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Post by H2IZCOOL on Jan 22, 2007 15:43:26 GMT -5
At least, we have enough mind to not put up with this crap, I would think.
Here's the last part.
Except for one thing: "So Motown Monday's got to go, huh?" Allan asked.
Absolutely, the group confirmed.
NOT LONG AFTER THE MUSIC TEST, the owners of WBIG, Clear Channel Communications, decided that traditional oldies had had their day. Like many other oldies stations across the country, WBIG switched formats this past spring. Big 100 adopted an approach known as "classic hits," which consists of top rock songs from the 1970s -- Steve Miller Band's "The Joker," The Kinks' "Lola," Queen's "We Will Rock You," Styx's "Lady," and lots of the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones. It strives to entertain listeners by serving up clever themed weekends of music, such as Big Decomposers (three days of songs by departed artists) or Big Ugly Rock Stars Who Score Great Chicks (Steven Tyler, Billy Joel).
So far, the new Big 100.3 is doing what its owner wants it to do. It is "skewing" younger, reaching an audience that on average is a little closer to the low end of the 25 to 54 age group than the oldies format drew. The classic hits are luring more men, so the audience is almost evenly split by sex, while Oldies 100 leaned more toward women. "This is a much more appealing advertiser demographic," Michaels said.
The bigger picture, however, only grows fuzzier. As young people choose to discover, share and collect music via iTunes, blogs and MySpace, decades of music research suddenly seem irrelevant. If listeners can create their own music stations, what will radio's role be?
Wrong question, many radio executives contend: Choice is overrated; most people don't want to spend their leisure time sifting through hours of mediocre tunes in search of their new favorite. They just want someone to deliver the music they love. The trick for radio is to find a way to capture the spirit of the Web -- the interactivity, the flattened hierarchy, the sense of empowerment -- while maintaining radio's traditional authority ("The hits from coast to coast," "The hits just keep on coming").
Satellite radio attempts to find that balance by giving deejays more freedom to select songs but only within the boundaries of narrowly defined channels of music (XM, for example, has one channel for "greasy, gritty" country tunes, one for honky-tonk hits of the '50s and '60s, one for current country hits, one for country stars from the '80s and '90s, and one for country classics). The satellite services use some of the same research tools that FM radio deploys but claim to escape the resulting blandness by giving programmers leeway to create sets of music that feel as if a human hand is at work. Whatever the result of that recipe, the bottom line is that in this tough time for radio, the bedrock belief in the efficacy of music research is finally cracking.
"Everything's cyclical," Michaels said. "Research had its time, and it's still important, but now people are willing to have a gut feeling and go with it."
In the 1950s, when TV came along and wiped out most of radio's most successful programming, radio defied predictions and survived. What saved radio -- playing rock-and-roll records for a new generation -- emerged from a combination of accident, innovation and desperation. What will save radio this time is very likely a similar combination. The desperation is growing, the innovation is beginning to bubble up, and accidents are waiting to happen. What they will sound like is unknown, but at long last, most everyone in the industry agrees they won't happen in a Holiday Inn meeting room.
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Post by Dawn on Jan 23, 2007 12:58:36 GMT -5
Very interesting article, Ed - thanks for sharing it. I've read in more general terms of how some radio stations' playlists were determined, but didn't know all the particulars involved.
Unfortunately, it pretty much confirms our suspicions about radio getting more and more narrow, and the continued running of certain songs into the ground. A starting point of 700 songs isn't all that many considering the thousands of singles that made the top 40 charts during the '50s, '60s, and '70s, and when you start whittling that down even more, you get the same stale playlist that seems to dominate pretty much every oldies station today.
(There was one exception - an AM station here in Ontario, KSPA, that up until a few months ago played a wonderful selection of '60s through '80s hits, including some I'd NEVER heard on any other station like El Chicano's Tell Her She's Lovely and John Denver's Sweet Surrender. Unfortunately, back in the fall they changed their format to "adult standards.")
It's too bad they didn't include me in that study - I would have skewed the numbers a bit! ;D
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Post by Laura--I wuv u all :) on Jan 23, 2007 13:13:57 GMT -5
That was a good article. Regarding what Dawn said here, I made the comment on some board once that the radio programmers must think we have REALLY short attention spans!
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Post by Pete70s on Jan 23, 2007 22:26:46 GMT -5
I wish I had time to read and respond to this. because I'd have a LOT to say. But I'm SO busy these days... Hopefully this weekend I'll get to it.. I'm also planning another batch of "Contenders" for you all.
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Post by H2IZCOOL on Jan 23, 2007 22:57:21 GMT -5
It's too bad they didn't include me in that study - I would have skewed the numbers a bit! ;D You and me both, Dawn. I actually did have a chance to participate in a survey about 10 years ago here in DC when a dying olciesstation was losing market share to a new fresh oldies station with a bigger playlist. I tried to explain to the people taking the survey that people want to hear more than the same five songs. Unfortunately the truth is that most idiots DO want to listen to the same five songs. Anyway, that station switched to a '70s format, and failed miserably at that also, and eventually went away. As for the "new fresh oldies station" - it became a tired old station, and now plays newer "oldies. " We have no '50s and '60s radio in DC now.   Thank goodness for downloads!! |
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Post by H2IZCOOL on Jan 23, 2007 22:59:28 GMT -5
That was a good article. Regarding what Dawn said here, I made the comment on some board once that the radio programmers must think we have REALLY short attention spans! As I said to Dawn, Laura, unfortunately, most people DO have tiny attention spans. As opposedto us Clicksters whose attention span is much lon -------- ooooh ice cream! |
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Post by H2IZCOOL on Jan 23, 2007 23:04:06 GMT -5
I wish I had time to read and respond to this. because I'd have a LOT to say. But I'm SO busy these days... Hopefully this weekend I'll get to it.. I'm also planning another batch of "Contenders" for you all. Looking forward to your comments and the new Contenders, Pete. I'm going crazy at work these days myself. Getting pulled in several directions at once. One big thing is prepping for going to England (Oxford) next week for an international hydrogen meeting. Leave on Sunday - Back Friday night. So I'll probably have towait till I get back to read your stuff. (Unless I stumble upon a free wireless connection in Oxford like I did in Lyon last summer. ;D ) |
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Post by Laura--I wuv u all :) on Jan 24, 2007 12:50:15 GMT -5
I actually did have a chance to participate in a survey about 10 years ago here in DC when a dying olciesstation... LOL--Ed, I read this and was wondering what "olciesstation" meant, and then I figured out it was supposed to be "oldies station"! And here I thought you were using big words that I didn't know...Your comment about attention spans was cute, too!  Now what was I saying? Oh yeah... I majored in mass communications in college and worked at the radio station on campus. I'm kinda' glad now that I didn't wind up going into radio, since it's become such a wasteland (they're all wasted...lol). |
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Post by H2IZCOOL on Jan 24, 2007 21:10:58 GMT -5
I actually did have a chance to participate in a survey about 10 years ago here in DC when a dying olciesstation... LOL--Ed, I read this and was wondering what "olciesstation" meant, and then I figured out it was supposed to be "oldies station"! And here I thought you were using big words that I didn't know...Your comment about attention spans was cute, too! Now what was I saying? Oh yeah... I majored in mass communications in college and worked at the radio station on campus. I'm kinda' glad now that I didn't wind up going into radio, since it's become such a wasteland (they're all wasted...lol). Yeah. My spacebar is all screwed up and doesn't work half the time. Then I often miss a couple when I try to fix it.  |
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Post by Pete70s on Jan 26, 2007 20:39:27 GMT -5
Well, "testing" songs is nothing new, it's been standard practice in radio for years. But all in all it boils down to one person's say: the Program Director. Here's a link to an article from 1970, from our ol' friends at "The Big 68": wrko.org/_clips/c701000.htm( ::grits teeth:: "How DARE he say that about the Beach Boys!")  Well, "Stoned Love" would peak at #10 on the WRKO chart, and "Stoney End" (a record they didn't want) would peak at #2. So the people DO have a lot to do with a record being successful. My biggest gripe is that everything in America is run by surveys and studies these days. Basically, we're being TOLD what to like on the strength of what a random sample of 30-100 people say. That's BS. I have a mind of my own, and don't need a survey telling me what's good and what isn't. Neither do my kids (who, by the way, I'm turning into Beach Boys fans). You've probably read my rant about Cartoon Network and how they feel that "The old cartoons can't hold this generations attention anymore". Well, my boys LOVE The Flintstones, Jetsons, Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Popeye, and The Wacky Races. And if it keeps them from watching garbage like "Billy & Mandy" or "Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends", then I'm doing them a good service! Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the day will come when they'll go to school and will get picked on for liking shows & music the other kids have never heard of. Just like I used to almost get beat up every day for liking the Beatles in 1982. I DESPISE the word "Oldies". I loathe and detest it. It sounds derrogatory. We supposedly live in an age of "political correctness", but we can't come up with a better term than "oldies"? Call them "Classic Hits", "Timeless Treasures", ANYTHING but "OLDIES"! Americans in general tend to want to brush away "old" things, look at how we treat our elderly! Some cultures treasure the wisdom and knowledge of senior citizens, but our culture sticks them in nursing homes to die among strangers, visiting them once a month (or less) as an obligation more than anything else.. It's really sad, and says a lot for society as a whole. Back to the original idea behind this thread: Personally, I think FM radio will go the way of AM radio (if it hasn't already done that). When FM burried AM in the 70's, it was for two reasons: 1) Better sound, and 2) free format. People were sick of being told what to like, and sick of strict playlists that wouldn't include certain songs "because the tempo was off" or "because they didn't test well". Today, there are Internet stations and satellite stations that WILL play 50's rock n' roll, "lost" 45's, and "deep cuts", and yes, even Burton Cummings "Stand tall".. As the systems become more affordable, I think more people will leave the FM band behind. It's sad, because we all grew up with radio and watched it evolve over the years. But it's become a part of "corporate America", just like cable TV has taken over all the small independant TV stations. So I guess the best thing to do is just move on.. |
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Post by SAT-I need more room!! on Jan 29, 2007 11:39:58 GMT -5
Well, my boys LOVE The Flintstones, Jetsons, Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Popeye, and The Wacky Races. And if it keeps them from watching garbage like "Billy & Mandy" or "Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends", then I'm doing them a good service! Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the day will come when they'll go to school and will get picked on for liking shows & music the other kids have never heard of. Just like I used to almost get beat up every day for liking the Beatles in 1982. Hey, my older daughter likes Fosters!  Seriously, I agree that most cartoons are pretty horrible. You know that I too have turned my daughters onto the "classics". They enjoy Flintstones, Pink Panther, Bug Bunny, Casper, etc, and even the other day we had on Penelope Pitstop! But yes, they do mix in the newer ones, mostly due to the fact, as you pointed out, that that's all there is available on TV! And sure, we can put on the Scooby DVD sets, but sometimes they just want to flip on the TV. Having said I agree most of the cartoons are crap (and I don't pretend-I tell my daughters I don't like Rugrats!), you owe it to yourself to watch Fairly Oddparents! It is second in popularity to Spongebob Squarepants, and I truly believe it's because so many adults watch it as well. The animation is not like the current ones, having more of a classic look to it, and it really has a lot of "adult humor". (That is, humor adults get, not Redd Foxx adult humor!) The guy who created it is 42 right now, and he puts some great old references, including many from when we were all kids. As an example, there is a fairy that is the fat Vegas Elvis. And just yesterday I saw one I never saw before and it cracker me up: the one girl's boyfriend Ricky was leaving her. So she starts screaming, "RICKY, don't lose my number!! You won't have to call nobody else! Send it off in a letter to yourself!" I was so caught off guard hearing those lyrics spoken in a cartoon in 2007! And if it was a Steely song I actually liked, my daughter would know it, probably being the only 5 year to do so. Anyway, much like Spongebob, the show is truly hilarious for adults. If South Park, Simpsons, Family Guy is for adults, this fits right in (albeit for the Satruday morning crowd). (I know this is off Ed's original topic, but I need a few weeks to read his whole post. ) |
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Post by Laura--I wuv u all :) on Jan 29, 2007 12:55:24 GMT -5
Let's see...how about "songs that have been around a long time"?  "VeggieTales" is another show that is mainly geared at kids, but has humor that adults can enjoy (it's clean, though). We have just about all of them on VHS or DVD, but from what I understand, they show some of the "VeggieTales" segments on TV also. We usually watch DVD's & VHS (our satellite dish isn't hooked up right now), but when our satellite dish is hooked up, our TV winds up on the cartoon channels quite a bit. Once, when Jonathan and I were watching "Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm" on Cartoon Network and it ended, he wanted to watch it again! I guess the video/DVD generation is spoiled...  |
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Thank goodness for downloads!!
Now what was I saying? Oh yeah...
