Barry Scott said:
They CAN play all those charted records in the context of a weekend specialty show and daily feature (hint, hint)!
Here's more discouraging research taking from an Inside Radio article. The damn PPMs are telling the decision makers that listeners want their playlists tight and their music ultra-familiar, and that formula isn't exclusive to CHR anymore. Earlier in the article, the writer says that PPMs have made "no repeat workdays" a thing of the past, as it's foolish to play a song the test audiences love only once in eight hours.
http://www.insideradio.com/Article.asp?id=2653749#.UaEyaWPD_IU
With hot AC and country gaining ratings ground and CHR attracting more adult listeners, AC stations are experimenting with new ways to keep the format relevant.
In Dallas, CBS Radio’s KVIL (103.7) dropped ‘70s and ‘80s music and is focusing on the 2000’s. Its longtime “Lite” handle has been replaced by a “Best Variety…‘90s, 2K & Today” position.
In Boston, Greater Media’s “Magic 106.7” WMJX slashed its music library to just 321 titles and sped up rotations. And in Atlanta, Cox Media Group’s “B98.5” WSB-FM is spinning power songs up to 42 times a week.
“There is an almost tectonic shift in the music,” Saga EVP/group PD Steve Goldstein says. Targeting a 40 year-old female listener born in 1973, many ACs have performed extreme makeovers — musically-speaking. The amount of ‘70s music has been cut in half and now makes up only 5% of AC playlists, according to an April Mediabase analysis of 37 AC stations in PPM markets. The ‘80s got a haircut too, falling from 32% to 27% but still ahead of the 15% of airplay devoted to the musically polarizing ‘90s. With more than 13 years of hits to draw from, more than half of AC’s spins now come from the 2000s.
The changes are intended to prevent further aging of the AC audience.
The percent of AC listeners aged 25-44 has been inching down while 45-64s have crept up, according to Arbitron. What’s more, AC slipped from third place to fourth in AQH share in Arbitron’s new national format rankings and was supplanted by CHR as radio’s No. 1 cume format.
