tripton99 said:
An all-gay radio station would work despite past feeble/limp attempts.
A high-energy Country music station would work, even in San Francisco
A liberal talk radio station would work, and don't tell me it has been tried. I've heard nothing close to an acceptable attempt at counter-programming and Air-America without Al Franken is a joke.
All-women all-the-time
The caveat in your first example is that all gays don't like the same music, and by suggesting this format, you are stereotyping. Same thing with women. Unless you have a common quality which can be converted into a radio format, 168 hours a week.
The only reasons so much of the radio spectrum is consumed with permutations of old music are:
Stop. The reason there are so many formats based on familiar music is that most adults, as they age, have a large personal repertoire of favorite songs which they want to hear. And they have a lower tolerance for new or newer music.
The record industry doesn't make music for radio anymore so we are left with the music from a time when they did.
I didn't know the record industry made music for radio, ever. Record companies make records somebody will buy. Radio was an easy way to promote it in the past, but today there are more promotional vehicles than ever and record companies have still to figure out the way to promote or sell music. While people criticize radio, the fact is that the music biz is in far greater difficulty, losing money and unable to decide how to deal with the digital era.
No one in radio would know a new hit song if they heard it 'cause there is no place to gain or employ instinct or even the ability to read contemporary research on new music
There is no research on new music. Stations that play new music pick songs based on feel. There is no way to research a new song before you put it on the air and play it a hundred times or so. We pick hits the same way we did in 1952 when Top 40 started.
All music is run thru research grinders (like focus groups) meant to determine safe music.
Music is presented to a sample of actual listeners so that we don't play songs that will drive many of them away, or play less acceptable songs too much or not play the biggest ones enough. No PD knows this without consulting the listeners.
Why in the world would you want to play a song that is "unsafe" if that means that half of the audience hates it and will tune out if they hear it?
I bet there are not more than four radio stations today that are playing music released since Christmas. Even those well-meaning posters on these boards are pre-occupied with analyzing the merits of old music and debating "Classic hits' and other oldies.
I'll bet that there is not a single station that plays currents that has not made significant adds since the beginning of the year. And there are many formats that play currents... soft AC makes limited adds of currents, Hot AC makes more, CHR, Urban, Hurban, Regional Mexican, Spanish Pop, Spanish AC, Spanish Tropical, Country, Smooth Jazz, Alternative and Modern rock, etc., etc, all add songs, usually on a weekly basis.
Saddest of all is we are so far removed from radio's glory days and those days are not going to return. Wake me if there ever again is a KSFO of the '60s, a KSAN or KFRC of the '70s, or a KMEL of the '80s.
There never will be, because we are in the entertinment business. You want us te be a museum of old formats.
