Believe me, it's not just what I like.
Funny, I can remember about 18 of those on CHR when I was 13 in 1980. They are familiar hits. We're not talking #46 or #87 position songs.....just position top 20 music, which is what Top 40 mostly played.
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Dayparting Classic Hits (like in the old days)
- Thread starter PirateJohnny
- Start date
Believe me, it's not just what I like.
Funny, I can remember about 18 of those on CHR when I was 13 in 1980. They are familiar hits. We're not talking #46 or #87 position songs.....just position top 20 music, which is what Top 40 mostly played.
Sorry, but it really is just what you like. Keep in mind that we do this for a living. We get paid on the results we deliver. I would not have a job if I programmed a station just for you.
Some with good reason. On another board, the Pina Colada Song is among the most hated songs ever recorded.
A lot of them got burnt to a crisp when they were currents.
I do understand this. There should be a halfway point (if one existed). There are some songs that will never air (I've accepted that), but to air about 10% of the years top 20 position songs, just have to keep wondering.....or maybe I'll forget about it.
Yes, I have a passion for oldies, but I believe radio has to do a little bit more in this area. It's just my long term observations, since KRTH "kicked the bucket" in the late 80's.
Sack time....catch you another time.
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I've done research on that. Listeners, asked to list songs will fail to remember many of the songs that they score as "favorite" or "love" when part of a music test. The average person does not remember very large lists of songs (most of us can't remember a grocery list) unless helped by aided recall.
And, by the same method, songs people "remembered" as favorites could score very low and highly negative upon hearing a snippet of those songs.
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That's the entire fallacy in your approach, the part I highlighted. Maybe we can't remember all the titles when asked to compile a list. But we sure remember our favorite songs when we hear them. That's what we listeners, especially us "avid" listeners keep trying to tell you. True, we express things using ourselves as typical examples of a typical listener. When I hear a song I liked a lot when it was played on the radio a long time ago that I hadn't heard in a long, long time, it's like running into an old friend. Ask me to remember titles, and I draw a blank. I was racking my brain the other day trying to remember the names of two Led Zeppelin songs I never hear on the radio, but that I still really, really like. One was the song where Plant screams "Ah ee ah ee ah ah" and the other is the one where Page plays a few notes and Plant echoes them back. I had to look up the album lists to recall that they were "The Immigrant Song" and "Dazed and Confused". I don't know where they landed on some arbitrary list of "hits". I don't care. I remember hearing them on the radio back in the day. I liked them then until overplay burned them out for a while, and still like them now, though I don't want to hear them repeated daily for months.
I was 16 when "Longer" was a hit, and I remember it being the big "wedding song" of the summer of 1980. I believe I was in high school when all of these were hits, except for maybe "The Language of Love." "Longer" is probably the only one on that list that I would still play. "Same Old Lang Syne" gets too much airplay around Christmas, when it is NOT specifically a "Christmas" song. And "drinking a six-pack in your car" (whether while actually driving that car or not) is illegal now. Even the son of a former police chief was arrested for that a time or two.
"Escape" STILL gets burned to a crisp on AC stations. Even to the point that I saw a complaint about it on my local AC station's Facebook page. Apparently, it must still "test" well. I don't hate the song myself, but then again, I don't go out of my way to listen to it, either.
I have often been at a loss to understand why "Fire Lake" has not really stood the test of time. Especially since the Eagles sang background vocals on it. And we ALL know how popular they were (and still are!). Maybe it was surpassed in popularity by "Against the Wind." Even classic rock stations seem reluctant to play "Fire Lake" anymore.
I have noticed that Mix 92.9 here in Nashville has added some Air Supply titles back into their playlist, and if I am not mistaken, I believe that "Lost in Love" is one of them.
Ray, Goodman, & Brown also recorded as The Moments. Not sure why they changed their name, unless they lost the rights to their original name.
Given the number of "stiffs" in any given countdown, I am amazed and surprised that any station at all actually carries these retro countdowns. But they are out there. We find them on online stations when we are not able to listen to it on our local station here.
With "stiffs" (particularly those that never cracked the top 30), it is important to note that many of them were forced on stations by the record companies.
I wish you would give an example of "bad writing." The only thing that I really didn't like about the old countdowns was the long-distance dedications, and those were really just fillers and time-killers. Would rather have heard something with some actual connection to music history.
Maybe, a little too country-crossover sounding? Still a great song though, one of my favs. Yeah, radio should still be playing "Fire Lake", especially since it's right in the middle of the target outreach.
I think that's an important thing to know: That music crosses into other formats over time. So a classic hits station likely shares certain songs with AC stations. So while a song may have been a hit originally in one format, that doesn't necessarily mean it should get airplay on an oldies or classic hits station 30 years later, especially when it's already getting tons of airplay in another format. The audience who wants that song will find it. It goes back to my comment that repetition on a station can be easily fixed by changing the station. My example was extreme, saying you should try urban or country. But the easier one is to switch to AC for a while, and you'll likely hear a lot of songs you haven't heard on the classic hits station.
I'm amazed how many of today's country artists claim Bob Seger as an influence. Garth Brooks invited Bob to his Hall of Fame induction, and demonstrates how "Night Moves" played a part in Garth's song "That Summer." A young country singer named Frankie Ballard also cites Seger. It comes up a lot. So yes, some rock or pop fans might find Seger now as being too country for their taste. That's because country has evolved from what it was 30 years ago. The Byrds got boo'd off the stage of the Opry in 1968 when they performed Sweethearts of the Rodeo. At the time, Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, who were bluegrassers, were in the band. But it was probably more because of their long hair and youth than their music. Same with Charlie Daniels. He was rock then, he's country now.
Classic hits radio still also plays "Escape," so you can't really "escape" that one there. The nearest classic hits radio affiliate to me is WKOM out of Columbia, TN, programmed via satellite from Dallas. I live just outside their coverage area, so I can't always pick them up. But when I could get them, they were playing "Escape." It is one of those, like "Brown-Eyed Girl," that gets heard over multiple formats, which is probably what leads to complaints that they get "played too much." There just isn't really any getting away from some of these. But I am guessing that the subject matter of "Escape" (having an affair) is why some people really don't like that one.
I would say that "Shame on the Moon" is, to me, similar-sounding to "Fire Lake." "Shame on the Moon" was written by Rodney Crowell, who has since gone on to have a successful country career. "Shame" crossed over to country. I still remember that FM 100 (CHR in Memphis) heavily promoted an appearance by Rodney Crowell in Memphis in 1980, suggesting that he was about to become "the next big thing." Crowell indeed went on to success, but it was primarily as a country performer. He had a minor top 40 hit ("Ashes by Now") about the time that FM 100 promoted that Memphis appearance by him.
Didn't Hillman go on to the Desert Rose Band? Or am I confusing him with someone else?
My wife is a HUGE Elvis Presley fan, and we sometimes discuss whether Elvis, had he lived, would have ever played the Ryman Auditorium again. They weren't ready for him in 1954, but most of the audience, particularly the Opry audience from back then, would likely be deceased by now. We are talking about my grandparents' generation here!
I don't understand the writing criticism, either. AT40 had staff writers and a style designed to fit the perceived "pomp" needed in a countdown show.
I've seen first hand the amount of mail (remember when people sent letters?) that the dedications got. It was purposely built into the show to promote localization while emphasizing the national scope of the program. They may have been hokey, but they were there for a purpose.
You are actually making my point. When a radio station consistently tests, year in and year out, the possible songs for a classic hits format, they learn which are the songs that people want to hear on the radio today.
And that is the purpose of music testing... to find out what to play today out of thousands of songs that got played in the past. Such testing includes plenty of titles that are included as "what if" possibilities in addition to the songs that the station currently plays. Those "what if" songs may include titles that are at the newer end of the age spectrum, songs that may have been un-played for a while due to developed dislike ("burn") or even songs that pop up in commercials, hit movies, etc.
In classic hits research that I have been involved with, typically 1,200 songs are tested even though perhaps only 700 will be played. The idea is to find the songs that are liked or, at worst, neutral to the listening target and which do not have significant enough negatives to drive any listeners away each time they get played. Any song you do not hear did not pass that set of criteria.
I can't answer for him, but I have heard Casey say "there's a girl in the countdown..." That "girl" turned out to be Linda Ronstadt, who would have been about 30 years old at the time! That would be considered sexist now, but I can assume that he meant "girl" as opposed to "guy," NOT "girl" as opposed to "boy."
Last weekend, on a program from 1978, I heard him read a question from a listener in Caruthersville, MO. A week or two ago, I heard him give out the call letters (KCRV) for the then-affiliate in Caruthersville. On another occasion, I heard him give out the calls for a station that I did not know had ever been an AT40 affiliate station. But all that predates long-distance dedications.
Back when AT40 first started doing the dedications, I became aware that a girl from my (former) hometown had had a dedication read and played on AT40. But I never actually heard it. I only knew about it from reading an article in the local paper. Small towns!
OK, we know who pays for the tests. But who receives that money? The testers? The participants? Music royalty fees? The caterer? The hotel banquet room?
I just bought eight in the last week. A movie soundtrack, the latest in the NOW series and six "oldies era" to add to my collection. Two of those were the artists' regular albums, the other four were the artists' greatest hits comps.
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