O.K. I am going to rant about something that I'm sure many people have already addressed. It has to do with music radio, its changes, and the fact that much of it is programmed by radio consultants. Those of you 40 and over who listen to country music can remember when country music stations would generally play a combination of old and new artists. To give an example, we had an FM country in St. Louis, WIL-FM that, during the 1980's, would play some current hits (George Jones, Ricky Skaggs, Highway 101, Rosanne Cash, etc.), followed by some re-currents of up to five years old, some 70's stuff (Charlie Rich, Merle Haggard, Davie Allan Coe, and even cross-over's like John Denver and Olivia Newton-John), and once or twice an hour, a classic country song from as far back as the 50's. Then, starting about 1990, country stations began to purge most of these artists from their playlists even though some of them continued to have high-charting hits (Dolly Parton was an example). By the mid-1990's, most of them (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Crystal Gayle, Janie Fricke) had been pushed aside completely in favor of Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, and Shania Twain. Only a few 70's and 80's stars....Tanya Tucker (who continued to have hits through the late 90's), George Strait, and Reba McEntire remained.
Our St. Louis adult contemporary station, KEZK, began to do the same (as did other AC stations across the country) in the early 90's, pushing out Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond who had been top stars in the AC world since the 60's. In the late 2000's, the same thing began to happen to Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion (Celine was and will always be, in my opinion, the poster child of adult contemporary music) as AC began to start adding more upbeat songs to their playlists to make it sound more like Adult Top 40. Although (unlike country) AC stations continue to play older songs as far back as the 80's, many of these songs were never on the AC charts. (Examples are "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar and "Keep On Loving You" by REO Speedwagon.)
You would not believe the number of people I talk to that complain about this "stamping out" of high-profile music stars from the airwaves. And I have read that it's due to the changes in musical tastes, especially among young listeners, that result in the overhauling of radio stations playlists, but somehow, I just can't believe that. I suspect it has more to do with the CONSULTANTS' changes in musical tastes. (After all, most radio stations playlists are created by consultants, right?) I have never understood the logic behind hiring an out-of-towner to program your music for your....in my case, St. Louis listeners.....when that person has probably never been to St. Louis and doesn't know the first thing about the people of our city. Instead of stations hiring local consultants to survey the population, they hire some big-wig across the country who creates one playlist for numerous stations in various states, as if it were a one-size fits all for radio listeners around the nation. Believe me, regardless of whatever demographic you are targeting, the lifestyles of the people in New York City won't be anything like those in.....let's say.....Tyler, Texas, so I don't see how anyone can say, "Oh, 25-54 year-old women with high incomes is our demographic. We know what songs they all like." Pardon my grammar, but that 'tain't so! Every woman in that age bracket is different, as are all 18-to-34-year-olds who like country music, etc.
If there's anyone 10 years older than me or older (I'm 50) and remembers, the CBS television "rural purge" from the early 1970's, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Television shows at that time, such as Green Acres, had high ratings, yet CBS cancelled them anyway because they decided they wanted to go after a younger, more urbanized audience. What? Since when do you cancel a product that sells well! Why are they doing the same with music radio? It's obvious that the consultants are dictating to the audiences what sorts of artists they want to hear on the radio, rather than allowing the audience to tell them. Just like a parent who puts food in front of his/her children and says, "This is your supper. Take and eat it, because you aren't getting anything else," the consultants are acting as parents to the listeners (just as CBS did to its viewers with the rural purge). They are basically saying, "These are the only songs and artists you're going to hear on these stations. Take 'em or leave 'em." Well then, what choice do listeners have but to either consume what is put before them, or turn the radio off altogether and just pop in a CD in the car from here on out. (My uncle no longer listens to the radio, but gets his music from YouTube for the reasons I have been describing.)
Finally, it's not just ordinary people I talk to who are unhappy with this. I have a co-worker who works part-time at a radio station in Warrenton, Missouri (we both work full-time in another line of work) and he agrees with what I've been saying. To put it in his words, "Music radio shouldn't be like McDonald's....where no matter what part of the country you are in, you always get the same thing."
Our St. Louis adult contemporary station, KEZK, began to do the same (as did other AC stations across the country) in the early 90's, pushing out Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond who had been top stars in the AC world since the 60's. In the late 2000's, the same thing began to happen to Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion (Celine was and will always be, in my opinion, the poster child of adult contemporary music) as AC began to start adding more upbeat songs to their playlists to make it sound more like Adult Top 40. Although (unlike country) AC stations continue to play older songs as far back as the 80's, many of these songs were never on the AC charts. (Examples are "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar and "Keep On Loving You" by REO Speedwagon.)
You would not believe the number of people I talk to that complain about this "stamping out" of high-profile music stars from the airwaves. And I have read that it's due to the changes in musical tastes, especially among young listeners, that result in the overhauling of radio stations playlists, but somehow, I just can't believe that. I suspect it has more to do with the CONSULTANTS' changes in musical tastes. (After all, most radio stations playlists are created by consultants, right?) I have never understood the logic behind hiring an out-of-towner to program your music for your....in my case, St. Louis listeners.....when that person has probably never been to St. Louis and doesn't know the first thing about the people of our city. Instead of stations hiring local consultants to survey the population, they hire some big-wig across the country who creates one playlist for numerous stations in various states, as if it were a one-size fits all for radio listeners around the nation. Believe me, regardless of whatever demographic you are targeting, the lifestyles of the people in New York City won't be anything like those in.....let's say.....Tyler, Texas, so I don't see how anyone can say, "Oh, 25-54 year-old women with high incomes is our demographic. We know what songs they all like." Pardon my grammar, but that 'tain't so! Every woman in that age bracket is different, as are all 18-to-34-year-olds who like country music, etc.
If there's anyone 10 years older than me or older (I'm 50) and remembers, the CBS television "rural purge" from the early 1970's, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Television shows at that time, such as Green Acres, had high ratings, yet CBS cancelled them anyway because they decided they wanted to go after a younger, more urbanized audience. What? Since when do you cancel a product that sells well! Why are they doing the same with music radio? It's obvious that the consultants are dictating to the audiences what sorts of artists they want to hear on the radio, rather than allowing the audience to tell them. Just like a parent who puts food in front of his/her children and says, "This is your supper. Take and eat it, because you aren't getting anything else," the consultants are acting as parents to the listeners (just as CBS did to its viewers with the rural purge). They are basically saying, "These are the only songs and artists you're going to hear on these stations. Take 'em or leave 'em." Well then, what choice do listeners have but to either consume what is put before them, or turn the radio off altogether and just pop in a CD in the car from here on out. (My uncle no longer listens to the radio, but gets his music from YouTube for the reasons I have been describing.)
Finally, it's not just ordinary people I talk to who are unhappy with this. I have a co-worker who works part-time at a radio station in Warrenton, Missouri (we both work full-time in another line of work) and he agrees with what I've been saying. To put it in his words, "Music radio shouldn't be like McDonald's....where no matter what part of the country you are in, you always get the same thing."
