Why doesn't 80's radio work?

[KYYX_fan]

I was just skimming the LAUNCHcast (aka Yahoo Music) website and saw that the top 10 "radio stations" on that system are:

http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/stations/category.asp?i=20

Today's Big Hits
Adult Alternative
Love Songs
Today's R&B
Quiet Storm
The Coffeehouse
Traditional Christmas
Today's Country
Pop Latino
Big Hits Of The '80s

All of those seem to make sense. One could match up most of those channels with existing stations in Seattle. I've even read posts on this board talking about expecting a major Hispanic station in town. But the last entry on the list confuses me. Is it just Seattle that can't make an 80's station work? Out of the hundreds of specialty channels on LAUNCHcast, the 80's station is in the top 10, but Seattle doesn't really have a station with a healthy mix (let alone a core) of 80's music. Even JACK has tweaked their music mix -- at least to my ears -- to include more earlier rock.

Is there something particular about the format or the audience that makes 80's radio not work business-wise?

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Assume it's mostly library depth and rotations... These "decade specific" formats tend to come on strong because they have a strong "Oh-Wow" presence (songs people haven't heard for a while). Then format gets settled into high repeats, etc. and people go from "oh Wow" to "oh God"...

Doesn't explain why Oldies had legs for so long, though because it also had tight rotations.

I always thought the ideal gold format would be one that has a base of familiarity but also keeps spicing it so the "oh Wow" thing never ends. You have some core songs that you can't ignore ... but put some gold in, take others out, rinse lather repeat so the library always feels "fresh".

 

[Mamaknowsbreast]

My question would be what numbers are they using to create a top 10? Is it the number of unique visitors to the station, or is it the length of time people are actually listening to that station.

My guess is that it is unique visitors. People will visit it to hear the songs they grew up with, but after a while they simply grow tired of hearing them. I mean how many times can you hear 99 Luft Balloons or Tommy Tutone before you want to blow your brains out? That just adds up to disaster when a radio station is trying to keep an audience for a long period of time. That explains why the 80's station in Seattle failed and why a station like jack has to mix it up to be successful.

 

[semoochie]

Many songs on Oldies stations weren't played for a couple of decades so the feeling was like hearing a song from one's youth. Most newer, longterm hits never left the airwaves and as such, can't have the same kind of impact.

 

[djdan]

Web stations and satellite are entirely different animals than local radio. I look at successful stations on XM or Yahoo as speciality formats. Kind of like cable, the more you target the better your chances of winning audience nationwide, the better your chance of competing against local mainstream formats. Locally, none of these web radio stations or satellite formats has much audience, but combined nationally they do alright. XM's top station performs about like a single good station in Houston. Most get about the same cume as a Spokane market station, maybe less. That is with a NATIONWIDE reach. Not real spectacular.

These formats like love songs, 80's, etc make good speciality shows on mainstream radio, but don't have the audience to survive beyond their initial launch year or two. Seattle is littered with such format attempts that failed. 70's, BEAT, 80's, 90's Alternative, and now MOVIN and JACK are the latest in a long list of speciality shows that try to be full formats. They launch okay and then fade. At the local level these station have nothing more than music and once the fad wears thin, the stations die.

 

[smashedcd]

80s on 8 is one of the top 5 stations on xm according to arbitron.

 

[KYYX_fan]

I always thought the ideal gold format would be one that has a base of familiarity but also keeps spicing it so the "oh Wow" thing never ends. You have some core songs that you can't ignore ... but put some gold in, take others out, rinse lather repeat so the library always feels "fresh".

Whenever I used to go to LA (years ago), I would always listen to KROQ because they mixed a good amount of retro (everything from 70's punk/post-punk forward) with newer acts that had the same or similar roots.

What frustrates me about The End is that, other than Sunday mornings, they pretend as though all of today's music is the first of its kind. With modern bands [borrowing / sampling / flat-out stealing] from older songs, one would think that the audience would be there for the original pieces, too, if mixed into the playlist.

As I've said before, I can understand why stations don't play Kraftwerk in heavy rotation, but almost no David Bowie?? I've heard maybe one or two of his songs in the span of God-knows-how-long on JACK. The only other station I could see playing it would be The Mountain, but they seem a bit too "John Mayer / Sheryl Crow" to me. That, and they have an uncomfortable air of self-importance, but that could just be me.

 

[bonusbob]

most people in radio will think this is crazy,but i think the only way 80s radio will work,is to present it the somewhat the way it was presented in the eighties, maybe play 1980 for 1 or 2 hours or sets then move on to the next year, and dont leave out some lost hits.there several songs that just never get played. this is a diffrent approch, and may keep listeners curious.

 

[KYYX_fan]

most people in radio will think this is crazy,but i think the only way 80s radio will work,is to present it the somewhat the way it was presented in the eighties, maybe play 1980 for 1 or 2 hours or sets then move on to the next year, and dont leave out some lost hits.there several songs that just never get played. this is a diffrent approch, and may keep listeners curious.

If I'm understanding you correctly, I think you're in agreement with the posts above. I like the JACK idea, but I think that JACK is lazy programming-wise, lacks true personality and is too enamored with bands like ELO.

Personally, I'd love to see a true "alternative" station something like:

1. Morning show that it 60/40 music/personality -- especially if the personality knows something about the music and there is better cohesion between music & non-music elements. Nowadays, (bad) mornings seem to consist of: drawn out chatter about what the DJ did last night, a "puke on command" contest, plug for some station event... and, oh yeah, a random song (because we have to, not because we want to).

2. Afternoon drive would be 60/30/10 music/personality/news.

3. A number of specialty "shows" of 1 to 4 hours, especially on weekends. There should be a pure retro/"roots" show, a local music show, an import/foreign show, maybe a "behind the music" or interview-like show... I would be OK with Loveline in there, too.

4. Simulcast concerts -- or at least tape-delayed (and commercial-filled). Don't know what listening is like on Saturday nights, but perhaps that would fit well there? Maybe a Friday concert played back a day (or a week or month) later? Also don't know the revenue model for this, but I recall KROQ doing it.

5. Music mix would be consistent, but "shaded" by each of the DJ's. The emphasis would be mid-70s to late 90's, with some modern music -- either new songs from old bands or new songs from new bands that were influenced by old bands. I would see a mix of a little punk, some post-punk (Clash, etc.), new wave, techno (this could span everything from 70's to today), reggae, ska, a little 80's pop and/or dance, some remixed music... all with a dash of something random and interesting now and then (e.g. Nellie McKay or something).

Thoughts??