More 70's/80's music on AC?

[Chad_Hauris]

In the Midland/Odessa TX. area we have 2 AC stations...KODM, which has been AC for a very long time, and a new upstart Mix 106.7, which changed from Jammin' Oldies a year or so ago to AC. 106.7 uses a typical AC positioning, such as "Your Official Listen At Work Station".

KODM seems to play what is usually considered AC...90's, 80's and some current AC hits.
However Mix 106.7 seems to play a lot of 70's and 80's...songs like "Operator" by Jim Croce, "Workin' My Way Back to you Babe" by the Spinners, "Turn The Beat Around", etc. It seems like most of the songs they play are 70's and 80's...is this just an approach to compete against the existing AC station by offering a different music style or is this a trend among the Clear Channel "Mix" stations?

 

[radiolover78]

> In the Midland/Odessa TX. area we have 2 AC stations...KODM,
> which has been AC for a very long time, and a new upstart
> Mix 106.7, which changed from Jammin' Oldies a year or so
> ago to AC. 106.7 uses a typical AC positioning, such as
> "Your Official Listen At Work Station".
>
> KODM seems to play what is usually considered AC...90's,
> 80's and some current AC hits.
> However Mix 106.7 seems to play a lot of 70's and
> 80's...songs like "Operator" by Jim Croce, "Workin' My Way
> Back to you Babe" by the Spinners, "Turn The Beat Around",
> etc. It seems like most of the songs they play are 70's and
> 80's...is this just an approach to compete against the
> existing AC station by offering a different music style or
> is this a trend among the Clear Channel "Mix" stations?
>

I'm not sure, but there are AC stations that play a lot of older songs.<P ID="signature">______________
Kevin</P>

 

[BrettV]

You have to remember that the majority of CC's "Mix" stations are Hot AC, and those that are AC can tend to lean towards Hot AC.

However, what you have said does not lead me to believe it is an AC leaning towards Hot AC.

AC can work in many different ways. Some approaches lean towards currents and songs from the last 10-15 years. Some go all the way back to the 60's, and have an Oldies/AC sort of combination. Each AC station is a bit different, and each type of AC station, be it a current dominated AC station or one that has music from the 60's on up has the potential to be successful, as long as it is programmed well.

 

[gr8oldies]

CC has a hot A/C and a soft A/C in town. Mix 107.7 is heavy on the 80s, 90s and currents but is experimenting with Variety Hits, so there's the occasional "Mack the Knife" or Beatles song, especially on the weekend. Lite 99.9 does seventies weekends, and is heavy on soft 70s, a few 60s (pretty much limited to "I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops)and a smattering of currents.



> You have to remember that the majority of CC's "Mix"
> stations are Hot AC, and those that are AC can tend to lean
> towards Hot AC.
>
> However, what you have said does not lead me to believe it
> is an AC leaning towards Hot AC.
>
> AC can work in many different ways. Some approaches lean
> towards currents and songs from the last 10-15 years. Some
> go all the way back to the 60's, and have an Oldies/AC sort
> of combination. Each AC station is a bit different, and each
> type of AC station, be it a current dominated AC station or
> one that has music from the 60's on up has the potential to
> be successful, as long as it is programmed well.
>
<P ID="signature">______________
I'll get back to you when I think of a cute quote</P>

 

[Jay_F]

> In the Midland/Odessa TX. area we have 2 AC stations...KODM,
> which has been AC for a very long time, and a new upstart
> Mix 106.7, which changed from Jammin' Oldies a year or so
> ago to AC. 106.7 uses a typical AC positioning, such as
> "Your Official Listen At Work Station".
>
> KODM seems to play what is usually considered AC...90's,
> 80's and some current AC hits.
> However Mix 106.7 seems to play a lot of 70's and
> 80's...songs like "Operator" by Jim Croce, "Workin' My Way
> Back to you Babe" by the Spinners, "Turn The Beat Around",
> etc. It seems like most of the songs they play are 70's and
> 80's...is this just an approach to compete against the
> existing AC station by offering a different music style or
> is this a trend among the Clear Channel "Mix" stations?
>


It seems AC plays more 70s now than it did say 5 years ago.

 

[BobRoss]

> KODM seems to play what is usually considered AC...90's,
> 80's and some current AC hits.
> However Mix 106.7 seems to play a lot of 70's and
> 80's...is this just an approach to compete against the
> existing AC station by offering a different music style or
> is this a trend among the Clear Channel "Mix" stations?


As BrettV said in a different reply, AC radio can be successful in many different ways. There's no hard-set definition of what AC radio is. An AC station that only plays 1980-present can be just as successful as one playing 1965-present... and anything in between. As long as the station is programmed properly (including good music flow/rotation, strong personalities, exciting promotions, and so forth) that's what counts.

Another factor is the local audience. All things being equal, a station that's #1 in one market may not be so successful in a similar market. For example, there may be some markets where Country/AC crossovers are welcomed with open arms, while such efforts are shunned by listeners in other markets.

If KODM doesn't play any 70's music, they probably have a good reason for it. Perhaps they have a sister station that plays oldies, and the GM won't allow stations to overlap their music. Or maybe KODM didn't want listeners to confuse it with the Jammin' Oldies station that was on 106.7 before Mix. Just as likely, maybe KODM did research and found that listeners don't really care for 70's tunes as much as they want to hear the 80's and 90's. Then again, if they were the only AC game in town, maybe it was the GM, PD or MD who made a personal executive decision to scrap the 70's category just because they wanted to.

Of course, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and that's where Mix comes into play. Just as KODM has reasons to not play 70's, Mix has reasons to play 70's. Their biggest reason is probably the fact that KODM doesn't. They may have done their own research too, finding that KODM listeners would love to hear Barry White or James Taylor mixed in with their Phil Collins and Melissa Ethridge.

I think anytime a new AC station signs on to combat a heritage AC, there HAS to be some noticeable differences in the music selection. After all, if both stations are playing the same stuff, what would be a KODM listener's incentive to check out Mix? By playing songs KODM does NOT play, Mix has a way to perk up some ears and get some attention.

In almost any market, a "new" AC station will usually avoid taking on the same "flavor" of AC as the existing station. If there's already a mainstream AC in town, a newcomer will usually be Hot AC or Soft AC. Or if they do go head-to-head mainstream, the newer station will still tend to focus on one particular type of music more than the rest... maybe it plays currents more often, or it plays oldies more often... or maybe they don't play any extremely downtempo or uptempo songs.

All in all, I would NOT say this is a "trend among the ClearChannel Mix stations," because there isn't one. CC uses "Mix" on both mainstream and hot AC stations, so can't be an across-the-board playlist every Mix station uses. (Even if all the Mix stations were Mainstream OR Hot, it would still be dumb to have a national playlist... again, local tastes vary from market to market.)

Probably the only thing that comes close to a "trend" I've seen on various Mix stations is that many use the same pair of male and female voices for their imaging... and it gets annoying when all they do is just repeat each other. Reminds me of the lax coach and the assistant coach on American Pie.