L
LinoNYC
Guest
This site's front page has link to an article by Sean Ross who links to an Edison Media Research study:
http://www.edisonresearch.com/home/archives/2007/06/oldies_new_leas.php
It seems that the recent introduction of Arbitron PPM in Philadelphia resulted in a large increase in 12+ for WOGL and oldies station and raises the question as to whether its time to halt the decline of oldies as a format.
I have to wonder if the PPM technology is actually skewing things. For instance, we all frequent places where radio is used as a background oldies station are popular for this application, if one is wearing a meter and it senses an encoded station that counts a a "listen" -eventhough the participant didn't have a say in selecting that station.
How is that to be considered accurate?
I've bee surveyed twice by Arbitron first for my non-listening Brother in 1988, and again for myself in 1992. In both cases my diaries reflected actual listening, not happenstance.
Some observations in this article:
"...another year of 50-year-olds in the prime of their earning years being told that they were somehow viable to advertisers only if they listened to a News/Talk or Sports station."
I'am not entirely clear on what he is saying here, "News-Talk" is almost allways conservative and it, along with sports, almost exclusively on AM. Not surprising they get mostly 50+.
"And even without PPM, there have been resurgent books for Oldies at KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles (2.4 - 3.5 12-plus from summer '06 to winter '07),...."
I have noticed this in the jukebox business aswell. Alot of this may have to do with the fact that there are no prevailing fads at this time, people have fallen back on familiar, old songs.
The author points out that many of these stations have a "hyper focus" on the late 60s-early 70s period. If so, they have then learned nothing from the fleeting era of All 70s and "Jammin" formats. Even before fragmentation, no era had enough good material to limit the selection so stringently.
"If there's any good news, it's that the handful of pre-Beatles titles with undeniable durability today seem to have found their way back on to some stations that were going to draw a hard line at 1964.
This is so-true. Literally every time I visit a location I see kids playing Beatles, Presley, Bee-Gees, Doors, Stones etc. What pundits often ignore is that this music is not all that different from the Rock and Roll of today and it has never really gone away due to commercials, movie soundtracks etc. Alot different than the situation was with us Boomers and our parent's music.
I don't expect 'kids" to become P-1s for oldies but as people mature, attutude and rebellion are less important and given that people's tastes (usually) become more discerning, I believe there will allways be a place for classic pop (whatever you want to call it).
Lino
http://www.edisonresearch.com/home/archives/2007/06/oldies_new_leas.php
It seems that the recent introduction of Arbitron PPM in Philadelphia resulted in a large increase in 12+ for WOGL and oldies station and raises the question as to whether its time to halt the decline of oldies as a format.
I have to wonder if the PPM technology is actually skewing things. For instance, we all frequent places where radio is used as a background oldies station are popular for this application, if one is wearing a meter and it senses an encoded station that counts a a "listen" -eventhough the participant didn't have a say in selecting that station.
How is that to be considered accurate?
I've bee surveyed twice by Arbitron first for my non-listening Brother in 1988, and again for myself in 1992. In both cases my diaries reflected actual listening, not happenstance.
Some observations in this article:
"...another year of 50-year-olds in the prime of their earning years being told that they were somehow viable to advertisers only if they listened to a News/Talk or Sports station."
I'am not entirely clear on what he is saying here, "News-Talk" is almost allways conservative and it, along with sports, almost exclusively on AM. Not surprising they get mostly 50+.
"And even without PPM, there have been resurgent books for Oldies at KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles (2.4 - 3.5 12-plus from summer '06 to winter '07),...."
I have noticed this in the jukebox business aswell. Alot of this may have to do with the fact that there are no prevailing fads at this time, people have fallen back on familiar, old songs.
The author points out that many of these stations have a "hyper focus" on the late 60s-early 70s period. If so, they have then learned nothing from the fleeting era of All 70s and "Jammin" formats. Even before fragmentation, no era had enough good material to limit the selection so stringently.
"If there's any good news, it's that the handful of pre-Beatles titles with undeniable durability today seem to have found their way back on to some stations that were going to draw a hard line at 1964.
This is so-true. Literally every time I visit a location I see kids playing Beatles, Presley, Bee-Gees, Doors, Stones etc. What pundits often ignore is that this music is not all that different from the Rock and Roll of today and it has never really gone away due to commercials, movie soundtracks etc. Alot different than the situation was with us Boomers and our parent's music.
I don't expect 'kids" to become P-1s for oldies but as people mature, attutude and rebellion are less important and given that people's tastes (usually) become more discerning, I believe there will allways be a place for classic pop (whatever you want to call it).
Lino