New Oldies station coming!

[pro4aa]

I absolutely do think a bright, quick over the intro delivery is the way to go. I always think of the boss jock era as a bit more than that. In the context of today's radio, a true boss jock delivery would sound dated.

Unfortunately, a good delivery and the ability to read a live spot with the proper emphasis may also be dated. In it's place, a throw away delivery with "attitude." Customer service and products that aren't designed to be obsolete before you get them home are also dated, so I'm not sure that dated is such a bad thing.

I think most folks would agree with that. "Up, Up And Away" is a great song that joins a long line of great and not-so-great songs that were huge hits at one time that are not hits today.

None of the songs on an Oldies station would be considered a hit today. If Oldies formats are relying on songs that their listeners find familiar or remember, the format will be dead in less than 10 years, as will the listeners. In order for the format to be viable, I believe that it has to cater to the people it's designed for, and not run from them. If the product is good, the younger demos will fall into place. Othewise the battle will have been lost and Oldies stations will be nothing more than weak Hot AC, AC, or whatever current or recent hits formats will end up being called.

I really don't think that people have to recognize a song in order for it to be acceptable. Good is good, even if it's not familiar. The Beatles and Frank Sinatra, among others will be around long after Oldies stations stop trying for "younger" demos.

As far as the talent in DFW is concerned, I guess we all have opinions and that's fine. But, in the interest of common courtesy and professionalism, I'll keep mine to myself.

I hardly listen to Dallas radio. What little I do listen to is KEOM and KERA. In my highly subjective opinion, the talent is this market is no better or worse than in most other cities.

 

[klifhanger]

I agree KODZ was a good sounding station. It's failure was the owner,and his backers, otherwise it would have given KLUV a strong run for its money. Going back to the music selection,who compiles the information from so called "research groups"? Are they really representive of your targeted audience? Do they LIVE IN your market. If they did reside within your signal ,where does their opinion go?>>>>Out of town and decimated by some researches using a formula.etc, and it gets homogenized thus losing some accuracy.

Why spend money on some research group who is not totally focused on your station? They are busy doing other research. Playlists were compiled from Billboard,Cashbox, R&R interviews at remotes, music stores,requests. It seems the easy way out has been implemented skewing the results than the accuracy. The station should have its own group to find what its targeted audience would like to hear,instead of a third source that doesn't reside in the market tell you what they want to hear.Cheapness can only go so far,and yet we hear companies moan because they have a quarter loss and place the blame not on their methods and programing,but on other media,etc.
I reiterate KLUV is successful because it doesn't have a true competitor. It is ripe for the taking,provided someone does it right and not copy their methods.

 

[klifhanger]

This pretty well sums up my point.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/48661/the_state_of_the_music_industry_and.html

 

[surfdude]

If done correctly, music research is done locally. It involves playing 7-second clips of songs
for a group your target core listeners (about 100). The person then has about 4 seconds to rate the song from 1 to 5, about the amount of time it takes to determine whether your going to hit your pre-set on your car radio.

Pretty simple. And the system works if the 100 people in your test group are recruited properly.

All you're doing is asking which songs YOUR core listeners like the most and least. They also include a check mark if they are TIRED of the song. If they leave the scoring
BLANK, then they are UNFAMILIAR with the song.

In my last test. "Brown Eyed Girl" scored a 4.4 (very high), and only 5% were tired of it.
You may be sick of that song, but the real world still loves it!

A well run music test of 600 songs costs about $18,000!

 

[little1]

Surfdude knows oh what he speaks.

And I'll repeat a personal anectode. KZPS, early 90's. New PD comes in, doesn't understand why we're playing so much ZZtop and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Changes the playlist based on his former stations playlist.

Couple of months go by. He gets new research done. Results come back, and while I don't remember the exact numbers, something like 5 of the top 20 songs are either ZZ or SRV.....Next day, guess what was back on the air?

 

[klifhanger]

The key is still having the correct research. Let's face it, a lot don't. Again I repeat they are lazy and again I repeat "some" are waged to skew a particular response. Get out there yourself,make the time,and find out,instead of depending on an outsourced group. I had a "brief" time with Mediabase,and the way it was conducted,made me sick. Go to phones to find out, and the streets,do it yourself! It's kinda like predicting the weather. The late Harold Taft kept every single forecast,map etc from the late 40's until his death, and studied the patterns. His accuracy was 97%,and his ratings was always on top because of it. I already told you of publications that have kept records, and along with communicating with your local audience,you can accurately measure what your local audience likes and dislikes. Todays PD's get their info from HQ,not the streets.What plays in Poughkeepsie,doesn't mean it works well in DFW.

 

[johnsummers]

Our research IS done here using actual Metroplex residents. Doing it anywhere else would be a complete waste of time and money. Sometimes the results go against what I would think or wish but, you gotta go with it...that's why you do research.
Like....'whatya mean "Shotgun" doesn't test!!??'

 

[klifhanger]

I am not sure what methods you use, and I am sure you are not willing to share that information. I don't blame you. I have been with some "survey researchers' and if you ask a certain question a certain way ,you will get the desired result. That being said,the old way was the best,and far more accurate than today's methods.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Our research IS done here using actual Metroplex residents. Doing it anywhere else would be a complete waste of time and money. Sometimes the results go against what I would think or wish but, you gotta go with it...that's why you do research.
Like....'whatya mean "Shotgun" doesn't test!!??'

The only problem with that might be the sample size, and if you are using the same people over and over again for the survey. You might get people that like obscenely annoying stuff like "Muscrat Love" or "The Night Chicago Died" - put them in rotation, and irritate 99.9% of your audience. This is already happening on the drive at five, the same people seem to be calling for the same songs every other day. I remember one Lansing station that was constantly playing "Sugar Sugar" - so much so that another station in town used that in their ads - promising "NO ARCHIES EVER!!!" Me - I just tuned in the Detroit oldies on 93.9 whenever they played something annoying.

 

[SmokeRing]

The only problem with that might be the sample size

Bruce, radio people don't understand differential calculus. Their testing agencies probably don't either.

But let's let them think they're actually getting something for their 18K... : )

 

[surfdude]

I explained EXACTLY how music testing is done in an above post.
100 core listeners in your test is enough.

It's probably not perfect. But, if one of you "radio board experts" come up with
a better way, for less money, you will literally make MILLIONS of dollars.

You Oldies fans would be shocked, as I continuously am, by how unfamiliar some of these
1963-1975 songs are. The Oldies format is all about familiarity, if you play enough songs they
don't recognize (or like) you're dead.

 

[SmokeRing]

I explained EXACTLY how music testing is done in an above post.
100 core listeners in your test is enough.

It's probably not perfect. But, if one of you "radio board experts" come up with
a better way, for less money, you will literally make MILLIONS of dollars.

Oh, so it's our problem, is it? Like I said, keep spending that money. Doesn't bother us.

 

[klifhanger]

Smoke ring and Bruce are both correct. As far as "genius" is concened .i told you surfdude how it was done and it worked better than what the complacentcy syndrone is doing now days. I too have heard the same callers (banked calls? ) asking for the same ol song in a given two week period on the "drive at 5". How do you know if you truly have a different group testing your songs? They sign in? Could some fake an identity? Research is fine to an extent,but if you "over research it" you dilute what you are trying to do. It's gotten so bad here if you haven't heard "na nan hey hey kiss him goodbye" by Steam.,"unchained melody" by The Righteous Bros.or anything by Boston on KLUV or KZPS..just wait a minute.

 

[SmokeRing]

Surfdude should check out the KRLD middays thread:

5 years ago i tested 750 songs with 150 people. The next night we did another test with the same songs but with a different 150 people. Guess what? Entirely different outcomes!!

Aside from needing to understand the mathematics behind determining the size of your sampling group for a market of 4.7 million, DFW is made up of rural minded listeners as well as cosmopolitan city dwellers. There are significant communities of transplants from all parts of the country (as if transplants from different parts of Texas don't have huge differences in musical taste). Then, there's certainly a real question of how representative of your broader listenership is a group of 100 supposedly core listeners who are willing to be cheaply bribed into showing up for a music test. And these are just the problems that come to mind after two seconds...

It's more of a joke than a science.