Firecracker 400

[oldies76]

Here's the Top 25 of the KRTH Firecracker 400 (2008):

1 RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS UNCHAINED MELODY 1965
2 GAYE, MARVIN WHAT'S GOING ON? 1971
3 KINGSMEN LOUIE, LOUIE 1963
4 HARRISON, GEORGE MY SWEET LORD 1970
5 TEMPTATIONS MY GIRL 1965
6 SANTANA EVIL WAYS 1970
7 BEACH BOYS CALIFORNIA GIRLS 1965
8 ROLLING STONES BROWN SUGAR 1971
9 FRANKLIN, ARETHA RESPECT 1967
10 JOHN, ELTON YOUR SONG 1970
11 BEATLES HEY JUDE 1968
12 FLEETWOOD MAC GO YOUR OWN WAY 1977
13 WONDER, STEVIE MY CHERIE AMOUR 1969
14 LED ZEPPELIN STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN 1971
15 FOUR TOPS I CAN'T HELP MYSELF 1965
16 KING, CAROLE I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE 1971
17 DOORS LIGHT MY FIRE 1967
18 WILD CHERRY PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC 1976
19 SUPREMES BABY LOVE 1964
20 CHICAGO 25 OR 6 TO 4 1970
21 MORRISON, VAN BROWN EYED GIRL 1967
22 O'JAYS LOVE TRAIN 1973
23 ORBISON, ROY OH, PRETTY WOMAN 1964
24 CCR HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN? 1971
25 SLEDGE, PERCY WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN 1966

 

[scooty430]

Here's the Top 25 of the KRTH Firecracker 400 (2008):

1 RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS UNCHAINED MELODY 1965
2 GAYE, MARVIN WHAT'S GOING ON? 1971
3 KINGSMEN LOUIE, LOUIE 1963
4 HARRISON, GEORGE MY SWEET LORD 1970
5 TEMPTATIONS MY GIRL 1965
6 SANTANA EVIL WAYS 1970
7 BEACH BOYS CALIFORNIA GIRLS 1965
8 ROLLING STONES BROWN SUGAR 1971
9 FRANKLIN, ARETHA RESPECT 1967
10 JOHN, ELTON YOUR SONG 1970
11 BEATLES HEY JUDE 1968
12 FLEETWOOD MAC GO YOUR OWN WAY 1977
13 WONDER, STEVIE MY CHERIE AMOUR 1969
14 LED ZEPPELIN STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN 1971
15 FOUR TOPS I CAN'T HELP MYSELF 1965
16 KING, CAROLE I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE 1971
17 DOORS LIGHT MY FIRE 1967
18 WILD CHERRY PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC 1976
19 SUPREMES BABY LOVE 1964
20 CHICAGO 25 OR 6 TO 4 1970
21 MORRISON, VAN BROWN EYED GIRL 1967
22 O'JAYS LOVE TRAIN 1973
23 ORBISON, ROY OH, PRETTY WOMAN 1964
24 CCR HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN? 1971
25 SLEDGE, PERCY WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN 1966

Let's go K-Earth. "400" is no longer impressive after the 1001 in January. And even less impressive after CBS-FM doing 2500 songs for their A to Z. The young people you covet are using Pandora, itunes, MySpace, and a gazillion other things. You need to give us a reason to listen. Any doofus can slap 400 oldies songs on their ipod.

Thus, we want a Firecracker Four THOUSAND.

 

[oldies76]

The young people you covet are using Pandora, itunes, MySpace, and a gazillion other things. You need to give us a reason to listen. Any doofus can slap 400 oldies songs on their ipod.

Thus, we want a Firecracker Four THOUSAND.

4000? In our wildest dreams!

I think we have a better chance of striking it rich, than them playing a 4000 song specialty.

 

[romer979fm]

wow...if KRTH gave each of you guys $1000 in loose bills, you'd complain that
they weren't in sequential order.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

If KCBS-FM can have 900-1200 songs in their library, there's no reason why KRTH couldn't do likewise.

If it were up to me, KRTH wouldn't play any song more than twice a day--it's totally unnecessary for them to pound songs the way they do.

 

[ItalianAce]

Interesting the #3 song is "Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen simply because its a pre-1964 song (1963).

 

[oldies76]

Interesting the #3 song is "Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen simply because its a pre-1964 song (1963).

Supposedly, it's voters picking the songs off a list, of 400 that is provided, then ranked. So really, nothing new here, just the same ole stuff presented in a different order to make it look exciting. "Louie, Louie" and "Tequila" are probably the only pre 64's they even play, give or take a couple.

 

[scooty430]

wow...if KRTH gave each of you guys $1000 in loose bills, you'd complain that
they weren't in sequential order.

How can you possibly defend this boring station?

 

[surfdude]

"How can you possibly defend this boring station?"

Because it fills the listeners expectation every time they tune in with a great hit.
That's what most people want. 1.2 million listeners in LA agree.

 

[oldies76]

Scooty430 "How can you possibly defend this boring station?"

Because it fills the listeners expectation every time they tune in with a great hit.
That's what most people want. 1.2 million listeners in LA agree.

So, you are saying that ALL 1.2 million listeners want to hear the SAME 400 songs repeated over and over again, week after week. There's no proof of that at all. Are you 100% positive that ALL 1.2 million different people want to hear the SAME 400 songs all the time? Everyone has their favorites and alot of those songs are above and beyond the basic rotation.

Like we've said before..KRTH has great music, no doubt. All KRTH lacks is true specialties, that alot of these 1.2 million people would be happy to listen to. KRTH also needs to freshen up it's playlist on the weekend and add EXTRA songs to make the station not sound so boring. How do you justify a specialty (like the Firecracker 400) that plays the same stuff that they ALREADY play (just in a different sequence)? It's not a specialty then.

WCBS-FM is many , many times better in presenting it's specialties, it's a no-brainer seriously. They just got done playing nearly 2800 DIFFERENT songs over 8 days and it was very successful.

If only KRTH...........we can only hope someday.

 

[Indielover]

Scooty430 "How can you possibly defend this boring station?"

Because it fills the listeners expectation every time they tune in with a great hit.
That's what most people want. 1.2 million listeners in LA agree.

So, you are saying that ALL 1.2 million listeners want to hear the SAME 400 songs repeated over and over again, week after week. There's no proof of that at all. Are you 100% positive that ALL 1.2 million different people want to hear the SAME 400 songs all the time? Everyone has their favorites and alot of those songs are above and beyond the basic rotation.

Like we've said before..KRTH has great music, no doubt. All KRTH lacks is true specialties, that alot of these 1.2 million people would be happy to listen to. KRTH also needs to freshen up it's playlist on the weekend and add EXTRA songs to make the station not sound so boring. How do you justify a specialty (like the Firecracker 400) that plays the same stuff that they ALREADY play (just in a different sequence)? It's not a specialty then.

WCBS-FM is many , many times better in presenting it's specialties, it's a no-brainer seriously. They just got done playing nearly 2800 DIFFERENT songs over 8 days and it was very successful.

If only KRTH...........we can only hope someday.

It's going on 20 years since K-earth had great music variety and specialty weekends...at the time this was a much better station than CBS-FM, today the opposite is true.

 

[surfdude]

"So, you are saying that ALL 1.2 million listeners want to hear the SAME 400 songs repeated over and over again, week after week. There's no proof of that at all. Are you 100% positive that ALL 1.2 million different people want to hear the SAME 400 songs all the time? Everyone has their favorites and alot of those songs are above and beyond the basic rotation."

1.2 million is the weekly "Cume" audience - the number of different people who tune in every week.

K-Earth plays around 550 different titles every week. Add more deeper cuts and their audience will get smaller and older.

K-Earth's ratings are actually pretty incredible when you consider the huge Hispanic population.

It's easy to quarterback from the comfort of your Lazy Boy recliner at home. But, K-Earth is not programming to JUST you. Most people want to here the big hits, no matter what era. Check KIIS's ratings. The same thing applies to Gold formats.

 

[scooty430]

Disagree.

K-Earth had much better ratings when it played a bigger variety. It's survived by adding in some late 70s songs, which I'm sure they will burn to a crisp in the next few years.

As for Hispanic listeners, Oldies (real ones) are big amongst the Hispanic community. Huggy Boy (a white oldies DJ) used to be a hero in the Latino audience. They'd call in and make requests on KRLA.

Playing the same songs over and over is boring. I had non-radio geek relatives here for the 4th, and every time we were in the car, if Rocket Man or Sugar Pie Honey Bunch or Louie Louie came on, the song was immediately switched. "God, I'm sick of that song," was the universal response.

Yet when I forced a little of the big WCBS countdown on some BBQ guests with the computer hooked up to the patio speakers, people were pretty engaged.

K-Earth will have to act, and act fast, if they want to survive. User-selected websites like Pandora, LastFM, and Youtube are king. Wi-fi in cars is coming. And with it, the potential end of terrestrial radio forever. K-Earth will need to offer a compelling product that stands out amongst the thousands of internet radio stations offering oldies. Playing a jukebox of 500 songs that any 4th grader can collect in an hour on Limewire or itunes is NOT compelling product.

And with the ease of logging things on the internet, there won't be bogus diaries and inaccurate PPM to cover up the lack of listeners.

 

[romer979fm]

wow...if KRTH gave each of you guys $1000 in loose bills, you'd complain that
they weren't in sequential order.

How can you possibly defend this boring station?

easy: I've been working in radio since 1975...and have half a clue as to how it works.

 

[surfdude]

You're research is poor (friends in your car?).
You have no actual ratings info or playlists to prove what you say.
Huggy Boy fans are 55+ years old - no relevance to ad buyers.

I appreciate you're passion for Oldies - as a listener. But, how many stations have
you actually programmed?

You obviously listen to K-Earth, you've said so many times. That makes you one
of the 1.2 million K-Earth listeners, despite your dislike for this "boring" station.

I rest my case.

 

[scooty430]

You're research is poor (friends in your car?).
You have no actual ratings info or playlists to prove what you say.
Huggy Boy fans are 55+ years old - no relevance to ad buyers.

I appreciate you're passion for Oldies - as a listener. But, how many stations have
you actually programmed?

You obviously listen to K-Earth, you've said so many times. That makes you one
of the 1.2 million K-Earth listeners, despite your dislike for this "boring" station.

I rest my case.

I'm an ex-listener.

It's still on my presets, and I "monitor" it, so to speak, in the vain hope that it'll become what it once was. But I don't "listen," and from an advertiser's standpoint, I haven't sat through what you guys call a "stopset" for years. The exception would be the rare time they do a cool weekend and I happen to hear about it in time to catch it.

I challenge you to name one person, anyone, who listens to K-Earth for more than 1 or 2 songs at a clip. In other words, a devoted "fan" of the station. I imagine there are very, very few.

You can cite whatever statistics you like, and mention your expertise as a programmer. The bottom line is that playing the same songs over and over again is boring.

 

[surfdude]

I never said I was an "expert", but I have been in the business for many years
and I've seen what consistently works.

Unfortunately, at this high level in LA and all large markets, the whole business is
based on statistics. Arbitron is what the advertising community has adopted as
the form of research they use to determine how they spend their clients money.

Smart programmers play "the game". Big, deep, interesting (to uber-fans) playlists don't work
for most formats. In Oldies, the deeper the playlist, the Older the audience.

The Oldies format, 60s and 70s, won't exist on broadcast radio in 5 years.

 

[radio124]

If you go back to the late 70's into the early 80's, I think CBS-fm was better, irrespective of the music selection. Remember CBS was live and local in all dayparts since its inception, whereas KRTH didn't go completely live until 1982. I remember the automation going awry frequently where back announced songs were different than the ones actually played.

 

[oldies76]

You have no actual ratings info or playlists to prove what you say.
Huggy Boy fans are 55+ years old - no relevance to ad buyers.

Surfdude, the playlists are on the KRTH website, we can see what's aired. It is repetitive, no questions asked.
Why can't KRTH do expanded specialties like CBS-FM?? Why can't KRTH play a 3000 song A to Z like CBS-FM??
They are both big cities, two major markets. If NYC can do it, so can L.A. Big, deep playlists DO work. It does not have to be obscurities (position 20 thru 100) hits from the 50's or 60's, but it can involve a heck of a lot more #1's thru position 20 hits mixed in as a whole (especially on weekends), like CBS-FM. KRTH does not even do that!

The music of the 60's, 70's and 80's WILL exist on radio 20 years from now, because these are all staple songs, the meat of the rock era that most people, even new generations will enjoy and love.

I mean, do you expect "Lose Yourself", "21 Questions", "Bills Bills Bills" or even "Baby, One More Time" to be the oldies / classic hits then, in 2028?

 

[scooty430]

If you go back to the late 70's into the early 80's, I think CBS-fm was better, irrespective of the music selection. Remember CBS was live and local in all dayparts since its inception, whereas KRTH didn't go completely live until 1982. I remember the automation going awry frequently where back announced songs were different than the ones actually played.

KRTH was not really the KRTH we know at the beginning of that decade. It was kind of a lite-FM station at that point.

Their big ratings success was with the Oldies revival of the late 80s to mid 90s. Back then we had two Oldies stations in LA both using much broader playlists than now. The ratings were also higher. Connection?

Anyhow, check out this spacy ad from 1980 (?) that isn't retro.....it's futuristic. No oldies feel at all, though they have the KHJ jingle.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j-VOttiBVbI

And another one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=MrSQKR6q6e0&feature=related