Now Playing on K-Earth - Classic Rock! (Well, sorta...)

[Thomps2525]

I don't mean for this discussion to drag on for several thousand pages (which would challenge The Fantastic Word Game), but I wonder what the response would be if KRTH played snippets of a hundred songs that peaked at #11-#20 and are not being played on the station. How many of those "properly recruited persons" would love to hear those songs played on the radio today? Does anyone have a list of the songs that are tested? It would be fun to see which songs KRTH has rejected. It would also upset me if all the rejected songs were ones that I like and would love to hear again. Hey, when will KRTH let me take part in one of those tests?

 

[oldies76]

Even if you listened 24/7, you wouldn't hear it 7 times in a week, because it's not played that often.

Well, your close. It actually aired 6 times between Monday 6/24 and Sunday 6/30.
Monday (12:11pm), Tuesday (3:17am & 11:24pm), Thursday (8:05am), Friday (6:00pm) and Sunday (1:05pm)

Also just to make your eyes roll even more, "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto (1963) aired on KRTH Monday night 6/24 at 11:20pm.

 

[oldies76]

In any case, a properly selected 80 to 100 persons will yield almost exactly the same results as 10,000 persons. And 80 to 100 properly recruited persons will yield vastly superior results to 10,000 randomly selected persons. This can be proven by replication...

Did you really have to bring this up again?? ;D

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't mean for this discussion to drag on for several thousand pages (which would challenge The Fantastic Word Game), but I wonder what the response would be if KRTH played snippets of a hundred songs that peaked at #11-#20 and are not being played on the station. How many of those "properly recruited persons" would love to hear those songs played on the radio today? Does anyone have a list of the songs that are tested? It would be fun to see which songs KRTH has rejected. It would also upset me if all the rejected songs were ones that I like and would love to hear again. Hey, when will KRTH let me take part in one of those tests?

So....did you not read the whole thing about music testing being proprietary? I remember it like it was yesterday.

Because it was. In this thread.

 

[davideduardo]

I don't mean for this discussion to drag on for several thousand pages (which would challenge The Fantastic Word Game), but I wonder what the response would be if KRTH played snippets of a hundred songs that peaked at #11-#20 and are not being played on the station. How many of those "properly recruited persons" would love to hear those songs played on the radio today? Does anyone have a list of the songs that are tested? It would be fun to see which songs KRTH has rejected. It would also upset me if all the rejected songs were ones that I like and would love to hear again. Hey, when will KRTH let me take part in one of those tests?

Every time a station tests, they include many songs beyond what they are currently playing in regular rotations.

Some of what will be tested includes:

• Songs that are at the "newer" end of the scale which either are too young to have been tested before, or which almost passed a year or so ago and may be ripe for picking now
• Songs that were right around cutoff in recent tests; resting a while may make them more acceptable
• Songs... although there are few... that may have become desirable due to exposure on TV, new media or in film
• Songs we see on BDS or MediaBase that other similar stations that we know do research are playing. We may have missed them.

Some of what won't be tested includes:

• Songs that didn't test against the target demo in recent tests
• Songs that are intuitively too old to be part of the lifestyle and experience of the core demo
• Novelty songs

Things that don't affect test lists include chart position 30 years ago.

A station that plays perhaps 700 to 800 songs... typical for classic hits... may test 1200 or so songs each time, and they are always on the lookout for those additional songs to test.

 

[davideduardo]

In any case, a properly selected 80 to 100 persons will yield almost exactly the same results as 10,000 persons. And 80 to 100 properly recruited persons will yield vastly superior results to 10,000 randomly selected persons. This can be proven by replication...

Did you really have to bring this up again?? ;D

Yeah, just like my kindergarten teacher made us go through the alphabet over and over until we got it.

 

[davideduardo]

Also just to make your eyes roll even more, "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto (1963) aired on KRTH Monday night 6/24 at 11:20pm.

It's been played 97 times in the last 7 years on that station. I kinda' think that we won't be hearing it much any more.

 

[michael hagerty]

In any case, a properly selected 80 to 100 persons will yield almost exactly the same results as 10,000 persons. And 80 to 100 properly recruited persons will yield vastly superior results to 10,000 randomly selected persons. This can be proven by replication...

Did you really have to bring this up again?? ;D

Yeah, just like my kindergarten teacher made us go through the alphabet over and over until we got it.

Where's the "Like" button?

 

[michael hagerty]

Also just to make your eyes roll even more, "Sukiyaki" by Kyu Sakamoto (1963) aired on KRTH Monday night 6/24 at 11:20pm.

It's been played 97 times in the last 7 years on that station. I kinda' think that we won't be hearing it much any more.

As A Taste Of Honey whispers at the end of their 70s remake:

"Sayonara".

 

[oldies76]

It's been played 97 times in the last 7 years on that station. I kinda' think that we won't be hearing it much any more.

Is there a database / program that really provides numbers on how many times a song has aired on KRTH or any station in a given time period? Interesting.

 

[davideduardo]

It's been played 97 times in the last 7 years on that station. I kinda' think that we won't be hearing it much any more.

Is there a database / program that really provides numbers on how many times a song has aired on KRTH or any station in a given time period? Interesting.

BDS allows you to look at song views, find an artist and their songs and then see what station(s) played it and how many times over the last roughly 7 years.

MediaBase has similar song tracking.

Both are paid services, and they are among the resources programmers use to help find songs for music tests. And in the case of smaller market stations, the reports by format or combinations of stations may be the base for a station playlist when local research is not possible due to cost.

 

[oldies76]

BDS allows you to look at song views, find an artist and their songs and then see what station(s) played it and how many times over the last roughly 7 years.

MediaBase has similar song tracking.

Both are paid services, and they are among the resources programmers use to help find songs for music tests. And in the case of smaller market stations, the reports by format or combinations of stations may be the base for a station playlist when local research is not possible due to cost.

Thanks for the info...

 

[semoochie]

Yes.com did some of that.

 

[oldies76]

So, no Firecracker 300 this year?? Where's the creativity K-Earth 101 :

Lots of Beatles being played though.

 

[davideduardo]

So, no Firecracker 300 this year?? Where's the creativity K-Earth 101

Sounds like a major format modification is about to happen and they don't have time for the stuff that will not be part of the future format style.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

So, no Firecracker 300 this year?? Where's the creativity K-Earth 101

Sounds like a major format modification is about to happen and they don't have time for the stuff that will not be part of the future format style.

Well the new PD started just a few days ago and I am sure he wants to put his own stamp on the station and get out from behind Jhani's shadow as quickly as possible. The "Firecracker 300" would have been an excellent way to communicate his vision (read: new playlist), but he probably didn't have time to (do a new round of research to tell him how to) compile it.

 

[michael hagerty]

So, no Firecracker 300 this year?? Where's the creativity K-Earth 101

Sounds like a major format modification is about to happen and they don't have time for the stuff that will not be part of the future format style.

Well the new PD started just a few days ago and I am sure he wants to put his own stamp on the station and get out from behind Jhani's shadow as quickly as possible. The "Firecracker 300" would have been an excellent way to communicate his vision (read: new playlist), but he probably didn't have time to (do a new round of research to tell him how to) compile it.

Or...

It could be that his vision doesn't include things with decades' worth of baggage attached to them. The "Firecracker 300" has been on KRTH for 35 years and was on KHJ before that.

 

[davideduardo]

Well the new PD started just a few days ago and I am sure he wants to put his own stamp on the station and get out from behind Jhani's shadow as quickly as possible.

A friend explained it best...

Half of PD hirings don't work.

Of that 50% that don't work, half of them fail because the PD has moved up to a station that is intimidating: larger market, bigger name. They are afraid to do anything and the station stagnates.

The other half of the failures are people who come in and want to... like a cat... mark territory and put their own mark on the station. They break it.

Nobody is competing with Jahni Kaye because he has left the station. They are competing for listeners with the other stations in LA in July, 2013.

 

[Thomps2525]

"Mark territory like a cat." Would that include Scott Shannon, who in 1989 was paid more than $2 million a year to program 100.3 FM and he promised to take the new "Pirate Radio" KQLZ "from worst to first"? It was a clever concept, claiming to be broadcasting from a ship anchored near Catalina Island, but Westwood One wound up firing Shannon and selling the station at a huge loss.

If half of PD hirings don't work, then I'll offer KRTH's hiring of Jhani Kaye as one that did work. This example will offset the example in the paragraph above. I do try to be fair.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Well the new PD started just a few days ago and I am sure he wants to put his own stamp on the station and get out from behind Jhani's shadow as quickly as possible.

A friend explained it best...

Half of PD hirings don't work.

Of that 50% that don't work, half of them fail because the PD has moved up to a station that is intimidating: larger market, bigger name. They are afraid to do anything and the station stagnates.

The other half of the failures are people who come in and want to... like a cat... mark territory and put their own mark on the station. They break it.

Nobody is competing with Jahni Kaye because he has left the station. They are competing for listeners with the other stations in LA in July, 2013.

That is definitely what they should be doing, but often times new programmers are really engaged in the competition of egos. And if one is in an ego competition, standing pat with the predecessor's formula is by definition a loss. LARadioRewind has provided a good example above (Although I liked Scott Shannon's Pirate Radio. At least they had the guts to do something different.) I haven't been following the situation too closely, but it seems the new guy at KOST and KBIG may be playing the same game. I am sure Calguy can enlighten us, although in his case, it may be working.

I have no idea if the new KRTH guy is playing the game; time will tell. It is interesting that for all of the talk about lowering the average age of the KRTH listener by essentially ditching all or nearly all of the 60's music, the first special programming event under the new PD was to play four Beatles tunes per hour for the 4th of July. I guess it doesn't make sense to play four Earth Wind and Fire songs per hour.