More 80s New Wave Type Songs on KRTH?

[justpassingthough]

That's the first time I've heard the subject of "You're So Vain" being Warren Beatty! I usually hear "Mick Jagger" or "James Taylor".

Jagger sang back ground vocals. He's most prominent towards the end of the song. It's been said that it was about Beatty, but the story keeps changing...

If I remember correctly, David Geffen was the last presumed subject of the song, but as you say, the story keeps changing...

 

[recto101]

Well KRTH 101FM will have to be more like KISQ-FM in San Francisco in able to stay in Business.
KRTH cannot be like KOSF-FM 103.7 the reason is that in the January Ratings
KISQ got a 3.7 in the books but KOSF got a 3.4 in the books.

 

[MarkO]

For what it’s worth, the classic hits station here in London, England (“Gold”), which had previously been skewing heavily in a 70s/90s direction for a few years, has now re-added a lot of 60s music (entire decade, 1960-69).

60s songs now make up at least half the content during a normal hour, and many songs they're playing fall outside of the typical "burned-out alltime top 300" category. Gold sounds much more together and energetic as a result, ratings are up, and the station seems to have plenty of support from sponsors.

I believe Gold figured out that refocusing on the 60s was the best way to carve out a fresh position in a large market where several competing AC and classic rock stations also play a lot of 70s-90s music.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

Classic Hits station will have to include compatible music from the 80s if the format is to survive and reach demos younger than 55. As previously noted in this thread, there are a number of 80s songs that test well in markets 'back east.' For example, Huey Lewis' "Heart of Rock n Roll" and "If This Is It." Some stations even play "Workin' For A Livin'." If the playlist and Selector are massaged and managed properly, the 80s should work.

 

[davideduardo]

Well KRTH 101FM will have to be more like KISQ-FM in San Francisco in able to stay in Business.

Who says they have to change? All KRTH has to do is refresh the library to remain relevant to 25-54's.

KRTH cannot be like KOSF-FM 103.7 the reason is that in the January Ratings
KISQ got a 3.7 in the books but KOSF got a 3.4 in the books.

KOSF is classified as classic hits and KISQ is classified as r&b / old school. KRTH is not going to go r&b in a market that is now under 8% African American.

 

[wdb2003]

recto101 my friend

We already have KHHT that fills the void of r&b and old school. Same VT jocks and the same music logs although KHHT playlist is very tight and not open as much as your KISS in the Bay Area. KISQ leans on New Wave and Freestyle music which I like. KHHT leans on Urban Oldies with a limited amount of 90's in the mix. They play Madonna and Stacy Q as well. KRTH and KHHT are doing just fine. I actually like the direction KRTH is going. Something fresh and the WOW factor thats missing from Los Angeles radio.

 

[recto101]

recto101 my friend

We already have KHHT that fills the void of r&b and old school. Same VT jocks and the same music logs although KHHT playlist is very tight and not open as much as your KISS in the Bay Area. KISQ leans on New Wave and Freestyle music which I like. KHHT leans on Urban Oldies with a limited amount of 90's in the mix. They play Madonna and Stacy Q as well. KRTH and KHHT are doing just fine. I actually like the direction KRTH is going. Something fresh and the WOW factor thats missing from Los Angeles radio.

OK I'll start Listening to KHHT.

 

[Seltzer]

Realistically, KRTH is going to have to start leaning more on 80s and early 90s hits to stay relevant. I've brought this up before, but music awareness is most prevalent around age 17 or 18 in life, and the music we enjoy at this time tends to stick with us throughout life. If you're trying to reach anyone 35, 45 or 55- this equates to music that was popular in 1994, 1984 and 1974, respectively.

Effectively, anything before 1974 should be played with relative infrequency and it should be bigger hits that tend to transcend time- not obscure album cuts- in an age of PPM.

I would not touch the 90s. Not time plus traditionally a hard decade to get music that tests well.

If you're trying to reach the younger end of the demo, though, you're going to have to start relying on more late 80s and early 90s music, as this music is now "classic".

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Realistically, KRTH is going to have to start leaning more on 80s and early 90s hits to stay relevant. I've brought this up before, but music awareness is most prevalent around age 17 or 18 in life, and the music we enjoy at this time tends to stick with us throughout life. If you're trying to reach anyone 35, 45 or 55- this equates to music that was popular in 1994, 1984 and 1974, respectively.

Effectively, anything before 1974 should be played with relative infrequency and it should be bigger hits that tend to transcend time- not obscure album cuts- in an age of PPM.

I would not touch the 90s. Not time plus traditionally a hard decade to get music that tests well.

That's cause most 90's music sucked wasn't very good. Prime example: Alanis Morrissette had one of the biggest albums of the decade with Jagged Little Pill. Isn't it ironic? (No, it isn't).

 

[Scoobyfan1]

Personally, I think every decade has their hits and their misses, so dismissing an entire decade of music is foolish. However, new wave probably has a limited shelf life at Oldies stations. After a while, the novelty of new wave tends to wear off, which was the problem when there were a dirth of new 80s stations at the start of the millenium.

Oldies/classic hits stations should add 80s and even early 90s tracks, but they should be from core artists at the CHR formats of the time. As someone pointed out, they've heard Janet Jackson on KRTH twice within the last week. I would think that artists like Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi, U2, and some of the softer ballads from the hair bands are going to be a more natural fit at the format.

I tend to agree with that. I've listened to airchecks online for several years now of AM stations that were Top 40 powerhouses in the 60s and 70s(WLS, KJR, WABC, etc.) and in a couple cases(especially KJR's), in the late 80s they were playing classic hits like The Eagles, The Beatles, and others from the 50s, 60s and 70s, alongside songs like Allentown by Billy Joel, or Life In A Northern Town by The Dream Academy and others.

I think an oldies station can play the softer songs from the 80s, 90s and 2000s along with the staples of the format and do just fine. Granted the example I mentioned was AM and not FM, but it's still a good point.

 

[Seltzer]

Personally, I think every decade has their hits and their misses, so dismissing an entire decade of music is foolish. However, new wave probably has a limited shelf life at Oldies stations. After a while, the novelty of new wave tends to wear off, which was the problem when there were a dirth of new 80s stations at the start of the millenium.

Oldies/classic hits stations should add 80s and even early 90s tracks, but they should be from core artists at the CHR formats of the time. As someone pointed out, they've heard Janet Jackson on KRTH twice within the last week. I would think that artists like Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi, U2, and some of the softer ballads from the hair bands are going to be a more natural fit at the format.

I tend to agree with that. I've listened to airchecks online for several years now of AM stations that were Top 40 powerhouses in the 60s and 70s(WLS, KJR, WABC, etc.) and in a couple cases(especially KJR's), in the late 80s they were playing classic hits like The Eagles, The Beatles, and others from the 50s, 60s and 70s, alongside songs like Allentown by Billy Joel, or Life In A Northern Town by The Dream Academy and others.

I think an oldies station can play the softer songs from the 80s, 90s and 2000s along with the staples of the format and do just fine. Granted the example I mentioned was AM and not FM, but it's still a good point.

I agree with your take on the 80s. Still think the 90s need to be avoided right now. I'll give you Mariah's "Vision Of Love"..her first hit at this point. Classic Hits stations have no business even thinking about the 2000s. That's at least 10 years away..

 

[Marv-L.A.]

One thing that I've never understood about KRTH is that given the huge amount of 80s music in the libraries of KBIG & KOST, why isn't KRTH playing more of those same tunes, since (to the best of my knowledge) neither KBIG nor KOST has any issues related to an 'aging' audience?

KBIG recently added the positioning statement 'From the 90s 'Til Now' to their on-air presentation but they still play a ton of 80s music, as do most Hot AC stations, which should be a sign to Kaye or KRTHs MD that adding 80s music to their station's library entails minimal risk, does it not?

Isn't it also very reasonable to assume that hefty numbers of core audiences such as women 35-44 and women 25-54 all have KOST, KBIG & KRTH on their presets, and that consequently KRTH has very little lose by not refocusing the music to add more 80s product?

 

[justpassingthough]

One thing that I've never understood about KRTH is that given the huge amount of 80s music in the libraries of KBIG & KOST, why isn't KRTH playing more of those same tunes, since (to the best of my knowledge) neither KBIG nor KOST has any issues related to an 'aging' audience?

KBIG recently added the positioning statement 'From the 90s 'Til Now' to their on-air presentation but they still play a ton of 80s music, as do most Hot AC stations, which should be a sign to Kaye or KRTHs MD that adding 80s music to their station's library entails minimal risk, does it not?

Isn't it also very reasonable to assume that hefty numbers of core audiences such as women 35-44 and women 25-54 all have KOST, KBIG & KRTH on their presets, and that consequently KRTH has very little lose by not refocusing the music to add more 80s product?

KBIG rarely touches 80s music anymore- as they've really shifted to late 90s and beyond in the past year or so. Just to be sure, I pulled up the logs from Friday and they played 3 songs from the 80s during the entire day- Corey Hart, New Order and Real Life "Send Me an Angel". Most of the 90s they touched was late 90s like Natalie Imbruglia and Tal Bahmann. The only real exception being a Bell Biv Devoe song in the 10pm hour- which would have been unimaginable 10 years ago for a Hot AC to even touch a BBD song. The format has undergone a dramatic shift in the past few years as its basically supplanted CHR as the new music format with the greatest musical variety as CHR has become increasingly rhythmic.

 

[emailfailed]

Color me wrong here, but I think that Mike Phillips gets a bum rap. The station became predictable and stale later in his tenure. Early on he gave the station focus. But his philosophy was for a tight playlist when he programmed CHR and it worked at first at KRTH. Remember too that we don't know what corporate control was in play then as well. The man's dead, can't defend himself now and quite frankly was a great programmer for most of his life.

KRTH is very well programmed now and I think that as long as they keep up with their audience they'll do just fine.

I agree that Mike Phillips does get a little bit of a bum wrap, because if you recall KRTH in the 80s, despite an open and interesting playlist, was kind of all over the place. While there were some great shows, like Mr. Rock and Roll's noon countdown, but the station at the time had too much of an AOR feel to it.

Starting in 1990 and into 1991 Phillips, along with Bill Drake and even Ron Jacobs brought back what everybody wanted, a 93/KHJ reunion with Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele, along with the high-pace energy and the Mann jingles. With this also came a tight, overly research playlist.

With these elements in place it worked.

The ratings showed many people didn't prefer a WCBS-FM type station that KODJ/KCBS was attempting to do or a pre-Beatles oldies format that KRLA was doing at the time prior to 1994 (as most may recall in 1994 KRLA went to a R&B "Art Laboe oldies" format), and that people apparently liked and wanted "the same old song."

I think what happened with Phillips' era KRTH was part management fault and part fault of circumstantial events.

Under Phillips' watch two of the biggest names in L.A. radio, who helped KRTH achieve high ratings, died. Having Shotgun Tom Kelly do afternoons and doing the gimmicky morning show "auditions" with people like Dave Diamond and Dan Ingram, and of course have the voice of KRTH do the morning show, worked for a time.

The problem was by late 1997, early 1998 a lot of casual listeners were complaining about 101.1's now infamous tight playlist and it was until (I believe) the spring 98 book that KRTH's ratings plummeted. The reaction to that, if anybody remembers, was this rather odd move to add a handful of 80s songs, which sounded very out of place.

Almost from that moment on until Mr Kaye took over KRTH for a few years had some struggles with the ratings.

 

[emailfailed]

I apologize for the grammar mistakes as this wa my first time posting here using an iPad. :'(

I think I'll stick with my desktop.

 

[wdb2003]

LOL dont feel bad try typing on your iphone. We understand what your saying

 

[LKellerIII]

KRTH is basically more like CC owned oldies station KISQ-FM in San Francisco. Maybe KRTH might use the term "THe Southland's Old School" I do remember listening to KRTH 101 and I noticed that their new playlist resembled Kiss-FM San Francisco they were more 1980's more CHR, motown, Old School rap leaning. Maybe they might have "The 80's at 8pm" like KISQ does. With KOSF-FM (CC's other Oldies station) in SFO the jury is still out if they should keep doing oldies or even consider putting KKSF Newstalk on their 103.7FM spot. I do remember NYC WCBS-FM is also compared to KISQ San Francisco based on their playlist.

You really think so? I spent a week in LA in December, and had K-Earth on much of the time. Unless it's changed since then, it's nothing like KISQ - "the Bay's Old School." Granted, Kiss has added a lot of rythmic 80s songs that are out of the R&B mainstream (Madonna, Wham, etc.), but there is still very little mainstream 80s rock on KISQ.

If you want to compare KRTH to Bay Area CC stations, I'd say KRTH is closer to "The New 103.7,"with more rythmic hits, but still nothing close to KISQ.

KISQ's equivalent in LA is CC's Hot 92.3. Even uses some of the same jocks - Tony Sandoval and Lisa St. Regis.

http://www.hot923.com/main.html

 

[davideduardo]

The problem was by late 1997, early 1998 a lot of casual listeners were complaining about 101.1's now infamous tight playlist and it was until (I believe) the spring 98 book that KRTH's ratings plummeted. The reaction to that, if anybody remembers, was this rather odd move to add a handful of 80s songs, which sounded very out of place.

Almost from that moment on until Mr Kaye took over KRTH for a few years had some struggles with the ratings.

KRTH continued through the very last dairy book in a range that was mostly below a 2.5, albeit with occasional higher spikes, in the key 25-54 demo. The last diary book was a 2.3 in that demo.

The PPM brought a new norm: mid 3's with no change in format from the last diary book to the first PPM data. The PPM picked up on the huge amount of casual listening as a second or third choice station. The diary tended to measure top of mind, while the PPM gave some formats, particularly mass appeal gold-based ones, an enormous boost.

In LA, the PPM catapulted KRTH into the top 10 in 25-54, and fellow (Spanish language) gold station KRCD saw it's miserable signals appear in the top 10 as well. These were nearly nobody's favorite stations, but they were "everybody's" second or third favorite... often with impressive TSL, too.

What saved KRTH (and WOGL and WCBS-FM and others) was the PPM.

 

[oldies76]

The problem was by late 1997, early 1998 a lot of casual listeners were complaining about 101.1's now infamous tight playlist and it was until (I believe) the spring 98 book that KRTH's ratings plummeted. The reaction to that, if anybody remembers, was this rather odd move to add a handful of 80s songs, which sounded very out of place.

What KRTH should have done is cut back on the excessive motown and Beatles in the mid-late 90's and just played more hit songs from the 1960's onward....a smattering of early 80's, with mainly 70's. I think they relied on one or two genres of pop music to get themselves through then and it nearly cost them.

And their well-known tight and small playlist back then didn't help matters either.

 

[wdb2003]

One thing that I've never understood about KRTH is that given the huge amount of 80s music in the libraries of KBIG & KOST, why isn't KRTH playing more of those same tunes, since (to the best of my knowledge) neither KBIG nor KOST has any issues related to an 'aging' audience?

KBIG recently added the positioning statement 'From the 90s 'Til Now' to their on-air presentation but they still play a ton of 80s music, as do most Hot AC stations, which should be a sign to Kaye or KRTHs MD that adding 80s music to their station's library entails minimal risk, does it not?

Isn't it also very reasonable to assume that hefty numbers of core audiences such as women 35-44 and women 25-54 all have KOST, KBIG & KRTH on their presets, and that consequently KRTH has very little lose by not refocusing the music to add more 80s product?

KBIG rarely touches 80s music anymore- as they've really shifted to late 90s and beyond in the past year or so. Just to be sure, I pulled up the logs from Friday and they played 3 songs from the 80s during the entire day- Corey Hart, New Order and Real Life "Send Me an Angel". Most of the 90s they touched was late 90s like Natalie Imbruglia and Tal Bahmann. The only real exception being a Bell Biv Devoe song in the 10pm hour- which would have been unimaginable 10 years ago for a Hot AC to even touch a BBD song. The format has undergone a dramatic shift in the past few years as its basically supplanted CHR as the new music format with the greatest musical variety as CHR has become increasingly rhythmic.

KBIG does have a new MD Brandon Bell but I assume he will have little control of the music. They played Depeche Mode Just Can't Get Enough last week.