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It's not just KRTH, and not just Los Angeles.

We've all talked about how adding music of the 90s is fraught. I think this list proves that.

KRTH seems to be adding mostly late 90s/00s rock product: Incubus, Linkin Park, Killers, which is a different direction than many other stations on this list.

Personally, I hate that direction. NuMetal is one of my least favorite subgenres of music. I realize they aren't programming to me specifically, but I am a bit surprised these songs are the ones that tested well enough to spin.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
We've all talked about how adding music of the 90s is fraught. I think this list proves that.

KRTH seems to be adding mostly late 90s/00s rock product: Incubus, Linkin Park, Killers, which is a different direction than many other stations on this list.

Personally, I hate that direction. NuMetal is one of my least favorite subgenres of music. I realize they aren't programming to me specifically, but I am a bit surprised these songs are the ones that tested well enough to spin.
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…and why would they do that?

Because in addition to KIIS and Power 106, KROQ was one of the most influential stations when today’s KRTH listeners were in their teens and 20s.
 
JackindaBox said:
It just seems to be adding lots of hits from the 90s and early 2K sometimes mid-late 2K depending on the market. 95.7 The Jet just seems to be adding some occassional hits from the early 2K though that station is still heavily focused on hits from the 1980’s same with most Classic Hits stations.
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Surprisingly, CHRs are also playing songs from the 90s-2ks, meaning CHR and Classic Hits are sharing some songs in some markets.
 
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It's funny when they tried all 80s stations back in the day they didn't last. So I guess you have to let enough time go by. Guess that's why gen x radio which I enjoyed never really stuck. And the classic hits stations a lot of which are heavy 80s work now.

Opinions
 
hotpatrick2004 said:
It's funny when they tried all 80s stations back in the day they didn't last. So I guess you have to let enough time go by. Guess that's why gen x radio which I enjoyed never really stuck. And the classic hits stations a lot of which are heavy 80s work now.

Opinions
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While on the lower end for the Classic Hits format, a station like KRTH today only plays 300-350 songs in a given week and needs songs from different decades to fill the playlist out, so there probably wasn't enough playable '80s songs to make an '80s only format work.
 
jt99 said:
While on the lower end for the Classic Hits format, a station like KRTH today only plays 300-350 songs in a given week and needs songs from different decades to fill the playlist out, so there probably wasn't enough playable '80s songs to make an '80s only format work.
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The vast bulk of the format is still 80's. There is a scattered later 70's batch and some 90's, but it is still mostly 80's.

There were thirty-some songs from the later 70's in the last 7 days, and about 85 from the 90's (and beyond) out of 476 total songs.

They could easily just play 80's, but that's not the image they are obviously looking to create. They play just enough post-80's to sound fresher and more current. Almost all of the higher rotation songs are from the 80's.
 
michael hagerty said:
Is it, though?

KRTH is number one for the second month in a row.

WCBS-FM is fourth in New York.

KOLA is number one in Riverside/San Bernardino.

KJEB is number two in Seattle.

KONO is number one in San Antonio.

KQQL is third in Minneapolis.

KXKL is number two in Denver.


....and those are just the stations mentioned in the Sean Ross piece as having modernized their music.



Looks like literally anything but a disaster.
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Haven't seen the ratings, but I'll bet that KRUZ in Santa Barbara is doing just fine...
 
TomásEstefan said:
Haven't seen the ratings, but I'll bet that KRUZ in Santa Barbara is doing just fine...
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Moderately. It bills about 35% of what the leading biller does, and ranks 5th in gross revenues. Santa Barbara is a really small market, ranked 205th in population and about 190th in revenue.

Point Broadcasting has approximately 75% of market revenues, so little remains for the others. The whole market does just $6.6 million in revenue, and over 50% of listening is to out of market stations.
 
I’d say that KJEB is technically my “home market” radio station, which I’ve listened to since I was a kid. I noticed they’ve added a tiny bit of maroon 5 and alanis morisette. Not my cup of tea but I won’t complain. I’ll keep listening since I like most of the songs.

I’ve given up on listening to radio in my current market (Vancouver BC). The classic hits radio station here has added tracks like “Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. I will listen to nothing before I will listen to that trash. Maybe I’m not seeing the bigger picture, but I don’t see how music like that will help anyone. Yeah, you can justify Maroon 5 or other staples of AC, but come on, bad 2010’s pop?
 
DavidEduardo said:
Moderately. It bills about 35% of what the leading biller does, and ranks 5th in gross revenues. Santa Barbara is a really small market, ranked 205th in population and about 190th in revenue.

Point Broadcasting has approximately 75% of market revenues, so little remains for the others. The whole market does just $6.6 million in revenue, and over 50% of listening is to out of market stations.
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I've wondered for a long time why Santa Barbara and Ventura/Oxnard have never been combined into a single market. It made sense back in the day to be separate markets when AM was "King". One reason being purely technical: night pattern reception across both areas was difficult or non existent. I've always thought of this area as one FM market though because you can hear just about all the FMs clearly throughout the entire region .
 
JackindaBox said:
Tbh.. KJEB-FM doesn’t play P!NK but it does play Maroon 5 and No Doubt sometimes. Some stations do go into the 2010s sometimes like KOLA but most stations mainly go to the early 2000s.
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Haven't heard Linkin Park myself on K-Earth, but I hear it consistently on KOLA. Also heard Daft Punk "one more time" on KOLA yesterday and thought, wow this is classic hits now?
 
Neel said:
Haven't heard Linkin Park myself on K-Earth, but I hear it consistently on KOLA. Also heard Daft Punk "one more time" on KOLA yesterday and thought, wow this is classic hits now?
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Trying to look at this from a practical angle (and not what I would personally want to hear), some of the additions aren’t that bad. It’s not music I like or would choose to listen to, but it doesn’t break the mold. On the other hand, this article states that they’re also playing “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. I had to read that part of the article twice, because I couldn’t believe what I was reading. How is that song remotely connected to classic hits? It was popular when I was in high school, and it was terrible then too.
 
fordranger797 said:
Trying to look at this from a practical angle (and not what I would personally want to hear), some of the additions aren’t that bad. It’s not music I like or would choose to listen to, but it doesn’t break the mold. On the other hand, this article states that they’re also playing “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. I had to read that part of the article twice, because I couldn’t believe what I was reading. How is that song remotely connected to classic hits? It was popular when I was in high school, and it was terrible then too.
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Keep in mind that the market for KOLA is now well over 50% Hispanic and the Hispanic population in the market tends to be later-generation that will be fond of earlier hip hop songs. And, of course, in Highly Hispanic markets, the non-Hispanic population tends to much more attracted to rhythmic songs.
 
fordranger797 said:
I’d say that KJEB is technically my “home market” radio station, which I’ve listened to since I was a kid. I noticed they’ve added a tiny bit of maroon 5 and alanis morisette. Not my cup of tea but I won’t complain. I’ll keep listening since I like most of the songs.

I’ve given up on listening to radio in my current market (Vancouver BC). The classic hits radio station here has added tracks like “Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. I will listen to nothing before I will listen to that trash. Maybe I’m not seeing the bigger picture, but I don’t see how music like that will help anyone. Yeah, you can justify Maroon 5 or other staples of AC, but come on, bad 2010’s pop?
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Most Classic Hits stations won’t play anything from the 2010s. What station is that? Does it play mostly songs from the 80s or a mix of songs from the 70’s through early 2010’s.
 
The 90s were 30+ years ago. 2001 was 22 years ago... A lifetime in the internet age. Older Millennials were kids during the 1990s. it only figures that with them being in their 30's and early 40s now, they'd want to hear 90s hits, and early 00s tracks on Classic Hits.
 
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