The new krth

[oldies76]

Do you consider a "veteran of rock'n'roll" to be one of the genre's early artists such as Presley, Berry, Haley or Holly? Or, rather, do you consider a "veteran" to be any artist who has been around for at lleast 20 years, such as Phil, Elton, Janet, Madonna, et al? Obviously "the new KRTH" has chosen to ignore the true veterans of rock'n'roll, at least as far as my definition goes.

In about 20 years, it might actually be scary to find out what KRTH would play for a "Veterans Weekend": Justin Beiber, Bruno Mars, Robin Thicke, Lady Gaga, Rhianna, Eminem, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Katy Perry, LMFAO.....the new veterans of rock and roll....YIKES!!

 

[Thomps2525]

"Be sure to listen to KRTH's 'Veterans Of Rock & Roll' weekend beginning at 3 pm Friday, November 11, 2033. Hear all your favorite legends and pioneers of rock'n'roll: Adele, Rihanna, Drake, Eminem, Coldplay, Lady GaGa, Bruno Mars, Robin Thicke, Katy Perry, OneDirection, Imagine Dragons and many more!"

I'll check back with you in 20 years and we'll see how accurate I was.

 

[Thomps2525]

Two posts with the same idea at the same time. Okay, now this is just downright spooky!

 

[oldies76]

Two posts with the same idea at the same time. Okay, now this is just downright spooky!

Wow!! And I'm sure there are thousands like us, just in the L.A. basin alone waiting to have a say too! Cue up "Spooky" by the Classics IV.....Darn, KRTH does not have that one in their "library" anymore, sorry!

 

[Thomps2525]

KRTH just played Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Honky Cat and Rock'n Me. Wow! I haven't heard those songs since.....ummm.....yesterday.

 

[Mediafrog+]

LA RadioRewind posted: "I doubt that in today's "politically correct world," any station could play Mr. Custer unless Larry Verne re-recorded the line where he says "Look at 'em out there---runnin' around like a bunch of wild Indians."

So that means, we'll never hear: "Half-Breed", "Running Bear", "Indian Giver", "Indian Reservation", "Indian Lake" or "Keem o Sabe" by the Electric Indian?? Lol

Maybe you'll never hear them again on broadcast radio, but I've heard all those songs played many times on Music Choice.

 

[davideduardo]

LA RadioRewind posted: "I doubt that in today's "politically correct world," any station could play Mr. Custer unless Larry Verne re-recorded the line where he says "Look at 'em out there---runnin' around like a bunch of wild Indians."


So that means, we'll never hear: "Half-Breed", "Running Bear", "Indian Giver", "Indian Reservation", "Indian Lake" or "Keem o Sabe" by the Electric Indian?? Lol

I heard "Indian Reservation" on a local FM oldies station while in the car with another radio person around Jackson Hole, WY, about 10 years back. I recall, even a decade ago, thinking that the selection was insensitive in an area with a considerable Native American population.

On the other hand, Indian Lake is a town / area in the Poconos, IIRC. No more offensive than "Indian Wells" in CA (or its next adjacent neighbor, "Indio" [which means "Indian"]).

 

[semoochie]

Two posts with the same idea at the same time. Okay, now this is just downright spooky!

Several years ago, I posted a full sentence, with no additional comment. When I hit "enter" someone else had the exact line, at the same time!

 

[michael hagerty]

On this Veterans Day weekend, I'm grateful for the duty and sacrifice of all the men and women who have served in the military and fought to keep our nation free. Yes, "time has moved on" but that doesn't mean we should remember only the veterans who served during our lifetime. Michael, you don't always like my analogies but now you have made an analogy and I fail to see how it relates to KRTH.

Steve, as you saw if you read the post, this is the post I was replying to (screen goes all wavy, harp music plays):

(from Oldies76) Admittingly, this weekend is titled "Veterans of Rock and Roll Weekend", (and I'm in KRTH's demo btw...) But I've yet to hear a true "Veteran" of "Rock and Roll". To me that would be early Stones, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Coasters, Chubby Checker, early Beatles, Ray Charles...etc...

So instead we hear the veterans of the 70's and 80's rock and roll music: Elton John, Billy Joel, The Eagles, Steve Winwood, and Michael Jackson. Maybe they should retitle their weekend: "The Generation X Veterans of New Rock and Roll Weekend".

And if one listens carefully, all you are really hearing is their weekday playlists re-arranged, for a fake weekend "special". Can't fool us "oldies freaks", can ya!

Veterans vs. Oldies? Huh. Do you consider a "veteran of rock'n'roll" to be one of the genre's early artists such as Presley, Berry, Haley or Holly? Or, rather, do you consider a "veteran" to be any artist who has been around for at lleast 20 years, such as Phil, Elton, Janet, Madonna, et al? Obviously "the new KRTH" has chosen to ignore the true veterans of rock'n'roll, at least as far as my definition goes.

Which suggests that people who've been making hits for 20, 30, 40 (in the case of Elton John and Billy Joel) or 45 (in the case of Michael Jackson) years are not true veterans to you. That's like telling veterans of 'Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan that only the WWI, WWII and Korea guys are true veterans.

Which is bull. They're all veterans.

But unlike the very serious business of risking and losing your life defending your country, for which we owe all veterans, living and dead, from those who died this week all the way back to 1776, KRTH is a pop music station appealing to 40 year olds. Somebody who's been making hit records as long as their listener has been alive, or all the way back to their high school days is a veteran to them.

 

[michael hagerty]

Mister oldies76 is correct about KRTH's "fake weekend specials." I've heard British Invasion weekends and Movie Tunes weekends and Motown weekends and Parade Of Hits weekends and '70s Soul weekends and All-American weekends and several other "special" weekends and almost every one of them features the same songs that KRTH plays every day. They're put in a different order each weekend, that's all. The recent MTV weekend was fun because KRTH played a few songs that hadn't been heard for many years.

"Parade Of Hits." Whoopee.

And yet, the audience hasn't formed an angry mob with pitchforks and torches and KRTH's ratings haven't plummeted.

 

[michael hagerty]

Veteran's Day: We remember and honor all those who have served and paid the ultimate price in all prior wars and missions. From America's founding to the present, not just since 1968. So if it's a "Veterans of Rock and Roll Weekend" then it should apply to all the major artists since the dawn of Rock and Roll, not just the songs to fit today's target. A station has to "give in" a little sometimes and not operate strictly by the book. It's called being flexible.

Actually, a station has to deliver on the expectations of the target audience upon which it depends for its livelihood.

"Giving in" is what you need to do when it comes to strict definitions. They don't fly when it comes to successful radio programming.

 

[michael hagerty]

In about 20 years, it might actually be scary to find out what KRTH would play for a "Veterans Weekend": Justin Beiber, Bruno Mars, Robin Thicke, Lady Gaga, Rhianna, Eminem, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Katy Perry, LMFAO.....the new veterans of rock and roll....YIKES!!

No scarier than any previous period. There were a ton of Elvis fans who couldn't stomach Elton.

 

[michael hagerty]

"Be sure to listen to KRTH's 'Veterans Of Rock & Roll' weekend beginning at 3 pm Friday, November 11, 2033. Hear all your favorite legends and pioneers of rock'n'roll: Adele, Rihanna, Drake, Eminem, Coldplay, Lady GaGa, Bruno Mars, Robin Thicke, Katy Perry, OneDirection, Imagine Dragons and many more!"

I'll check back with you in 20 years and we'll see how accurate I was.

I'd bet pretty accurate....which will be why KRTH is still there.

 

[michael hagerty]

KRTH just played Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, Honky Cat and Rock'n Me. Wow! I haven't heard those songs since.....ummm.....yesterday.

Exaggeration to make a point again, Steve? I mean, given that you don't listen to KRTH all that much, you've said?

 

[mighty met]

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.)

A number of people on the XM/Sirius board have asked for a 50s to 80s oldies station. Currently, you have separate channels, so when you listen, you get just one decade at a time. Such a station would be highly listenable due to low repetition. The key, though, is having it hosted live and having some thought put into what's played, rather than it be a jukebox. It'd be a little like WLNG, but without the ads and lost dog announcements.

I do hope anyone who likes Oldies listens to the 60s Satellite Survey on XM. This is a truly outstanding show that plays, with a few changes (I imagine) to stay legal, the exact top 40 Billboard chart from a particular week between 1960 and 1969. No matter how obscure or weird the song is, it's played. Along the way, you're given all kinds of historical data on the producers, session musicians, historical context, connections with other songs. It's fantastic.

 

[mighty met]

I heard "Indian Reservation" on a local FM oldies station while in the car with another radio person around Jackson Hole, WY, about 10 years back. I recall, even a decade ago, thinking that the selection was insensitive in an area with a considerable Native American population.

On the other hand, Indian Lake is a town / area in the Poconos, IIRC. No more offensive than "Indian Wells" in CA (or its next adjacent neighbor, "Indio" [which means "Indian"]).

I am pretty sure "Indian Reservation" is a pro-Native American song, lamenting the forceable removal of the Cherokee tribe from the South. I also think I've heard that on KRTH occasionally on specialty weekends. Certainly XM plays it regularly.

Now Speedy Gonzalez, or Ahab the Arab.....those are songs you aren't going to hear too often, for good reason.

 

[oldies76]

Actually, a station has to deliver on the expectations of the target audience upon which it depends for its livelihood.

"Giving in" is what you need to do when it comes to strict definitions. They don't fly when it comes to successful radio programming.

Ok, but I'll bet the old time listeners of K-Earth and the listeners on the upper end of their target demo are cringing that their veterans of rock and roll are being ignored this weekend. All I'm saying is play the veterans of the target audience and play the TRUE veterans of rock and roll, mixed in one weekend. What could go wrong?? It's a specialty weekend for gosh sakes. And yes, give-in a little.

 

[Thomps2525]

And I bet Michael will agree with me that KRTH's "target audience" never changes...but the listeners---unless they die sooner---eventually grow out of the "target audience." The songs that played on KRTH thirty years ago will still be appealing to the people who listened to KRTH back then...but those songs won't appeal to very many people in the target audience of 2013. As listeners age, KRTH from time to time has to drop the older songs and add more recent songs in order to keep appealing to listeners in their 20s and 30s.

Let's see Michael find fault with that post! By the way, I think Michael should work in KRTH's publicity and promotions department---he never has a bad word to say about the station! And he still doesn't hate Brown Eyed Girl---go figure!

 

[michael hagerty]

Ok, but I'll bet the old time listeners of K-Earth and the listeners on the upper end of their target demo are cringing that their veterans of rock and roll are being ignored this weekend. All I'm saying is play the veterans of the target audience and play the TRUE veterans of rock and roll, mixed in one weekend. What could go wrong?? It's a specialty weekend for gosh sakes. And yes, give-in a little.

Been here, done this.

If by the "upper end of the target demo", you're talking 50-54, no effort is made. They're on the way out.

And, regardless of age, the typical KRTH listener is not obsessive. They're not cringing and they're not keeping track of who's not getting played. They want to hear songs they like, and KRTH's themed weekends are a bit of window dressing that strikes some listener as clever and probably blows right by a significant percentage.

 

[michael hagerty]

And I bet Michael will agree with me that KRTH's "target audience" never changes...but the listeners---unless they die sooner---eventually grow out of the "target audience." The songs that played on KRTH thirty years ago will still be appealing to the people who listened to KRTH back then...but those songs won't appeal to very many people in the target audience of 2013. As listeners age, KRTH from time to time has to drop the older songs and add more recent songs in order to keep appealing to listeners in their 20s and 30s.

Let's see Michael find fault with that post! By the way, I think Michael should work in KRTH's publicity and promotions department---he never has a bad word to say about the station! And he still doesn't hate Brown Eyed Girl---go figure!

By and large on target, though I would bet that a lot of KRTH listeners from 30 years ago (they were AC then) could probably pass on songs they liked then. That's fairly normal.

As for not having a bad word to say, it's not so much that as the time that has to be spent pointing out that the incessant whining about what KRTH is and isn't and how irrelevant that is to running a successful radio station.

Personally, I could find fault with KRTH. Tuna should have been given morning drive 15 years ago, failing that, Rick Dees. I think they've played out the 1970 Drake image and....that's about it.

And "Brown Eyed Girl" is my least favorite Van Morrison record, but I don't hate it and neither, apparently, does the audience.