take this stuff seriously?" But then I thought "Yes they do, and really, always have. When I was a teenager, the girls all fell hard for Wham!, (but only for the good-looking one)."

There is one small difference though. Some of Wham's songs weren't so bad.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
"Do teenagers really take this stuff seriously?" But then I thought "Yes they do, and really, always have.
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You'd be surprised how many grandmas love that song and video. It's what women want. Not just teens.

And then a lot of fathers want that for their daughters. It's a very interesting conversation.

Remember they were all raised on Disney. So YES they take it seriously and believe it.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
Oddly enough, it was "Love Story" that I felt was the worst of the worst. Such melodrama for teenagers. Like you said, reworking Shakespeare into such over-the-top schlock must have had Will spinning in his grave. Video equally bad. I thought to myself, "Do teenagers really take this stuff seriously?" But then I thought "Yes they do, and really, always have. When I was a teenager, the girls all fell hard for Wham!, (but only for the good-looking one)."
There is one small difference though. Some of Wham's songs weren't so bad.
Click to expand...

I really like that song and I haven't been 17 in 50 years!

ChannelFlipper said:
As someone who quit listening to CHR a long time ago, I realized sometime last year that although I do know her voice, I couldn't name even one of her hits. I felt a little self-embarrassment about it so one day I had YouTube play her greatest hits on my computer for over an hour while I worked. Although a few tunes were catchy and all were sleekly produced, I couldn't get over how...uninspired they all were. It was an hour of unfiltered schlock, none of which were even close to the quality of product put out by the singer-songwriters of my youth. And I am not the guy who wants to say "everything was good then and everything sucks now (now get off of my lawn!)" - I legitimately would like to like her (and others) music. But I just can't. I must have heard over 15 songs, none of which I wanted to hear again. Most of the lyrics were just banal.

I am truly perplexed because the last time I saw a concert at the Forum, there was a big sign on the wall that said the most consecutive sell-out performances record (12 I think was the number) at the venue belonged to her. I was amazed. I would have guessed that record belonged to Neil Diamond, but times have changed. So clearly her music resonates with a lot of people - and she is a master marketer, no doubt. But I don't get it. By comparison, I'll take Shania Twain (who is hardly a favorite) with all of her flaws any day.
Click to expand...
Try listening to the same songs three or four more times.
 
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