Classic Country years

[Whiplash]

Allenv, correct communities that small probably have never had any audience music testing. And their all some cases like myclassiccountry in Dayton, OH where it has actually worked with out it. But its very rare. A 7 second hook is more than enough for a listener that's part of the music test to hear, recognize the song or not, and make their choices.

The key to any format is TSL (Time Spent Listening). When someone tunes in for the first time, or any time to a classic country, classic hits, mainstream top 40's etc, you want them to hear something they recognize pretty quick, so you can keep them around.

If the other way worked with much larger libraries, everybody would be on it.

 

[scott salvatori]

its a delicate balancing act, like adjusting a carburetor, with other outside factors included like air pressure, and elevation level(thats carb adjusting talk). what im saying is, what about dayparting, and presentation factors? are you programming for morning or afternoon AQH'rs, or afternoon, or evening, or overnight TSL'rs. in some day parts it would be a non issue to experment with deeper rotation of forgotten hits. if you got a large group of overnight TSL'rs(but, fraction of day time listeners), why not dig deeper and cater to all your dedicated, and more knowledgable listeners. you do not have to dumb down an overnight music broadcast with back to back to back "gamblers", "on the road agains", and "coal miner daughters". and even if it were the case that the average listener were to panic at the thought of a deeper milsap hit like, "prisoner of the highway", where are they gonna go? there aint no classic country competition! its not like they gonna check out brand X, and go ah "pure love" my favorite milsap song, i love hearing it 3 times a day, ah screw that other channel with that unfamiliar trucking milsap song......

yes, playing unfamiliar music at the wrong time has proven to back fire when done wrong. but, what im saying is there can be more art to this in regards to day parting, and front/back selling, than just the robotic disingenuous standard operating procedure, as dictated by some centralized control. also, specialty music programming shows on the weekends, as brought up earlier, are a great way to corral your listeners who are more knowledgable. and passionate about the music. AM classic country radio also can not afford to lose one listener because they were shucked off, by requesting a deeper hit than the 500 song consultant dictated play list can accommodate. just send them potential advertiser service buyers to the specialty show on the weekends, which is hosted by your air personality with the knowledge.passion, and big hard copy country music library to draw from.

good discussion boys............

 

[allenv]

I've always felt when you are the only game in town and the format has been on the station for a while you can do pretty deep and take a few chances..We have that situation here in Eastern NC..Format has been on 8-9 years on a good size stick and there are lots of legit hits they don't play and they could because there is no where else to go..You can let any format get stale in a hurry when there is no other alterative if you are not careful.

 

[Whiplash]

Yes, great conversation. Allenv, your right. If you are a lone stick in a rural area, you can get away with more. However, with our business changing so much (streaming, phone apps), every one is going to need to reel it in to be competitive with all the different listening options.

 

[bigrobmjca]

I used to be huge on classic Country (50s'- early 80s) and still LOVE a LOT of the classics. However, if I'm not listening to talk, I find myself listening to Prime Country a lot (80s'-early 2000s'), because that's what I heard as a kid. I'm 25 years old, but I know that the music being pushed today is NOT country.

 

[nmoore6676]

All research says your 100% wrong on your statement.

When yous base your entire life and how you run a business totally on research you make a big mistake. However the trand of most listeners to keep the dial set only if they hear something familiar is a fact of life. The question is like which came first the chicken or the egg, in other worlds has all of the research driven formats and playlists caused us to behave that way.

I can recall as a kid of course listing to the DJ on whatever station because I wanted to hear the hottest song of the week, mine anyway. So yes I scanned the dial until I hear it or another that I liked a lot. But as I got older I tended to spend more time on a station which had an overall sound that appealed to me and the mood that I was in at the time. The music could be anything from classical, as in Bach and Beethoven, to bluegrass and country it all depended on my mood at the moment. Perhaps the entire listening audience now is like that prepubescent kid I was way back in the 50s.

As for the appeal of say a classic country show, most of them I've found to be on weekend evenings, with a deep playlist and some kind of not too many repeats or for that matter rock, R & B or big bands will get a lot of dedicated listeners and the phones will light up if you are taking requests. But I have to agree that it probably can not drive an entire station in modern times. Because those phone calls if you tracked them will be from the same relatively small group of people.

 

[Whiplash]

I'm not saying that your gut can't still play a part, but today its a very small part. Without research, there would be no menu changes at restaurants, no new products on grocery store shelves, and certainly no new radio formats.

 

[allenv]

A few small percentage of your audience actually call a station regularly and yes any specality show caller is usually the same people every week.With being said ratings services might drop 75 books in a 15,000 person county and that's supposed to be an accurate reflection of who is listening to what which is simply laughable. I do think a person that takes time to call and request tunes and gives you feedback is better research than anything else. PPM may change the way the game is played and as technology continues to improve we can track every move a listener make on any device they may use. Arbitron is a joke but that's another topic.

 

[nmoore6676]

I'm not saying that your gut can't still play a part, but today its a very small part. Without research, there would be no menu changes at restaurants, no new products on grocery store shelves, and certainly no new radio formats.

Not impressing me, most of the menu changes based on research eliminate my favorites and substitute faddy trendy foods that really I really don't like. Once they do that I don't come back and I know that I am not alone. And I hate when the stores eliminate products that I have used for years or have recently found to meet my needs and then poof they vanish off the shelves.

However I recognize the value of research and product testing and evaluation but at least in the world of big corporations there is too much dependence on such research. In my mind you need to temper the data with real world experience. Again the question is whether we are just accepting what is and our preferences are being molded by whatever is available rather than the other way around. We seem to be trending to a homogenized one size fits all world and I just don't like that.

Part of the beauty of what radio, and television, used to be was that as you traveled along the highways, or the skip signals at night, you could hear different programming that reflected the character of the communities those stations served. Now a station in Omaha is pretty much the same as one in Hoboken. How much local TV is there now, except for news where a newscast in one place is very much like any other anyplace else you where may happen to travel.

 

[nmoore6676]

A few small percentage of your audience actually call a station regularly and yes any specality show caller is usually the same people every week.With being said ratings services might drop 75 books in a 15,000 person county and that's supposed to be an accurate reflection of who is listening to what which is simply laughable. I do think a person that takes time to call and request tunes and gives you feedback is better research than anything else. PPM may change the way the game is played and as technology continues to improve we can track every move a listener make on any device they may use. Arbitron is a joke but that's another topic.

Agreed!

But I used to appreciate such feedback and I think that advertisers liked to hear "I heard about you on Joe Smith's show over WXYZ". A little personality and a little listening to your audience can create a loyalty that extends to the sponsors. You get that over stations like Joe Mullins' little network around Dayton Ohio. Also over the KD radio stations from Grants New Mexico.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

I'm not saying that your gut can't still play a part, but today its a very small part. Without research, there would be no menu changes at restaurants, no new products on grocery store shelves, and certainly no new radio formats.

Funny you should mention new products on grocery shelves-- I spent about 10- years in radio, and even more in consumer products, grocery-side, so here's a startling statistic: greater than 50% of all new product introductions fail in the long run, depending on the category. Snack Foods gets hit the hardest, 60% to 80%, and perishables suffer too. Why? The answer our analysts trust speaks volumes for radio programming as well-- consumers have an appetite for experimenting, but they always come home to the sanctuary of familiarity.

 

[Whiplash]

Again not saying it should be the same market to market, but research needs to play a part in any market. I love Joe Mullin's radio station (s) near Dayton. Used to live there. His stations are a unique complete package of music, personalities, concerts, heck even a CD store attached to it. Its done it the right way, proving that it can work another way.

But he's just one example......

 

[nmoore6676]

Again not saying it should be the same market to market, but research needs to play a part in any market. I love Joe Mullin's radio station (s) near Dayton. Used to live there. His stations are a unique complete package of music, personalities, concerts, heck even a CD store attached to it. Its done it the right way, proving that it can work another way.

But he's just one example......

But not he only one and hopefully as time goes by there wall be more. My friend who owns a station in S Lake Tahoe is doing local radio involved in the community. Also the folks who run KD radio (KDSK and KMIN, Grants NM) are an example. Here in my town Tom Palen with his AM/FM Combo and in nearby Centerville, KMGO, KCOG, and KEDB. In Los Angeles, Saul Levine's operation of KKGO going against corporate logic and research by putting Country back on the local airwaves. There must be more out there where they aren't doing it just one way but for the most part doing it their way.

 

[Whiplash]

I just bought 3. Let's see how I do with them.

In other filings with the FCC, BETTER PUBLIC BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION is selling noncommercial KLXG/GOODLAND, KS, KLXO/BEAVER, OK, and KLXD/SPRINGFIELD, CO to CHRISTOPHER and KATHERINE LASH's WHIPLASH COMMUNITY RADIO, INC. for $31,200.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I heard a song on WBRF I didn't particularly care for and the DJ said it was Lee Roy Parnell, from 1994. He went on to say a lot about the man and then called him Leroy Van Dyke. A few minutes later he admitted he had messed up.

At least he's local! A voice-tracked DJ would have gotten it right before sending it out. Although I've heard national DJs who are live mess up ...

 

[vchimpanzee]

Something else I heard on WBRF was "Papa Loved Mama" by Garth Brooks. That one had too much of a rock sound years ago but I actually liked it this time around. Same for "Third Rock from the Sun" by Joe Diffie back when I started listening to WBRF.

 

[nmoore6676]

Something else I heard on WBRF was "Papa Loved Mama" by Garth Brooks. That one had too much of a rock sound years ago but I actually liked it this time around. Same for "Third Rock from the Sun" by Joe Diffie back when I started listening to WBRF.

Rock has always had an association with country going back to rockabilly which is much deeper than Elvis and Conway. George Jones at first was a rocker under the name of "Thumper" Jones. I've always thought of rock as a kind of fusion of Rhythm and Blues and Country. If you look at some of the collections from Cincinnati's King Records where a lot of Hillbilly and R & B recordings were made using a lot of the same staff of backup musicians you can trace the steps of that evolution.

Chicago was another hub and Memphis of course.

So Country that sounds like rock is not alien to my ears and I've always like "Papa Loves Mama" and "Third Rock" both of which are in my personal library.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

I've always thought of rock as a kind of fusion of Rhythm and Blues and Country.

And I've been making that same claim since my last country airshift in Amarillo, in 2003. I've even stated it here on R/D and no, I'm not accusing you of plagurizing. Instead I'm flattered to witness an alumni of the trade agreeing with me.

I spent a little time working in a call center. You should have seen the eye-rolling expressions on the faces of younger operators there when I argued that very same point, that R&B, Country and plain ol' Louisiana street corner blues eventually fused to create the sound we named "Rock 'n Roll", and that Rock 'n Roll begat disco, hip-hop and rap. You'd have thought I farted in church.

 

[allenv]

The Classic Country Format has a passionate fanbase..they are loyal and they know their music and tend to treat the jock like family...No format benefits more from a live local DJ..The DJ is a big ingredient in the stew..

 

[vchimpanzee]

This isn't really about the song's age, but "I'm Already There" by Lonestar is something I wish wasn't on Classic Hit Country. I already knew "Amazed" was there. Now it's not any more country than the others, but I do Like "Mr. Mom" for the lyrics. I haven't heard it lately but it used to be on WFMX.