Houston Press blog - classic rock

[JarodF]

There's an interesting article on one of the Houston Press's blogs about the redefinition of what classic rock is. You can read it here http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2010/12/what_is_classic_rock_today.php

Towards the end there's a link to an old KILT-AM playlist from 1976 to exemplify how Top 40 stations used to play a wide variety of music. Originally they had it listed as a KILT-FM playlist till I corrected them. In the comments, the editor is asking for an example of what KILT-FM was playing back then. Any links to some sample hours of KILT-FM in the 70s? Feel free to post here or in the comments on the blog. Seems like something some of you might enjoy commenting on.

 

[willdav713]

There's an interesting article on one of the Houston Press's blogs about the redefinition of what classic rock is. You can read it here http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2010/12/what_is_classic_rock_today.php

Towards the end there's a link to an old KILT-AM playlist from 1976 to exemplify how Top 40 stations used to play a wide variety of music. Originally they had it listed as a KILT-FM playlist till I corrected them. In the comments, the editor is asking for an example of what KILT-FM was playing back then. Any links to some sample hours of KILT-FM in the 70s? Feel free to post here or in the comments on the blog. Seems like something some of you might enjoy commenting on.

Oh yes this was before the dreaded DMCA legislation passed by the Republican Congress and signed by then President Bill Clinton in 1997, and conslidation in the broadcast industry by the 1996 Communications Reform Act. Radio did sound so much better. Oh if I could relive the late 80s.

 

[johndavis]

Oh yes this was before the dreaded DMCA legislation passed by the Republican Congress and signed by then President Bill Clinton in 1997, and conslidation in the broadcast industry by the 1996 Communications Reform Act. Radio did sound so much better. Oh if I could relive the late 80s.

We had already begun to splinter formats in the late 80's...

When did the first Classic Rock stations appear across the country? 1983?

The beginnings of Rhythmic Top 40 came with the CHUrban stations that appeared around 1985-86.

The beginnings of alternative radio trace back to 1983.

It's not consolidation that led stations to split the genres into different niches... in my mind, it was a combination of Docket 80-90 creating new radio stations (and thus stations had to do different things to stand out in the market) and cable TV. Just as you no longer had 3 or 4 TV stations to watch that tried to be all things to all people, you could turn on ESPN and get sports anytime, even if that meant watching Australian Rules Football because they didn't have anything else to run, if you liked Modern Rock, why should you wait for the Rock station to finish playing Led Zepplin to play Blondie or The Ramones?

Consolidation happened when all the people who applied for those licenses started going broke because there wasn't enough revenue in the market to support 30+ signals. By the time the Communications Act of 1997 rolled around, the days of one or two rock stations, a country station, a classical station, a full service AC, and a MOR/beautiful music station in a market had been dead and buried for a couple of decades.

Even if multiple ownership was never allowed, I believe that radio formats would have splintered this way. The audience defines what they want out of a format; the station has to deliver what the audience expects.

 

[careful705]

The audience defines what they want out of a format; the station has to deliver what the audience expects.

The expectations are so low now, so much of the audience has moved on to other mediums besides terrestrial I think. At least for music...

That reminds me of a line I heard Jimmy Kimmel say... "Hey you 'oldies' stations... Maybe you need some 'new oldies'?!"