Marty Thompson in line to be new PD for KRTH

[OldiesCat]

PD for KRTH

and why in the heck would Infinity, the company that blew up CBS-FM (among others) go BACK to the brand of Oldies they've already deemed is "over"? While a noble thought, it makes absolutely ZERO sense.


>
> Hopefully, they will bring back all the oldies from before
> 1964, like Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Leslie Gore, Dionne
> Warwick (sp?), maybe a little Jan & Dean, doo-wop, etc.
>

 

[gr8oldies]

Re: PD for KRTH

If Marty can program Country, I don't know why he couldn't program a younger version of Oldies. Dan Allen may have been another story, but I'm not sure "Marty with the Party" couldn't be successful with it.

 

[OldiesCat]

KRTH

Nobody's saying he can't. But he has been very vocal he has little love for the sixties and seventies mix on most oldies stations today. We KNOW he'd be successful with it, IF it's something he's passionate about. A CC pd we knew out west said he used to refer to the sixties/70s superhits approach as "stupid hits of the '60s and '70s" and was very against the evolution of oldies out of the fifties and into the seventies.


> If Marty can program Country, I don't know why he couldn't
> program a younger version of Oldies. Dan Allen may have been
> another story, but I'm not sure "Marty with the Party"
> couldn't be successful with it.
>

 

[Inventor989]

Re: KRTH

he has been very vocal he has
> little love for the sixties and seventies mix on most oldies
> stations today. We KNOW he'd be successful with it, IF it's
> something he's passionate about. A CC pd we knew out west
> said he used to refer to the sixties/70s superhits approach
> as "stupid hits of the '60s and '70s" and was very against
> the evolution of oldies out of the fifties and into the
> seventies.

And why not? Every oldies station that walked away from its original formula has been a failure. They blew off their core and didn't gain younger demos needed to replace them. And, in the process, most tightened their list to the strangulation point to be "safe". WGRR was at its most successful when testing music but still running a list of 850-900 tunes...and a fair percentage of those were pre-64. Infinity damn near killed it when corporate came to town with their database and "plugged it in".

Marty could do a great job with KRTH if Infinity has learned from its mistakes and will let him do it right.

 

[Inventor989]

Re: Oh, Masta Masta Masta...

> > > Hopefully, they will bring back all the oldies from
> before
> >
> > > 1964, like Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Leslie Gore,
> > Dionne
> > > Warwick (sp?), maybe a little Jan & Dean, doo-wop, etc.
> >
> > One would hope those Acts are never mentioned again. All
> > that stuff died a slow painful death on K-Earth.
>
> At this point, not only are pre-1964 oldies the kiss of
> death, ratings-wise (and we know KRTH already is in
> trouble), but pre-1970 oldies as well.
>
> Remember, 45-year-olds graduated high school in 1978, and to
> them a song from 1971 was already an oldie when they
> graduated.
>
> If KRTH wants to stay 25-49, not only the 50's music, but
> also a lot of 60's, has to go. Soon.
>
> Those who wish for pre-1964 are not the audience KRTH needs
> to attract to get ratings and revenue. Sorry.

Too simplistic, sir. KRTH's problems lie elsewhere...like knowing the right songs to play, and getting its groove back between the songs. Infinity has been famous for cutting music research. If you test pre-64 songs among 40-54 adults, you'll find plenty of titles with huge scores. The key is playing the ones that have younger appeal, not excising them, as part of a wide variety oldies format. Build coalitions of different listener groups and you build a product that is unassailable. The original WCBS-FM was exactly that; so was WGRR until 2000.

The real problem in oldies radio is laziness on the sales side. With as many baby-boomers 55-64 as there are (with huge spendable income), there's money to be made targeting 45-64...it just isn't easy ad agency money. That money is controlled by thirty-something buyers who look down their coiffed noses at oldies. Corporate sales staffs want to be order takers, not sales professionals. If corporate big-brother radio had taken the initiative to develop new business in the target, oldies wouldn't be in the state it's in.

 

[OldiesCat]

KRTH

"Every oldies station" who's (in essence) dropped 50's and added 70's has been a failure? Really? Which ones, and please be specific- if you're going to make that outrageous a statement, be prepared to back it up.


>
> And why not? Every oldies station that walked away from its
> original formula has been a failure. They blew off their
> core and didn't gain younger demos needed to replace them.
> And, in the process, most tightened their list to the
> strangulation point to be "safe". WGRR was at its most
> successful when testing music but still running a list of
> 850-900 tunes...and a fair percentage of those were pre-64.
> Infinity damn near killed it when corporate came to town
> with their database and "plugged it in".
>
> Marty could do a great job with KRTH if Infinity has learned
> from its mistakes and will let him do it right.
>

 

[gr8oldies]

Re: Oh, Masta Masta Masta...

I'm just not sure how much of the 70s stuff really stands the test if time. A lot of it's already being covered in Classic Rock, but there really was a doldrums period after 1971..the end of the Beatles, Motown moving to the West Coast, lots of Carpenters, and slow folksy stuff..not to menion the Osmonds. Does anyone want to"Kung Fu Fighting" (#1 in 1975, I believe) every day in 2005? Then it was onto the disco.

 

[gr8oldies]

Re: KRTH

I don't know how many tunes WGRR ran at any one time. Seems that they had a pretty tight list of day in, day out stuff but spiced things up really well with theme weekends and specialty shows. But if they were playing mostly pre-1964 stuff in 1996, those listeners are ten years older and KRTH isn't about to follow those listeners until they die.

 

[KMRichards]

Re: Oh, Masta Masta Masta...

> The real problem in oldies radio is laziness on the sales
> side. With as many baby-boomers 55-64 as there are (with
> huge spendable income), there's money to be made targeting
> 45-64...it just isn't easy ad agency money. That money is
> controlled by thirty-something buyers who look down their
> coiffed noses at oldies. Corporate sales staffs want to be
> order takers, not sales professionals. If corporate
> big-brother radio had taken the initiative to develop new
> business in the target, oldies wouldn't be in the state it's
> in.

That is my point exactly. Infinity doesn't want the old end of the demo, they want the young end. Look at their FMs in this market:

KCBS (Jack) - targeted 25-49.
KLSX (Free) - targeted 25-49.
KROQ (K-Rock) - targeted 18-34.

And given that the lion's share of Infinity's ad buys are agency buys, the buyers at the agencies -- "coiffed noses" or not* -- are the determiners.

* - I never before saw a hair styling term applied to noses before, either.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[Inventor989]

Re: KRTH

> "Every oldies station" who's (in essence) dropped 50's and
> added 70's has been a failure? Really? Which ones, and
> please be specific- if you're going to make that outrageous
> a statement, be prepared to back it up.
>
>
> >
> > And why not? Every oldies station that walked away from
> its
> > original formula has been a failure. They blew off their
> > core and didn't gain younger demos needed to replace them.
>
> > And, in the process, most tightened their list to the
> > strangulation point to be "safe". WGRR was at its most
> > successful when testing music but still running a list of
> > 850-900 tunes...and a fair percentage of those were
> pre-64.
> > Infinity damn near killed it when corporate came to town
> > with their database and "plugged it in".
> >
> > Marty could do a great job with KRTH if Infinity has
> learned
> > from its mistakes and will let him do it right.
> >
>
Track the 12+ Arbitrons for WOGL Philadelphia, WCBS-FM, New York, WGRR Cincinnati, KLUV Dallas, KFRC S.F., and even KRTH between 1998 and 2003 (after Infinity excised pre-64 music in 2000-01). The only one that seemed to hold its own was WODS in Boston, and even they were wobbly. So, okay, I guess I should have specified "every INFINITY oldies station". Sorry. They are the people that took the lead in your line of thinking...and killed the goose in many of their markets. Point is simply this: not every pre-64 song is death to a 40-54 listener. So for you to make the blanket statement that all pre-64 music is wrong for the survival of the format is simply not provable...and the ratings prove that Infinity damaged their franchises by removing them.

 

[Inventor989]

Re: Oh, Masta Masta Masta...

> > The real problem in oldies radio is laziness on the sales
> > side. With as many baby-boomers 55-64 as there are (with
> > huge spendable income), there's money to be made targeting
>
> > 45-64...it just isn't easy ad agency money. That money is
>
> > controlled by thirty-something buyers who look down their
> > coiffed noses at oldies. Corporate sales staffs want to
> be
> > order takers, not sales professionals. If corporate
> > big-brother radio had taken the initiative to develop new
> > business in the target, oldies wouldn't be in the state
> it's
> > in.
>
> That is my point exactly. Infinity doesn't want the old end
> of the demo, they want the young end. Look at their FMs in
> this market:
>
> KCBS (Jack) - targeted 25-49.
> KLSX (Free) - targeted 25-49.
> KROQ (K-Rock) - targeted 18-34.
>
> And given that the lion's share of Infinity's ad buys are
> agency buys, the buyers at the agencies -- "coiffed noses"
> or not* -- are the determiners.
>
> * - I never before saw a hair styling term applied to noses
> before, either.
>

* That's why they make nose hair trimmmers. You need to watch more nip/tuck.

As long as 30 year olds control agency buying, this will always be the case...even though there is way more spendable income in baby-boomer demos. A leader like Infinity, who has assets like KRTH to protect, ought to be taking the initiative to develop new markets for the product...even if it means an end-run around agency ignorance.

 

[OldiesCat]

KRTH

a) nobody cares about 12+ ratings and haven't since the '70s

b) between 1998 and today, stations have gone up and stations have gone down. Your claim makes it sound like any Oldies station who has dropped '50s and added '70s is about to be deep-sixed, as if they're shadows of their former selves. Let's look at significant Oldies stations around the country who are healthy in 25-54 adult ratings AND doing well revenue-wise:

WODS
KQQL
WRIT
WOGL
WOMC
WODJ
KOOL-FM
KONO
KXKL
WMXJ
WRBQ
KLOU
KBSG
WWBB
WWSW
WMJI
WGRR

These are just a few examples from top 35 or so markets. Not my opinion- their current solid numbers are verifiable and real.

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