I miss having Garth on the country charts, if only for the exposure he used to give to worthy songwriters and performers from outside the Nashville mainstream. He exposed millons of people to New Grass Revival when he turned their "Calling Baton Rouge" into a hit, and took CCM artist Susan Ashton on tour with him as an opening act. I don't pretend to love his music -- indeed, some of it is pretty silly and/or maudlin and his voice can be grating in large doses -- but he'll always have my respect for trying to extend his fans' musical horizons. If only the current stars would do the same.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Los Angeles + Riverside-San Bernardino Radio Ratings: October 2014
- Thread starter pjc1961
- Start date
I miss having Garth on the country charts, if only for the exposure he used to give to worthy songwriters and performers from outside the Nashville mainstream. He exposed millons of people to New Grass Revival when he turned their "Calling Baton Rouge" into a hit, and took CCM artist Susan Ashton on tour with him as an opening act. I don't pretend to love his music -- indeed, some of it is pretty silly and/or maudlin and his voice can be grating in large doses -- but he'll always have my respect for trying to extend his fans' musical horizons. If only the current stars would do the same.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
AAA has not worked in this market since the days of the original KNX-FM, when there was considerably less non-white population. Now, with that shift in demographics, that music does not have enough widespread appeal for the format to be viable.
I think Bonneville's attempt with KSWD will serve as a pretty good dissuasion for anyone to try again.
Oh, and the reason it took 36 days for the call letters to change? Two reasons. First, a mere 14 days elapsed between the sale being announced and the ownership transfer ... hardly enough time to get a lot of the usual pre-launch details taken care of. (In fact, the original AAA format was lifted wholesale from one of their other stations, but don't ask me to remember which one ... I'm pretty sure it was one of the ones subsequently sold to Hubbard). Second, the calls they really wanted, KSND, belong to a station in Portland OR owned by Amador Bustos which had gone on the air originally as "K-Sound", and Bustos refused to give up the calls, even though they had no meaning to the station's branding at the time.
And before someone attacks KM with the old "but I know Hispanics who like AAA" keep this in mind:
While some Hispanics listen to AAA, the overall usage by Hispanics is much lower than that given by non-Hispanic whites. So Hispanics, even if some do listen, as a group don't contribute as much to that format. So a market with a high percentage of Hispanics will be a tougher one to win in than a less ethnic-dominant one.
I wouldn't call it a "depressing dirge" but rather more of a folk song telling a story albeit a sad one for those of us who lived through it.
If you were a teen in February 1959 you hadn't yet experienced a major loss in your music world. Buddy Holly had been very popular with hits that ranged from Rockabilly to ballads to soppy wet teen love songs. Richie Valens (Valenzuela) was huge in his native L.A. market and was making big inroads across the nation as perhaps the first Rock n Roll Latino and had just hit the big time with "La Bamba". J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) had just hit with "Chantilly Lace" and was a well known radio DJ. Just a few evenings before one of the DJ's on KAIR, a Tucson Top-40 AM, had played the opening of "La Bamba" repeatedly as a joke and now its singer was gone.
Today we can think back to literally hundreds of performers who have died young or under tragic circumstances but back then it had been quiet for a long time. Not since James Dean died in a 1955 car crash had their been someone in a cultural stature killed suddenly. And now it was three, including two very popular leaders in the early Rock n Roll era.
I had just arrived at school and was standing at my P.E. locker when I heard the news (it was not my practice to listen to the radio before heading off to school as I got up very early to throw a paper route and that didn't leave much time to eat and get to school). The news hit like a thud (someone else called it a hammer to your heart and that is exactly how it felt). Nothing at the time in my life, nor in the lives of the majority of kids around me had ever hit like that. It was suddenly like someone had turned off the music and all you had was dead silence.
I am now almost 70 but thinking back I can't remember any event making a greater impression on me than the deaths of these three. When I hear "American Pie" it takes me back to February 1959 and to the first great tragedy of my life.
But again, no one in the target demo for these stations lived through it. To them, they focus on the uptempo portion of it, the sing-along lyrics, "Jack be nimble, jack be quick." "Drove my Chevy to the Levy but the levy was dry." They don't know what any of it means, but they also don't know what the Star Spangled Banner means either. If you go to a Don McClean concert and watch the audience, most are having fun through this song, not mourning a tragic loss. They're bouncing along, swaying with each other, waving their hands, and singing along with words they don't understand.
But this song isn't forgotten. It's just that most people don't know what it's about, and didn't experience the original event. Like the Star Spangled Banner.
When you're dealing with Classic Rock and AOR, it's album sales, not singles, that you'd need to look at anyway. Though, of course.....say it with me now...it's not about how the record did 47 years ago...it's whether today's typical target listener wants to hear it now.
Apropos of this discussion - I thought of a song that was a top hit in 1968 - and how it's has never been heard on Oldies or Classic Hits Radio - Honey (I Miss You) by Bobby Goldsboro. First, let's concede that the song is very depressing, and that nobody wants to hear it again....ever.
Nevertheless - it was a number 1 song in 1968 for 5 weeks, and number 3 for the year, bested only by Hey Jude (#1), and Love is Blue (#2).
Now here are some songs that are (or have been) staples of Oldies and Classic Hits radio, and their respective 1968 chart positions:
(Sittin on) The Dock of the Bay - #4
Mrs. Robinson - #9
Mony Mony - #13
Dance to the Music - #20
Jumpin' Jack Flash - #50 (now that's a shocker. I would have assumed it was a Top 10 hit)
Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing - #57
Magic Carpet Ride - #62
Suzie Q - #97
Last edited:
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Thanks for proving, Llew, that chart positions do not factor into the longevity of songs' appeal.
Also, I think you're right that no one wants to hear that Goldsboro song again. I bet even that Colorado station doesn't play it.
Also, I think you're right that no one wants to hear that Goldsboro song again. I bet even that Colorado station doesn't play it.
For clarity, Llew, these are year-end chart numbers, correct? Whose chart? I'm curious because in Billboard, "Dance To The Music" peaked at #8, while "Jumping Jack Flash" peaked at #3, as did "Magic Carpet Ride".
T
Thomps2525
Guest
Awww, you guys think Honey is a depressing song? Remember the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour episode in which Tommy Smothers was an entrepeneur offering guided tours of the "Honey house" and selling little saplings that looked like the "twig" that Honey planted? Classic!
My favorite Bobby Goldsboro song: I'm A Drifter. He wrote it too! It should have been a top-ten hit but it peaked at #46 in 1969.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzPaf7gDa2c
My favorite Bobby Goldsboro song: I'm A Drifter. He wrote it too! It should have been a top-ten hit but it peaked at #46 in 1969.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzPaf7gDa2c
Yes, Michael - Year End chart numbers from Billboard.
Goldsboro seemed to specialize in songs with laughably tortured lyrics. From Honey...
"See the tree how big it's grown
But friend it hasn't been too long, it wasn't big
And I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it, was just a twig"
Even worse - from The Straight Life
"Having a ball on a couple a' bob
Treatin' the ladies to corn on the cob..."
First of all, since when do Americans refer to money colloquially as "bob?"
Second - what kind of swinging bachelor tries to woo the ladies by giving them corn?
Do they floss before kissing?
While I'm on the subject, my favorite tortured lyric (I mentally collect these, for some reason) is still from Swearin' to God (Frankie Valli)
"No one gets me up there like you can,
Cause girl, you know I'm only hu-MAN."
T
Thomps2525
Guest
We're getting way off topic but I guess that's okay. How about the Steve Miller Band's Take The Money & Run which rhymed "Texas" with "facts is." Yikes! And let's not forget this spoken exchange in the Shangri-Las 1965 hit Give Him A Great Big Kiss:
"Is he a good dancer?"
"What do you mean, 'is he a good dancer'?"
"Well, how does he dance?"
"Close---very very close."
Who would have guessed that "Is he a good dancer?" could be such an inscrutable query that it needed further explanation?
"Is he a good dancer?"
"What do you mean, 'is he a good dancer'?"
"Well, how does he dance?"
"Close---very very close."
Who would have guessed that "Is he a good dancer?" could be such an inscrutable query that it needed further explanation?
I actually heard WDJO Cincinnati recently play "Honey"
The thought of that brings up scenes of "The Walking Dead" in my mind.
1480 AM. Isn't that the old WKRP?
It also gets played on Sirius XM's '60s channel. I never listen to it all the way through. I guess SXM can afford to play a "bad song" (David's term) every so often because most subscribers will just switch to another SXM channel when that happens, not to FM, and the number of people who cancel just because a certain channel is playing a stiff or a "bad song" must be infinitesimal.
- Status