Classic Hits: Evolution or Revolution?

[landtuna]

KRTH is playing four 60s songs an hour yet they're aiming at people born in 1968. Through research, those 40-somethings are telling KRTH they still want to hear La Bamba and Twist & Shout.

La Bamba (Richie Valens) was 1958. No way anyone born in '68 heard that the first time around. If 40-somethings like that song it is because they heard it at least a decade or more later and that happens a lot. I grew up in the 50's but grew attached to Big Band/Swing which wasn't being played very much during my youth.

... we no longer live in an age where a listener will put up with music they don't like to get to music they do.

I think most everyone who listens to music radio of any type knows before they turn it on that there will be a mix of music they like and some they don't. I like the music mix on KOY these days but I don't like Frank Sinatra. I put up with the few tracks they play because the remainder is good. If it was all Frankie all the time I would not be a listener.

 

[landtuna]

90's music (except for a few select titles) will not have the lasting, timeless appeal as songs from the 50's to the 80's would. Hair bands, rap and grunge?? Right.

Boy! Is THAT an understatement!!!! ;D

 

[michael hagerty]

KRTH is playing four 60s songs an hour yet they're aiming at people born in 1968. Through research, those 40-somethings are telling KRTH they still want to hear La Bamba and Twist & Shout.

La Bamba (Richie Valens) was 1958. No way anyone born in '68 heard that the first time around. If 40-somethings like that song it is because they heard it at least a decade or more later and that happens a lot. I grew up in the 50's but grew attached to Big Band/Swing which wasn't being played very much during my youth.

... we no longer live in an age where a listener will put up with music they don't like to get to music they do.

I think most everyone who listens to music radio of any type knows before they turn it on that there will be a mix of music they like and some they don't. I like the music mix on KOY these days but I don't like Frank Sinatra. I put up with the few tracks they play because the remainder is good. If it was all Frankie all the time I would not be a listener.

You've already shared with us that, unlike the typical listener in the demo (23 years younger and presumably less well-rounded and patient than you), you don't have 6 to 9 other stations you split your listening among. They do.

 

[michael hagerty]

90's music (except for a few select titles) will not have the lasting, timeless appeal as songs from the 50's to the 80's would. Hair bands, rap and grunge?? Right.

Boy! Is THAT an understatement!!!! ;D

I'm always amused by people who write off an entire decade's music when they couldn't be bothered to listen to it when it was new and who are significantly older than those who did and who made the music popular.

 

[davideduardo]

La Bamba (Richie Valens) was 1958. No way anyone born in '68 heard that the first time around.

But keep in mind that the song is going on 200 years of age. The Valens interpretation is just one of hundreds and hundreds of versions.

KRTH has a 50% Hispanic core. The song is tantamount to an anthem, culturally. It's part of the permanent repertoire of the Mexican Folkloric Ballet which has been performing it for 62 years in their stage shows around the world.

This is likely more than you wanted to know, but I give the information to show that there are special circumstances in certain markets that transcend decades and eras.

 

[firepoint525]

What music you like is not always based on your age..I wasn't around for the 50's or the first half of the 60's but I love the music because it was fed to me..It may have been 1975 when I was 8 but I was hearing 15-20 year old songs at the time...Research does not take into account the lifespan of songs go on well after that particular few years has passed..I'm not sure I'm expressing myself clearly enough but just because i didn't grow up in an era doesn't mean I don't like the tunes.. I know lots of 30 somethings who like the 50's and 60's.You can't throw everyone in the same box..That's where the research is flawed in my opinion..

Yeah, I said the exact same thing 100 pages ago and you see where it got us!

Someone on this thread (maybe it was another one, who knows, it's the same ones on every thread! :) said something to the effect of "no one wants to hear Sinatra or Dean Martin anymore." Fair enough, but I don't remember anyone advocating playing them anyway!

 

[firepoint525]

A point to consider:
10 years ago, if someone here had posted that the format would include Madonna and Prince today, we would have had many of the same reactions. "80s music? Are you nuts? They can't even get the 70s to test well."
Time fixes stuff like that.

I wouldn't have said that. We had an '80s station at the time, and they were (apparently) doing quite well, at least for that time. They were Star 97, and yes, this was the same 97.1 that come-in-last proceeded to ruin from 2005 onward.

Note that there is NO all-'90s station out there right now. At least not here.

 

[oldies76]

I'm always amused by people who write off an entire decade's music when they couldn't be bothered to listen to it when it was new and who are significantly older than those who did and who made the music popular.

It's not being written off. But look at the songs that came out in the 90's. Look at 1990-1992 music and compare it to 1980-1982 or even 70-72. The quality is just not there. Yeah there are some songs (like I mentioned earlier) that would be exceptions. (just look at the Whitburn books to decide). I'll give more credit to 1997-1999 since there was more of a throwback to the latin pop movement and also groups like Sugar Ray and Fastball made things a bit more appealing then. But you cannot play grunge, rap, hip hop and metal hair bands on a classic hits station and the 90's had tons of that, more than disco to the 70's combined.

 

[firepoint525]

We had a cool station here in Nashville which went by the name "the Planet" and had the call letters WNPL. (I must be careful here, because WPLN belongs to the NPR station, which was once owned by the Public Library of Nashville, hence the calls.) This station was in existence back about 1998 and played nearly entirely '80s and '90s music. Of course, the '90s were then currents, and I remember Fastball's "The Way" getting heavy airplay back then.

After Star 97 came on the air, some of the cooler tunes moved there. I was 35 at the time, but this station still presented late '90s tunes in such a way that I could listen to them and actually enjoy them. "Steal My Sunshine" by Len, which sampled "More More More" by the Andrea True Connection, was a bit of a throwback for me. And I even liked "Mambo #5" back in those days. But I never had any use for grunge or hair bands, or anything else from the '90s which really hasn't stood the test of time.

 

[Biondi4Mayor]

Missed quite a bit!

Regarding what I said about KRTH's train wrecks:

Michael: I believe they played a little jingle between The Isleys and The Go-Gos, but NOT between Heart and the Isleys. It was pretty gross sounding in my opinion.

David: I absolutely agree that KRTH needs to be more grounded in their approach and less all over the place. Even though the songs test well, it just doesn't seem consistent enough. They wouldn't need needless babble from the DJ's saying "Here's another 80's song" if they could have a more clear direction of the format. It gives songs an even more dated sound when played side by side with one another. I have to wonder how many of those people that liked Magic Man also liked hearing Twist and Shout.

Oldies76: Agree with what you think on how they should stagger the playlist. If they want to still play those old ones with the 80's ones, I like the idea of inching your way back and forth in the decades instead of abrupt 20/30 year changes. Lots of 60's-80's music can sound great together, but Heart to Isleys is pretty awful in my opinion.

 

[Biondi4Mayor]

Worth mentioning- spent some time listening to WCBS on Saturday night when they play "Block Party" music or whatever they call it. They played "Believe" by Cher (1998). Again, it didn't sound great with the rest of the stuff from the 70s/80s. However, I do think it is good to begin the integration with artists that are "classic" i.e: Santana's Smooth as well. I absolutely detest both those songs, but it makes good sense to delve into the new decade with some familiarity. That being said, I have to think the audiences are vastly different - the people who bought Believe and far from the same ones who bought "The Beat Goes On", so is that familiarity useless?

 

[michael hagerty]

Re: Classic Hits: Evolution or Revolution?q

Someone on this thread (maybe it was another one, who knows, it's the same ones on every thread! :) said something to the effect of "no one wants to hear Sinatra or Dean Martin anymore." Fair enough, but I don't remember anyone advocating playing them anyway!

I don't know who said it, but the point wasn't whether anyone was advocating playing them. The point was, unthinkable as it was to the generation that made Frank and Dean superstars, their music has largely (unless you live in a market with a standards station) faded from over the air commercial radio...despite millions of those people still being alive and some of their music being appreciated by some members of the current demographic. And you can expect it, at some point in your life, probably sooner rather than later, to happen to 60s pop/rock and roll as well.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'm always amused by people who write off an entire decade's music when they couldn't be bothered to listen to it when it was new and who are significantly older than those who did and who made the music popular.

It's not being written off. But look at the songs that came out in the 90's. Look at 1990-1992 music and compare it to 1980-1982 or even 70-72. The quality is just not there.

Purely subjective, and essentially the same argument every generation has made about popular music.

 

[michael hagerty]

That being said, I have to think the audiences are vastly different - the people who bought Believe and far from the same ones who bought "The Beat Goes On", so is that familiarity useless?

Yes, because anyone who bought "The Beat Goes On" is almost certainly outside the demo. To the target audience, Cher is an actress who had some hit records. "Believe" was the biggest in their frame of reference.

 

[firepoint525]

Re: Classic Hits: Evolution or Revolution?q

I don't know who said it, but the point wasn't whether anyone was advocating playing them. The point was, unthinkable as it was to the generation that made Frank and Dean superstars, their music has largely (unless you live in a market with a standards station) faded from over the air commercial radio...despite millions of those people still being alive and some of their music being appreciated by some members of the current demographic. And you can expect it, at some point in your life, probably sooner rather than later, to happen to 60s pop/rock and roll as well.

I know that "Everybody Loves Somebody" by Dino displaced "A Hard Day's Night" from the #1 spot in 1964. But my contention was that just because they sat side-by-side on the charts back then does not mean that they should share airtime on the same station now.

I used to work for a station that in its previous life had been one of the big top 40s here. We had old an old survey (and I found more online) that had all kinds of trainwrecks on it! Nowadays, if anyone wants to hear Frank or Dino, I just direct them to WAMB! Still a few of those stations around! ;D

 

[firepoint525]

Worth mentioning- spent some time listening to WCBS on Saturday night when they play "Block Party" music or whatever they call it. They played "Believe" by Cher (1998). Again, it didn't sound great with the rest of the stuff from the 70s/80s. However, I do think it is good to begin the integration with artists that are "classic" i.e: Santana's Smooth as well. I absolutely detest both those songs, but it makes good sense to delve into the new decade with some familiarity. That being said, I have to think the audiences are vastly different - the people who bought Believe and far from the same ones who bought "The Beat Goes On", so is that familiarity useless?

I would hope that the excessive use of autotune on "Believe" would by itself be enough to prevent us from ever being subjected to that piece of dreck ever again!

 

[michael hagerty]

Re: Classic Hits: Evolution or Revolution?q

I don't know who said it, but the point wasn't whether anyone was advocating playing them. The point was, unthinkable as it was to the generation that made Frank and Dean superstars, their music has largely (unless you live in a market with a standards station) faded from over the air commercial radio...despite millions of those people still being alive and some of their music being appreciated by some members of the current demographic. And you can expect it, at some point in your life, probably sooner rather than later, to happen to 60s pop/rock and roll as well.

I know that "Everybody Loves Somebody" by Dino displaced "A Hard Day's Night" from the #1 spot in 1964. But my contention was that just because they sat side-by-side on the charts back then does not mean that they should share airtime on the same station now.

Which is the point someone will make about The Beach Boys soon when someone says "Hey, but Kokomo was late 80s", or, when 90s music ages in, when someone says "But the Beatles had those two singles...". Same thing. Different generation.

 

[firepoint525]

Somehow, I don't see too many Beatles fans wanting to hear "Free As a Bird" or "Real Love" again any time soon. :

 

[landtuna]

I'm always amused by people who write off an entire decade's music when they couldn't be bothered to listen to it when it was new and who are significantly older than those who did and who made the music popular.

I didn't write off an entire decade but I did find new genres that appealed to me such as New Age.

I didn't just decide to quit listening to pop music one day. The great songs of proceeding years turned into hair-rock, grunge, hip-hop and rap so I hit the off button and 25 years later still haven't turned it back on. Unless and until a new generation of real musicians comes back into play my days of listening to current pop music are over.

Someone was right - video did kill the radio star.

 

[landtuna]

Someone on this thread (maybe it was another one, who knows, it's the same ones on every thread! :) said something to the effect of "no one wants to hear Sinatra or Dean Martin anymore." Fair enough, but I don't remember anyone advocating playing them anyway!

I could care less about Sinatra but I like most of Dean's music.

Both of them were good actors.