Thank you for all the posts. Let me say I respect all your opinions, and I will try and
address a couple of the points that have been raised.
Young air talent. OK, some of the guys on Star may have been, indeed, young. Understand, though, every radio station has budgetary considerations. Star 107.9 paid
reasonably, but we were not the highest paying station in town. Wish it could have been different, but small station = smaller budget. That's just the way the business is. We hired the best talent we could find at a price we could afford. That's the reality of radio. At the same time, though...having been an "oldies" Program Director, I've heard guys with 30-40 years experience that are great...others that should've hung up their headphones a long time ago. So, while age may help, it can also be a hindrance.
Remember, we were talking to, predominantly, a 28-38 year old listener in 1998. A
25 year old jock can, possibly, do that. Not all of our people were that young, though. Jay Stevens was well in his 30's when he worked for us. So was Kelly Quinn. I was 40 something, and probably on the "trailing" edge of format viability. That's why, as soon as I could get someone to do the morning show, I moved to afternoons, where I thought I was of better use.
Dance music. I know folks like "Vibe" are big proponents of such formats. I do respect the opinions. I just think the jury, so far, is out on "Movin". Time will tell there. It might work in a "Movin" genre (where "cluster" testing might find a demographic that the music appeals to) , but we found the mixture didn't work with the "Listener Advisory Board" that we formed to test the music with on Star. Many listeners who considered Star their "favorite" radio station became members of that board. I can assume they were our "P-1" listeners. (For you non-radio types, those are people who considered Star 107.9 their "first preference" radio station). And, yes, I had the ability within the softwear to silently "delete" someone from the panel, if I had reason to suspect they were trying to monkey with our test results. I cannot, however, remember ever having to do this.
And, I am not "dissing" artists like Michael Jackson. I met Michael in 1979. However,
test results are test results. When you can't get 40% of a panel to say they like his songs, why would you play them? I've seen this in music test after music test. If the public's perception of him could be changed, he might have a comeback album in him.
Regardless of what you think of the man personally, he's an incredible talent. But, the public, overall is just not behind him right now.
Intrestingly enough, this research has tested out in other markets. Maybe it's a midwestern thing, maybe not. But, this part of the country is more blue-collar rock based than some other big metropolitan areas.
The "Chucko" style. OK, I know Chuck Taylor is, personally, a good guy. I know radio geeks and music geeks enjoyed his "B-sides" and his, "this song wasn't a hit, but it was a good song, so I'm gonna play it anyway" style. The reality? Bad ratings.
Go over the books for the WCOL/WBNS battle, and you'll find his appeal was to a small minority of fans. That's in black and white.
I respect Chuck's views and anyone who agrees with him. But, reality doesn't prove out your point. By the way, this is coming from a guy who, once built a 3000 song library for an oldies station, and got slaughtered in the ratings. This is the point
I think a lot of "radio geeks" don't get.
I grew up listening to "personality" radio. There are many people I consider to be near "radio gods". I respect good radio personality. But giving DJ's total control over their shows is a big, big gamble. Some guys might pull it off, a lot of them are abject failures. Usually, a successful "personality" had the common-sense and the control over his/her ego to listen when the station's PD had something worthwhile to say.
And, the PD should be smart enough to listen to his "personality's" ideas and know when to loosen the reins. It takes a special personality to do this. You know it when you see it. But not every one can do it.
The bottom line for music: find what your audience wants to hear (That's the audience as a "whole", not appeal to every single listener's tastes), and play it. With Star, it took us 2 plus years of trial and error to find our way. I'm happy we nearly got it right at the end.
Last but not least. I admit Star 107.9 was my first Programming slot. Was I perfect?
No. Did I make mistakes? Yep. But, consider what I got out of it. I was allowed to
"create" a format. I had advisors, but no rules. The boss allowed us to make mistakes. And, it was in market #35 then. This was at the height of "consolidation". It wasn't perfect. That's a certainty. But, we did our best. I'm proud of what we did.
The format? It's viable...but the large number of stations in a market who all play the same titles tend to burn out the music after a while. I think such a format can still be successful under the right set of circumstances. We'll see.
Because, as Kevin already told you, the Prince songs did well and other songs didn't!