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Has The Music Of Your Life Changed?

B

briancraig

Music of Your Life's satellite feed recently returned to Memphis on AM 1210 after having been replaced by Jones a couple of years ago. It seems to me that they have changed their music focus quite a bit over the last couple of years.

I hardly ever hear the MOR hits of the 50s and 60s like before. Now it seems to be a lot of standards I'm unfamiliar with. They also play more of the modern artists doing standards which I hate.

I liked it much better when they played the greatest hits from the 1940s to the 1970s. How do they expect to attract more listeners by playing lots of music that would be unfamiliar to anyone under 75?
 
That's an issue which has been discussed many times here. The powers that be continually seek the younger audience, so this persistent "if it ain't broke, we'll fix it anyway" approach continues to plague both the industry and this format. Contemporary artists recreating the standards seems to be the trend today; therefore, that's the means by which the format stays fresh.

I agree with you on the "unfamiliarity factor." Personally, I'd like to see these contemporary recreations focus more on those great MOR hits. Every now and then one does pop up. In recent years, I think Michael Buble did a really nice job with the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart," as did Queen Latifah with Phoebe Snow's "Poetry Man." But I did not care at all for Barry Manilow's rehash of hits from the '50s through the '80s. That's just my opinion - after all, they did sell well - but to me they sound like they were going for the quick buck, with little in the way of production values.
 
I've always thought Barry Manilow sounded good doing the new versions of old songs. But it's really the orchestras that sound good. Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Steve Tyrell, Carly Simon and Diana Krall all sound good, and there are others. But it's really the arrangements for most of them. Now Diana Krall does have a great voice.

I haven't heard Music of Your Life in more than a year, but it sounded so good the last time I did hear it (Jim Croce's train wreck notwithstanding). The station was Dial Global or at least AC-sounding last time I was in the area. Very AC, in fact, during the noon hour as I was coming back through. It must have been a special program of some kind, because the mmusic got better when I changed back.
 
briancraig said:
Music of Your Life's satellite feed recently returned to Memphis on AM 1210 after having been replaced by Jones a couple of years ago. It seems to me that they have changed their music focus quite a bit over the last couple of years.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that little nugget of info. I just to live in Memphis and have been wondering for quite some time what WMPS has been up to since the MOYL/Jones split. I listened to the MOYL feed online about a month ago and heard just what you are describing, a lot of unfamiliar (at least to me) standards which didn't appeal to me at all. I like the Dial Global version better (although I would add some '40s music and a lot more of early '50s pop music.)
 
MOYL still plays music from the 40's, 50's and 60's you just may not hear them as often. All the good stuff is still there but you will hear more new artist's doing the standards mixed in the rotation. MOYL features a lot of Big Band and Swing music of Sat. nights at midnight eastern that is very good. They play adult standards. MOYL is not an oldies network. What you will hear on MOYL is the best of the traditional standards and the best of the newer artist's doing standards, say Buble, Krall,Connick, and John Pizzarelli.
I did listen to Dial Global's network and noticed a lot of AC stuff that I did not care for at all.
 
RMarino said:
Mainly it's the newer artists doing old standards that I don't like. I prefer the originals.
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I have no objection to that, as long as they stay traditional and instrumentals are traditional as well.

I belong to another site where people are criticizing Michael Buble's talent, and even Linda Ronstadt. They have lots of specific things to say about what's wrong with her delivery. I never noticed such things. I think they're both fantastic, though Buble's lack of talent shows when he tries to do AC.
 
vchimpanzee said:
RMarino said:
Mainly it's the newer artists doing old standards that I don't like. I prefer the originals.
Click to expand...
I have no objection to that, as long as they stay traditional and instrumentals are traditional as well.

I belong to another site where people are criticizing Michael Buble's talent, and even Linda Ronstadt. They have lots of specific things to say about what's wrong with her delivery. I never noticed such things. I think they're both fantastic, though Buble's lack of talent shows when he tries to do AC.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure 'lack of talent" is the correct term. I've seen him live, and I was very impressed. The guy has a lot talent. Perhaps "lack of maturity" would be closer to what you are describing.

Another interesting up and comer is Matt Belsante. He's not quite a polished as Buble, but very well worth listening to. If you listen to Sinatra when he was Buble's or Belsante's age, you'll see he had some pretty rough edges too. It makes me wonder what these guys might be like in a few years if they follow through and improve. They could both be awesome.
 
With KIXI's recent pulling the plug on Music Of Your Life in Seattle, how many top-20 markets carry them nowadays? I haven't heard much about them in the trades, or even here for that matter for awhile now.
 
WYDE said:
With KIXI's recent pulling the plug on Music Of Your Life in Seattle, how many top-20 markets carry them nowadays? I haven't heard much about them in the trades, or even here for that matter for awhile now.
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Did KIXI drop the format completely? It looks like Music Of Your Life can still be listened to online from their own website, which is a major plus over Dial Global. I wish they could both be heard on Sirius-XM.
 
It is a sad reality, but none of us gets any younger. As we age, we often long for the original hits, but we also start to skew the format so old that it is hardly viable. I am going on 40, but grew up listening to standards as a kid, just to tick off my parents. They hated it, and so I dug Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra! At 22, I knew the music so well that I became PD of a top 30 market nostalgia station. I also realized then that my demographics were aging and that if I was smart, I would get out of the format soon. I left for N/T and the past ten years, I have been doing regional Mexican. (Am I a weird bird, or what? Liking nostalgia as a kid and then being an Anglo doing regional Mexican music? Now working as a Spanish talker!)

The format as per MOYL and others, has evolved into a "standards" base. Smart thinking, but still leaving many of us with the longing for more Ray Conniff, Esquivel and the Elgart Brothers.

Unfortunately, the format will likely become even more of a niche and eventually find its way off the airwaves as WWII vets pass on, and younger baby boomers opt for rock and roll. I just don't see a resurgence. Not having it available on FM is also a death knell. No chance of discovery for younger demographics. Look, I love the romanticism of AM, but just as I realized a long time ago, times are a changin' and one has to adapt or get stomped on.
 
elchupacabras said:
It is a sad reality, but none of us gets any younger. As we age, we often long for the original hits, but we also start to skew the format so old that it is hardly viable. I am going on 40, but grew up listening to standards as a kid, just to tick off my parents. They hated it, and so I dug Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra! At 22, I knew the music so well that I became PD of a top 30 market nostalgia station. I also realized then that my demographics were aging and that if I was smart, I would get out of the format soon. I left for N/T and the past ten years, I have been doing regional Mexican. (Am I a weird bird, or what? Liking nostalgia as a kid and then being an Anglo doing regional Mexican music? Now working as a Spanish talker!)

The format as per MOYL and others, has evolved into a "standards" base. Smart thinking, but still leaving many of us with the longing for more Ray Conniff, Esquivel and the Elgart Brothers.

Unfortunately, the format will likely become even more of a niche and eventually find its way off the airwaves as WWII vets pass on, and younger baby boomers opt for rock and roll. I just don't see a resurgence. Not having it available on FM is also a death knell. No chance of discovery for younger demographics. Look, I love the romanticism of AM, but just as I realized a long time ago, times are a changin' and one has to adapt or get stomped on.
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My folks were standards fanatics, so that's how I always had a small interest in this genre. And it doesn't help when what's considered "standards" today is often a song any 40 year old like myself can remember when it was NEW.

Only problem with radio today...and I hate to say it, but the kids have other things to listen to these days.
 
I think the term and the format "Standards" need to be redefined. Other formats have done it over time and continue to thrive. For example, "Classic Rock" was once considered a 60's rock format. Later, more 70's appeared. Now, there are lots of 80's music, even some 90's, on a Classic Rock station. "Oldies" has made a similar transition and adopted a new name, Classic Hits, to help it roll forward in time.

To me, the Standards format is a feel, a soft textured style of music, not necessarily a particular era. With the AC format becoming more upbeat to keep its demos from getting to old, it has abandoned some AC staples from the 70's like The Carpenters, Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand. Standards should be playing the heck out of them and some are. Standards should also be picking up more AC Gold from the 80's like Elton John, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney and Whitney Houston. 90's music should not be ignored either. So long as the feel remains soft and easy, it will keep itself separate from mainstream AC. Of course, this needs to become a primarily FM format and many that are doing it on FM call themselves Soft AC.

Whatever you want to call it, I hope Standards/Soft AC can transform itself in time to stay viable. I love the format but it is so hard to find, especially on the FM band.
 
Here's something strange. Last weekend I was in the car around the Asbury Park area of the Jersey shore and stumbled upon this station:

http://www.1370walk.com/main.html

I think it's from somewhere on Long Island in New York. Since I never heard it before, I looked it up on the internet. Aren't those Music of Your Life personalities listed on the home page... Wink Martindale, Gary Owens, etc? But it was Joe Daniels I heard on the air. If you go to the On The Air link, the drop-down menu shows what I think are MOYL personalities. But when you click on it, Jeff Rollins & company pop up.

So I guess they've switched from Music of Your Life to Dial Global and just haven't completed the website change yet. But this led me to wonder if there are any stations which actually do carry both services during different times of the day. Would that be legal, or is there some contractual arrangement that dictates a station must either carry one or the other exclusively?
 
Otto Maddock said:
Here's something strange. Last weekend I was in the car around the Asbury Park area of the Jersey shore and stumbled upon this station:

http://www.1370walk.com/main.html

I think it's from somewhere on Long Island in New York. Since I never heard it before, I looked it up on the internet. Aren't those Music of Your Life personalities listed on the home page... Wink Martindale, Gary Owens, etc? But it was Joe Daniels I heard on the air. If you go to the On The Air link, the drop-down menu shows what I think are MOYL personalities. But when you click on it, Jeff Rollins & company pop up.

So I guess they've switched from Music of Your Life to Dial Global and just haven't completed the website change yet. But this led me to wonder if there are any stations which actually do carry both services during different times of the day. Would that be legal, or is there some contractual arrangement that dictates a station must either carry one or the other exclusively?
Click to expand...

The syndicators don't give a rat's behind what you air, or if you have two different services, as long as you clear the network spots.
 
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