WQIC "Lunch Boat- 70s edition" ... I LOVE RIMSHOTS

[RockofHBG]

As far as the "old" WARM, if it went back to the sleepy sound of yesteryear, it would probably gain in persons 12+, but be rated 8th or 9th 25-54. To do well in that demo, you need dominate one of the 10 year cells: 25-34, 35-44 or 45-54. While it might make some gains 45-54, it would plummet 25-44. 55+ would increase as well, particularly since no one caters to that older demo except WHYL and WIOO, both AMs. Hmmmmmmmmm....wonder why that is? Must be a reason. YES, no money. That's the "old" WARM in a nutshell.

 

[Seltzer]

I do believe that 70s do still have a place on A/C. I do believe it depends on the individual station and cluster situation. WARM lives in a building with a station that is predominantly 70s----WSOX. So they probably want to be careful how much 70s they play and what kinds of 70s they play as they still call themselves Soft Rock. Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, America, Elton John, and Billy Joel. Perhaps some of the lighter disco stuff; Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor.

But there is no question where the A/C format is headed; fun, upbeat songs that women like. For example, despite the lyric line "Sex On The Beach", A/C's are falling all over themselves to play California Gurls by Katy Perry. Lady Gaga is becoming a fixture and some are even playing Black Eyed Peas "I Got A Feeling". Rock Of Hbg is correct when he talks about those now in the "A/C demo" cut their teeth on MTV and grew up with CHR. They're accepting of more upbeat music, including some rock ala Nickelback and Daughtry. Or at least it seems that way to me when I'm traveling and listening to A/C stations elsewhere.

Time marches on. It's 2010. And formats evolve. Or ya better or you'll be left in the dust on the wrong side of those sought after demos.

 

[vinyltapecd]

As far as the "old" WARM, if it went back to the sleepy sound of yesteryear..........it would plummet 25-44.

I never said that WARM should return to EXACTLY where it was 10 years ago. I know that playing 6 or 7 60s/70s songs an hour would not work on an AC station today like it did back then. I just said they should incorporate a LOT more variety like they did back then. And more variety would mean more 70s music besides disco and the occasional Fleetwood Mac or Elton John song, since these are played enough already and don't add to the "variety" factor at all. At least for now, I admit that including the Carpenters or Barry Manilow might be a poor decision. But based on plenty of observation, I stand by my point that songs like Sweet Caroline or I'll Be There by Jackson 5 are very well liked by younger women and therefore would definitely be a good fit for an AC (not Hot AC) station. In general, I think that excluding any top 5 hit just because it sounds a little soft is about the most foolish thing a station can do. For instance, IS THERE ANY PROOF that "Old Time Rock & Roll" by Bob Seger (#28) is more popular among 20/30/40 year old women than Sweet Caroline or I'll Be There?? I'm willing to bet it isn't.

Now I had another big question in my last post: is there any proof that AC heavy rotation artists (Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Daughtry, Nickelback, Leona Lewis) are actually popular among even 25% of younger women? As I said, from what I've observed, artists like Michael Buble, Taylor Swift, The Fray, etc. have definite "mass appeal" with younger women...I can't say the same about the other 5 artists.

 

[Seltzer]

As far as the "old" WARM, if it went back to the sleepy sound of yesteryear..........it would plummet 25-44.

I never said that WARM should return to EXACTLY where it was 10 years ago. I know that playing 6 or 7 60s/70s songs an hour would not work on an AC station today like it did back then. I just said they should incorporate a LOT more variety like they did back then. And more variety would mean more 70s music besides disco and the occasional Fleetwood Mac or Elton John song, since these are played enough already and don't add to the "variety" factor at all. At least for now, I admit that including the Carpenters or Barry Manilow might be a poor decision. But based on plenty of observation, I stand by my point that songs like Sweet Caroline or I'll Be There by Jackson 5 are very well liked by younger women and therefore would definitely be a good fit for an AC (not Hot AC) station. In general, I think that excluding any top 5 hit just because it sounds a little soft is about the most foolish thing a station can do. For instance, IS THERE ANY PROOF that "Old Time Rock & Roll" by Bob Seger (#28) is more popular among 20/30/40 year old women than Sweet Caroline or I'll Be There?? I'm willing to bet it isn't.

Now I had another big question in my last post: is there any proof that AC heavy rotation artists (Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Daughtry, Nickelback, Leona Lewis) are actually popular among even 25% of younger women? As I said, from what I've observed, artists like Michael Buble, Taylor Swift, The Fray, etc. have definite "mass appeal" with younger women...I can't say the same about the other 5 artists.

I'll give this a shot------

1. You keep mentioning 70s when you mention variety. Why not more 80s for variety? A/C's now play many songs from this decade they would not have touched 10 years ago. At this point, the older end of the adult demo would be someone who was in high school and college in the 80s.

2. It's funny that you mention "I'll Be There" by the Jackson Five. It took Michael dying to get much of his music back on the radio. As for this specific song, I think the Mariah Carey version is probably the one of choice. I'd leave the Jackson version to the "Greatest Hits...ala Sox" stations.

3. Kelly Clarkson and Daughtry are part of the American Idol impact on the format. Both have now had many hits. The Fray and Taylor Swift the same. Leona Lewis was first introduced to many by American Idol.

4. Old Time Rock & Roll. I'd be willing to bet that many women don't even remember that it was a hit in the 70s. It was part of an 80s movie soundtrack (can't remember the movie) and they have heard it at and probably danced to it at every wedding reception they've ever been to.

 

[RockofHBG]

[quoteBut based on plenty of observation, I stand by my point that songs like Sweet Caroline or I'll Be There by Jackson 5 are very well liked by younger women and therefore would definitely be a good fit for an AC][/quote]

What observations? Your girlfriend? Waitresses at a restaurant? Unless you own a research company, I don't what you're referring to. Music research is a song by song thing, artist has little or nothing to do with it. The only thing artist has to is perhaps giving a new song a shot by an artist you already have a track record with..and this track record is based on the research of individual titles.

There is also an era cutoff for most stations, so that you don't have train wreck segues. The sixties are gone, the seventies are fading..the eighties are a fine field from which to farm. Right in the heart of the AC demo, tons of hits and tempo.

 

[vinyltapecd]

OK Seltzer, this seems like a good discussion we have here:

1. You keep mentioning 70s when you mention variety. Why not more 80s for variety? A/C's now play many songs from this decade they would not have touched 10 years ago. At this point, the older end of the adult demo would be someone who was in high school and college in the 80s.
>>>Can you give some examples of such "forgotten" 80s hits that have suddenly resurfaced on AC?

2. It's funny that you mention "I'll Be There" by the Jackson Five. It took Michael dying to get much of his music back on the radio. As for this specific song, I think the Mariah Carey version is probably the one of choice. I'd leave the Jackson version to the "Greatest Hits...ala Sox" stations.
>>>Not sure what you're trying to get at here. Of course, stations didn't play Michael Jackson much until after he died...actually they still don't except for Billie Jean and maybe one or two other songs. Either way, I say it's their loss given how popular he is, including the Jackson 5 stuff. I haven't heard the Jackson 5 version of "I'll Be There" on the radio for about 10 years now. Just curious: why would you choose the Mariah Carey version…because of age or some other reason? I’m pretty sure most people prefer the original.

3. Kelly Clarkson and Daughtry are part of the American Idol impact on the format. Both have now had many hits. The Fray and Taylor Swift the same. Leona Lewis was first introduced to many by American Idol.
>>>Ok, all I'm saying is that Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, Leona Lewis definitely don't have the mass appeal among women that Fray, Swift, Buble have. It's tough to find a woman that doesn’t like “Haven’t Met You Yet” or “How to Save a Life”, but I’ve seen so many react negatively to music of Clarkson or Pink or Nickelback or Daughtry. So I think many women might be inclined to change stations when these artists come on. Not saying those artists aren’t talented…they just don’t appeal to the majority from everything I’ve observed. I think when women want "fun" music, they prefer to "go all the way" towards things like Black Eyed Peas and Hot AC stuff.

4. Old Time Rock & Roll. I'd be willing to bet that many women don't even remember that it was a hit in the 70s. It was part of an 80s movie soundtrack (can't remember the movie) and they have heard it at and probably danced to it at every wedding reception they've ever been to.
>>>Risky Business is the movie. I can't say for sure, but this seems like a song which women may be familiar with but not particularly fond of, except for special occasions like dancing, as you mentioned. If they hear it on the drive to/from work or just while trying to relax, I have a feeling they might identify it as “that annoying Risky Business song” and change the station. But I never said not to play it…I just think if you're gonna play it, you might as well play songs that lots of young women definitely like such as Sweet Caroline or I’ll Be There.

One final point: I don’t think it is smart to remove every single soft song (except huge artists like Elton John) from the playlist of an AC station. Even if soft songs are a bad thing on AC (this has yet to be proven), I would venture that they are a “necessary evil” because the format seems incomplete or unnatural without them, so one or two an hour might actually help. I just think that not hearing any soft songs on an AC station somehow makes people get tired of listening faster...it’s kind of hard to explain why. Again, I could be totally wrong. But even stations like WSOX are suffering from this phobia of soft songs…they’ve basically gotten rid of them as well.

 

[vinyltapecd]

RockofHBG, that's what I was talking about earlier. Is there such a thing as a "research company" which deals with listener preferences on a song-by-song basis? If we had access to any sort of information like this, then one of us could easily prove the other wrong and there would be no more discussion. All I said was that there is a "Group A" of staple artists on AC stations today that seem to be disliked by the majority of people I've observed, from different locations and different walks of life. At the same time, I've noticed there is a "Group B" of artists who seem to be universally popular among most target demo women I've observed. Going back to your "mass appeal" factor, I think this means the Group B artists have "mass appeal" while the Group A ones don't. Of course, my observations could be totally misrepresentative of the overall population, but in general, trends do mean something.

 

[RockofHBG]

There a number of music research companies. There are two basic kinds of research...callout and auditorium testing. Callout is mainly for new music, auditorium is for library. Songs, not artists. are tested. Most people cannot i..d an artist , but they definitely know whether they like, hate, are tired of or have never heard a song. Participants are randomly selected via telephone and screened by age, sex and partisanship. They must either be a p1 or a p2 listener.Anywhere from 50-125 listeners are selected and told to report to hotel on a given day, where "hooks" of pre-selected of up to 500 songs are played and the responses are recorded. There are variations of auditorium testes where people can do it electronically from their own home. Then, the songs are ranked from highest to lowest using the data. It can be broken down and sorted many ways. This is the thumbnail of how it works. The results are surprisingly similar from market to market. So if you can't afford local market research, using an aggregate of research from other markets is the next best thing.

 

[Seltzer]

OK Seltzer, this seems like a good discussion we have here:

1. You keep mentioning 70s when you mention variety. Why not more 80s for variety? A/C's now play many songs from this decade they would not have touched 10 years ago. At this point, the older end of the adult demo would be someone who was in high school and college in the 80s.
>>>Can you give some examples of such "forgotten" 80s hits that have suddenly resurfaced on AC?



2. It's funny that you mention "I'll Be There" by the Jackson Five. It took Michael dying to get much of his music back on the radio. As for this specific song, I think the Mariah Carey version is probably the one of choice. I'd leave the Jackson version to the "Greatest Hits...ala Sox" stations.
>>>Not sure what you're trying to get at here. Of course, stations didn't play Michael Jackson much until after he died...actually they still don't except for Billie Jean and maybe one or two other songs. Either way, I say it's their loss given how popular he is, including the Jackson 5 stuff. I haven't heard the Jackson 5 version of "I'll Be There" on the radio for about 10 years now. Just curious: why would you choose the Mariah Carey version…because of age or some other reason? I’m pretty sure most people prefer the original.[/b Actually on the A/C's I've listened to in my travels I've heard Beat It, Wanna Be Starting Something, PYT, and Smooth Criminal in addition to Billie Jean. So Michael is back and I think that's a great thing. Mariah Carey was a huge artist for A/C in the 90s and I assume that version would be preferred by the core A/C listener in 2010. Leave the Jackson's version to the greatest hits stations ala WSOX.

3. Kelly Clarkson and Daughtry are part of the American Idol impact on the format. Both have now had many hits. The Fray and Taylor Swift the same. Leona Lewis was first introduced to many by American Idol.
>>>Ok, all I'm saying is that Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, Leona Lewis definitely don't have the mass appeal among women that Fray, Swift, Buble have. It's tough to find a woman that doesn’t like “Haven’t Met You Yet” or “How to Save a Life”, but I’ve seen so many react negatively to music of Clarkson or Pink or Nickelback or Daughtry. So I think many women might be inclined to change stations when these artists come on. Not saying those artists aren’t talented…they just don’t appeal to the majority from everything I’ve observed. I think when women want "fun" music, they prefer to "go all the way" towards things like Black Eyed Peas and Hot AC stuff.

I agree with what you say about Leona Lewis. She's still relatively new. Kelly Clarkson and Daughtry however are just as huge with the audience as The Fray and Taylor Swift.

4. Old Time Rock & Roll. I'd be willing to bet that many women don't even remember that it was a hit in the 70s. It was part of an 80s movie soundtrack (can't remember the movie) and they have heard it at and probably danced to it at every wedding reception they've ever been to.
>>>Risky Business is the movie. I can't say for sure, but this seems like a song which women may be familiar with but not particularly fond of, except for special occasions like dancing, as you mentioned. If they hear it on the drive to/from work or just while trying to relax, I have a feeling they might identify it as “that annoying Risky Business song” and change the station. But I never said not to play it…I just think if you're gonna play it, you might as well play songs that lots of young women definitely like such as Sweet Caroline or I’ll Be There.

One final point: I don’t think it is smart to remove every single soft song (except huge artists like Elton John) from the playlist of an AC station. Even if soft songs are a bad thing on AC (this has yet to be proven), I would venture that they are a “necessary evil” because the format seems incomplete or unnatural without them, so one or two an hour might actually help. I just think that not hearing any soft songs on an AC station somehow makes people get tired of listening faster...it’s kind of hard to explain why. Again, I could be totally wrong. But even stations like WSOX are suffering from this phobia of soft songs…they’ve basically gotten rid of them as well.

There will always be some ballads part of the A/C format. The format targets women. But the likes of a woman who grew up in the MTV generation is somewhat different from her mother and grandmother. And all stations and formats evolve. 10 years ago, these stations were still playing 60s material. If we follow your logic, the 60s would still be a big part of the A/C format.

 

[Boss302]

Are we still talking about WQIC?

 

[Seltzer]

This got way of course.....WQIC is a nice station that does a great job covering Lebanon. Very good A/C music mix.

 

[RockofHBG]

WQIC is a small town radio station....not really comparable to the regional FMs

 

[bossjock 56]

WQIC is low budget. The jingles have been on the air since the format started and they have NO imaging at all. I guess they are trying to do some creative things with what they have to work with.