FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE RADIO

[jakej]

Since those in charge of our local stations and their superiors generally don't want to hear about this, YOU get to!

"For people who don't like radio" is the message related to my proposed format that I hope will someday be seen in print advertisements and on billboards. The only other information below those six words will be the letters of the station that opts for this format, its frequency, and its website address, all in the lower left corner. If the station has a limited signal, then we will only use billboards in areas where it can be clearly heard. I think it's fair to assume that 100% of the motorists who drive by one of them will immediately reach down and check us out, regardless of whether they like radio or not. They won't be able to resist, as their curiousity won't let them!

"Yesterday's Top Secrets" is what we will be all about. We will only play great rock and roll music from the past that has been ignored by all of the other stations in this market. We will proudly and refreshingly offer A-sides that people aren't sick and tired of hearing, along with album cuts and B-sides. Each week we will shine a special spotlight on two artists who will receive a bit more airplay than everyone else during the week that they're saluted. I have eighty-eight Featured Artist pairings put together, and here are thirty of them:

The Animals + Adam and the Ants
The Beach Boys + Blondie
The Beatles + Buzzcocks
Bob Dylan + The B-52's
Carole King + The Clash
Cream + The Cure
Creedence Clearwater Revival + The Cramps
The Doors + The Damned
Electric Light Orchestra + Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD)
Gary Lewis and the Playboys + Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Gerry and the Pacemakers + Echo and the Bunnymen
The Hollies + The Pixies
Jan and Dean + Devo
Jefferson Airplane + Joy Division
The Jimi Hendrix Experience + The Jam
Lesley Gore + Gang of Four
The Monkees + Modern English
Petula Clark + The Pretenders
Pink Floyd + The Psychedelic Furs
The Rascals + R.E.M.
The Rolling Stones + The Ramones
The Searchers + Squeeze
Sly and the Family Stone + Sex Pistols
Spanky and Our Gang + Siouxsie and the Banshees
Steely Dan + The Smiths
Steppenwolf + The Stranglers
The Supremes + Simple Minds
T. Rex + X
The Turtles + Talking Heads
The Yardbirds + U2

Rather catchy combinations, don't you think? And the other fifty-eight are just as interesting!

I would like to host a four-hour show, from 6:00 to 10:00 each weekday morning. It will then be immediately rebroadcast a total of five times, covering the twenty hours until the next new one begins. On Saturdays and Sundays, we will again re-air the Monday-through-Friday shows of the previous five days. The advantages of six consecutive broadcasts of the same show on each weekday include the following:

1) Many listeners will enjoy the songs so much that they'll find they can't wait to hear them again -- and they won't have to!
2) Listeners who can't tune in for four hours straight will be able to later hear on that same day or night what they missed, by easily calculating when the music of their missing one or two or three hours will resurface.
3) A tremendous amount of word-of-mouth advertising will be generated by this approach, as radio listeners understandably will be much more likely to recommend a station to others if they know ahead of time EXACTLY what bands and songs their friends will be hearing on it, later that same day or night. The risk of possible embarrassment to the word-spreader will be eliminated!
4) The repeated broadcasts will save the owner of the station much money, as deejay salaries will be greatly reduced and no syndicated programming will need to be purchased.

The gaps during certain time slots resulting from advertising volume disparity and the nighttime absence of news, weather, and traffic reports will be filled with entertaining tidbits, such as the reading of selected excerpts from the 100+ issues of my 1980's music fanzine and the having of fun with questions, comments, criticisms, etc. that are e-mailed or phoned in to us.

It's true that with the rebroadcasts, there will be the concept of song repetition that so many of us despise. However, on the station for people who don't like radio (and for a lot of people who do!), the repeated songs will not be the same ones that are currently being played over and over again by everyone else, and once ours have been aired for a total of six times within a 24-hour period, they won't be heard again for at least two months (not counting the Saturday/Sunday rebroadcasts of shows). Our song library will include thousands of titles, and during the course of their first few weeks of listening to us, euphoric Central Ohio music fans will find themselves in a state of shocked disbelief at the number of different songs by some of their favorite artists that they will have heard! And that's one of the big reasons why once it's introduced, "Yesterday's Top Secrets" will quickly become synonymous with fun radio, adventure radio, and revolutionary radio -- terms that will not just be mere marketing cliches, but rather earth-shattering and industry-shattering truths.

"You say you want a revolution? Well, it all starts right here right now -- revolutionary music on revolutionary radio, "Yesterday's Top Secrets" on Wxxx. Songs from the Sixties, and later music that's filled with the fun and the freedom of the Sixties. Oldies that aren't old, because they haven't been played to death, classic rock that's in a class by itself, and alternative music that was simply a pleasant alternative to all of the disco that surrounded it when it first came out! "Yesterday's Top Secrets" on Wxxx, featuring not the best-known music of the '60s, '70s, and '80s, but rather some of the best."

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Hmmm...Is it merely a coincidence that "Yesterday's Top Secrets" screams out for the calls WYTS??

Also, you skipped "N." Where's that Laura Nyro you promised, and who will be her play-mate?

 

[david5258]

laura nyro and nine inch nails?????

 

[SportsRadioDoc]

Jake, It's great to see the creative wheels spinning! Whether this particular idea is a good one or not is subjective. Regardless, I hope you find an outlet for your creativity, because it's obvious you have something to contribute.

 

[jakej]

Thanks, Doc. And thank you, Nu Roo, for posting the first reply and getting the ball rolling.

Laura Nyro is in one of the fifty-eight other Featured Artist pairings, and her boyfriend is (drum roll, please) ... Gary Numan! Laura Nyro + Gary Numan, another twosome that rolls so nicely off the tongue, plus they make for an interesting couple because he's an android and she's as real as real can be (even though she's sadly been gone from us now for ten years). "Yesterday's Top Secrets", because there's a whole lot more to Gary than just "Cars", and there's a whole lot more to Laura than just the Fifth Dimension hits she wrote.

Concerning the show's name, I've decided that "Yesterday's Top Secrets" sums it all up the best, and I hope to go with that regardless of whoever decides to give it a chance. I originally came up with the name based on the letters at 1230 because there were so many other great WYTS's to put it with ("We're Yielding To Sanity", "We're Yanking The Slander", "We're Yearning To Sing" -- remember?! By the way, here's another good one -- "Wow, Yeah, Tim's Station!"), but if the music and I get on the air somewhere else and the owner has a problem with the show's initials, then I'll be glad to come up with something else.

Hey, since you brought up WYTS, I'm just curious -- who would you rather hear on it, Laura Ingraham (who's currently on from 9 to 12 each weekday morning) or Laura Nyro (who's not on it or any other station in this town)?

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Thanks, Doc. And thank you, Nu Roo, for posting the first reply and getting the ball rolling.

And I should mention that I feel Doc was right on the money.

...there's a whole lot more to Gary than just "Cars", and there's a whole lot more to Laura than just the Fifth Dimension hits she wrote.

Never knew that re Numan... For Laura Nyro, of course, I was thoroughly aware of her many great contributions.

By the way, here's another good one -- "Wow, Yeah, Tim's Station!"

;D

Hey, since you brought up WYTS, I'm just curious -- who would you rather hear on it, Laura Ingraham (who's currently on from 9 to 12 each weekday morning) or Laura Nyro (who's not on it or any other station in this town)?

That took about about 1/1000 of one nanosecond to decide. The latter, of course!

 

[Tom Wells]

Anyone who puts The Cramps on the air has the right idea.
I would listen.

 

[Batfink]

I would like to run a tv station that just shows the best episodes of "The Sopranos" and "The Honeymooners".

 

[Saladressing]

" Gary Lewis and the Playboys + Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Gerry and the Pacemakers + Echo and the Bunnymen
The Hollies + The Pixies"

Wow. Dang man that's crazy. in a good way, i think.

 

[Tom Wells]

Link Wray + Go-Go s
Bix Beiderbeck + Beatles
Ramones + Fletcher Henderson
Ventures + Velvet Underground
Hank Williams Sr. + X
Pere Ubu + Ray Noble
Unknowns + "knowns"
obscure + torturously overplayed
ironic + sappy
Cab Calloway + Amy Winehouse
Lyres + Herb Alpert + Henri Mancini.... ok so thats 3

my pirate station back in 1991 , and my part 15 AM now are all over the map.


http://thomasjwells.podomatic.com/

I have two segments posted. No theme except a maybe heavy twang on mid-60's.

Hope this link works. The older file is overmodulated into the recorder...better every next time....promise.
These are with microphones for fun, this weekend I will open up the 1980 Sony or 1962 Plymouth/Bendix
for a line out to record some real hi-fi music confusion.

 

[Tom Wells]

I couldn't get that last link to work.

I offer this trainwreck of a format which I have been building for 3 months now.
This is supposed to be an RSS feed, which I hope goes to the main page.
It's at least as wacky as that suggested in this thread.
I would very much appreciate comments.
I am enjoying hearing songs I have worked hard to clean up.
Three four 30-40ish guys at work have enjoyed this without any griping about even the loudest stuff.
Or weirdest stuff. Or worst sounding, on some songs...
I have a computer at the office set up with the same format, and when I come in the
other guys have it on...they haven't turned it off. I have a long way to go.

http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com/rss2.xml

 

[jakej]

Let's have some fun with what might have been. It's not going to happen, but I think that 106.7 and "Yesterday's Top Secrets" would have made a great match. We would've had a newly-created format on our city's newly-created station, a format that would've enabled the frequency to really make its mark and get itself noticed in a big way, especially in conjunction with the irresistible "For people who don't like radio" ads and billboards. Also arousing the masses' curiosity would have been a patriotic pitch heralding the arrival of "Revolutionary Radio and the Spirit of '76, er, '67. Spirit 106.7!", and then derived from that could have come some other gems, such as "We're the spirit that moves you twenty-four hours a day. Spirit 106.7!", "There's a new spirit that's sweeping Central Ohio -- and it's us! Spirit 106.7", and "Thanks for getting into the spirit of things. Spirit 106.7!"

"Yesterday's Top Secrets" is all about the Sixties and the spirit of the Sixties, a wonderful musical combination that makes for revolutionary radio. And like the revolution that sprang up in 1776, the spirit of the Sixties comes with an inherent sense of independence. We don't care about the rules that others say that radio must follow, and while it wouldn't have been quite like the American Revolution and the Spirit of '76 on 106.7, it would have been something much more fun and far less deadly -- it would have been Revolutionary Radio and the Spirit of '67! But again, unfortunately I have now been notified that Spirit 106.7 (or Spirit Six-Seven, as I liked to think of it) is not going to become a reality.

Oh well, the format can just as easily make itself at home on any of our other FM or AM frequencies. All it takes is one open mind at the right level in an organization's hierarchy, and a healthy desire on that person's part for increased profitability. I've got a great package put together, and I can tailor its promotional slogans and messages to fit any station in this town, even one whose management may have previously shunned me and the music in a polite or not-so-polite manner. My memory is about as short as the stature that some of them now enjoy in the ratings, but together we can machete through the underbrush, claw our way up through the ranks, and ultimately slay some real giants. Whoops, I guess I may have been mistaken in that last paragraph. Along with the fun, things ARE going to get rather bloody!

 

[Tom Wells]

I wish you the best of luck with this idea. No surprise that the seasoned decision makers are going to continue to do the same old same old until they're gone.

The only problem with such a format is it requires an engaged listener with a desire to hear more than 300 songs.
I like it, but there aren't enough people like me anywhere, and if there were, it wouldn't even matter.

The existing formats and execution of music radio seems custom designed to repel my demographic while
attracting everyone else, who must be a much more desirable demo.

 

[SportsRadioDoc]

Jake, you can program this station yourself on yahoo and start your own blog to promote it. You should do that. Let the people who would enjoy this format listen to it online.

 

[jakej]

Thank you for the advice, Doc.

The music is very important to me, and I don't want my work with it to be a hobby. Actually, my interest even goes beyond it as a career. I don't want to give all of this forty hours a week; I want to give "Yesterday's Top Secrets" and the sales and promotions departments of its home station forty hours a day! Would Internet radio over the course of the next year be more likely to earn me a living, or cost me a small fortune?

The other part of the story is this: The first important musical period in my life was from 1963 through 1969, when I, like a lot of other kids back then, grew up listening to a lot of great music on my radio and record player. Once the evening's homework was done and the TV shows were over, I'd shut my bedroom door, pull all the blankets up over me, and slip my small transistor radio under my pillow so that its sound would be muffled and my parents wouldn't be alerted as to how late I was staying up again on a school night! I'd then jam my ear up against the other side of that pillow, hear all of the wonderful music coming through it, and lose myself in another world -- the unbelievably exciting world of rock and roll! '63 through '69 were incredible years to be a child. They spanned a very, very magical time.

Four decades later, that's the same way, and really the only way, that I would like to be able to share the music with others -- through that same little radio.

 

[Tom Wells]

Amen, Jake.

You obviously have the same urge as I do. I was born in 1961 and musically aware by 1963-4, collecting by 1965,
and still have records I "came with".
To hear what happened on cusp-of-the Beatles and exploded from then on has made music very large in my life.
There has to be a way for others to be able to hear how great it all worked then, while maintaining relevance throughout all these
years encompassed to present.

We can only hope that someday the pendulum swings back to recognizing the later baby-boom (baco-boomers)
born from 1959 to 1965 as a valuable demo to attract with people like you and I.
We just need to somehow get more people to get the message back to radio management that they are tired of limited playlists and types of music. We hear that generic complaint "all the time".
How can an owner/operator risk the untested? Radio hasn't done that in 25 years.

A recent story in the Chicago Trib on a new worlwide phenom, Complaint Choirs, related that there was such an event occuring locally
that weekend......but did the Tribune company send out WGN people to negotiate a live remote, promote it, or ANYTHING?

No.


Good luck to us all.

 

[phatdaddy]

jakej, sounds like we are about the same age. I remember doing exactly the same thing at night, listening to the DX with a transistor radio. Dick Bionde, Art Roberts, Cousin Brucie, et al. Then there were the summer vacations at my grandmother's where I could listen to WCOL and it's Drake format at its best. Down in the hills where I grew up there was only one semi local station and it had a garbage mixed format and only played rock & roll from 3 PM till signoff. During winter that amounted to about a two hour show :-[ That's about the time I managed to get hold of an old Graymark 505 AM transmitter. With the help of a slightly illegal longwire antenna we started doing our own rock & roll shows, had listeners all over town. Good thing the boyz up in Detroit never caught wind of our little endeavour