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Song as gold that was originally ignored by station?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
There were some re-releases, especially in the 80s, but there would have to be a reason for the song to get a second shot
As has been explained ad nauseum, if a song tests well with a particular station's target audience then maybe - but a decent PD worth their salt is not going to "reach back" and look at music that wasn't played by a previous PD or owner, and put it on the air now "on a hunch". If they wanna look at some stuff that wasn't played previously and see how it tests currently with their core demo, then maybe.
I agree! In fact, for a variety of reasons a PD today will not look at a station's playlist from a decade or more ago. First, the target audience has changed even if the format has not. Second, in markets with lots of growth, many of today's listeners were not there in prior years. Third, the competition is different.
Fourth, and most important, we play songs listeners want to hear today. So we make a list of songs that might test today based on past tests and what similar stations in similar markets are playing.
Fifth, most stations don't have files of what they played decades ago. most don't even keep old music logs or playlists more than a year or two. And current staff likely has no idea of the goals and objectives and even the skill set of a PD from decades prior.
It might not be a hunch though. Some songs just got ignored by certain stations by certain PDs, but were definitely hits on a national level (not sure how much that happens today.)
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It hasn't happened much, if at all, for at least 40 years. I can't recall any regional hits here in New England since the '70s.
You think someone has that kind of institutional memory that bases what they play now on what they played when a song was current?
There aren't many places where music decisions are based on one person's personal taste.
So how does it test? Now? Locally, with that station's core audience? Good? OK, maybe it gets play. No? Then regardless if it was a national hit some time ago, if it doesn't test well with that stations' core demographic now, it shouldn't get play.
Again, PDs and MDs aren't in the business of expanding their listening audience's musical horizons. They're not in place to educate their listeners musically, or to expose them to music they many not otherwise have realized they might like. They're in place to play what their listening audience has told them they want to hear.
I have not seen stations ignore bigger hits in a while. It seemed common during the Jan Jefferies years at Cumulus, and I know there are several threads from the 90s-early 10s of certain stations not playing some very big hits (I think someone said a station ignored "Perfect" by Pink, which went to number 1.) When I lived in Joplin, I requested I Will Wait and they said they did not have it in 2013. I heard it years later as a gold, though on the same station.
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As the person who pulled "Jan Jeffries" out of nights at a 500 watt station in Mobile and moved him to PM drive in a Top 60 market on his way to much bigger things, I can say that Jan made decisions based on the demos he wanted for his hit-based stations. That, in turn, was based on what management wanted demographically.
When Jan was in Roanoke as PD of a hugely successful CHR station, he was know for breaking certain kinds of hits and was not restrictive in his playlists. So don't judge his later corporate position without looking at the rest of his career.
And, secondly, stations that did not play a song as a current but play it as gold perhaps a decade later are doing nothing that any conclusion can be based on. Markets change, the way songs are research and with what groups are researched change. PDs "feel" for a format change. Past formatics, rotations or playlists of a station have nothing to do with what they do today except by coincidence. That coincidence may be continued success in the "same" format or any other factor.
Yep. The only differences might be if a station moved from one variant of a format to another, such as from rhythmic CHR to mainstream CHR or from mainstream CHR to Churban. To those in the business, that is a format change... but to listeners it is "they play more songs I like" or "they don't play my favorites any more".
The station in Joplin (KSYN) was always mainstream CHR though.
There are plenty of songs which bombed when originally released but became popular years later due to being featured in a movie, TV series, commercial, or the artist's later success caused their early work to be rediscovered.
If you're a 45 collector, look for promo 45s marked "Rush Reservice", indicating that the song flopped the first time but suddenly gained interest later:
If you're a 45 collector, look for promo 45s marked "Rush Reservice", indicating that the song flopped the first time but suddenly gained interest later:
There are plenty of songs which bombed when originally released but became popular years later due to being featured in a movie, TV series, commercial, or the artist's later success caused their early work to be rediscovered.
If you're a 45 collector, look for promo 45s marked "Rush Reservice", indicating that the song flopped the first time but suddenly gained interest later:
Except in this case.
What happened with "More Today Than Yesterday" is that Columbia thought the flip, "Broken Hearted Man", was the hit, and sent the promo copies out that way.
It got ZERO chart traction, but stations that were serviced commercial 45s started playing the flip within two weeks---in fact, influential stations led the charge---KAKC, Tulsa; WTIX, New Orleans; KYNO, Fresno; KXOA, Sacramento; KJR, Seattle and KGB, San Diego.
That's when Columbia did a rush reservice of the record as "More Today Than Yesterday."
The answer to the original post is, sure---it used to happen a lot. A new PD rolls in, wants a certain sound for a station and suddenly a song that didn't get played when new is in the Gold library. Probably more than a few of them.
Example, off the top of my head: Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettin' Me Be Mice Elf Agin)." For whatever reason, KHJ in Los Angeles only played the flip, "Everybody Is A Star". It wasn't an RKO ban---KFRC played "Thank You". But it didn't air on KHJ for four years, until Gerry Petersen became PD. And he put it in the Gold library.
KHJ killed "Lola" by the Kinks after only a week---but it wound up in the Gold library (probably under Gerry).
I rebuilt Gold libraries at every station I programmed or was MD at. I'm sure there were songs those stations didn't play new.
Because---ultimately---it doesn't matter whether you played it or not when it was new. What matters is what your audience (which may be made up of a lot of people who weren't listening then) want to hear now.
Example, off the top of my head: Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettin' Me Be Mice Elf Agin)." For whatever reason, KHJ in Los Angeles only played the flip, "Everybody Is A Star". It wasn't an RKO ban---KFRC played "Thank You". But it didn't air on KHJ for four years, until Gerry Petersen became PD. And he put it in the Gold library.
KHJ killed "Lola" by the Kinks after only a week---but it wound up in the Gold library (probably under Gerry).
I rebuilt Gold libraries at every station I programmed or was MD at. I'm sure there were songs those stations didn't play new.
Because---ultimately---it doesn't matter whether you played it or not when it was new. What matters is what your audience (which may be made up of a lot of people who weren't listening then) want to hear now.
Y101 in Jackson started playing Redbone by Childish Gambino a year or so ago. They never played it as a current when it was released in the mid-2010s.
I recall hearing tracks played as gold when they weren't rotated on the same station when they were current. One example, "Back That Azz Up" from Juvenile was not aired on KISS-FM in Des Moines when it first got big in 2000. However, the same KISS-FM aired it as a gold track later in the 2000's. The track proved hugely successful and with an additional 7-8 years the market wasn't seen as hostile to it due io 'appropriateness'.
The dearth of good new music often causes radio stations to dig deeper to find older songs that were initially overlooked or tested poorly but may now have a positive response.
The only example I can think of is “Sure Thing” by Miguel
They refuse to look for unsigned artists and play hits from established artists.
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