Shouldn't there be a soft format somewhere between Easy Listening and Standards?

[Gregg]

I was surprised when I tuned in to Easy Listening 4 for the first
time. It's a great channel but it's actually what Soft AC
sounded like in the 80s... Bread, Simon & Garfunkle, Eagles,
Anne Murray.

I like it. Easy Listening and The Bridge are my two favorite
music channels. But there still should be one more step
between this format and Standards as we go from more recent
soft hits (StarLite) to Love Songs (slightly softer) to
Easy to Standards. (The Bridge 10 is really soft rock, not
soft AC, even though the two formats share a percentage of
music.)

I'm thinking a format something like Tampa's #1 station,
The Dove (audio streaming at www.wduv.com). Or maybe
Westwood One's standards format, formerly called AM Only,
but now really a soft AC, soft oldies, younger standards
mix. (Audio streaming at www.KKJL1400.com, a San Luis
Obispo, CA station.)

I guess there really isn't enough of a market for a true
easy listening station on Channel 4, one that plays
instrumentals versions of pop hits, along with some
pop vocals. I'm not sure I'd even want that. But it
was a surprise to hear that Channel 4 is not really
easy listening.




Gregg
[email protected]
actually want that.

 

[RadioCoug]

Shouldn't there be a beaufiful music (format) channel?

Call it elevator music, or whatever. This was a popular format in the 70's and the 80's. All instrumental beautiful music. I was surprised that Sirius doesn't offer this. I do understand everything costs money, but I think there is a real void here.

 

[AZJoe]

Re: Shouldn't there be a beaufiful music (format) channel?

> Call it elevator music, or whatever. This was a popular
> format in the 70's and the 80's. All instrumental beautiful
> music. I was surprised that Sirius doesn't offer this. I
> do understand everything costs money, but I think there is a
> real void here.

Thats what Sirius had a couple years ago in Movin' Easy- lots of instrumentals and 60s ez tunes too, then they updated the sound a bit.
>

 

[elevator_opratr]

Re: Shouldn't there be a beaufiful music (format) channel?

Beautiful music can be one of the more expensive formats to maintain, which I predict may be one of the reasons Sirius doesn't have it. Many of those instrumentals played on old time beautiful stations were custom recordings that had to be specially licensed.

I do agree, however, that Sirius should bite the bullet and buy some classic beautiful music. XM is going to have TWO beautiful channels in a few weeks, and Sirius has none. It must be profitable enough for XM because they quickly ax channels that don't perform, and this format's going to have two!<P ID="signature">______________

http://weatherwindow.blogspot.com</P>

 

[AZJoe]

Re: Shouldn't there be a beaufiful music (format) channel?

> Beautiful music can be one of the more expensive formats to
> maintain, which I predict may be one of the reasons Sirius
> doesn't have it. Many of those instrumentals played on old
> time beautiful stations were custom recordings that had to
> be specially licensed.
>
> I do agree, however, that Sirius should bite the bullet and
> buy some classic beautiful music. XM is going to have TWO
> beautiful channels in a few weeks, and Sirius has none. It
> must be profitable enough for XM because they quickly ax
> channels that don't perform, and this format's going to have
> two!
>

> They are having two, because one of them is controlled by ClearChannel and is adding commericials. XM wishes to continue to say they have the most commercial free music channels available even if it means duplicating musical genres. XM's ClearChannel presentations (5 I believe) will all carry ads, so XM quickly duplicated those formats with their own in-house programming. If it could be, XM would have dropped all 5 CC offerings, but their contract with CC runs another couple years. CC invested heavily into XM when it started up and was told they could retain control of a few channels- they now are placing ads on those, and XM doesnt like it.

 

[jeff003]

Re: Shouldn't there be a beaufiful music (format) channel?

Marlon Taylor said that Sunny was one of the most popular and listened to channels on XM so Xm wouldn't consider scrapping beautiful music I don't think at any rate I'm glad xm will have 2 channels of b/ez.

> > Beautiful music can be one of the more expensive formats
> to
> > maintain, which I predict may be one of the reasons Sirius
>
> > doesn't have it. Many of those instrumentals played on old
>
> > time beautiful stations were custom recordings that had to
>
> > be specially licensed.
> >
> > I do agree, however, that Sirius should bite the bullet
> and
> > buy some classic beautiful music. XM is going to have TWO
> > beautiful channels in a few weeks, and Sirius has none. It
>
> > must be profitable enough for XM because they quickly ax
> > channels that don't perform, and this format's going to
> have
> > two!
> >
>
> > They are having two, because one of them is controlled by
> ClearChannel and is adding commericials. XM wishes to
> continue to say they have the most commercial free music
> channels available even if it means duplicating musical
> genres. XM's ClearChannel presentations (5 I believe) will
> all carry ads, so XM quickly duplicated those formats with
> their own in-house programming. If it could be, XM would
> have dropped all 5 CC offerings, but their contract with CC
> runs another couple years. CC invested heavily into XM when
> it started up and was told they could retain control of a
> few channels- they now are placing ads on those, and XM
> doesnt like it.
>

 

[jeff003]

Sirius does need a beautiful music channel.I've emailed them several times.This is an important format missing from their service.They need to change movin easy's format name to lite rock.Their misleading a lot of people looking for b/ez channel that have neither sirius or xm.They get sirius thinking it's b/ez and disappointed to hear soft rock.You mentioned WDUV they use to be a beautiful music station before they changed to their current format.Their radio id was Wduv Stereo 103 what a beautiful place to be in Central Florida.

> I was surprised when I tuned in to Easy Listening 4 for the
> first
> time. It's a great channel but it's actually what Soft AC
> sounded like in the 80s... Bread, Simon & Garfunkle, Eagles,
>
> Anne Murray.
>
> I like it. Easy Listening and The Bridge are my two
> favorite
> music channels. But there still should be one more step
> between this format and Standards as we go from more recent
> soft hits (StarLite) to Love Songs (slightly softer) to
> Easy to Standards. (The Bridge 10 is really soft rock, not
> soft AC, even though the two formats share a percentage of
> music.)
>
> I'm thinking a format something like Tampa's #1 station,
> The Dove (audio streaming at www.wduv.com). Or maybe
> Westwood One's standards format, formerly called AM Only,
> but now really a soft AC, soft oldies, younger standards
> mix. (Audio streaming at www.KKJL1400.com, a San Luis
> Obispo, CA station.)
>
> I guess there really isn't enough of a market for a true
> easy listening station on Channel 4, one that plays
> instrumentals versions of pop hits, along with some
> pop vocals. I'm not sure I'd even want that. But it
> was a surprise to hear that Channel 4 is not really
> easy listening.
>
>
>
>
> Gregg
> [email protected]
> actually want that.
>

 

[jeff003]

Re: Shouldn't there be a beaufiful music (format) channel?

> Call it elevator music, or whatever. This was a popular
> format in the 70's and the 80's. All instrumental beautiful
> music. I was surprised that Sirius doesn't offer this. I
> do understand everything costs money, but I think there is a
> real void here.
>
Yes dish has a channel like this on 973 and so does musicchoice.Sirius would do well to get this format.