When are we going to get a 70's and 80's hit music station?

[Fastphilly]

There is no where on the Bay Area dial to get classic hits......I liked the playlist that Max-FM had but no jingles and no jocks got dull on me after a while...KFRC's playlist on the other hand was too limited and playing their "safe Artists" with their "safe songs"...

I don't want a Jack-FM because I don't want to hear late 90's/00's
songs with early 80's hits..

A station that plays anything from 70's and 80's would be nice...Maybe have a daily top 8 at 8 countdown that plays the top eight songs from a specific date (example: If today is April 22nd then play the top songs from April 22nd 1975)....Have a battle of the classic hits at around 5PM when most ppl are in their cars with their cell phones play two lost hits and asked them to phone in on their opinion on which they like best.....It gives a reason to play some of the obscure hits of days past as well as finding out what the listeners in San Francisco want, not the big wigs in NY with their so-called consultants.......

I was getting played out with Fleetwood Mac's Rumours,Eagles Hotel California,Elton John's Your song, Four Season' Oh What A Night,ELO's "Evil Woman"

Where's "tusk",where's "Witchy Woman", Where's "Island Girl", Where's "Who Loves You", Where's "Hold On Tight"..........see where I'm coming from....

The only bright spot on KFRC was Jo Jo Kincaid, that guy had energy in his shows and if KFRC was not so limited in their playlist and programming this Classic Hits reincarnation could have been great..

I hope the next oldies/classic hits station does it right this time........Whenever it will be?

 

[yourmom]

I appologize for the following comment. Advertisers don't want you, and that format will always fail. I told my mom that she will never have a terrestrial Oldies station the bay again, because she wasn't a target for advertising.....she got a little sad, then I gave her a ipod with 1500 songs from the late 50's, 60's and 70's, intermingled with old kfrc jingles and John Mack/Bobby Ocean airchecks............she has never been happier. I want oldies and I am under 30, it's great music.......but it's gone

 

[XM RADIO]

Advertisers hold all the cards, Maybe we will get another Country Station soon, or more Lite Rock, It amazes me that you cant hear anything here by Creedence Clearwater Revival , Huh? Im wondering if the day will ever return where we will have Terrestrial radio worth listening to! Probabaly not in my Lifetime, Im so thrilled about Movin, The Wolf, Wild, I can hardly sleep! These type of stations will always continue to Control the Bay Area !!!!!!!!!!! And of course lets not forget the DJs that have been "Overlooked" Funny how KRTH in Los Angeles is still playing oldies,,I dont get it? Too bad Verne couldnt have done something to Correct this Format problem here that never goes away! Kenny in Concord

 

[LKellerIII]

"Im so thrilled about Movin, The Wolf, Wild, I can hardly sleep!"

I suspect that you're being ironic, Kenny - right? The only people losing sleep over MOViN are the people in charge at CBS. Unless it turns around in the next year or so, the format will be dumped. It's hard to imagine CBS is happy with their puny ratings, less than a half of KFRC's final ratings for "Classic Hits" - even if it is a "better demographic." But I doubt they'll bring Classic Hits back. More likely, David Eduardo is right, and they'll plug in a canned Spanish language format that will get only slightly better ratings than MOViN, but be a lot cheaper to run. K-Earth might still be viable because the LA market is so huge.

 

[Fastphilly]

I still think it would work,OK it might not be in the top 5 as far as ratings go,but in another light the conglomorates put Classic/Current R&B,Dance,Hip Hop in a meat grinder and have five stations KBLX,98.1 Kiss FM,KYLD,KMEL, and this new Movin'. It seems to me that it is oversaturating this area with stations that play similar music...Everyone of these stations have some kind of relative format that can be paired up against another...Sure KBLX has a different playlist than KMEL, But KBLX does have a strong simularity with Kiss-FM, Movin,KYLD and KMEL are all geared at a similar target age group. As the pie gets cut each station gets a smaller piece of the ratings pie.(and whatever of the three gets the smallest piece will flounder in the not so distant future)...IMO,when a station is geared at a certain age group and sex which is the case of Movin' that is too specific of a niche to survive on,Most guy's I know call it chick music.......Why not have a classic hits station, there would be no competetors. Unlike before when KFRC had to deal with Max-FM....

 

[LKellerIII]

"KBLX does have a strong simularity with Kiss-FM, Movin,KYLD and KMEL are all geared at a similar target age group. As the pie gets cut each station gets a smaller piece of the ratings pie."

Very true, Fastphilly - a real "duh" moment for the average person. Isn't it amazing that the supposedly professional radio programmers at CBS didn't think of this BEFORE they made the mistake? All they knew was that MOViN was a hot new format, and already a ratings winner in Seattle, which is probably a market without a lot of urban stations. They just assumed it would work anywhere. Very similar to the Bonneville programmers who thought they had pulled a fast one by jumping on the "Jack" format with Max-FM before CBS did.

 

[XM RADIO]

Lkeller, Question, If Movin fails and they most likely will, why does the bay Area need more Spanish stations? Why is it that people like myself find it immpossible to hear "Radio One Can Enjoy"? Would it be safe to assume if Sept 22nd comes and CBS sees that after a year of PUNY ratings they would Flip to Spanish? That would be a year of Movin for CBS, Perhaps the Spots on TV didnt help, Weve already got 93.3 La Raza, how many Spanish stations does the Bay Area need? Kenny in Concord

 

[bcradiodj]

Ok, lets assume for a second that Dan Mason will let Moovin' struggle along for an audience until September 22nd to make it an entire year. I doubt it! He has to make changes in San Francisco now! It may be as soon as next week when the Winter book is released.

Before KFRC flipped, in the summer book '06, it had a 2.5 25-54P which if they had continued instead of switching to Moovin', they would have been real competition for STAR and KOIT (who are the ones to beat). After the Fall book KFRC as Moovin' fell to a 1.1
25-54P. In addition, Max-FM was never a threat because their format was confused. To make matters worse, the 95.7 signal has limited penetration, thus the poor ratings performance. The Wolf will be hard pressed to get beyond a 2.0 12+.

As far as a classic hits format, KFRC possibly could return as well as another format to challenge KOIT and STAR. In addition, this would allow KLLC and KITS breathing room.

 

[LKellerIII]

Kenny (XM) said:
"Lkeller, Question, If Movin fails and they most likely will, why does the bay Area need more Spanish stations? Why is it that people like myself find it immpossible to hear 'Radio One Can Enjoy'?"

Answer to your first question - the Bay Area does NOT need another Spanish station. David Eduardo suggested it as a possibility, and he seems to know what he's talking about, so I give it credibility. I don't particularly like the idea, but assuming Classic Hits is dead, I don't see any other format holes. A second country station? Don't make me laugh. Bring back Jack? Since KFRC is owned by CBS, I guess it's possible, but the Max-FM ratings would seem to argue against it. Like "MOViN," "Jack" has had a spotty ratings record - popular in some markets (LA), and very weak in others (New York). Note than in New York (WCBS-FM) they killed the Oldies station for Jack, and fired veteran DJs like Cousin Brucie Morrow. Despite much lower ratings for Jack, the Oldies format has not returned. They did put Oldies on an HD2 channel -with the old WCBS jingles, but DJs. Last time I checked, you could stream it.

Answer to your second question - because, Kenny, like me - you're old and advertisers don't want you. People are living longer than ever before, but even though we have another 30 or so years of life ahead, we're already dead in our 50s to the radio programmers. More and more, I listen to KCSM (Jazz) and KQED (news and info).

bcradiodj said:
"Before KFRC flipped, in the summer book '06, it had a 2.5 25-54P which if they had continued instead of switching to Moovin', they would have been real competition for STAR and KOIT (who are the ones to beat). After the Fall book KFRC as Moovin' fell to a 1.1
25-54P....As far as a classic hits format, KFRC possibly could return as well as another format to challenge KOIT and STAR. In addition, this would allow KLLC and KITS breathing room."

I've said before that I think the reason KOIT is getting more popular is that Classic Hits listeners really have nowhere else to go now - except for KFOG or The Bone, which are probably too album rock, and too hard-rock respectively for many listeners. I would be happy if they brought back Classic Hits, but it doesn't seem likely.

 

[sfradio]

I see movin graduly moving to chr

 

[NewsRadioFan]

**Sings JonesTM TOH Jingle** "Big 98.1, KBGG San Francisco!" :

 

[LKellerIII]

"I see movin graduly moving to chr"

You mean: you see it MOViN gradually to CHR.

 

[Fastphilly]

I know KOIT is a highly rated station which I think has alot to do with every doctors office in the Bay Area having it on during the workday . It's a kind of playlist that won't be too "harsh" on anyones ears...But really, I'm a generation X'er (I'm 35 yrs old) and most ppl in their mid 30's that were born and raised in this country would know that the 80's had a far lesser amount of soft hits that charted in the top 40 than in previous decades.....I don't want a Classic Hits station that plays the "lighter side" of classic top 40 as the bulk of their playlist......If they do then KOIT will destroy them...Duran Duran, Eurythmics,Janet Jackson,Blondie,Culture Club,Human League,Rick Springfield these were the artists that the ppl in their mid 30's now were most into...........KOIT seems to focus on playing the Adult Contemporary style hits....

But the demographics are also different.....................The Bay Area has exploded in population in the last 10 years and the majority of it is due to immigrants from east Asia that have no clue as to what was popular here in the 70's and 80's.......I don't think Foreigner,Naked Eyes,etc. are even known by a huge margin of the population.....So maybe that has something to do with the Classic Hits failure in this Market..

My girlfriend is Filipino and the songs she recalls hearing in her homeland were international superstars such as Barry Manilow, James Taylor,Michael Jackson, Carpenters..................With the exception of MJ most of the artist are adult soft rock artists...

 

[XCountry285]

I think the Bay Area needs a CHR. A REAL CHR. Like one that plays artists such as Fall Out Boy, Hinder, Fergie, Gwen Stefani, Akon, and The Fray.

 

[SFStatic]

As above, been done. Big 98.1, the Biggest Hits of the 70's all the time (later KBig 98.1, 70's & 80's.) Blown up for Project David, a Jammin' Oldies format favored by Jimmy DeCastro, and named after his brother who died. Jammin' morphed into KISS 98.1. Big 98 was Big Fun.

 

[Fastphilly]

Big 98.1 was basicly a 70's classic rock station....Their only R&B song I ever heard on there was We Are family which they left in to still be labeled "the biggest hits of the 70's"....You cant just have a station that plays music from 1970-79 or an 1980-1989 format...

I'm refering to a station from say late 60's through the early 80's

 

[LKellerIII]

"Big 98.1, the Biggest Hits of the 70's all the time (later KBig 98.1, 70's & 80's.) Blown up for Project David, a Jammin' Oldies format favored by Jimmy DeCastro, and named after his brother who died. Jammin' morphed into KISS 98.1. Big 98 was Big Fun."

Like most things, Big 98.1 was good and bad. Great energy and DJs (Darian O'Toole mornings at the top of her game, and John Mack Flanagan afternoons), but they had a puny playlist. I worked in an office at the time, and our office manager was obsessed with that station. "I Saw the Light" and "Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)" are both great songs, but hearing them twice every day for months on end got b-o-r-i-n-g. I think the most recent format on KFRC before MOViN (70s-80s "Classic Hits") was a much better execution of the music.

Big 98.1 (originally KABL-FM, then KBGG) was owned by the AM/FM Corporation and became [b]K[/b]-Big when Clear Channel sucked up AM/FM. CC must have had the copyright on "K-Big" since it had previously owned KBIG Los Angeles. K-Big 98.1 never got good ratings (except O'Toole, maybe). Toward the end, they dropped the jingles, and went with a more "Bone"-like format, but that didn't really click either. KSOL (98.9) had a fairly popular "Classic Soul" format, but had gone Spanish a year or so before when CC sold it. So Jammin Oldies was an available format hole, and it probably made sense for Clear Channel to switch formats to Kiss-FM.

 

[SFStatic]

Actually the weekend numbers were MUCH higher than O'Toole's. She got a lot of buzz, but it didn't translate to numbers. In a several dayparts, #1 25-54 on weekends, especially the "Big Saturday Night Groove Thang," a disco show. The original format was Pop-Rock-Soul, and did in fact have a short playlist. No worse than a lot of other stations, but much shorter than a lot of oldie or CR stations. The KISS switch was made before CC owned the station. Jimmy DeCastro was there personally, and wore a KISS t-shirt over his suit (and looked like an idiot that way.)

 

[LKellerIII]

"The KISS switch was made before CC owned the station."

Hmmm...it sounds like you were there, having seen Jimmy DeCastro's T-shirt with your own eyes and all, so I'll take your word for it, SFStatic, but that's not how I remember it. My memory (not perfect, I realize) was that Kiss-FM premiered after being purchased by CC, the same week CC did the frequency swap with Susquehanna, which put Wild on 94.9 and KSAN at 107.7.

 

[SFStatic]

Seeing Jimmy walking down the hall with a station t-shirt over his dress shirt and tie (which probably cost more than any of us made in a month) is not the kind of visual you can forget.