There's also one other thing about MOR in the 60s that I'd forgotten until I had the opportunity to hear some airchecks over the past few years:
At least in L.A., San Francisco and San Diego, they played almost entirely current music...either singles or album cuts. It all seemed like "old music" to me at the time (I had no frame of reference as a kid), but in reality, there might be one or two older records an hour at most. And the vast majority of them were only one to five years old. It wasn't until AC that the 40% gold quotient came into play. And then, those records only went back 20 years, tops (I kept my gold library at 15 years maximum until a dedicated oldies station signed on in the market and I broadened to 20 to protect my flank).
Our parents were far less tied to the music of their past, at least in their 30s and 40s, and at least in what they expected from radio, than we have been. KMPC in 1963 wasn't playing Bing Crosby records from 1933. In fact, in 1963, KMPC wasn't playing Bing Crosby.
So a "new MOR" really should be current, and probably would play mostly songs that aren't big sellers. The trap at the end of that is the same one that helped kill MOR in the early 70s: Eventually, what doesn't sell doesn't get recorded anymore.
Additional modern problems: Today's 40 year old has a far shorter attention span and tolerance for anything unfamiliar. And they're rockers. AC has become an almost exclusively female format because men as old as 65 would rather hear AC/DC do "Highway To Hell" than 10 seconds of anything by Adele.
And 40 year old women are giving AC programmers fits, too. The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" keeps popping up in music research as a power feel-good song for them.
The culture has changed radically.
At least in L.A., San Francisco and San Diego, they played almost entirely current music...either singles or album cuts. It all seemed like "old music" to me at the time (I had no frame of reference as a kid), but in reality, there might be one or two older records an hour at most. And the vast majority of them were only one to five years old. It wasn't until AC that the 40% gold quotient came into play. And then, those records only went back 20 years, tops (I kept my gold library at 15 years maximum until a dedicated oldies station signed on in the market and I broadened to 20 to protect my flank).
Our parents were far less tied to the music of their past, at least in their 30s and 40s, and at least in what they expected from radio, than we have been. KMPC in 1963 wasn't playing Bing Crosby records from 1933. In fact, in 1963, KMPC wasn't playing Bing Crosby.
So a "new MOR" really should be current, and probably would play mostly songs that aren't big sellers. The trap at the end of that is the same one that helped kill MOR in the early 70s: Eventually, what doesn't sell doesn't get recorded anymore.
Additional modern problems: Today's 40 year old has a far shorter attention span and tolerance for anything unfamiliar. And they're rockers. AC has become an almost exclusively female format because men as old as 65 would rather hear AC/DC do "Highway To Hell" than 10 seconds of anything by Adele.
And 40 year old women are giving AC programmers fits, too. The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" keeps popping up in music research as a power feel-good song for them.
The culture has changed radically.