Well, when you obtain a great memory listening to a legendary radio station for about 20 years, 1984 til around 2007, you’re bound to remember a few things they did, especially in the early going.
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KROQ is spinning currents into the ground
- Thread starter MarkW
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Well, when you obtain a great memory listening to a legendary radio station for about 20 years, 1984 til around 2007, you’re bound to remember a few things they did, especially in the early going.
That was before this thing called imaging.
Imaging? Are you kidding? Probably nobody paid more for imaging than KNX-FM. They didn't just have jingles, they had full 30 second and 60 second musical interludes of smooth sounding music played by studio musicians that featured their name and positioning statement as a lyric to the song. Had lots of 'em. And that is not even mentioning the Odyssey Files!
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
IIRC, that was part of the "end of the format" programming right before the "Hitradio 93" format began August 25, 1983.
But they're very different from the stingers and very short sweepers that came into play later.
That demo may have been the early 80s, but it sounded like the 60s compared to what came next.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Sorry, A, but I have to side with Flipper on this one. KNX-FM had the perfect imaging for the format and for its time and it is entirely unfair to compare that with the imaging that came in later years for entirely different format concepts.
I understand that, but I originally brought up imaging because he brought up songs in the same key back to back. That concept was only really a factor in the 70s before high powered effects based imaging made such detail obsolete. There was also a time when KMET would do segues based on themes and topics. Also obsolete by the late 80s. (Of course, so was KMET)
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
And while I understand that, I think Flipper made it clear in his original post that he was talking about back then and you are trying to make it a comparison with more recent times.
In context, telling us what was obsolete later still does not negate his original point. He was not talking about the present.
In context, telling us what was obsolete later still does not negate his original point. He was not talking about the present.
I wasn't either. What I was talking about happened 30 years ago
I recognized he was talking about the 70s. That's why I phrased my comment the way I did.
I’m a huge alternative music fan but unless it’s WEQX being streamed, I’m usually flipping on the SXM app. Alt radio on most terrestrial radio stations are Alt 40. Probably by design though…
If terrestrial radio could charge subscription, it would sound more like SXM.
But as long as it's paid for by advertising, this is what you'll get.
What’s SXM’s business model? Do they only rely mainly on subscriptions? even the spots heard during sports telecasts sound like $2 spots for any terrestrial station in the country
The music channels are commercial free. No advertising. Thus no need for ratings. No need to achieve certain demos.
The other channels have ads plus the subscription fee. Radio has one revenue stream: Advertising.
That is because they can offer multiple variants of different genres and, at the same time, do not need to cater to advertisers.
They still think that larger playlists are desirable, much of which is Lee Abrams' heritage. That annoys me to no end with any of the pop and country decade or era channels.
And as long as satellite is paid for by the consumer...
If you look at the shareholder reports, you see that only a tiny fraction of revenue comes from ad sales on the talk formats. Most of that is "fill" to cover the original network spot breaks.
Maybe they've come to the conclusion that the channels in mainstream formats that are well represented on FM in nearly every city need to offer some additional reason to pay for radio other than freedom from commercials. On The Highway, the current country channel, that extra is an active effort to promote new artists and pick the probable "next singles" from the established ones. Some of the new artists catch on, often a year after their initial exposure on The Highway. Some never do. And often, labels have other ideas about what works as a single. For example, Luke Combs' "Tomorrow Me" has been in heavy rotation (once every 2 1/2 to 3 hours) on The Highway for a couple of months, but when Combs' label sent the first single from his new album to radio, last Friday, it was "The Kind of Love We Make." I've noticed the same sort of thing on Hits 1, the mainstream pop channel.
The classic country channels actually have fairly limited playlists, save for Willie's Place, which overexposes Nelson and several lesser-known old-timers who Nelson admires. Johnny Bush comes to mind -- a very minor hit maker, but apparently an old Texas buddy of Willie's. The problem with the other older country channels is their slavish adherence to year of release. There just aren't enough really big hits that still play well today from the 2000s or the 2010s to make Y2Kountry sound like the FM country stations it should be sounding like. The reason is that classic country stations on FM are also playing titles from the '80s and '90s, and those decades are fenced in on the Prime Country channel, where they have the same problem -- not enough songs that are still strong enough today to stock a 700 to 800 song playlist.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Okay, but where were your allowances for the uniqueness of the KNX-FM format? I must have missed them if they were in there.
Huh? I wasn't commenting on that. I said "That was before this thing called imaging."
What I heard in the posted demo was jingles and original theme music. That's not what we refer to as imaging.
Since the 60's, jingles, liners, sweepers and promos all are part of the imaging package.
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