The demo age dropping down to a 6 year old, did that have something to do with the appearance of the children's radio format like Radio Disney?
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What Killed Beautiful Music?
- Thread starter Hoxie
- Start date
Semoochie: I think they’re separate: 6-11 and 12-17.
Kilowatt Kat: Might have been. Since the advent of demos, TV always measured audience down to age 2, because there was kids’ programming seeking advertisers. Radio never really targeted anyone younger than teens until the arrival of Radio AAHS and Radio Disney.
Kilowatt Kat: Might have been. Since the advent of demos, TV always measured audience down to age 2, because there was kids’ programming seeking advertisers. Radio never really targeted anyone younger than teens until the arrival of Radio AAHS and Radio Disney.
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The rapid decline of beautiful music seemed to begin in 1987. The creation of AM Only by Westwood One back then was a successful attempt to capture those displaced listeners with adult standards, and then there was New Adult Contemporary...
It's difficult to find any info on the internet about who was behind the creation of NAC. I remember one of the first NAC's was in Seattle KNAC 106.9. It seemed to struggle though. I assume this was an attempt to bring a modernized instrumental music format back to FM, but with younger demographics?
It's difficult to find any info on the internet about who was behind the creation of NAC. I remember one of the first NAC's was in Seattle KNAC 106.9. It seemed to struggle though. I assume this was an attempt to bring a modernized instrumental music format back to FM, but with younger demographics?
No, it had to do with the original plan around 1999-2002 or so for Nielsen and Arbitron to develop the PPM together from that point onward. There were even a number of industry meetings with both Arbitron and Nielsen people on the joint PPM team and ratings-knowledgeable representatives from several radio and TV companies in an ad hoc committee to coordinate the effort with the radio and TV industries.
I was a member of that group, and at the meetings it was clear that Nielsen needed children on the panel. Since the PPM was to be "dwelling unit" based rather than the diary's person-based system, it was not hard for radio to accept the addition of children to the panel.
We only met a couple of times, always at Nielsen's NYC headquarters, before whatever internal issues between Nielsen and Arbitron made the TV ratings company leave the cooperative project.
The decline was very gradual, starting in the mid-80's and continuing through the rest of the decade. The first sign of the decline was the lack of new commercial instrumental music, followed by markets with two stations in the format dropping to one. The age of the listeners was getting older. Finally, the recent songs suitable for an instrumental cover in the later 80's became fewer in number so the "well dried up".
The first successful such format was The Wave in LA, and it was developed by a team including Owen Leach and Frank Cody who went on to form Broadcast Architecture to consult the format elsewhere as well as introducing electronic meters to music testing.
There is plenty of information on the format in Radio & Records / R&R, nearly all issues being available at the link below.
No, 25-54 replaced 18-49 at the agency level. Ratings by then included a wide range of age breakouts.
We have 6-11 and 12-17 separately, but the 6-11 is only offered in the PPM. But in the PPM we can create any age break we want, such as 15 to 32 or whatever.
David, could you provide the link again? I didn't see it at the end of your post. Thanks!
It's on my signature line. www.worldradiohistory.com
That's right, KNAC was the hard rock/metal station in LA. Definitely the opposite of KNUA! Didn't they also refer to themselves as "The Sound" (long before KSWD) a year or so later?
"K-9 KID POWER RADIO!
As already mentioned; Radio Disney has already played that game. First was intended as a 24/7 audio extension of the Disney brand. Then after that didn't work, to find advertisers/agencies who want to reach the young demo. That was a struggle with little result. Finally, intended to purely promote Disney theme parks, movies, and merch. Once it was discovered that few kids actually listened, especially when on the stable of crappy AM stations, the whole thing started winding down and stations liquidated.
Getting back to the original topic; What happened to BM? Age.
It was not just that the audience aged out; it was also the move in music away from instrumentals. If we look at Top 40 in the 60's there was a consistent flow of artists and songs that were instrumental, ranging from "Walk, Don't Run" to "Love is Blue". There were many albums, enhanced by the interest in stereo, from artists like Mantovani to the 101 Strings that made the charts. A big seller were the Hollyridge Strings' covers of Beatles and Beach Boys hits.
By the 70's there were fewer instrumentals on Top 40, and by the end of the decade they were nearly gone. There were occasional hits, such as Barry White's series of tunes and even later in the decade instrumental disco hits.
By the 80's it is hard to name more than one or two instrumental hits. Labels lost interest, although in Europe and Latin America productions continued.
The music industry's loss of interest... and sales... in instrumentals coupled with your comment on the aging of the audience for such music pretty much doomed the broader genre. Jazz, and the misnomer "smooth jazz" continued to feature instrumentals, but there is only so much Kenny G and George Benson you can take...
Kelly A:
You didn’t get the reference. “K-9 Kid Power Radio” was part of a TM Productions satire of radio—-a 1977 look forward to 1983. Decades before any real format targeting kids, the bit focuses on a radio station aimed at listeners 9 and under and the freak outs that happen in an era of instantaneous rating feedback—-when a “day-glo orange” tote board shows every tune-out.
It features some great talent, not least of all Charlie Van Dyke, and is worth a listen.
I remember the reference and the TM record that had that 'jingle'. Was funny back in the Drake 70's days.
Like anything else, it's supply and demand. Older audiences liked instrumentals. The recent passing of the founder of The Ventures, Don Wilson, comes to mind. As audiences aged-out, so went the interest in instrumental versions of popular music. Either way; it all comes down to age.
Agree with that. Smooth Jazz was supposed to become the new version of BM. Never happened.
This made me think... how many cuts in Beautiful Music libraries had saxophone solos? OTOH, in Smooth Jazz, it seemed that every other song did, and half the vocals had a saxophone bridge... and those that didn't had a xylophone solo.
(I exaggerate only minimally)
Made me laugh. Sax, not so much. But for BM-Herb Alpert? Definitely
!Grover Washington Jr.'s "Just the Two Of Us" was a staple of the format---released years before there was a format. Once Kenny G hit big with "Songbird", Smooth Jazz got oversaxed.
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