The new krth

[Thomps2525]

There was a time in the 1990s when KRTH's active playlist had only 330 songs and when it was time for the annual Firecracker 300, a list of those 330 songs ran in the Los Angeles Times and we got to pick our favorites from that list. Of course all but 30 of those songs would be on the top 300. A few years ago the playlist approached 1000 songs. Many of us would like to have a few hundred more songs added---a few hundred out of the two thousand big hits that are being ignored. Michael said that "stations would love to play more songs." Pssst---don't tell anybody...but if they really want to, they can.

 

[oldies76]

In other words, the songs that cannot be played anymore due to everything in the book thrown at us by Michael and David, are just that...lost songs which will never be heard again on the radio. Sad. So many, countless gems and great songs are going to waste. I will never change my ideas. Radio is a lost cause.

I give up.

Goodnight.

 

[Thomps2525]

Don't give up just yet. Michael and David insist that 95% of KRTH's audience want to hear the same few hundred songs over and over and over and over and over. Okay---so why can't the rest of us have a station that plays every top-40 hit of 1954 through the mid-'80s? Such a station would have only 5% of the "classic hits" fans...but they'd have us almost 100% of the time. (We do have to sleep at night, after all.) If we can have 75 Spanish-language stations, each with only 100 listeners*, then why can't we have just one good oldies station with a huge playlist that can be enjoyed by thousands of us "music freaks"?

(*Exaggeration is to make a point and not to be taken as an accurate statistic.)

 

[michael hagerty]

There was a time in the 1990s when KRTH's active playlist had only 330 songs and when it was time for the annual Firecracker 300, a list of those 330 songs ran in the Los Angeles Times and we got to pick our favorites from that list. Of course all but 30 of those songs would be on the top 300. A few years ago the playlist approached 1000 songs. Many of us would like to have a few hundred more songs added---a few hundred out of the two thousand big hits that are being ignored. Michael said that "stations would love to play more songs." Pssst---don't tell anybody...but if they really want to, they can.

Not without blowing off listeners.

But then, you've been told that.

 

[michael hagerty]

In other words, the songs that cannot be played anymore due to everything in the book thrown at us by Michael and David, are just that...lost songs which will never be heard again on the radio. Sad. So many, countless gems and great songs are going to waste. I will never change my ideas. Radio is a lost cause.

I give up.

Goodnight.

Goodnight.

Your ideas are equivalent to insisting to your mechanic that he put molasses into the crankcase of your car instead of motor oil and that if he'll just try it "It'll work just fine".

 

[Thomps2525]

Karo corn syrup works much better than molasses.

 

[michael hagerty]

Don't give up just yet. Michael and David insist that 95% of KRTH's audience want to hear the same few hundred songs over and over and over and over and over. Okay---so why can't the rest of us have a station that plays every top-40 hit of 1954 through the mid-'80s? Such a station would have only 5% of the "classic hits" fans...but they'd have us almost 100% of the time. (We do have to sleep at night, after all.) If we can have 75 Spanish-language stations, each with only 100 listeners*, then why can't we have just one good oldies station with a huge playlist that can be enjoyed by thousands of us "music freaks"?

(*Exaggeration is to make a point and not to be taken as an accurate statistic.)

Classic Steve....ask a question predicated on a question that includes an exaggeration making it impossible to get to a hard data point.

Cutting through the muck (There are 12 Spanish-language stations of varying format that show up among the 48 stations listed in the October Nielsen Audio trend, all of which with significantly more than 100 listeners, especially the five that rank in the top 20), the answer is simple:

5% of KRTH's cume is 100,000. That is one-fifth the cume being generated by stations that have a 1 share (I'm having trouble finding a source that prints weekly cume for stations below a 1 share).

So let's extrapolate. That's a 0.2. The only rated Los Angeles-based station that does worse is KPFK.

How ya gonna make money? And since you're playing every Top 40 hit from 30 years to 60 years ago...the majority of your audience (which is flirting with "immeasurably small") is of no interest to advertisers, even if you could deliver them in larger numbers.

You're doing barter in Farsi in 90 days, Steve.

 

[oldies76]

Goodnight.

Your ideas are equivalent to insisting to your mechanic that he put molasses into the crankcase of your car instead of motor oil and that if he'll just try it "It'll work just fine".

And it worked just fine for the Doc in Back to the Future, part 2......A little trash, a banana peel and beer in the flux capacitor, why not. If he can start his car.........so can we....get my point? Seriously now....goodnight.

 

[Robert Bass]

And it worked just fine for the Doc in Back to the Future, part 2......A little trash, a banana peel and beer in the flux capacitor, why not. If he can start his car.........so can we....get my point? Seriously now....goodnight.

That was to power the FC only, which is a work of fiction anyway. The car itself still ran on gasoline.

R

 

[semoochie]

I thought it ran on cocaine.

 

[LKellerIII]

Don't give up just yet. Michael and David insist that 95% of KRTH's audience want to hear the same few hundred songs over and over and over and over and over. Okay---so why can't the rest of us have a station that plays every top-40 hit of 1954 through the mid-'80s? Such a station would have only 5% of the "classic hits" fans...but they'd have us almost 100% of the time. (We do have to sleep at night, after all.) If we can have 75 Spanish-language stations, each with only 100 listeners*, then why can't we have just one good oldies station with a huge playlist that can be enjoyed by thousands of us "music freaks"?

You can have that, of course. It comes under various names - internet radio, Pandora, and Spotify to name three. A fourth is called an MP3 player, which approximates the old record collection that used to be on brick and board shelves in your living room when you were young. But buying the actual songs you want to hear is a lot cheaper and easier than it used to be. It takes very little time and effort to amass your own huge playlist.

I still listen to music radio some of the time so I can hear what's new and different (I like a fair amount of hip-hop and neo-soul), but as far as playing the songs from "my" era - rock, pop, jazz, or anything else - I gave up on radio about a decade ago.

 

[oldies76]

Well, listening to KRTH this evening, and it basically sounds more in line, like a CBS-FM (NYC), give or take..
The burned out, same 60's tunes have been banished to just one song per hour..or sometimes none per hour! And they have really ramped up the 80's music now. First time hearing "Shake It Up" (1982) by the Cars on KRTH, followed two songs later by another '82 hit "Don't You Want Me". I supposed I'm in their target audience now (16 in 1983), so that may be a good thing. But will always crave those real oldies but goodies (50's to 70's).

 

[Thomps2525]

Other than Art Laboe's syndicated Sunday Special request and dedication programs, are there any radio stations where the songs are still referred to as "oldies but goodies"? I'm thinkin' that if we use the term "oldies but goodies," then we are oldies but goodies, if you get my meaning.

 

[Thomps2525]

I haven't removed the 1960s songs from my KRTH list at http://xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?p=1988164#1988164 because I'm waiting to see if KRTH will continue to play one '60s song per hour (and, if so, which ones) or if all the '60s songs will eventually disappear from the playlist. Today I added these four...and KRTH is sounding more and more like KLOS:

Another One Bites The Dust - Queen (1/1980)
Call Me - Blondie (1/1980)
Shake It Up - Cars (4/1981)
Smoke From A Distant Fire - Sanford/Townsend Band (9/1977)

 

[CTListener]

Other than Art Laboe's syndicated Sunday Special request and dedication programs, are there any radio stations where the songs are still referred to as "oldies but goodies"? I'm thinkin' that if we use the term "oldies but goodies," then we are oldies but goodies, if you get my meaning.

I don't think I've heard "oldies but goodies" since the late '70s or early '80s. By the time the oldies format got rolling nationally, the songs were just called "oldies."

Speaking of oldies, ever wonder why songs that reminisce about oldies or the '50s and '60s still get played, while the songs and eras mentioned get cast aside? DRC-FM still plays "Old Time Rock and Roll," "Old Days," "Grease," "Crocodile Rock," "Summer Nights" and the theme from "Happy Days," but even worse than you are in LA, we're down to one '60s song every two hours. Oh, and we also get plenty of '80s and '90s remakes of oldies -- among them, "Groovy Kind of Love" and "You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins, "The Loco-Motion" by Kylie Minogue, "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Kim Wilde, "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany, and earlier this evening, "It's Alright" by Huey Lewis. But the originals will drive listeners away! Go figure!

 

[CTListener]

And since KRTH seems to be trending in our direction, here's an hour of DRC-FM, coming soon to a radio dial near you:

Your Love -- Outfield
Hold the Line -- Toto
Everything She Wants -- Wham!
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong -- Spin Doctors
Cruel to Be Kind -- Nick Lowe
Driver's Seat -- Sniff 'n the Tears
Cruisin' -- Smokey Robinson
Who'll Stop the Rain -- CCR
Kiss On My List -- Hall & Oates
Right Back Where We Started From -- Maxine Nightingale
My Sharona -- Knack
1-2-3 -- Miami Sound Machine
Candle in the Wind -- Elton John
Low Rider -- War
Voices Carry -- Til Tuesday

 

[Thomps2525]

Yes, Kylie Minogue recorded The Loco-Motion. It was a remake of a Grand Funk song. (Now I'll see just how many people actually read my posts! ) In addition to those remakes you named, KRTH plays Los Lobos' 1987 version of La Bamba (but never plays the complete ending with the lengthy guitar solo). The 1958 original by Ritchie Valens disappeared from KRTH's playlist a few years ago, although the Isley Brothers' Shout from 1959 still gets played. Go figure!

 

[Thomps2525]

Outfield and the Spin Doctors are not (yet) on KRTH's playlist and I'm surprised that none of the Gloria Estefan/Miami Sound Machine songs are being played. I think 1-2-3, Get On Your Feet, and the remakes of Everlasting Love and Turn The Beat Around would be a good fit for a station with a lot of Latino/Hispanic listeners. (I could say 1-2-3 was a remake of Len Barry's hit but I'll probably catch enough flak for the Grand Funk comment. )

 

[CTListener]

"Shout" is long gone here. Oh, and I forgot to mention that "Cruisin'" is the only song on the current playlist that features Robinson's voice. The only Miracles song now played is "Love Machine," post-Smokey. I'm glad "Cruisin'" is still being played. Otherwise, listeners might wonder who ABC is singing about when they hear "When Smokey Sings."

I'll jump in before David Eduardo does and remind you again of the differences between East and West Coast Latinos. Miami Sound Machine is an East Coast outfit, their music influenced by Cuban and other Caribbean rhythms. Very different from the sound preferred by Hispanic listeners on the West Coast. I wouldn't expect to hear "1-2-3" or "Conga," which DRC also plays, on KRTH.

 

[Thomps2525]

KRTH plays Selena's I Could Fall In Love (from 1995!). Gloria Estefan's Cuts Both Ways, Coming Out Of The Dark, Anything For You and Dont Wanna Lose You are similar in style...but perhaps KRTH doesn't want to play too many AC hits.