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What if a station targeted a *really* old audience?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
To put this in perspective: Anyone who was at least a teenager when Elvis' version of Hound Dog came out is now over 80 years old.
Radio generally doesn't cater to 55+ as advertisers don't care about that demographic. Which means anyone born before 1968 has aged out of radio's target demos.
You'll find a few exceptions (such as WDJO, WECK, KONO-AM which all stream) but those are rarities.
Radio generally doesn't cater to 55+ as advertisers don't care about that demographic. Which means anyone born before 1968 has aged out of radio's target demos.
You'll find a few exceptions (such as WDJO, WECK, KONO-AM which all stream) but those are rarities.
You might go to the Phoenix board here and look for discussions of The WOW Factor, a station playing mostly 60's material. It is the market's leader in 65 and over audience.
There are three stations under the same owner. WOW has more total audience, but it is all old. So it bills about one-quarter of what the other two stations do.
This has been done several times in Los Angeles by one operator—-Saul Levine, who has done both 50s/60s oldies and Standards (music from the pre-rock era) on his AM station.
Every time, it lasts a year or less and Saul tries the other. A few years ago, he revealed that the ad revenue for the station wasn’t enough to pay the electric bill for its own 5,000 watt transmitter. He appears now to have given up, put both formats on HD subchannels of his FM and has put classical music on the AM.
The transmitter power is actually 20,00 watts by day and 7,500 watts at night. Regardless, in my view, Saul was insane with those older-leaning formats.
It's been discussed numerous times on this board. As David mentioned; station owners can do anything they want. It's whether you want to make any money is the difference.
Not much, because those social security checks keep getting smaller, and smaller. Not to mention, what products would an 80 year-old even need or want? Although, an Elvis Presley format might appeal to a small group of younger people who might have sparked interest in his work. I love Elvis's music, and I'm not even close to those senior years, but would advertising would you even run to appeal to two vastly different groups who are tuning in for largely different reasons?
If you take a look at CFZM Toronto, it is ran by a person who was already rich, and that's for good reason. Although KRAE Cheyenne has 50's-60's music, and runs advertisements, they normally seem to revolve around a few local businesses where these older folks are more familiar with them already, and are less likely to run online compared to younger generations.
KTUC Tucson sounds like this. Cumulus owns it. There's actually not a lot of music from after 1970 other than Buble and Rod Stewart doing standards, and the station may even play 40s music occasionally. And three hours of big band on Sundays. Four a couple of weeks ago unless it got a late start before I turned it on.
What do you mean by "What if?" Lots of people are doing it. KOAI in Phoenix brags about it.
Does it have advertising power? Probably not. But if you want to do it, and can find a way to pay for it, there's no law against it.
There are several non-coms I can think of that play older music, and they get the listeners to pay for it. No need for advertisers.
Does it have advertising power? Probably not. But if you want to do it, and can find a way to pay for it, there's no law against it.
There are several non-coms I can think of that play older music, and they get the listeners to pay for it. No need for advertisers.
Nice bump at the beginning of this year, though. Of course, the surging inflation that has followed has rendered that insufficient.
There's a network for nursing homes called something like "Companion Radio" that plays mostly Big Band and crooner music. I've heard glimpses of it because one care facility had it playing through an FM modulator that I could pick up on my car radio. They were playing Al Jolson.
Is that Olympia station still playing music back to the 1920s? (Think about that. I actually had to specify the century!)
Yes, its owned by a non profit that in part is/was headed by a dead guys parrot
Not by today's standards Elvis may not even have advertising power at this point. However since we are talking about classic hits we will end up having a debate in the next few years over how much of the early 2000's should be included on a classic hits station for advertising power. One here is that people born in the Reagan era are now reaching or approaching the median age in their 40's and that's what advertisers want.
That''s awesome! A radio station that caters to oldsters run by an actual parrot. When you think about it, both are equally measured business decisions. The radio station will go silent about the time the parrot dies.
They're missing an opportunity while the parrot is still alive by not using it as a repeater.
There was a station out of Mesquite NV that ran this classic format. I remember hearing Wayne Newton and other softer ac artists that ordinarily didn’t get AirPlay. I have not been down there recently so don’t know what they are doing today. Their signal reached Vegas. Anyone have any info?
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That's 104.7 KJUL Moapa Valley, NV. They are somehow managing to stay on the air with the same Soft AC. The pandemic almost did them in. They had to stop broadcasting for awhile, when all their ad revenue went away. They are automated now, still haven't recovered financially to be able to hire back any staff.
Oh yeah the Jewel! I loved that station. They simply ignored what radio consultants said and just played their interesting playlist. It was inventive, perhaps by accident, but just golden radio in my mind!
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Skip's (the owner who died) beloved Cockatoo, sadly is no longer with us. But K-BIRD is still squawking! The two volunteers who inherited the station and his house from Skip, are keeping it going. The studio was, and still is, in his living room. He was somebody who hated the music he heard on the radio, so he bought his own radio station. A true hobby station. And the Cockatoo lives on as the station mascot.
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