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Can just one song make or break a station for you?

Groove1670 said:
We have aged out of the radio demo. Where the hits were more important in our 20's and 30's, our musical tastes widen in our 40's, and top 40 radio becomes repetitive and stale. I listen to very different musical selections than what my stations play, but then again I am over 50.
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I'm not sure that is true. The "radio demo" covers a lot of ground and many genres. I haven't changed genres, only the delivery method. Because there are far fewer OTA stations that provide my preferred music I find them on other platforms. I could still listen to a T-40 playlist from any period 1955-1985 and be pretty satisfied with the song selection. But current T-40 (or whatever they call it now) nada.
 
landtuna said:
I'm not sure that is true. The "radio demo" covers a lot of ground and many genres. I haven't changed genres, only the delivery method. Because there are far fewer OTA stations that provide my preferred music I find them on other platforms. I could still listen to a T-40 playlist from any period 1955-1985 and be pretty satisfied with the song selection. But current T-40 (or whatever they call it now) nada.
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The "radio demo" is 18-49 or 25-54 or some subset, because that is what we can sell. Only in smaller markets... think Prescott/Sedona/Flagstaff or Las Cruces or Roswell or similarly sized areas... is there little need to strictly appeal to agency accounts, allowing, perhaps, the whole spectrum of 18 to 64 to be profitably served.

"Top 40" has been called "CHR" (Contemporary Hit Radio) since the R&R magazine created the term in the late 70's. And it is still based on 30 to 40 big hits, and a handful of very recent hits. So it is essentially a few songs playing around 100 to 120 times a week, just like Top 40 did way back then. And a few more songs playing 50 to 80 or so times a week, and then some slower rotating new songs, declining songs and recurrents.

The fact that you like quite a few songs from the 50's and 60's means most advertisers have little interest in you.
 
Groove1670 said:
The demo that listened to Air Supply and foreigner is now reaching the target demo of America's Best Music. They will tolerate some sinatra and Bennett selections (from listening with their parents). Cold as ice is probably something that was slipped in during a local daypart ?
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I was describing two separate stations. The one that was playing Sinatra and Bennett (mostly from satellite but also on the morning how) might still do so on the local morning show though I haven't heard them. Actual oldies stations have been known to play Sinatra, but not this one, any more. When they are doing the satellite format now, "Cold As Ice" is there. And I now realize I have to turn off the audio from KKOV but that terrible Air Supply song just started.

The station playing "Cold As Ice" never played the Air Supply and Foreigner songs when they used the satellite format on KKOV because they weren't there.
 
CTListener said:
Air Supply and Foreigner's hit-making years overlapped. Many of their songs were played on the same stations at the same time. Why wouldn't the targeted female listener who liked both "Cold As Ice" in 1977 and "All Out of Love" in 1980 not want to hear both in a nostalgia format in 2017?
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But America's Best Music is easy listening. "Cold As Ice" is not no matter what. The former America's Best Music station changed to oldies. KKOV is still America's Best Music but playing "Waiting for a Girl Like You".
 
I'm not sure how music research is done now, but years ago when I was in programming, we would get ton's of research on each song. The research showed how much each song was liked and disliked. The key was to make sure the songs you were playing were not highly disliked. So, if a song scored, for example, high "likes," yet also high "dislikes" then you would not play it. You were looking for song people didn't dislike. I know, strange. But it was all about tune out factor. We would rather play a song that people felt <meh> about than something that might make them tune out.
 
There are songs that will make me tune out for a long time. Our local Alternative station started playing a few of them a few years ago and I rarely tune in anymore. I'm still in their prime demo. They still feature some of those songs. When I was a teen and top 40 stations did offer different playlists, I'd often pick the one that played the songs I disliked the least.
 
A single version of a song has made me like a station more or less.
When I was a young adult, some stations were playing the intended version of "Devil went down to Georgia",
and some were playing the corrupted version.
My choice of words should tell you which one I preferred and prefer.

Learning that a station was omitting a song for political or social reasons would also stay with me far beyond the popularity of the song,
as would a station that played that one song that I really, really loved but no one else was playing because it was not a national hit.
 
If a bad song is not enough, how many times must I hear that poor girl who was having a heart attack while leading an exercise class?

Never mind whether advertisers want to reach 55-plus listeners (except she says, "I'm healthy. I'm young."). Look at what they're advertising. Or in this case it's a public service announcement, I guess.
 
landtuna said:
And I, them.
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Same here. When the advertisers come on, I change the station to one that's not trying to sell me stuff at that moment.

Ditto the TV. The mute button is my friend. Yes, even during the Super Bowl. You know how they were saying this year one thirty-second spot cost 5 million dollars? Well, a 15 dollar remote shuts that up.
 
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