Please explain it again

[WLYNWAZNgm]

I believe that 25 originally came on the air later than 1970...
not sure...

 

[Laurence Glavin]

I believe that 25 originally came on the air later than 1970...
not sure...

Ah, thanks to Wikipedia, it can be noted that channel 25 in Boston signed on in October, 1977 as WXNE-TV, operated by Chuckles Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network as a half-and-half family friendly and overtly religious station.

 

[CTListener]

I believe that 25 originally came on the air later than 1970...
not sure...

Ah, thanks to Wikipedia, it can be noted that channel 25 in Boston signed on in October, 1977 as WXNE-TV, operated by Chuckles Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network as a half-and-half family friendly and overtly religious station.

But you COULD have been watching WJZB, Channel 14, in Worcester, in 1970, right? I believe that station was running a limited schedule then, with most of the day occupied by the test pattern.

 

[Jimmy128]

Wow, I remember channel 14 it was from Worcester. I think Channel 27 came on in 1970, also from Worcester.

 

[thirdendorsed]

It's a little better on satellite, although Sirius XM has shriveled the playlists on all of its decades channels since the merger. "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Oh Pretty Woman" often get three spins a day. Each channel has maybe 700 songs from the appropriate era in regular rotation, nearly all of them top-10 hits, the rest are either only played on specialty shows or are designated as too low-charting/poor-testing for airplay under any circumstances. I guess NOT playing "Brown Eyed Girl" every day gets listeners more ticked off than playing it does, and only the oldies geeks apparently want anything but familiar tunes played. So much for any fundamental difference between the typical FM listener and the typical satellite radio listener, eh?
[/quote]

The Sirius XM stations are the old Sirius stations, regardless of what they call them. Sirius had a much more vanilla playlist and that's what you get today. It's hard to underestimate how much better Lee Abrams made XM than Sirius

 

[thirdendorsed]

Speaking of Abrams, here's what he said last month

http://www.markramseymedia.com/2011/05/lee-abrams-says-its-time-to-fight-the-content-war/

 

[4CX1000A]

It seems to me that classic rock is the only format that would allow the exact same songs not to be repeated two days in a row. Yes, Led Zeppelin would be played every day but not the exact same song two days in a row. If classic hits (aka oldies) plays something from a core artist, there are fewer songs that are "ok" to play than a classic rock station's core artist. If I hear "Elton John is coming up," I have a better chance of guessing what song it will be on WODS/WROR versus WZLX.
It also seems like artists like Roy Orbison and Abba only had one or two hits in their careers.

There is a Boston radio station (professionally staffed, no students) with a playlist of 21,751 songs. I challenge you to find it, listen to it, and tell us what you think.

 

[CTListener]

It seems to me that classic rock is the only format that would allow the exact same songs not to be repeated two days in a row. Yes, Led Zeppelin would be played every day but not the exact same song two days in a row. If classic hits (aka oldies) plays something from a core artist, there are fewer songs that are "ok" to play than a classic rock station's core artist. If I hear "Elton John is coming up," I have a better chance of guessing what song it will be on WODS/WROR versus WZLX.
It also seems like artists like Roy Orbison and Abba only had one or two hits in their careers.

There is a Boston radio station (professionally staffed, no students) with a playlist of 21,751 songs. I challenge you to find it, listen to it, and tell us what you think.

WJIB? WHRB? (Although both are Cambridge, not Boston)

 

[ArtSpooner]

So I guess I got a couple of answers to my original question.

1. Focus groups.
2. That's the way it's always been done.

No one really stated the number of songs on the play list, but for the sake of discussion, let's say it's 200. It can't be much bigger than that if I hear the same songs every day. How about if they played the focus group's top 400 songs instead of just 200? Has anyone ever tried that? Will worlds collide? Will a station go bankrupt in a matter of days? I didn't realize that stations were run by old farts (like me) who are too set in their ways to try something different. If the ratings dipped for one month, is that the end?

 

[CTListener]

So I guess I got a couple of answers to my original question.

1. Focus groups.
2. That's the way it's always been done.

No one really stated the number of songs on the play list, but for the sake of discussion, let's say it's 200. It can't be much bigger than that if I hear the same songs every day. How about if they played the focus group's top 400 songs instead of just 200? Has anyone ever tried that? Will worlds collide? Will a station go bankrupt in a matter of days? I didn't realize that stations were run by old farts (like me) who are too set in their ways to try something different. If the ratings dipped for one month, is that the end?

If you follow station playlsts on yes.com, you'll find that most stations with mainstream formats have no more than 500 songs getting play weekly. Some do, indeed, get a spin -- or multiple spins -- every day. That accounts for the 200 or so you seem to hear every time you turn on the radio. The other 300 are in lighter rotation or were played as part of a request hour or other special program. So the focus groups' top 400 ARE being played. And yes, it's always been done that way because that's the sort of radio the average listener feels most comfortable with, and because it gets ratings. Remember in the early 2000s when WROR tried to challenge WZLX with a deep playlist and lots of live tracks? WZLX responded by making its playlist ultra-tight: songs that everyone knows and no one dislikes. Result: WZLX clobbered WROR in the next book and the deep-playlist experiment ended.

 

[Jimmy128]

Well, at least now I know why radio is predictable and boring. They purposely program it that way.

 

[ArtSpooner]

So I guess I got a couple of answers to my original question.

1. Focus groups.
2. That's the way it's always been done.

No one really stated the number of songs on the play list, but for the sake of discussion, let's say it's 200. It can't be much bigger than that if I hear the same songs every day. How about if they played the focus group's top 400 songs instead of just 200? Has anyone ever tried that? Will worlds collide? Will a station go bankrupt in a matter of days? I didn't realize that stations were run by old farts (like me) who are too set in their ways to try something different. If the ratings dipped for one month, is that the end?

If you follow station playlsts on yes.com, you'll find that most stations with mainstream formats have no more than 500 songs getting play weekly. Some do, indeed, get a spin -- or multiple spins -- every day. That accounts for the 200 or so you seem to hear every time you turn on the radio. The other 300 are in lighter rotation or were played as part of a request hour or other special program. So the focus groups' top 400 ARE being played. And yes, it's always been done that way because that's the sort of radio the average listener feels most comfortable with, and because it gets ratings. Remember in the early 2000s when WROR tried to challenge WZLX with a deep playlist and lots of live tracks? WZLX responded by making its playlist ultra-tight: songs that everyone knows and no one dislikes. Result: WZLX clobbered WROR in the next book and the deep-playlist experiment ended.

That's weird. I'm much more likely to push the button when I hear a song that's overplayed, like Margaritaville or American Pie or My eyes adored you.

 

[lost45]

>Well, at least now I know why radio is predictable and boring. They purposely program it that way.

Not everyone programs that way. A good 'oh wow' category can be the answer. Still nothing like hearing "Carry on Wayward Son" with a group of people who scream every word, as happened to me with WODS on the other night. Some songs never burn. But, I am a fan of variety, obviously.