WCBS #1 18-34

[dcowboy7]

But I will certainly argue that “Blurred Lines” does not belong anywhere near the WCBS playlist. That song was playing on hip hop stations in the early 2010’s… and now it’s classic hits?

But "blurred lines" was a billboard mainstream top 40 hit & was the #2 song of 2013.

 

[andreaj10]

But "blurred lines" was a billboard mainstream top 40 hit & was the #2 song of 2013.

not the point - there are plenty of stations that play the "Blurred Lines" and Taylor Swiftie and Lizzo (ugh!) kinda stuff - the fact is that the station is succeeding with 18-34 with the current playlist (80's/90's/early millenium) and air personalities (particularly Scott Shannon)

 

[vchimpanzee]

not the point - there are plenty of stations that play the "Blurred Lines" and Taylor Swiftie and Lizzo (ugh!) kinda stuff

Lizzo's music (what I've heard, anyway) sounds like it is from the 70s or 80s.

 

[AceBiscuits]

But I will certainly argue that “Blurred Lines” does not belong anywhere near the WCBS playlist.

not the point - there are plenty of stations that play the "Blurred Lines" and Taylor Swiftie and Lizzo (ugh!) kinda stuff - the fact is that the station is succeeding with 18-34 with the current playlist (80's/90's/early millenium) and air personalities (particularly Scott Shannon)

Context matters here. The Beatles and Steppenwolf titles were undoubtedly played as part of the morning show, which will often feature 60's music either as the first song of the show or during their Friday Blast Off segment, where they usually break format (I've heard blink-182, Nirvana, etc. heard during this block as well as 60's or 70's pop). The latter is also where Blurred Lines was played. Lizzo's "About Damn Time" was played once by Broadway Bill Lee in reference to his recent induction into the Radio Hall of Fame (video here). None of those songs are in rotation, they're all outliers.

 

[semoochie]

I logged a couple days' worth of WCBS-FM's playlist and came up with just over 400 songs. They're playing two songs from the 1960s: the Beatles' "Twist and Shout" (1964, but re-released in 1986 after being featured in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"), and Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" (1968). The years with the most playlist entries are 1983 to 1985. The artists with the most number of songs being played are Madonna and Michael Jackson, each with 11 songs being played. The two newest songs they're playing are Uncle Kracker & Dobie Gray's remake of "Drift Away" from 2003, and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" from 2013 (which borrows heavily from Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up"). Also Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", if you count it as a current hit that just happened to take 38 years to reach its peak chart position!

Blurred Lines was intended as a tribute to Marvin Gaye and instead, was the subject of a lost legal suit that cost them millions of dollars! To my ears, it is definitely not the same song. Not only are the notes different but one is on the downbeat and the other isn't!

Here is a 1960's format clock from one of the Benns family's 50 kw AM top 40 stations... WFLI in Chatanooga. Look how many songs, and then look at how they were playing 3 "Gold" and 2 "Hall of Fame" songs an hour as well as all the currents, divided into 3 categories.

This also shows how whether a station's weekly chart showed a song as #1 or #10, it played the same number of times a day...

View attachment 3354

Two minutes of news an hour, in 1960? I don't even know what to say!

 

[fordranger797]

Context matters here. The Beatles and Steppenwolf titles were undoubtedly played as part of the morning show, which will often feature 60's music either as the first song of the show or during their Friday Blast Off segment, where they usually break format (I've heard blink-182, Nirvana, etc. heard during this block as well as 60's or 70's pop). The latter is also where Blurred Lines was played. Lizzo's "About Damn Time" was played once by Broadway Bill Lee in reference to his recent induction into the Radio Hall of Fame (video here). None of those songs are in rotation, they're all outliers.

Thank you for clarifying. It makes sense in this scenario, as many radio stations and shows temporarily break for the format (for a variety of reasons). If that song was actually part of the regular rotation, I would be shocked.

 

[AceBiscuits]

Thank you for clarifying. It makes sense in this scenario, as many radio stations and shows temporarily break for the format (for a variety of reasons). If that song was actually part of the regular rotation, I would be shocked.

Agreed! Glad I could clear it up.

 

[dcowboy7]

That pie chart reminds me of Z100 in the 80s.
They had about 7 current top songs in a 2 hr 20 min rotation.
If "every breath you take" played 1:00 it was almost a lock to play again 3:20 5:40 8:00.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Here is a 1960's format clock from one of the Benns family's 50 kw AM top 40 stations... WFLI in Chatanooga. Look how many songs, and then look at how they were playing 3 "Gold" and 2 "Hall of Fame" songs an hour as well as all the currents, divided into 3 categories.

Or don't look at the songs as much as the low spot load and short stopdown lengths. Radio clearly had better momentum and more tolerable commercial breaks back then.

 

[TheBigA]

Or don't look at the songs as much as the low spot load and short stopdown lengths. Radio clearly had better momentum and more tolerable commercial breaks back then.

There was also a whole lot less competition. There's a reason why a lot of heritage radio owners got out in the 1980s, when faced with competition from FM. If I remember correctly, there may have been 4,000 radio stations in 1960. There are about 16,000 now.

 

[davideduardo]

Or don't look at the songs as much as the low spot load and short stopdown lengths. Radio clearly had better momentum and more tolerable commercial breaks back then.

And when FM stations tried to achieve viability after the FCC ordered simulcasting to end, 6 to 8 minute hourly limits were applied. The Beautiful Music stations under syndicators like Bonneville and SRP required just 8 minutes per hour. The early rock and top 40 stations did, usually, four 2 minute stops based on the increasing need to cater to Arbitron's quarter hour measurement unity.

What destroyed lower commercial limits was principally Docket 80-90 and the increase of the number of signals in nearly every market. Smaller markets saw $1 spots and bigger ones saw vastly pressured rates with the underperformers selling so cheap that they forced the bigger stations to sell for less and run more spots.

 

[101tm]

Not going to argue that some forward thinking needs to take place over at Audacy for this format to work. Quite frankly, WCBS seems to be one of the better classic hits stations that I’ve come across that is owned by Audacy (most of them don’t hold a candle to the product that iHeart puts out). But I will certainly argue that “Blurred Lines” does not belong anywhere near the WCBS playlist. That song was playing on hip hop stations in the early 2010’s… and now it’s classic hits? I won’t argue about “Drift Away.” It’s not an offensive piece of crap and I assume most listeners are okay with it. It’s a fairly common song on classic hits radio today.

I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks iHeart and even Cumulus do a far better job with the classic hits format. Audacy has a few that are decent, but I find most of them to be dry and lifeless.

 

[gr8oldies]

How did Country stations have weekly surveys that were 30 or more songs long, if they weren't playing almost all currents? When would they have time to play a 30-40 song current chart if they were playing much library material? Same with R&B stations. Their current charts were 30-40 songs long too!

There were country stations that were programmed exactly like top 40 stations, with top 40 energy, promotions, and tight current playlists. I just heard an aircheck from Louisville that fit that bill, and I remember "The Hawk 1380",WQHK in Fort Wayne, taking over after WMEE's format flipped to FM. Basically still a top 40 that played country, heavy on crossover (more Crystal Gayle, no 10 year old oldies from sister Loretta.

WABC was famous or maybe infamous for having only a 14 song chart, with a handful of "bubbling under" titles. But WABC rotations were so fast, #1 played nearly every hour and other hits every 90-120 minutes. How would WABC have time to play much library material?

CKLW would hit the library a few times an hour, but didn't bring more of it back until after 1976 when they went more A/C.

I'll stand by my statement again. Album Rock stations played a good deal of library material. Top 40, Country and Urban stations did not. And that's why Classic Rock stations can go back further in their playlists than other formats. It's because their listeners don't consider those artists unacceptably old. Growing up, they heard The Who, The Stones and Led Zeppelin as frequently as they heard contemporary rock artists.

 

[fordranger797]

I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks iHeart and even Cumulus do a far better job with the classic hits format. Audacy has a few that are decent, but I find most of them to be dry and lifeless.

Absolutely. iheart seems to get a lot of hate around here, but you can’t deny that they allow their local classic hits radio stations to offer a fairly wide playlist. I find the iHeart classic hits radio stations to be very listenable, and us radio rarely feel that way.

 

[NYRadioFan22]

I logged a couple days' worth of WCBS-FM's playlist and came up with just over 400 songs. They're playing two songs from the 1960s: the Beatles' "Twist and Shout" (1964, but re-released in 1986 after being featured in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"), and Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" (1968). The years with the most playlist entries are 1983 to 1985. The artists with the most number of songs being played are Madonna and Michael Jackson, each with 11 songs being played. The two newest songs they're playing are Uncle Kracker & Dobie Gray's remake of "Drift Away" from 2003, and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" from 2013 (which borrows heavily from Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up"). Also Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", if you count it as a current hit that just happened to take 38 years to reach its peak chart position!

Is this a sign they'll bring back 60s music?

 

[TheBigA]

Is this a sign they'll bring back 60s music?

Huh?

 

[NYRadioFan22]

Huh?

I meant, the fact they played Twist and Shout and Born to be Wild

 

[TheBigA]

I meant, the fact they played Twist and Shout and Born to be Wild

Did you read the context?

 

[AceBiscuits]

Is this a sign they'll bring back 60s music?

TL;DR: No. The 60's music is gone from the rotation, and not coming back.

Context matters here. The Beatles and Steppenwolf titles were undoubtedly played as part of the morning show, which will often feature 60's music either as the first song of the show or during their Friday Blast Off segment, where they usually break format (I've heard blink-182, Nirvana, etc. heard during this block as well as 60's or 70's pop). The latter is also where Blurred Lines was played. Lizzo's "About Damn Time" was played once by Broadway Bill Lee in reference to his recent induction into the Radio Hall of Fame (video here). None of those songs are in rotation, they're all outliers.

 

[davideduardo]

I logged a couple days' worth of WCBS-FM's playlist and came up with just over 400 songs.

I did a six week report and got 610 songs. There are a lot of them that rotate in and out, with either rest periods or very slow rotation.