You are partially correct. Throughout most of the 1970s, WABC showed only a top 14 list with additional risers being bulleted. During most of the 1960s, it was a top 15 and there are some surveys from the early 1960s (available at the ARSA survey site) that show WABC using a top 30 or more survey. If I remember correctly, it was PD Rick Sklar who insisted that the number of currents being played in rotation should be very low and that they should be played a lot! While I am not into that kind of radio myself, it is easy to understand why he did this once you realize that radio is geared towards the occasional listener and not towards those who listen all of the time--there are a lot more of the former than the latter.
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Flip to Christmas Music
- Thread starter skiwest
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You are partially correct. Throughout most of the 1970s, WABC showed only a top 14 list with additional risers being bulleted. During most of the 1960s, it was a top 15 and there are some surveys from the early 1960s (available at the ARSA survey site) that show WABC using a top 30 or more survey. If I remember correctly, it was PD Rick Sklar who insisted that the number of currents being played in rotation should be very low and that they should be played a lot! While I am not into that kind of radio myself, it is easy to understand why he did this once you realize that radio is geared towards the occasional listener and not towards those who listen all of the time--there are a lot more of the former than the latter.
That's more of a current metric than what you would see in the 1960s. People listened to radio longer in the 60s. Sklar was programming a currents-based station that attracted a lot of younger people. Those younger audiences are less affected by music repetition than older audiences. So playing a current song every hour or two isn't a problem. You'll see that kind of rotation today at currents based radio. The thing Sklar did in the 60s was cycle in new songs by older artists, such as Sinatra, Al Hirt, or Dean Martin. That kind of mixture stopped in the 70s, when he primarily focused on younger audiences.
We see a lot of discussion about WABC because some of the people who listened back then are still alive. You don't see as much discussion about music policies at WNEW-AM or the other older targeting stations because their audience is no longer around to talk about it.
As far as Christmas music, I was speaking with an artist who just released a Christmas album. There is a list of the most popular holiday covers. White Christmas and The Christmas Song are two of the most popular according to ASCAP & BMI. So when an artist goes in to record a Christmas album, they always make sure to cover those songs. They will also admit that there's very little demand for new holiday compositions. They will tell you it's tough to compete with Silent Night.
That was likely Lady Antebellum, A.K.A. Lady A.
CLEOldies will be going Xmas music after Thanksgiving. Being a 'net station no ratings, don't have to go early November.
I guarantee you'll dig the selection. Mariah Carey NOT in heavy rotation.
Listen CLE Oldies
What KillowattKatt, and possibly yourself, may like is what WMPS-AM is playing for Christmas tunes. The Flinn-owned station located in Bartlett, TN (it's in the Memphis market) has a broad Christmas playlist with a lot of older material going back as far as the 1940s and a lot of it getting very little, if any, airplay elsewhere. George Flinn does the weekday afternoon shows there and he does quite a few things that most of today's talent doesn't do. While he plays songs in a row without talking, he does throw out some unusual questions, both holiday- and non-holiday related and he will take calls on the air. While many of the artists are probably familiar (from Perry Como and Bing Crosby to Carla Thomas and Otis Redding), many of the songs, or versions of songs played, may not be so familiar. I have listened some and it is certainly a break from what most IHeart stations are playing.
The survey itself does not indicate the size of the on-air playlist. Some stations only showed the biggest songs on their published list. But that does not mean that they did not actually play a larger list.
That theory was generated by Todd Storz at KOWH in 1951. You take just the most popular songs of the moment, and play them faster in accordance with their popularity. Surveys of one-stops, record stores and juke box services confirmed which songs back then.
Sklar did a magnificent job at WABC, despite the corporate handicaps. But he did not create the rotations and philosophy of Top 40. Todd Storz and Bill Stewart did, reinforced by the promotional skills of Gordon McLendon who picked up the concept early on add added to it.
Radio is not geared in a specific way by all stations.
Different stations "gear" to different kinds of listeners. CHR / Urban and other hit based formats focus on short listening and high cume. AC stations live off high time spent listening (TSL) and generally are not the cume leaders in their markets. Adult ethnic stations are totally based on TSL and not cume. The opposite are all-news stations, which are a pure cume play.
WDOK has announced it will go all-Christmas on November 21
That's a bit late for them, but perhaps that's a good thing.
Day one of the I-X Christmas Connection, the same as they do every year. They'll flip the switch at 8:30am, leading into their continuous hour of music for the morning show. I'll bet the next social media campaign is going to be "what will be the first song we play?"
Expect to see a simulcast-of-sorts on Fox 8 News in the Morning, too.
The ones people want to hear. Over & over again. It's why every year they become the #1 most-listened to radio station in town.
I heard that WAKR is going all-Christmas on Thanksgiving week.
I'd be putting in my request for vacation days and tell them I'll be back on December 26th.
There's not much note worthy competition in Cleveland. Compared to other major cities, Cleveland radio is not very good.
They had the highest 6+ share in any Top 50 market for the Holiday 2024 period. Those 15 tunes are working!
Most listeners to broadcast radio these days are over 40 or so. Just look at the ratings. Usually, older folks crave the familiar. That's probably why you hear "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bell Rock" endlessly during the Christmas season.
Wanna be REALLY popular? Do a mash-up and call it "Rockin' Around the Christmas Bell Rock"
Well...listen to your personal music library. Radio stations that play Christmas Music aren't built for hour after hour listening. They are built for quick 20-25 minute car trips. And in those short commutes, you better be playing the Christmas hits. Mariah Carey and Wham in music testing....year after year..are two of the most popular songs. so what you consider torture brings joy to many more people. Along with the tunes from the classic crooners like Bing, Andy, Johnny, etc.
I can only take so much of a ten year old Michael Jackson singing Santa Claus is coming to Town.
Not really. In most cases, the listener is a 35 to 54 year-old woman who predominantly listens at a fixed location such as at home or in her office. Again the target is female and it is adult over 35. We see extremely long listening spans, perhaps interrupted by breaks while the listener does something else, but usually covering a large portion of the day.
The playlist are researched in almost all cases (or copied from a researched station) and include just the songs that the target listener wants to hear. Remember that to a listener, the word “variety“ means “all the songs I really like a lot and none of the ones I don’t“. Variety does not mean lots of songs, it means “favorite songs“.