Or was for sure.
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KROQ is spinning currents into the ground
- Thread starter MarkW
- Start date
Very true, but the rotation in recent years for that Eagles song has diminished greatly as compared to 8-20 years ago. Considering that they still play some 70's tunes today, as they did then, "Hotel California" is either a victim of A) rotation reduction to fit in more 80's and 90's tunes, considering that song is 6+ minutes long and takes up airtime for other songs, or B) listener complaints due to the frequency of it being played. It's a great and timeless song, but playing it 5x a day then, was overkill, plain and simple.
I would agree its a combination of both A & B.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Regarding "A": Most Classic Hits stations have reduced the number of spins of 1970s (and early 1980s as well, as I discussed in another thread) over the years. It's just the evolution of the format, nothing remarkable about it.
But as for "B", listeners do not complain to stations about rotations. In fact, that happens so infrequently that such a complaint would be summarily dismissed as irrelevant. It is much more likely that someone who is tired of the song would just change stations when it played. Some of the reduction in airplay is undoubtedly due to a slight lessening of its score in testing, but again that is just part of the process and isn't unusual in the least.
We discussed at length, all those years ago, that what you may perceive as "overkill" is overridden by what station research shows, so I would ask that you not resurrect that rhetoric. "Hotel California" still plays an average of once per day on KRTH, and there are some major market CH stations still playing it 16 to 20 times a week. They don't consider it "overkill".
When Jhani took over KRTH, the first thing he did is expand the 300 song playlist, which featured "My Girl" (and more perplexingly "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass) on just about every airshift, and added some different 60s and new 70s titles. The freshening up of the sound was exceedingly overdue and the ratings went up instantly.
Usually when playlists are refreshed, such as the example you mentioned, ratings increase. I remember that change back in 2005-06 I believe. And it was around that time when "Hotel California" was re-introduced to the rotation as it was absent for many years prior to the Jhani Kaye era. It took off from there. Very few mid-late 70's were played under Coffey.
I have now waited two days and gone back to Mediabase, and it still shows that Heat Waves was played 60 times a week. This is in real time, which means those numbers are constantly being updated. So it doesn't show any increase in spins over the weekend. There are no songs at KROQ being played more than 60 times a week. That is the maximum. And the #1 song at KROQ right now is "Running Up That Hill."
Other notable bits: Foo Fighters has dropped from heavy to medium. Imagine Dragons has increased from light to heavy.
Are all audacy stations still following the same blue print? Or does each Audacy alternative station dictate their own playlists?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Jhani is an old friend, and a programming genius. (And his birthday was over this past weekend, too.)
True story: He was on the verge of retiring after his successful run as KOST's first PD as an A/C. And then, he suddenly took the job at KRTH ... which earned him a phone call from me asking what happened to his retirement plans. His answer was a tribute to probably the greatest top-40 programmer of all time: "They offered me the chance to program Bill Drake's legacy and I couldn't say no."
I was sorry to see him finally retire from KRTH. I think he was having a lot of fun there.
Playlist adjustments in major markets seldom have to do with programmers. They are the periodic changes made following a music test, eliminating or slowing down burn, adding songs that now test well and getting rid of the ones that are now too old based on the need to keep the demographic target the same even as people age.
Again, music testing.
And in his era, they apparently tested all the way up to age 55. Normally today, a 35-54 targeted station would test ages 35 to 49 or something similar, and not test the oldest 5 years or so.
Every station is doing their own thing. For example, WNYL is playing currents less frequently than KROQ.
re: "Hotel California".
One more time...
Five plays a day is not excessive for the right song (which "Hotel California" clearly was for KRTH at the time---number one American band of the 70s, with a song about California).
Why?
Because NOBODY heard it play five times a day.
Or four.
Or three.
Or two.
In fact, a minority of KRTH's weekly cume would hear one of its daily plays.
With properly managed rotations (and in the Jhani Kaye era of KRTH, those were immaculately managed), the typical listener would hear it once every three weeks or so.
And if you care what a radio station plays when you're not listening to it, you really need a hobby. Or a love life. Or something.
Back to the topic: We won't know if KROQ is "spinning currents into the ground" until we see a few ratings books.
Let's remember that Rick Carroll's KROQ---the "Rock of the 80s" format that put the station on the map---was one of the tightest Top 40 stations ever playing songs nobody else played.
Rick had powers playing every hour and 40 minutes, as did most Top 40/CHRs. His just happened to be "Teenage Enema Nurses In Bondage" and "88 Lines About 44 Women" instead of "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Endless Love".
One more time...
Five plays a day is not excessive for the right song (which "Hotel California" clearly was for KRTH at the time---number one American band of the 70s, with a song about California).
Why?
Because NOBODY heard it play five times a day.
Or four.
Or three.
Or two.
In fact, a minority of KRTH's weekly cume would hear one of its daily plays.
With properly managed rotations (and in the Jhani Kaye era of KRTH, those were immaculately managed), the typical listener would hear it once every three weeks or so.
And if you care what a radio station plays when you're not listening to it, you really need a hobby. Or a love life. Or something.
Back to the topic: We won't know if KROQ is "spinning currents into the ground" until we see a few ratings books.
Let's remember that Rick Carroll's KROQ---the "Rock of the 80s" format that put the station on the map---was one of the tightest Top 40 stations ever playing songs nobody else played.
Rick had powers playing every hour and 40 minutes, as did most Top 40/CHRs. His just happened to be "Teenage Enema Nurses In Bondage" and "88 Lines About 44 Women" instead of "Bette Davis Eyes" and "Endless Love".
Right now the five heavies get played every 2.8 hours.
That would have been my "B" rotation back in the 70s. Long way from "spinning into the ground".
As I said earlier in this thread, it's comparable to Hot AC, although the playlist covers a much broader time period than Hot AC.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
One thing Jhani was very proud of during his "tenancy" at KRTH was gradually moving the center of the library up by about 15 years. Jay Coffey was still clinging to the standard Oldies format, even as the industry was evolving it to Classic Hits. He barely touched the 80's, much less the late 70's. (That observation is right on the mark, Mr. 76.)
I am reminded that "back in the day" Jhani had two cassettes for each song in the library, with the tip and the tail of each. When he was uncertain of the way two songs would segue, he would play the tail and the tip of the two to be sure there was good flow.
What a lot of folks criticize here is the play of individual songs. People listen to radio for sets of songs, and the blend and flow are just as important as the individual songs.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
And let's also remember that when he programmed KKDJ -- the first successful Top 40 in the market -- his power rotation was about the same, with titles like "Crocodile Rock", "Frankenstein", "Live And Let Die", "The Joker", "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" and "Dancing Machine". Yet no one "complained about the songs repeating too often".
I think you mean "FM Top 40". Otherwise, KRLA, KFWB, KHJ and the like have to be excluded.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Yes. Thanks for catching that omission.
I have posted about the obsession the old KNX-FM guys had with this on several occasions. Songs generally were programmed such that the ending key of the prior song matched the beginning key of the next. The whole point was to keep it smooooooth.
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