"God Only Knows" was the flipside of "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" . Most flipsides don't do as well as the primary hit. For instance, "I Saw Her Standing There" only made #14!
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Great songs that test poorly
- Thread starter Mike Stark
- Start date
The Beatles released "Something" and "Come Together " as a Double A side single. Sometimes, the flip side of a single is equally great or superior. Some songs also charted better in different countries. Obviously, certain songs have stood the test of time while other #1 hits have not.
The Beatles often had multiple songs in the Top 10 on many occasions. Their British 4 song EPs were essentially 4 A side songs...
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Wasn't that from a hit movie, "Flashdance?" Who talks about that movie now? It, and this song, didn't have much lasting power after the summer of 1983....
I think I've heard this song once or twice in 2024. But see my comment on the Beatles, below.
That was a medley of songs, Beatles IIRC. I think it was considered a novelty song because it was a medley. But you don't hear a lot of Beatles on the air nowadays anyway (or at least I don't...)
That was an annoying song when it came out. (Also see: "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett). But I still hear both of these every so often.
Again, a song from a hit movie that most people have long forgotten.
This was a cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells song from 1967. At least ten other versions came out between the original and Tiffany's version. Cover versions of I Think We're Alone Now written by Ritchie Cordell | SecondHandSongs.
Besides Tiffany was a teenybopper, bubblegum pop singer. (Also see: Debbie Gibson, Britney Spears, et. al.) David Eduardo wrote upthread about singers/bands that strictly appeal to teenagers. Their music doesn't last too long after the teenagers grow up....
Not used in the movie "Amadeus" but came out at about the same time. Occasionally I hear it played, along with his other hit "Der Kommissar"
Last year, I did hear one Christmas-themed song, in Spanish, on KLVE-107.5 in Los Angeles (and no, it was *not* "Feliz Navidad" either!)
I've heard the song (wrong song) many times. One time it was on an adult standards station that had pretty much given up on standards.
I heard that one many, many times in college (After the Fire). It would be nice to hear it again.
It's on Youtube.
We're still "fine tuning" our mix at KLBP, but here's an example set from today. Check us out at KLBP.org
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Hate to be a Grinch, but that is a train wreck. Guns & Roses into David Gray? Variety is one thing, but a random mash up of different genres isn't likely to please anyone. Even Sirius XM tries to offer channels that have variety within a genre. I wouldn't want to hear any Hair Bands at all and certainly not mixed in with R & B or Americana artists...
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I hate to be the Grinch as well, but a perfect review....and that's a good thing!
Corporate and Public Radio are both capable of putting out a decent product. The key is to try to define what your programming strategy is. No single station can be everything to everyone. You end up being nothing to no one. A playlist that is too broad is just as bad as one that's too repetitive...
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Mike, I enjoy your posts here and wish you luck, but you seem to care about spiting “corporate radio” too much. Rather than trumpeting what the station isn’t, make it stand out against other noncommercial stations.
Public radio and Corporate radio have separate lanes. One is very ridged (and I'm not "spitting", just characterizing what it is) and the other is more free form (within the law). That's it.
Public radio is not in competition with Corporate radio either. Revenue in Public radio is a thumbnail compared to commercial radio. I don't understand how people get so triggered by any sort drifting from the status quo that doesn't match "commercial" standards. Commercial radio makes money. Public radio makes no money but strives to inform, involve and entertain a diverse community - and Long Beach is as diverse as the music we play.
I looked at that set and thought to myself: "Uh....is this one of those Jack-FM outlets?"
Well, Mike I do hope your LPFM makes money. You have bills to pay just like commercial radio and those bills are not discounted for being a non-profit.
A station that can pull a 2 and succeed, say in LA, can do so because of the population. With LPFM you have a micro audience potential at 2% might not be enough to generate the income needed.
A station that can pull a 2 and succeed, say in LA, can do so because of the population. With LPFM you have a micro audience potential at 2% might not be enough to generate the income needed.
Who’s “triggered”? Also I’ve worked in commercial, college and public radio and in all but college radio, the goal was to make money.
Mike, I have to ask. Are you going with this format because you have surveyed the listening area and people have told you this is what they want to hear or is it you deciding what you want to do is simply what the community gets. As my old boss at a station I ran for him would say "How does this produce revenue". How does your music choices make underwriters want to do so? How do those music choices make groups want to award a grant to your station? How do your music choices cause people to 'pay' to listen to you? Your concept has been tried for decades and almost never works (maybe 5 or 10 stations across the country). Most find that once you get past the stuff commercial radio plays, it gets really hard to find consensus among the music explorer types. A typical response is "I tried listening several times but they throw in stuff I don't care for so they're not the station for me" In other words they tune in, hear 2 or 3 songs they like before hearing one they dislike enough to tune away. After doing that a few times, they never listen again.
Public radio is a thumbnail? Not from what I see. I see NPR affiliates doing $8 million a year. I see public radio besting some commercial FMs and plenty of AMs in billing. Just because you are public radio, it is not, nor it should be, a curse of poverty. And don't think commercial radio can't make a dime spend like a dollar when it comes to creative ways to keep costs down. At one station I asked what the promotional budget was and was told to look in the mirror (in other words whatever I could do without cash was it). There is no huge gulf between commercial and non-commercial radio. The real and only difference is a commercial station distributes profits to it's investors while non-profits put that profit back into the organization (typically saved for emergencies or future plans) which is what most commercial radio stations typically do.
It's true that most LPFMs skate by on less than $5,000 a year. When they need a major item like a transmitter replacement, they find themselves off the air doing bake sales and concerts for a few months to raise the funds to get on the air. At that point, some just never return. Your hard work is worth more than that. I suggest you don't try the hardest road to travel where you are here today and gone tomorrow or always worried if you can pay the bill before the power is cut off. Reserve your format for nights and weekends, then super serve the general community during business hours with a more mass appeal music format with lots of community announcements and some local short interviews.
Public radio is a thumbnail? Not from what I see. I see NPR affiliates doing $8 million a year. I see public radio besting some commercial FMs and plenty of AMs in billing. Just because you are public radio, it is not, nor it should be, a curse of poverty. And don't think commercial radio can't make a dime spend like a dollar when it comes to creative ways to keep costs down. At one station I asked what the promotional budget was and was told to look in the mirror (in other words whatever I could do without cash was it). There is no huge gulf between commercial and non-commercial radio. The real and only difference is a commercial station distributes profits to it's investors while non-profits put that profit back into the organization (typically saved for emergencies or future plans) which is what most commercial radio stations typically do.
It's true that most LPFMs skate by on less than $5,000 a year. When they need a major item like a transmitter replacement, they find themselves off the air doing bake sales and concerts for a few months to raise the funds to get on the air. At that point, some just never return. Your hard work is worth more than that. I suggest you don't try the hardest road to travel where you are here today and gone tomorrow or always worried if you can pay the bill before the power is cut off. Reserve your format for nights and weekends, then super serve the general community during business hours with a more mass appeal music format with lots of community announcements and some local short interviews.
I guess we'll all have to wait and see.
We're not even in our soft launch yet. That comes in January with plans of being full speed by March. Since making these music tweeks our donations have risen substantially from when the station was run by a non-broadcast people. We're still adding tons of music and have a music director (a radio vet) who is pro-active with the local and indie music community
We are embedded into the community with shows (outside of the music mix) that are representative of the diversity of the Long Beach community. We have two shows hosted - proudly - by disabled adults, which I'm sure "commercial" data would advise against. One is produced by a long time LA public radio vet.
We have grant writers working on the many grants that are available in the city - landing most that we apply for.
Our goal is to educate - not only musically - but with instruction for future on air product and for accompanying podcasts that are and will be part of the mix.
We're working with a couple Long Beach news operations to partner in building a vibrant news department to serve the community.
We're doing all this with a dedicated, passionate group of volunteers - some radio vets - with zero salaries to anyone. These volunteers do "tableing" at most LB events AND all have had input into the general music mix.
So, even though detractors seem to see failure in our future, the current state seems to be bright. And, I know this isn't supposed to be part of the mix either - but everyone involved is having fun and share a common mission.
I will be happy to report back on our progress AND our failures as we proceed. As you have seen with some of my posts, I have sincerely asked for guidance to assist us and will continue to.
BTW, I don't take any of the previous criticism personally. I actually get insight from much of it.
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That's me... and as per your suggestions I have:
- Labeling - moved the links for the streaming apps to the top of the home page and added the messaging "Listen to KLBP Live via:"
- Merch - we currently sell it at our various tabling events around town... and I will explore with another web member of our team about setting up an ecommerce mechanism for purchases too. That may stretch beyond our team's capability right now but is a good idea worth exploring.
- Ditto with the music request feature... which may also stretch beyond our programming software's capabilities. Thinking out loud - there is a locally crafted essence to the music programming that would be potentially lost if it were opened to random online song requests.
- Donations - currently its intent is for to be supportive of the station in general. Open to some suggestions of types of benefits of what a recipient could receive. A nearby LPFM offers station tours to its donors, but IMHO the level of their ask for such a station tour seems exorbitant. For large-scale gifts we have co-sponsorship, naming rights, included in all marketing, collateral, social media, broadcast, and on-air promotion. There are presently four significant donors that are listed in the footer of KLBP.org's home page.
Kat... thanks for checking out the website (KLBP.org). Another volunteer and I worked two weeks ago to fully update the Weekly Lineup grid on the home page to accurately reflect all the currently airing shows. As to your question about shows going away... that happens typically when a host themselves no longer has bandwidth. Some of the shows have been a steady part of the on-air programming since the station's on-air launch in December 2018.
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