I've recently seen TV commercials for a breakfast cereal and one for a laundry detergent, where in each case, a mom of about 40 is caught by her teenaged daughter wearing her clothing. I think this speaks volumes for why today's AC stations are so uptempo and why Hot AC and Top 40 stations are doing well, not just in 18-34 but in 25-54 female demos.
I think this generation of women is trying as hard as they can NOT to get old. OK, all generations used their beauty creams and face lifts trying not to LOOK old. But I think now, it's extending into breakfast cereal, laundry detergent and radio stations. Anything middle aged women can do to stop Father Time from advancing, they'll do. So I guess that's why Hot AC and Top 40 are getting such great adult female numbers. They want to listen to what their teenage daughters are listening to. If an AC station wants to survive today, they CANNOT play anything soft. So we have the oddity of WLIT and other AC stations going back to the 80s for some of their music, but only choosing uptempo 80s songs, most of which they never played when they were current. And being unable to play current artists such as Norah Jones or Sade, even though they both have recently had very successful CDs. Neither gets aired on AC stations today. They're too soft.
But when a middle aged woman is alone in her car or at her desk, or reading a book or having dinner, I just don't understand why they refuse to listen to a radio station that plays soft music, be it Soft AC or Smooth Jazz or Classical or whatever format you can think of. Even in their private moments, they can't find themselves tuning in a soft station. And that's whether or not those same 40 year old women are able to exchange clothing with their teenaged daughters.
