What will it take to get a radio format of true oldies back in Seattle radio?

[michael hagerty]

You seem to have missed the extensive discussions about how the major advertisers aren't interested in reaching people over 55 by radio, despite the fact that they have "more disposable income" because it takes more money to reach them than can be made on the sale. It is not the radio stations nor the ad agencies, pulling the purse strings. It costs less to reach a young person than an older one. That's only three lines, David and Michael. How did I do?

Nailed it, Semoochie. Except that, yeah, it's the agencies making that determination.

Radio stations would love it if every listener were valued equally by the agencies. It just isn't that way.

Really never was. Apart from the chase for teen and young adult dollars in the 60s and 70s, it's always been an 18-49 or 25-54 world. Anyone operating outside that, older or younger, had to find a sufficient number of non-traditional advertisers who believed there was an upside to advertising.

Bongwater, almost nobody is aiming for kids. Even CHR is an 18-34 format.

And while you're right than money is tighter for many young people today than it was for many of us, when it comes to young adults with jobs, spouses and kids (average age of first childbirth in this country is 27), they're forced to spend whatever they have just to live (house, furniture, car, clothing, food, toys).

Those are the people who face daily choices about how and where to spend their money...an ideal ad target.

Those of us thinking about buying what might be our last Hotpoint or Honda are a harder, more expensive reach and sell.

And in 1963, it was the same way. We think of traditional MOR giants like WNEW, KMPC and KSFO as old people's stations, but they were aiming 18-49, with jocks in their 20s and 30s. Not much around then for someone pushing or past 60, either.

 

[fremont]

Between KIXI and KXA, I'm fine with what we've got already.

 

[JakeMott]

96.5 HD2 plays oldies. It's called Boom FM.

 

[semoochie]

Michael, several years ago, I asked about the 25-54 demographic. I remember that when I was in college, 25-49 was the money demo and the extra five years was added on at about that time. David said that it was always 25-54 but I had never heard it mentioned before then. I wondered at the time, if it would change back, since there are fewer gen-xers than baby boomers. Do you have any thoughts on this?

 

[bobdavcav]

From all that I've read about music and radio in the 1960s and 1970s, it sounds like you had basically 3 choices of format, with multiple stations per format. The am band had top 40 and MOR, while fm had mostly Beautiful Music or Classical. Oh and I forgot the country stations, of which there were 1 or 2 per market I would guess, and there was the occasional all news station, or news/talk station. As far as I know, in that time period, there wasn't much music being played on stations that was older than 10 years until probably the early 70s. Today, we have multiple rock stations of various formats, AC which is probably the equivalent of MOR in the 70s, Standards, Oldies, and multiple variations of top 40. Oh yes and Country is still around.

 

[fordranger797]

If I was in the position to purchase a radio station from a conglomerate right now (in order to make big return), I would buy I country music station.

Being around the student body of a high school for four years, I have noticed quite a few details about student listening habits. MANY teens are going "country music" these days. There were countless radio's booming out to "100.7 The Wolf" at the end of the day everyone would be trying to leave the parking lot. If I was going to manage a country music station in this scenario, I would keep a tight playlist, with NO music from the 1990's. Teens don't want to hear "real country" music, they are interested in "country rock".

I know KKWF likes the throw in something 90's to keep the soccer moms happy with something they might have remembered hearing back in the day. However, I think KKWF would do even better if they just dropped all of those songs and focused only upon what the teen listeners want to hear.

 

[michael hagerty]

Michael, several years ago, I asked about the 25-54 demographic. I remember that when I was in college, 25-49 was the money demo and the extra five years was added on at about that time. David said that it was always 25-54 but I had never heard it mentioned before then. I wondered at the time, if it would change back, since there are fewer gen-xers than baby boomers. Do you have any thoughts on this?

I hate to argue with David, but in my experience, 18-49 was the money demo until the late 70s/early 80s when 25-49 and then 25-54 took over.

I think having fewer people in a demo is unlikely to prompt a shift. Rember...you aim for the center and take the ripples on either side. The center of 18-49 is 33. The center of 25-54 is 40. 25-49 would be 37. They're all within walking distance of each other.

 

[michael hagerty]

From all that I've read about music and radio in the 1960s and 1970s, it sounds like you had basically 3 choices of format, with multiple stations per format. The am band had top 40 and MOR, while fm had mostly Beautiful Music or Classical. Oh and I forgot the country stations, of which there were 1 or 2 per market I would guess, and there was the occasional all news station, or news/talk station. As far as I know, in that time period, there wasn't much music being played on stations that was older than 10 years until probably the early 70s. Today, we have multiple rock stations of various formats, AC which is probably the equivalent of MOR in the 70s, Standards, Oldies, and multiple variations of top 40. Oh yes and Country is still around.

Depends on how big a city you were in. I'm familiar with Los Angeles, which back then probably had fewer signals than Seattle does now.

Let's go for 1973...40 years ago. On AM, you had a country station, a fairly stodgy MOR that was flirting with block programming,, a personality MOR that was switching to AC (but still only played six records an hour), a contemporary Christian station, a talk station, another talk station, a Top 40, an all-news station, a personality AC that played more like 10 records an hour, another all-news station, another personality AC that played 12 songs an hour, a music-intensive AC that played 16 or 17 songs an hour, an R&B station, another Country station, a Goapel station, two Spanish-language stations, a classical station, an album-rock leaning Top 40, a beautiful music station and another album-rock leaning Top 40.

On FM...classical, soft rock, beautiful music, album rock, another album rock, country, another beautiful music, AC, oldies, R&B, another R&B, Top 40, another R&B, another beautiful music, another brleautiful music, jazz, another album rock, an album-leaning Top 40, and another beautiful music.

Apart from the oldies station, you're right...it was rare to hear anything more than 10 years old on any of then.

 

[AQH]

As mentioned earlier, load up your iPod or go to a streaming service if you want the classic definition of Oldies.

Times change, things move on. Adapt, it's not that hard. You might even enjoy it.

 

[boombox4]

Or DX at night, there are a few stations that play a few oldies, Sunny 1550 has a lot of oldies in their mix, same with KSHO 920 and KDUN 1030.

 

[semoochie]

I hate to argue with David, but in my experience, 18-49 was the money demo until the late 70s/early 80s when 25-49 and then 25-54 took over.

I think having fewer people in a demo is unlikely to prompt a shift. Rember...you aim for the center and take the ripples on either side. The center of 18-49 is 33. The center of 25-54 is 40. 25-49 would be 37. They're all within walking distance of each other.

I was thinking that the shift to 25-54 was more like the early 70s, replacing 25-54, as the money demo. I didn't think that 18-49 was ever considered to be the money demo, not that stations weren't getting rich, chasing 12-24! There's something else: There are more people on the upper end, under 55 and will continue to be until those born in 1972 reach 55, 14 years. Shortly before that, Gen Y will probably replace Gen X as the target listener. Actually, by then, the top will probably be 50.