Bruce Springsteen

[John C]

I know, I know, it's not a new topic. I did a search and could not come up with the previous one. Anyway, can some one please tell me why some "classic rock" stations (in this case 'CMF and 97 Rock) can go the last two days (by their posted song lists) without playing a SINGLE Bruce Springsteen song? Is he not Classic Rock? Coming to Buffalo in November? Do they not both air "Little Steven's" show? I know, I should either change the station to the Lake or the Fox or some other station or just pop in my own Springsteen in my cd player. Guess that's what I'll do. Seriously, does he not "test" well?

 

[SirRoxalot]

I sometimes wonder if Bruce's overtly liberal politics don't hurt him with a generally conservative Classic Rock audience - not to mention corporate owners. I also wonder how many Springsteen tunes get tested. He's much stronger in the northeast than in other parts of the country, so I suspect that a lot of consultants and corporate PDs don't include many of his tracks when they test music in general.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

I sometimes wonder if Bruce's overtly liberal politics don't hurt him with a generally conservative Classic Rock audience - not to mention corporate owners. I also wonder how many Springsteen tunes get tested. He's much stronger in the northeast than in other parts of the country, so I suspect that a lot of consultants and corporate PDs don't include many of his tracks when they test music in general.

Might be political in some small way, Rox, but I doubt it. It's more likely the body of work as it fits within the Classic Rock format. You can hear "Dancing In the Dark," "I'm On Fire" and "Hungry Heart" on AC and Classic Hits stations. Classic Rock digs into songs like "Prove It All Night," "Tenth Avenue Freezeout" and "Thunder Road." The nature of this thread is amusing to me because 97 Rock PD John Hager is an immense Springsteen fan. He'd probably like to schedule more Bruce, but he doesn't let personal preference get in the way of playin' the hits. (Except maybe on "Bruce Springsteen Stiff Day." -Inside 97 Rock joke.)

 

[Bourbon Street Cajun]

Tune into 107.7 --The Lake this week for a FULL HOUR of Bruce Springsteen music (3 X)
Wed 3p Thur 2p Fri 1p.

 

[umtrr-author]

I sometimes wonder if Bruce's overtly liberal politics don't hurt him with a generally conservative Classic Rock audience - not to mention corporate owners. I also wonder how many Springsteen tunes get tested. He's much stronger in the northeast than in other parts of the country, so I suspect that a lot of consultants and corporate PDs don't include many of his tracks when they test music in general.

That's a good point. I did another of the "tests" recently and I don't think there were more than a few Bruce songs out of the about 700 on the tape.

Every Top 40 hit by Eddie Money, yes; every one by Bruce, no...

 

[John C]

I sometimes wonder if Bruce's overtly liberal politics don't hurt him with a generally conservative Classic Rock audience - not to mention corporate owners. I also wonder how many Springsteen tunes get tested. He's much stronger in the northeast than in other parts of the country, so I suspect that a lot of consultants and corporate PDs don't include many of his tracks when they test music in general.

That's a good point. I did another of the "tests" recently and I don't think there were more than a few Bruce songs out of the about 700 on the tape.

Every Top 40 hit by Eddie Money, yes; every one by Bruce, no...

Good points by all who replied. I do know that a number of people (myself included) either use the men's room or head for a beer when/if Bruce gets too political in concert. Jim P., you are of course correct about John Hagar. In fact, when Buffalo was not originally on the list of cities for this fall I emailed John and asked him what could be done about that? He replied that "it was in the works" and sure enough shortly after his reply the HSBC show was announced. If I could get 1 Springsteen "rocker" for every 5 Led Zep, Pink Floyd or Stones song I would be very happy. Oh well, I WILL be tuning The Lake in more this week. Thanks, B.S.C.!

 

[Element9]

I sometimes wonder if Bruce's overtly liberal politics don't hurt him with a generally conservative Classic Rock audience - not to mention corporate owners. I also wonder how many Springsteen tunes get tested. He's much stronger in the northeast than in other parts of the country, so I suspect that a lot of consultants and corporate PDs don't include many of his tracks when they test music in general.

That's a good point. I did another of the "tests" recently and I don't think there were more than a few Bruce songs out of the about 700 on the tape.

Every Top 40 hit by Eddie Money, yes; every one by Bruce, no...

An indictment of the music testing process or the PDs who may have a bone to pick with Bruce's politics? Or have certain PDs (arbitrarily) deemed that Bruce is over and no longer relevant?

 

[John C]

I am happy to report that both CMF and 97 Rock played the obligatory Bruce Springsteen birthday block today. I also heard J.P. mention a live 2 at 2 of Bruce as well. Now, back to your regular programming...

 

[umtrr-author]

My iTunes seemed to pick out a lot of Bruce today as well...

With respect to the test tapes-- well, having done a few of these surveys now in several formats as my demographic slotting has changed over time, I have to say that I just don't get it.

And this goes all the way back to the stunt that WROC did before going to news/talk in whatever year that was-- anyone remember "Swifty 950"? (Which I will write about someday, but that's literally another story.) They played one of the test tapes with pretty funny IDs in between. ("I like music, but I just don't have the time.")

So... I expect I'm preaching to the choir here, but if this is a test of music to be played on the air, why isn't there ever anything that isn't already being played on these tapes?!? OK, maybe there is one song per tape that is out of short left field. The last tape I did, it was "On The Loose" by Saga, about four or five songs from the end of the tape; on the previous test, it was "A Girl Like You" by the Smithereens, about 30 songs from the beginning. And even those two were Top 40 hits and I believe both made the "Album Rock Tracks" charts also.

But it's all the same stuff otherwise, different order, but the same stuff. Yikes, I like Bob Seger and John Mellencamp and The Eagles as much as the next guy, in fact I have some very pleasant memories associated with certain songs by each one of these artists. But come on, folks... are you actually going to test something besides how many times I can color in the "Tired Of" circle?

I suppose I'll never know, since I've almost certainly aged out of the oldest test demo now and will before too long be an irrelevant AARPer whose FM radio will be confiscated...

 

[SirRoxalot]

Interesting insight into music testing coming from an industry outsider. I too believe that the process is flawed in several ways, but that's a discussion for another thread...

I suppose I'll never know, since I've almost certainly aged out of the oldest test demo now and will before too long be an irrelevant AARPer whose FM radio will be confiscated...

Nah, they won't confiscate it. They'll just force digital broadcasting on a reallocated FM band, rendering your trusty old FM receiver useless.

 

[qman]

I remember that swifty 950 stunt from the summer of '02! Lasted about a month and a half IIRC.