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Songs That Don't Belong On (Certain) Stations

B

BoscoGoldBear

Guest
For those who don't know what I'm writing about, this is an outgrowth of the "WCRB set to go rock" which basically became a WFNX thread (i.e., people saying that Peter Gabriel doesn't belong on alternative rock radio). I'll give you some examples:

Mix 98-5 is supposed to be a pop music station, yet they play a few songs which belong strictly on rock radio ONLY: Back In Black, For Those About To Rock, and of course You Shook Me All Night Long (all Pop Music flops, but all WAAF/WHJY-type Rock Radio hits). The only CHRs playing these songs back in the day were those which were rock/40s like PJ-105 (WWLI today) and F-105 (WROR today), the latter which played Stairway To Heaven every night at 10 p.m. - decidedly not what a straight-ahead pop station would do (I have a lot of rockheads in my family, many who lived in the East Bumbleep type of boondock suburbs).

Brother station WBCN is just as bad: they're supposed to be playing alternative rock (aka new wave), yet they play Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Skynyrd, Hendrix and AC/DC, all which are as new wave as I am non-white (and I'm not - not, as Seinfeld goes, that there's anything wrong with that). This, of course, leads me to assume that 'FNX, 'BOS, and other alt-rockers will go the Van Halen/Guns'N'Roses route. (I listen to WEEI and WRKO these days - music s*cks big time now!)

As for Kiss 108, anything that's rock/heavy metal! But Richie Balsbaugh himself chose the rock route back in 1994 when he closed on Jam'n and kept it as gangsta rap instead of taking the Jam'n music on Kiss and bringing back Zoo 94 and putting rock/40 PD John Ivey (WRVW, WPXY were both rock/40s under his direction) there instead of at Kiss.

Let's see what everyone else has to say! :D
 
Mix seems to have moved away from playing some Rhythmic music, which is good because technically they are a Modern ACish type station.

Magic continues to blur the line of what is really Light Rock. They played Smashmouth's "All Star" last week, doesn't really fit the format at all.
 
It's happening all over radio right now as there's a mad scramble for stability.

Radio as a whole has become a reactionary medium. It has always been reflective...but now too many stations are losing shares to phantom tertiary media outlets. I say this, because although people use internet, and portable music players, radio is still where they're exposed to most music in their lives...by a huge margin. Somewhere along the line, 8-tracks replaced reel-to-reel, which were replaced by records, cassettes, CDs, minidiscs, music sticks, and now mp3s.

But nothing has replaced radio. Radio has always been there and is still there. The audience is still there. But Arbitron is using outdated, antiquated methodology for gathering their data. Someone correctly mentioned the deteriorating numbers of people with land-lines.

However, radio still continues to try to do the other guy's gig instead of focusing on what we do best. And that's when you see stations playing stuff out of format, in a blatant attempt to keep up with the other guy.

Here's a funny fact for everyone:

Rock music ain't selling.

For all of those Rock-based stations, they're not moving product, and therefore record companies are not signing Rock bands. So, new music sucks right now.

Here's why this shouldn't matter:

Radio is not in the business of selling records. We're in the business of gaining audience share. It doesn't matter what they're buying. It's about what they're listening to. And yes...they're listening to familair, library based Rock. Why? Because the economy's in a downturn, and during times of economic strife, and stress, people tend to use the radio to escape and feel good about their lives. Time-tested, library tracks serve this purpose. And Rock tends to be the most timeless of all music styles. R&B songs come and go. Pop has always been disposable. Hip Hop (good Hip Hop) went away for the most part, and has been replaced by thug hop. And radio doesn't want to expose most of that music out of fear for what audience that will be perceived by clients.

Tie this in with the smaller pool from which Arbitron has to draw from, and everyone's in everyone else's back yard.

I don't need to go into what specific stations are doing it. You know it when you hear it. Stations that are branded as being one style...playing something not in that brand. It's as easy to spot as Pizza at KFC. It doesn't belong. And it can damage the brand.

There are several stations in Boston doing it as I type this. Some others have mentioned. And others that haven't.

It's not unique to Boston. The pendulum is swinging back from a 20-year fracturing of radio formats. There was a time when WCOZ played Charlie Daniels, The Knack and Boston. Those times are coming back. But we have a generation of radio people who've never experienced that kind of cross-styled playlist and it confuses us.

Imagine how the audience feels. They'e never experienced that kind of diversity, and we fear and tend to avoid the unfamiliar. And thus radio chases its tail.
 
Neanderpaul is right about the landlines deal. its really a serious problem especially for alternative radio stations.

Jacobs Media does a huge study every year that they call the Tech Poll. They basically survey 30,000 18-34 year olds from around the nation. 60% of those survey respondents that listen to alternative radio only had cell phones. Its just an unbelievable stat.

In theory, over half the people who listen to alternative radio aren't being surveyed. Hopefully the arbitron folks will figure out how to solve this problem. They have made in roads in Houston (with the people meter) and you look at the numbers for the Buzz there and their ratings have gone up.

Oh and I dont think FNX should play Peter Gabriel or Cheap Trick. (i feel like i should beat Ciao to the punch here).
 
Neanderpaul said:
And Rock tends to be the most timeless of all music styles.
Click to expand...

Would you care to rephrase that to "the most timeless of all CURRENTLY POPULAR music styles"? That would probably be correct. What you wrote is absurdly erroneous. Classical music afficionados routinely listen to music that was written more than 300 years before the term rock was even coined. And for those of us who enjoy American popular standards, almost the entire library was created decades before the first music that was identified as rock 'n roll or rock. You appear to be too close to your subject matter.
 
There are songs that do not belong on WROR, right now "Don't You (Forget About Me)-Simple Minds comes to mind (no pun intended), but there are several others [80's songs] that do not fit the format as well.
 
I think it is ok for WBCN to play those songs. WBCN is a "Legacy" station that is steeped in history. Many of the popular bands of today and yesterday got thier start on WBCN (example: U2) and they have a tradition to live up to. I think it would be wrong for WBCN to abandon the music and artists that made it the great and cutting edge station that it was. There was a time when WBCN revolutionised radio and made FM a viable and legitimate spectrum, they did something no one else was doing and I don't think that should be forgotten.
 
DanStrassberg said:
Would you care to rephrase that to "the most timeless of all CURRENTLY POPULAR music styles"? That would probably be correct. What you wrote is absurdly erroneous. Classical music afficionados routinely listen to music that was written more than 300 years before the term rock was even coined. And for those of us who enjoy American popular standards, almost the entire library was created decades before the first music that was identified as rock 'n roll or rock. You appear to be too close to your subject matter.
Click to expand...


No. The subject matter was an unspoken focus on radio that gets ratings. Popular, mainstream, mass-appeal radio.

When I look at the charts, or Mediabase and see Handel, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and DeBussy dominating airplay, or sales, then we'll have that discussion. And Billie Holiday, and Louis Prima's (although Just A Gigolo, his most well-known hit was actually written by Austrian composer Leonello Casucci) music is relevant in today's world only by the contemporary artists who rip off their tunes and get credit for being "talented."

You made an assumption about how close I was to my subject matter without realizing I might just have kept this topic focused for a change.
 
Retro said:
I'll Melt With You-Modern English doesn't belong on either WROR or Magic 106.7.
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Believe it or not, I actually disagree with that! :eek: Magic has been playing Modern English since 1990-ish - even longer than Mix has had the song! As for WROR, it does fit there as it is a classic rock station. Besides, I Melt For You is on a current Taco Bell TV ad, plus numerous people have seen Nic Cage's "Valley Girl" by now (the song plays over the end credits). Here's my list of which stations SHOULD play Modern English's alt-rock classic:

WBOS (alt-rock), Mike (classic rock), Mix (semi-alt-rock), WZLX (classic rock), WFNX (alt-rock), WBCN (alt-rocker SHOULD be playing this instead of "Stairway To Heaven", which has NOTHING to do with alt-rock), WROR (classic rock) and Magic (Kiss-heavy AC)

Obviously, many of these stations ARE playing this already. Here's another alt-rock song, the Romantics' "What I Like About You", which - because it's the title/opening theme to the Jennie Garth/Amanda Bynes WB/CW sitcom - should be heard on these stations:

WBOS, Mike, Mix, WZLX, WFNX, WBCN (should be playing this one too) and WROR, but NOT Magic - way too hard rock for Magic listeners (my sister is no hard rock fan at all)
 
Here is why I disagree, "I'll Melt With You" was never a bona-fide Top 40 hit. Magic plays light rock, which this song isn't at all. WROR, while playing "The songs that you grew up with" doesn't seem to fit its 60's/70's formula for music at all. It just seems so out of place with the rest of it, along with most of the other 80's stuff that they play as well.

As far as Magic playing it before Mix, when mix signed on, they were an R&B leaning/Hot AC. When 1996 came around, they opted for "Modern AC" instead, it which at that point the song would fit there format then.
 
I think "Melt With You" works due to it's inclusion in every 80's John Hughes film.
 
You may think they don't belong, but I hear the same 80's tracks on a lot of stations like "don't you forget about me", "Shook me all night long", "Love Shack" etc. They must be on a list of songs that test very well.


Retro said:
There are songs that do not belong on WROR, right now "Don't You (Forget About Me)-Simple Minds comes to mind (no pun intended), but there are several others [80's songs] that do not fit the format as well.
Click to expand...
 
OK, but it just sounds very odd to hear Boston up against the B52's.

NHRadio said:
You may think they don't belong, but I hear the same 80's tracks on a lot of stations like "don't you forget about me", "Shook me all night long", "Love Shack" etc. They must be on a list of songs that test very well.


Retro said:
There are songs that do not belong on WROR, right now "Don't You (Forget About Me)-Simple Minds comes to mind (no pun intended), but there are several others [80's songs] that do not fit the format as well.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
WFNX just played "I Want You To Want Me-Cheap Trick. Now it doesn't really fit the format, but ok.

Ironically, they also played Let Me Go-Heaven 17 as well.
 
I'm sorry but WHEN was the last time Mix played "For Those About To Rock"? Maybe during the specialty show(s), but not in rotation as a gold or anything.
 
All of this coming from the same people that complain stations are playing the same 300 songs over and over again.
They add a little variety and complain about that!

With the exception of a few radio geeks, I can't imagine any listener laying awake at night wondering why their favorite station played Cheap Trick or the B-52's.

OMG, high gas prices, property taxes on the rise, kids need braces, my radio station played I Want You to Want Me.

In the words of Rick Nelson, "You can't please everyone, so you gots to please yourself." :)
 
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