And it's not anymore, and in answer to your question, it stops being soft when it starts playing different music and uses a different positioner.
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Why did AC stop being soft?
- Thread starter nd2023
- Start date
And it's not anymore, and in answer to your question, it stops being soft when it starts playing different music and uses a different positioner.
You might want to rethink the definition of AC.
When the format originated, somewhere in the early 70's, Adult Contemporary was the later and more formal name for what was labeled "chicken rock" in some cases.
What it meant was essentially a pop music station that did two things differently from Top 40 stations. First, it played more oldies. Second, it did not play the harder rock and teen songs.
The format has adapted over the years, but essentially the "no hard rock" has been expanded to "no hard country" and "no non-crossover r&b" and "no rap and hip-hop". This is more about texture than tempo.
Of course, now we have Hot AC, which has more currents and recurrents and less depth in gold. And we have "soft AC" which is tempo controlled and not too common. Then there is regular AC as described above, and we have the oldies-based AC which may play a lot of 60's and 70's songs that a mainstream AC won't touch.
And there are AC stations in more communities with large Black or Hispanic communities that may be a bit more rhythmic than an AC in a less ethnic market. That's not just because the station is directly targeting those groups, but because those groups influence the "feel" of the market. Memphis, LA, San Antonio and Miami are good examples of where AC stations can have different spice elements.
I don't need to rethink what AC is. I've already done this. My lists are proof that in this one case, the station that was soft isn't soft any more. But I still do not see a lot of the louder songs that have been on the more uptempo ACs. That's the purpose here.
Also, this particular AC is heavy on 80s music, mostly the louder tunes.
Those "louder" tunes are just fine with most of today's AC listeners. And you proved the obvious about WEZV with your very first list. You seem to be waging a bitter, drawn-out battle against a non-existent opponent here, unless you are trying to convince someone at WEZV that it is playing the wrong music for its call letters/brand, in which case you should be harassing WEZV directly rather than posting on this board list after list of songs done in styles that have been OK at AC for going on two decades. I'm sorry that drums and electric guitars and throbbing bass lines shatter the glass walls of your musical preferences every time you tune to a station that used to avoid such music, but few others anywhere are affected that way, so please stop assuming that they are.
Don Quixote and his battle with windmills seems to be a good analogy here.
First, some of these songs aren't even two decades old.
Second, it wasn't all that long ago that those songs WEREN'T acceptable on AC.
I'm just documenting what I hear. And what I'm seeing so far is what was true when this station was soft AC. It's actually MORE conservative than a lot of the stations.
That's because radio stations change as audiences age. Meanwhile, the aging audience retains its taste in music. There are a lot of people in NYC for whom WNEW is the place Where Rock Lives. They still think that was the best time and the best station. That station has flipped formats many times in 30 years. The former audience is just 30 years older. Those call letters are still attached to 102.7. It's now the place for Upbeat Variety.
You've got it backwards. I call it a victory every time I discover something outrageous like "SexyBack". There are still a lot of 80s songs missing, but maybe that's because I wasn't listening when they were played.
Actually, you could be right. There's a non-existent station out there that will finally be persuaded to offer something soft as WEZV get more outrageous. It was a pointless battle when WEZV was still making an effort to be soft.
There are songs "missing" because they don't pass music testing against the target demographic of the station.
No programmer "forgets to play" a song. We check with listeners, both actual and potential, and find out what they like and dislike.
We don't know that yet. The web site doesn't list last songs played. I have to actually hear them. The fact that I keep listing new songs indicates I probably haven't heard some of the songs yet.
I am at a loss to find a crumb of logic in these two sentences. WEZV is not "outrageous." It is a fairly typical 2020 AC station, even somewhat "conservative," as you yourself wrote. And one cannot persuade a non-existent station -- or anything else that isn't there -- to do anything.
There is a very good satellite radio service out there that has several channels playing softer music. There are also internet streams of soothing sounds. If there isn't such a station on FM in your area, that's not because all the other stations are out to offend you. It's because other musical formats have more appeal to their advertisers, and to listeners in the demographics they target.
I was a regular at a bar that made a transition in its atmosphere. At one time, it was a pretty traditional sports bar. Lots of wood and flat screens. Then it evolved into more of a couples bar. More paint and they turned down the sound on the TVs. One day I realized that the atmosphere had changed and I was still thinking it was still the traditional sports bar. Of course the food had become much better (probably why I didn't notice) and they added live music during certain hours. But what was once my usual sports bar had changed. After a while I found another place that was more to my liking (didn't have the live music), and even though the food wasn't as good, it served my purpose better. That's what needs to happen here.
BTW I still occasionally go to the old sports bar, but only for take-out (especially now) because the food really was very good.
Just let me do this. We document what is taking place. How do you know what is typical of AC in 2020? Because someone documented it.
"Sexy Back" IS outrageous if you're not CHR or at least HOT AC. Let me have my opinion.
I will say that where WEZV is, there is one that could be categorized as soft but isn't really. Certainly compared to WEZV the way it is now, it is soft. Also, there is classic country. But not long ago someone said Myrtle Beach needed a Breeze station. Now it does.
And where I actually live, several stations play music that is sometimes soft. As community stations, they do attract advertisers anyway.
Myrtle Beach (which is only someplace I go on vacation) has a large retired population who now have to choose between "beach music" (R&B oldies) and classic country. However, when a big company thought the market was ready to give up easy listening, the protest quickly proved they were wrong and WEZV, which with different letters was in trouble after being overly confident Hot AC could be a success for them, quickly jumped to number one playing mostly instrumental music. Less than a decade later, the instrumentals were gone but the station was still very popular playing Sinatra, Michael Buble and soft AC. So, yeah, Myrtle Beach wasn't like the rest of the nation.
One side effect of the popularity of easy listening was the inability of any soft AC to compete. Back when WEZV started doing easy listening, the AC was what today would be considered soft AC, or at least WDUV's version. But like WEZV, they were quick to jump on the harder stuff, and eventually I had to post on this site with a list of some songs they were playing and ask if it was Hot AC. Back then it was. Now, it would not be.
It looks like Mainstream AC to me. Expect more and more rhythmic activity as time goes on.
I agree. Hot AC means more currents. This station has more gold than a typical Hot AC.
From the way chimp describes Myrtle Beach, it sounds like a Hot AC wouldn't be a good fit there.
They had one for close to a decade but it went CHR. I think someone here said it had gone CHR before it made a definite change. And WEZV is co-owned with a former mainstream AC which went Hot AC when WEZV first changed, then dropped Hot AC for talk a year and a half later.
Way more gold than I'm listing.
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