CatFM said:
Hey Jason! Yep, I was there under Pete, so it was more than a couple of months. It surprises me that you would give much credit to a consultant for beating BNS. While there could be something to that, the fact remains that even with the money behind BNS, COL had a far superior sounding product to offer in every other respect, and I doubt that you would disagree with that. As I remember, we were playing between 1200-1400 songs in the early days of Oldies at COL, and it was a breath of fresh air. Later on at BNS, the consultants did what they always did when the numbers dropped...tightened the playlist until it was down to 600 songs. People were constantly calling with complaints about hearing the same songs over and over. I mentioned it to the PD, but of course, he was merely a bystander since the consultant really programmed the station. His only real function was to schedule the weekend air shifts. Other than that, he was just purely ornamental. I don't think he went to the bathroom without clearing it with the consultant first, but that is the way I have seen it at several stations where I have worked, and you undoubtedly have as well.
As for the consultant's idea of playing the same stuff over and over, does anyone really want to hear that much repetition? Is there any research to support listeners wanting to hear the same song on an Oldies station 6 hours after it was last played? There were times when I had to add music at BNS because the spot load was either real light or non-existent on the weekends and not enough was scheduled on the music log. Looking ahead in the log to find something, I quite often saw many of the same songs scheduled in the 3 PM hour that I was playing in the 9 AM hour. For an Oldies station covering a couple of decades of music, that is just plain stupid. I've heard the argument over and over that a person listening at 9 AM wouldn't be listening at 3 PM, yet stations like to promote that you can listen to them all day at work or wherever. I must have missed the logic in that.
For what it's worth, COL was a whole lot more fun to work at than BNS. The morale at BNS was the absolute pits and it seemed like everyone was just putting in their time until the inevitable format change. Even after COL went Country and BNS was the only Oldies station in the market, it was just drifting. Maybe things have changed under the new management, but in those days the Wolfes spent their money at TV, not radio. It's odd that in this market, WBNS and WTVN both operated completely separate radio and television stations with different managers across town. Of course, WTVN's radio side held their own pretty well through the years. I don't know how much of a "family" feeling there was between their employees, but the situation I saw at BNS was more like the radio people were distant relatives in the group. The TV people pretty well snubbed them at every opportunity. That's sad. Maybe it would have been different if radio and TV had been under the same roof with the same management.
I know we're off topic here, but I'll try and answer your questions.
Without telling too many tales out of school here, you'll recall that Pete had us playing about 1,200 songs. When he left, we tightened the list down to about 680 and the ratings surged. (The new GM had come from Philadephia and knew from experience that your bigger oldies stations had tighter lists.)
The Critical Mass folks actually gave us a slightly different strategy back then. Yes, we still played from a tight list. But (and this is the critical part) - we also had a "B" list of music that we used on the weekends and for specialty features. So, we created an "illusion" of depth in the playlist that kept things from sounding too overly repetitive. We tried never to attempt to "change history" with the music and a good oldies station shouldn't.
People always complain about short lists...in the case of oldies stations, these calls come predominantly from record collectors and radio geeks, or people who listen for abnormally long periods per day. The fact is - more people listen for only about 90 minutes a day...and they are the ones you need to worry about. Why? They are the ones that create the most "occasions of listening" and that's what, for the most part, drives a station's ratings. Granted, it's always nice when you get a diary with heavy listening, but any PD would tell you they are the exceptions and not the rule.
Remember...didn't Chuck Taylor play "everything" on his show on BNS (including B-sides and non-hits)? His show was the most talked about (by the record collectors), yet the lowest rated program on the station the vast majority of the time. Playing the hits wins.
Now, I would agree...repeats every 6 hours sounds a bit much for oldies. Usually, stations I've programmed have generally kept repeats at least 10 to 12 hours apart, with only a few exceptions. Sure, it's nice when you have businesses listen to you at work, but that's a good reason for a no repeat 9 to 5 guarantee. Even with a short playlist, it's not that tough to do.
I never worked at BNS-FM (though we did talk a couple of times). But, as for the "feel" for the two stations, you're right. When BNS flipped, COL (for maybe the first time) got mad. We made a conscious decision to stand our ground. And we had a staff that was ready to go to the mats. Bill Cusack and Michael Cruise stoked the fires by going to an Army surplus store. We traded military uniforms, old "fake" artillery shells, netting, etc. We decorated the studio and showed up more than one day in fatigues. WCOL went to war that time. And won.
As for consultants: there are good ones and not-so-good ones. After a while, you figure out who's who.
