Re: Songs
> 1000 song playlists will not work for OLDIES!!! You would
> end up with a small
> audience of 50-60 year olds, not very marketable.
>
> If a station plays the familiar, big hits, you have a much
> better opportunity
> to pick up 35-50 year olds who know, and like the songs,
> too.
But solely "big hit" playlists are also causing stations to die. KRTH succeeded with 300 songs; WMJI succeeded with substantially more than that. This meme that larger playlists will not work is belied by success at one of the largest, most successful, and heritage oldies operations in America.
And the only way you'll have a 50-60 year olds in small audience is if you're choosing your songs incorrectly (i.e., older stuff). There's no reason big hits from the 60s cannot be added in with big and above-average hits from the 70s (no disco please), and big/above average hits of the 80s. This big hits only mentality is idiotic, and results in burned out, shorter playlists is a lesser amount of time. The result--oldies jocks and PDs out of work, replaced by the best soft AC or country of today, or whatever. If you want taht moral burden on your hands, fine.
On the otherside, large playlist and non-big hit fans--commercial radio is not the place to go. It may have been 10 years ago, but the stations don't do that anymore. It happens as things progress. People over age 50 or so are unwanted by commercial radio operators and their advertisers, as are fans of non-big hits. There's no use in arguing this point repeatedly until the operators and their advertisers realize the mistake. They haven't yet, but will eventually. It will be too late then, unfortunately.
The place to go for 50s and 60s classics, unplayed on commercial radio, as well as your lesser known hits, is your favorite non-commercial station. Yes, I know--you have to change your radio dial. If you put as much energy into changing the dial to the lower/left side as you do to bitch and moaning here, you might actually be happy with what you hear. College and community stations are providing some great programming that is not heard on commercial radio. But YOU, the listener, have to make the effort to come hear these stations. We'll always be willing to play the music, but need your support by listening.
Dial around your radio, and find something you like--you may be pleasantly surprised. Or, you can even dial around the internet for non-comm streaming audio. For example, how about
the Sunday Oldies Jukebox for 25 hours on Sundays? Or your local station that plays the oldies?
You don't need to be confined to the commercial band--and if enough listeners go to the left side of the dial (it's happening already), maybe the pinheads in charge of radio stations and advertisers will realize that their big hits formats are not listener-friendly. And if not--at least the listeners are happy.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">
Edited by Johnny Morgan on 03/20/06 03:03 PM.</FONT></P>
