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KFXM is off the air

I Doubt KRTH has it, WCBS Maybe
You picked a good time to make that guess, because I just now downloaded my custom airplay monitor charts from BDS for the past seven days. One of those charts consists only of major market stations which I know still do music research as David has explained. I see both a cumulative total of spins and station-specific data.

KRTH did not play that song at any point during the past week. WCBS played it five times.
 
Hey, I happen to know that announcer personally!

It's Les Garland, who at the time was program director at KFRC.
A minor correction, K.M.:

Les left KFRC in 1980, replaced by Gerry Cagle, who was replaced in 1984 by Mike Phillips.

KFRC never played the version with Les Garland's voiceover. Instead, they wrote a similar but shorter rap allowing them to say "610 KFRC" twice as part of it....had Dave Sholin voice it, and dropped it into the gaps in the version of the single without the Garland voice.

And, ten months later, KFRC went standards as "Magic 61", retiring the song (and pretty much every other song) from the library.
 
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But in smaller markets where the audiences are not as prominent, using a Joel Whitburn or Bronson reference guide could work. If they emulated a city station, like a KRTH, then what would be the point of broadcasting as a smaller market, if they end up sounding like a big city station? Maybe those listeners don't want that "big city feel" for their local stations. Listeners in Elko, NV would prefer many other songs, that an L.A. station would never play. And as you know, there are thousands of small town and cities all over the USA. Just a thought.....
We had this conversation----wow---damn near ten years ago, in a thread about Classic Hits. A poster named RIN3GUY suggested that the tightening of the music library at KJMK in Joplin, Missouri was going to be a crushing failure using essentially the same logic.

KJMK's trend? 4.8-8.2-11.0-10.5.

The looser competitor that was supposedly going to benefit (KMXL): 9.6-8.8-8.1-7.0.

Nine years and three months later, the most recent book for Joplin, MO (Fall 2021) shows KJMK with a 9.8 share.

KMXL no longer subscribes to the ratings.
 
We had this conversation----wow---damn near ten years ago, in a thread about Classic Hits. A poster named RIN3GUY suggested that the tightening of the music library at KJMK in Joplin, Missouri was going to be a crushing failure using essentially the same logic.
Who's thread was this? I actually don't recall this discussion. But RIN3GUY does ring a bell, from years back.
 
As for "We Built This City", I was 29 when the song came out, didn't have MTV in my apartment and so I was left with just the audio for a long time---I actually took it as being a statement from the former Airplane (though I guess Grace was the only one left from those days) about San Francisco---and how the fairly organic rock scene they (and the Dead, Country Joe and the Fish, Santana and Steve Miller) had built (which, if you're old enough to remember it, really did "build" that city's reputation in ways that still echo today) had given way to corporate plastic BS.

I think a lot of the hate comes from it being tied to a truly bad music video. "We Built This City" begins with a model of a small farm town, then we shift to Las Vegas for most of the video, until Les comes in with the San Francisco rap, but we cut back to people with the Vegas skyline behind them listening to him.

Huh?

To me the sellout came with "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". First time I heard that, I thought it was Sergio Mendes' follow-up to "Alibis". Couldn't figure out why Grace was working with Sergio.
 
Yeah, let the big city slickers just play the hits. We gonna' play lots of stiffs 'cause there are no ratings here. The listeners don't have choices in the station they listen to because there is no other classic station around so screw them if they don't like it.
No, no, that's not what I'm implying. Small markets can play the hits, all the hits they want. They play the other hits that some big cities don't play. Certain songs may not be hits in L.A., but are acceptable to the audiences in other towns. "We Built This City" may be a stiff in L.A, but a hit in other towns. That song I chose is just an example David.

Here in SW Florida, LECOM Radio (WSRQ) had loads of music, for over a year now since moving here. I don't see any indications of playlist tightening yet, although I'm hearing a little less 60's and more 80's of late.
 
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No, no, that's not what I'm implying. Small markets can play the hits, all the hits they want. They play the other hits that some big cities don't play.
The bigger markets don't play those songs because they are not hits today. They may have been a hit way-back-when, but they are no longer wanted or desired by current listeners today.
Certain songs may not be hits in L.A., but are acceptable to the audiences in other towns.
But if a song is uniformly not played by any station we know to be doing its own research, they are not hits TODAY.
"We Built This City" may be a stiff on K-Earth, but likely a hit in other towns. That song I chose is just an example David. That reasoning applies to any song charting top five or ten in the Whitburn books, stiff or not.
The Whitburn books are relative to particular moments in time. They are not guides for anything that listeners want to hear today. They are as significant to today's radio airplay as the weather forecast from this date in 1982 is to the weather today. Zero, zilch, nada.
Here in SW Florida, LECOM Radio (WSRQ) had loads of music, for over a year now since moving here. I don't see any indications of playlist tightening yet, although I'm hearing a little less 60's and more 80's of late.
WSRQ is an unresearched noncommercial station outside a rather small market (Arcadia) with a couple of very limited translators. And a low power AM that goes down to 77 watts at night. They set a very poor example of what should be played on the radio.
 
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"We Built This City" may be a stiff in L.A, but a hit in other towns.
"Stiff" is probably not the right word. KRTH isn't playing it, but that could be a question of fit or flow with the songs they do play.

WCBS-FM, on the other hand, does play it....and they do their own research, too.
 
"Stiff" is probably not the right word. KRTH isn't playing it, but that could be a question of fit or flow with the songs they do play.

WCBS-FM, on the other hand, does play it....and they do their own research, too.
One of the differences is that KRTH is targeting a bit younger than CBS-FM. Both take Hispanics into a large account, but in each market the Hispanic population is different in ethnicity, group permanence in the US and racial characteristics. Under age 55, LA is over 50% Hispanic. In NYC the percentage is lower and the population is older and of later generation.
 
A minor correction, K.M.:

Les left KFRC in 1980, replaced by Gerry Cagle, who was replaced in 1984 by Mike Phillips.

You know, I'm so used to him telling me he was PD at the time, it never occurred to me to doublecheck the timeline! Thanks.
 
You know, I'm so used to him telling me he was PD at the time, it never occurred to me to doublecheck the timeline! Thanks.
He’s probably still trying to forget Eddie Murphy bringing him out of the Late Night audience to meet David Letterman. Eddie introduced him as the head of MTV. Dave shook Les’ hand and said:

“Oh, a cable weasel!”
 
KFXM is back up and streaming tunes again. There were other online oldies stations and channels I listened to before I went to bed while it was down, but I couldn't find any I liked as much. The original KFXM was one of the two San Bernardino stations I listened to when I lived in Riverside in the 60's.
 
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