New Concept For Oldies!

[radiofriend1]

Its amazing to me that Sirius and XM will be considered so well programmed. Whose programming those channels? Look at who they are. All former radio programmers, who you would call washed up if they weren't with Satt. radio now.

How can you judge Drake's format before you've even heard it?

Post your resumes boy's or shut up!

a-who sez siruis and xm are considered "so well programmed"? i hear from a lot of non-radio friends who think many of their channels suck. it's all anecdotal anyway. their total listening is still a very small fraction vs. terrestrial radio

b-i am not saying bill drake has NO PLACE in today's radio world-i just don't *hear* the format he's proposing. hey, if it works he's still a genius and i am wrong. and that's fine. i'm a HUGE bill drake fan so for his legacy i'd luv to see him in the spotlight again, bigtime.

 

[Johnny Morgan]

b-i am not saying bill drake has NO PLACE in today's radio world-i just don't *hear* the format he's proposing. hey, if it works he's still a genius and i am wrong. and that's fine. i'm a HUGE bill drake fan so for his legacy i'd luv to see him in the spotlight again, bigtime.

Concur.

 

[OldiesCat]

Bill Drake

A real radio icon if you're at all into classic Top 40 radio. Let's face it: those stations he pioneered absolutely smoked!

 

[Johnny Morgan]

And every station that used him as a guide afterwards smoked too--KRTH, WMJI, WOMC, etc.

The format concept still works today for Top 40--play the hits. Unfortunately, CHR radio has this idea that it needs to be pseudo-AC to be successful.

As a result, it's fighting to keep portions of an otherwise available audience. It's catering to a narrower segment of an audience than it could.

 

[lash]

I've emailed on the Drake site. No reply! Let's all keep our eyes and ears on this one. Good posts guys!

 

[gr8oldies]

I can't help thinking that if the internet and this board existed in 1967, you all would be telling us how Bill Drake was the devil, and how dare he play the same song every hourn and a half, and just how is the public being served when he's not playing polka on KHJ.

Drake is a pioneer, and I'll really have to hear what he has in mind. I have my doubts that a station that's going to be playing the Supremes on the first of the month and Snoop Dogg on the 31st is going to work (even though I might listen through the 80s.) but, hey, best of luck!

 

[Oldbones]

And every station that used him as a guide afterwards smoked too--KRTH, WMJI, WOMC, etc.

The format concept still works today for Top 40--play the hits. Unfortunately, CHR radio has this idea that it needs to be pseudo-AC to be successful.

As a result, it's fighting to keep portions of an otherwise available audience. It's catering to a narrower segment of an audience than it could.

Top 40/CHR seems to go thru AC-ish phases periodically...check out some surveys from the post-disco late 70s/early 80s. Dayparting goes back a long way too...I wasn't around then, but I'd guess not very many Top 40s were playing Little Richard in mid-days in 1957 or either.

I agree with the poster who ventured that if internet message boards had been around in 1967, Bill Drake would have been blasted for destroying "personality" radio. Not only were his stations tightly playlisted, they were tight presentationally too. You had something to say, you'd better say it over an intro. Lots of liner cards in his format too.

As for CHR chasing an ever-narrowing segment of the audience...true, but it's not 1975 anymore. There is no mass-appeal media. You could play Jimi Hendrix, Tammy Wynette & Frank Sinatra on the same station in 1967....try doing that today. Even the Jack format seems to be focusing itself a lot more toward 80s pop/rock these days (or at least the one near me is).

 

[amfmsw]

I don't often agree with radiofriend's views, but he/she is ABSOLUTELY correct on this one. Satellite is a non-player. Those "Subscriber" claims include hundreds of thousands of new vwhicles equipped with the unit with a free trial period. It's a small percentage of those who commit to the service.

If Sat Radio were rated in major markets, it would be a bottom feeder, with listenership split 80 ways. Here's proof:

http://www.rab.com/public/rst/rst_new/rstarticle.cfm?id=1108&type=article1

 

[ceaser]

Anyone that defends free radio against satelitte is like 20 years ago when we all defended fm to am.Wake up satelitte radio is the future.Remember when sirius had only 800,000 subscribers?Now it's nearing 6 million on sirius alone.

 

[Tom Wells]

I vividly remember when WLS ran the complete "History of Rock and Roll" in the around 1974-75.

I may incorrectly recall that in ran nearly a week, and I regretted every second I did not get to listen, while sleeping or at other
necessary chores. At least it was summer!

It ran chronologically also, and I consider it to have been one of the finest shows I've ever heard.
I heard so many new songs it made my head spin, and there were songs I did not care for, and songs I was stunned by.
Being born in 1961, and starting to collect records by age 4, and listening to WLS and WCFL for 10 years,
I was amazed at the depth of great music not put into airplay rotation, and wondered why it had to be this one time only.


I am quite ready to learn new old songs, be annoyed by the over-heard, and grit my teeth through periods that favored styles
I do not care for. This format provides a lot of time to think about what song will be included in the "next trip through."
In this way, we may all be able hear a song we've never known, and love it.
In this format we might hear different things in music we didn't like when new, and it would be a place to tune to a "chrono-centric"
signal on the dial, an idea that I find appealing.

Sure would love to hear it on something like WSCR 670.
Sports Yap in Chicago must make a lot of money, but is frankly a waste of such a fine physical plant.

I must re-reaad the site, and consider listening in the car on the laptop to radio, if that's available.
The cellular wireless access card is paid by my employer, and works perfectly the whole hour drive to work.

 

[Oldbones]

Anyone that defends free radio against satelitte is like 20 years ago when we all defended fm to am.Wake up satelitte radio is the future.Remember when sirius had only 800,000 subscribers?Now it's nearing 6 million on sirius alone.

I guess we'll find out in 20 years won't we? :-\

At present neither XM nor Sirius is even close to being in the black financially, and neither looks like they will be anytime soon. It's a medium for Stern fans & music geeks, and not much of anyone else. How long before thier investors decide to cut their losses?

My crystal ball may be a bit cloudy, but I don't see satellite radio ever becoming mainstream. Other than the fact that it's narrower & deeper musically it's really just a different stateroom on the Titanic. It's still someone else's choice of songs, and mostly voicetracked jocks. The trend is more and more toward highly personalized listening which neither terrestrial nor satellite radio can do. I'd guess that once wireless internet becomes widespread and dependable we'll see a trend toward "create your own mix" streaming sites, and radio...regardless of how it's delivered will take a back seat.

 

[gr8oldies]

Wireless internet will be a factor, but not a deciding one. Network TV still, though having reduced viewership due to cable and other diversions, has the lion's share of the ratings. There will always be a mass pop culture, it won't be thousands of microniche music formats that never will meet. Streaming sites are one thing, but once people are out of college and working, getting kids to daycare, and everything else, who has time to spend hours building a custom playlist?

 

[vibe]

I like the concept; haven't heard it

 

[clichemoth]

Wireless internet will be a factor, but not a deciding one. Network TV still, though having reduced viewership due to cable and other diversions, has the lion's share of the ratings. There will always be a mass pop culture, it won't be thousands of microniche music formats that never will meet. Streaming sites are one thing, but once people are out of college and working, getting kids to daycare, and everything else, who has time to spend hours building a custom playlist?

It doesn't take hours. Just punch in some artists that you like and voila. Pandora seems to have the best implementation at this point of the several I've tried (never used Launchcast because I refuse to run Internet Adplorer just for it and they don't support Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox) and can take artists from wildly different genres and add logical steps in between.

Eventually some entrepreneur will find a way to make talk, news, and local information content available through such a system and everyone can make their own full-service radio station. This won't hurt good on-air talent, because someone has to voice this content, but it will cause a lot of format consultants to submit their resumes at the bean factory.

 

[XM RADIO]

Lash wakey wakey, XM and Sirius are the "WAVE OF FUTURE RADIO" 13 million subs and growing!! As for Terrestrial radio, its tired, worn out, exhausted, boring, repetitive, Thank you XM and Sirius for providing us with "Real Radio" there was no where else to go! Sirius Gold is out of sight,Kenny in Concord

 

[XM RADIO]

Lash wake up, XM and Sirius are taking away alot of Terrestrial Radios listeners! 13 millon plus, nothing to ignore!! And they will be "the wave of future radio" No doubt about it! The Bay Area has Cesspool Radio, thankful to have Sirius and XM, Sirius Gold is by far the best format Ive heard!! You wont hear Etta James, or The Chantels on FM!!! Ill pay for Quality Entertainment!! You get what you pay for, in Terrestrials case you get nothing!!! Kenny in Concord California looking forward to another year of Guaranteed "No Flip" format !!! You wont get that from FM!!!

 

[FRR]

Whenever I post on this Board about how bad traditional FM is in the Cincinnati area, I get blasted by others who claim I don't understand advertisers,(maybe I don't), and how I don't understand that "most listeners like talk in the morning", (which I don't believe). I still believe that most folks listen to the radio for music. I've polled lots of friends, and when I ask them what they want to hear on the way to work, the answer is music. When I ask them what they hate, they tell me it's the talk talk talk. For whatever reason, FM and most AM as we know it, is forcing those of us who love music to convert to XM or Sirius. I've had XM for nearly a year and love it. I am concerned what the FCC recently required of some of the companies that produce receivers, but I think most of us will stay, even with this recent FCC ruling that will hurt sales, I fear. I think Audiovox wil suffer, as may others. I think the future will be bird in the sky radio. I don't see any other alternative with the way things seem to be going. For those of you who understand this medium much better than I do, do you ever see FM getting back to music and broadening the playists?

 

[radiofriend1]

radio jocks have been whining that playlists are too tight since the sixties

 

[Johnny Morgan]

Then they became PDs.

Playlists, in most cases, are too tight.

K-Earth could never work in Cleveland, so John Gorman (a Drake-influenced PD) never tried it.

Know your market. Generalities are rarely true, yet that doesn't stop most folks here from spewing them.

 

[davideduardo]

Then they became PDs.

Playlists, in most cases, are too tight.

K-Earth could never work in Cleveland, so John Gorman (a Drake-influenced PD) never tried it.

Know your market. Generalities are rarely true, yet that doesn't stop most folks here from spewing them.

What is most often forgotton is the nature of the competitive array any station shares with and competes with. With the PPM showing 5 to 7 different stations used each week, and 7 to 9 by the end of two weeks, things like repetition and familiarity are very much influenced by the sum of all listening, not just the playlist and rotations of a single station. In this regard, every market is at least a little different.