Why can't the 70's RIP?

[Starbucks]

By 2015...you'll hear alot of 80's being focused on oldies/classic hits stations. Already many of them feature between 80-84 with the 70's to late 60's programmed in. The hard part is when the age median gets to the latter 80's target...that's when things started to get splintered. Probably in 5 plus years, what you'll have is Classic Urban 86-00, and Classic Alternative. They'll probably be no classic hits, Classic Rock, or Classic R&B by the time because that audience will be 55 +.
So when everything transfers to the FM band, you'll have Classic Talk, old Rush, Savage, Hannity replays from the late 80's and 90's, Classic All news, Replays of KYW news all in 20 minute segments. Classic Spanish International, and Classic Christian. I think I solved the problem by adding a few more years for terrestrial radio to be viable.

 

[Steve_Green]

One thought here is that the 70s music will stay around longer than it oridnarily would/should because it is the last form of nostalgia music standing before the final niching blow was dealt to contemporary music. That would be MTV. The stations that elect to wax nostalgic are stuck with it. That inertia is one reason why there's a move to put more talk on FM.

In recent years I'd felt that Classic Rock just might disappear out of overplayed exhaustion before Oldies did. After all, there were maybe 6 or 7 peak years for AoR stations from which the bulk of the music was chosen. Top 40 stations had a solid run of about 12 years off which to accumulate a library before emerging as an Oldies showcase. Yet, Classic Rock stations and Old -- I mean, Greatest Hits -- stations continue to do well.

It just so happens that today, the Classic Rock stations and the Oldies stations share essentially a big part of the same decade. Both formats depend on it.

* * * * *

About a week ago, I was on a handyman job (assembling an outdoor bar, if you must know) and the people inside had B-101 playing. This was one of my alma maters and I didn't recognize a single song they played. It was a far cry from the days of Manilow and Reno-Wilson and Crowded House and Robert Urich. B-101 sounded like a 2011 equivelant of what used to be called Chicken Rock stations in 1968 -- not a bad listen at all.

They evidently have moved very well with the flow. Or, maybe a better way to situate it is that they stayed put very well, and stayed focused, on that 25-49 or so target while *it* moved and changed through the lens.

The strict nostalgia formats don't have that luxury. Through chronology alone, those formats keep bumping headfirst into the Niched 1980 barrier. Familiar and sonically appropriate hits for both male and female targets in the 30 years since are fewer and farther between. The Seventies are the last stand in those cases.

 

[JH_Radio]

I was thinking about formats that tend to have gone bye bye, or have runs in varius markits.
Classic Alturnative, Smooz Jazz, Easy Listening, Soft AC, and 50's-60's music.
I believe its all moving to Sirius-XM, and internet.
But the bird provides the music differently (decaids channels, goes deeper into playlist).
Sad part, some of those channels are jockless, and there isn't a local feel.
There are a lot of 70's in this town, but it seems different formats focous on different aspects.
WOGL's more the disko/Pop.
The rockers are obveously doing the rock thing.
Though I do believe there are lots of stations playing simular 70's music (overlap.)
WYSP/WMGK/WMMR.
WOGL does, but haven't listened to WBEB in a while.
My guess is there are more rockers in this town and only one classic hit station, and the AC covers a bit of that.