In reviewing Mediabase over the last several days, I've noticed a substantial decrease in 90s titles on WCBS-FM. There's holiday tunes in the mix. Maybe that has something to do with the playlist tweak. Maybe many of these 90s tunes just don't sound good positioned next to a Christmas classic? Then there's a good number of Bon Jovi that continue in heavy rotation. Hard to figure out. Thoughts?
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Is CBS-FM Playing Less 90's?
- Thread starter John FL
- Start date
Classic Hits radio might have to consider inserting more 2000's songs to the playlist at some point within the 2020's to get the money demos??
It will have to, unless there are even fewer consensus '00s songs than there are '90s. At that point, one must concede that popular music, and the way it has been presented on radio for the 18-34 audience, underwent a fundamental change beginning in the '90s that makes it unsustainable going forward. Look then for classic hits to begin its decline as a viable format, replaced by ... who the heck knows! In New York, it would probably be another variant of rhythmic, urban or Latino pop, following the demographic trend in the market.
Clarifying previous post: The way popular music has been presented on radio to 18-34s since the '90s makes the classic hits format unsustainable going forward. There will always be popular music produced for and marketed to the youngest of the demos that matter to advertisers. After all, the gullible years are where brand loyalty is built and impulse buying is strongest.
First of all Jon Bon Jovi lives in the area. He has a strong fan base. Second of all the rockier hits attract a younger demo than the pop songs.
As for the decrease in 90s, we're seeing that nationally for classic hits. More 80s, less 90s.
Most of the 90’s songs were in light rotation. Often stations that add a few Christmas songs will simply play the seasonal category instead of the light category.
This a loser es to rest the weakest songs.
See if this changes back in January.
Why is that happening?
I think programmers are seeking that perfect mix of music to deliver the target audience, without cannibalizing other stations in their cluster.
But all those '80s hits are at least 30 years old, most of them over 35 years old. How long can they continue to be the prime mover of classic hits formats without the geezer factor creeping in and driving off the advertisers? As it is, there were lots of mid- and late baby boomers who were in their 30s in the '80s and still enjoyed CHR until rap and grunge arrived late in the decade. I'm 64 and listen to our local classic hits station, which plays plenty of '80s songs I like, but hasn't touched the '90s yet. At some point fairly soon, won't classic hits programmers have to consider cutting back on the '80s and redoubling efforts to find consensus '90s and (in a few years if not now) '00s hits to keep the format from aging out of the advertising sweet spot?
By infusing more rock and less pop. That's what you see at The River in Atlanta and WROR in Boston. This would be problematic if Entercom had a Jack station in NY, but it doesn't. I wonder if WCBS is becoming more like Jack now than when it actually ran that format years ago.
Although I miss the decade's r&b and pop hits, I like '80s rock hits, too. Am I an outlier among boomers?
This has been the case for a long time. In my view, nostalgia based formats have had restrictions placed on them to protect the cash cow in the cluster such as an AC. WCBS-FM has an in house Hot AC competitor. While I'm not sure which station is the true cash cow, I've seen too many cases where a solid gold station doesn't advance much chronologically to not be even an indirect competitor to that cash cow. I've seen format demise as a result when the audience winds up skewing too old. No surprise but not fair to the station that is held back.
As one of the others posters said, we'll have to see what happens after the holiday music gets shelved. Perhaps all will return to normal. I wouldn't think WCBS FM's 90s titles played on a limited rotation would be a problem for a Hot AC in the cluster. A Hot AC generally features 00s, 10s and today songs.
I've seen research on 90s music. I've read that even those who grew up in the 90s have an affection for 80s music. It's a popular music decade. To date, WCBS FM has done well included some 70s and 90s in the mix, certainly not sounding stale.
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Consider the 2000's this decade was the era when Internet and Satellite radio started to come into play. If the 2000's were to be included on WCBS-FM or KRTH-FM they would pick up whoever is left over on FM Radio though within the money demos and the the median age would have to be 35-45.
Considering the majority of 80's hit music released isn't played to begin with (especially 80-82), this is probably a smart move. Why jump the gun to another decade, when you have not even fulfilled the 80's?? There's a ton in the 80's that hasn't even been exposed yet to the levels they should be.
... because the songs are not hits today.
If songs are not being played, it is because they are stiffs today. They may have been hits in the past, but we are talking about songs that are 30 to 40 years old, and many have not aged gracefully. Radio stations are not museums. They play songs that are popular today, whether released a month ago, a decade ago or a quarter century ago.
The 90’s are a lot more tricky than the 80’s. I listened to 90’s on 9 and was surprised at all the heavy metal, grunge, rock and hip hop in there. I heard some tracks on there I liked, but knew were stiffs today unless FM decided to test them. 00’s are still work in progress.
If a song performs poorly enough times, chances are it will be discarded as “unfamiliar”. You cannot play a song that’s not one of the 688 songs the core audience wants to hear.
The early 80’s (80-82) tend to lean more slow and upbeat which could be why listeners reject them and prefer 80’s from 1983-1991 that continue to test well.
If a song performs poorly enough times, chances are it will be discarded as “unfamiliar”. You cannot play a song that’s not one of the 688 songs the core audience wants to hear.
The early 80’s (80-82) tend to lean more slow and upbeat which could be why listeners reject them and prefer 80’s from 1983-1991 that continue to test well.
Why would you play songs the audience delivers a clear "no" to?
You're asking that question of someone who isn't programming to an audience, but to himself. Very different approach.
Oldies assumes there's no such thing as math, and you actually could keep an audience captive long enough to play hundreds of repetitions of thousands of songs
Or that all people have thousands of songs they really love and just don't know it. Which is nonsense. I have favorite artists, songwriters, composers in a number of genres: rock, pop, soul, folk, classical. All told, their numbers don't even reach into the hundreds, maybe barely if you throw in the ones I only know one song by. Do I love everything they've ever sung, played or written? No. Which means that, logically, a station playing over 2,000 songs is going to have a better chance of playing two songs in a row I don't even like than two songs I love.
Do I prefer SiriusXM's Deep Tracks to its hits-only Classic Rewind and Classic Vinyl channels? Did I enjoy The Loft (since exiled to online only) more than The Spectrum? Yes and yes, but I can't lie: There are and were many, many more times that I'd change the channel to hear something more likely to be right up my musical alley while listening for extended periods to the deep-playlist channels than to the tight-playlist ones, often not to another satellite music channel but to news, sports or even something on FM. Most people, judging from those in my own family, co-workers and friends I have based on something other than interest in music, don't listen to half as many types of music regularly as I do, so it's likely that they have even fewer songs/pieces they love.
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