Post by musicradio77 on Mar 22, 2005 23:06:32 GMT -5
From the Daily News:
Oldies Aren't Goodies With Young Listeners
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
So here's the question: Does a specialty show that counts down the hits from some past week, month or year freshen up a radio station with cool, seldom-heard songs or just bore anyone who doesn't personally remember that particular slice of time?
That's an ongoing dilemma for program directors, and Eric Johnson of New Jersey's WKXW (101.5 FM, New Jersey 101.5) recently made his call: He ended the '70s countdown on Don Tandler's Saturday night show, one of the last retro-countdowns in the area, and made Tandler's show all-request, '60s to '80s.
Some WKXW listeners, like some listeners of WCBS-FM (101.1) when 'CBS ended its traditional countdowns several years ago, say this makes the station less interesting and more cookie-cutter.
Johnson says the station is simply responding to the reality of its audience, whose target/core is 35- to 45-year-olds. As time passes, fewer and fewer people in that age group grew up with '70s music.
That is to say, they recognize fewer '70s songs outside of the biggest hits, and it's an axiom of radio that when listeners hear too many unfamiliar songs, they tune out.
So the station decided to cut out many of the songs that, say, reached only No. 50 on a 1975 WABC survey.
WCBS-FM used the same reasoning when it ended its Saturday and Sunday countdowns of top-20 weekly surveys from Billboard. Now it runs a top-10 from a past month, so it cherry-picks the best-known songs and minimizes the chance of a listener hearing anything unfamiliar.
"It's great to play an 'Oh wow' song," former WCBS-FM program director Joe McCoy said at the time of the change. "But when it becomes a 'Huh?' song, you reconsider."
Many long-time WCBS-FM listeners didn't like losing the countdown then and a number of 'KXW listeners are unhappy now.
Listener Tom Natoli, for instance, says killing the countdown, which Tandler spread over his five-hour show, reduces the variety that was a big part of vintage top-40 radio.
"Now," says Natoli, "instead of hearing Styx, Ben E. King, Grand Funk and Rufus all on one show, plus maybe other songs like 'Up in a Puff of Smoke' by Polly Brown or 'Shaving Cream' by Benny Bell or 'Nightingale' by Carole King, it will be the same tired oldies that every other station plays."
Natoli also argues that since Tandler's countdowns were based on WABC surveys, and WABC stuck to the hits, there would be few unfamiliar records anyway.
Natoli notes that a 1975 survey Tandler was going to feature included, in its lower reaches, John Lennon's "Stand By Me." On a 1974 survey, the No. 57 and No. 58 songs were "Jet" by Wings and "Mockingbird" by James Taylor and Carly Simon.
"Hardly obscure," says Natoli.
But the deciding factor here may simply be the passage of time. As the case of WCBS-FM illustrates, radio stations eventually need an influx of younger listeners to keep from "aging out" of their appeal to advertisers. This means balancing favorites of long-time loyalists against potential appeal to new listeners.
"A show that worked 10 years ago can outlive its time," said McCoy several years ago. "At some point, you say 'It's been a great run' and move on."
Oldies Aren't Goodies With Young Listeners
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
So here's the question: Does a specialty show that counts down the hits from some past week, month or year freshen up a radio station with cool, seldom-heard songs or just bore anyone who doesn't personally remember that particular slice of time?
That's an ongoing dilemma for program directors, and Eric Johnson of New Jersey's WKXW (101.5 FM, New Jersey 101.5) recently made his call: He ended the '70s countdown on Don Tandler's Saturday night show, one of the last retro-countdowns in the area, and made Tandler's show all-request, '60s to '80s.
Some WKXW listeners, like some listeners of WCBS-FM (101.1) when 'CBS ended its traditional countdowns several years ago, say this makes the station less interesting and more cookie-cutter.
Johnson says the station is simply responding to the reality of its audience, whose target/core is 35- to 45-year-olds. As time passes, fewer and fewer people in that age group grew up with '70s music.
That is to say, they recognize fewer '70s songs outside of the biggest hits, and it's an axiom of radio that when listeners hear too many unfamiliar songs, they tune out.
So the station decided to cut out many of the songs that, say, reached only No. 50 on a 1975 WABC survey.
WCBS-FM used the same reasoning when it ended its Saturday and Sunday countdowns of top-20 weekly surveys from Billboard. Now it runs a top-10 from a past month, so it cherry-picks the best-known songs and minimizes the chance of a listener hearing anything unfamiliar.
"It's great to play an 'Oh wow' song," former WCBS-FM program director Joe McCoy said at the time of the change. "But when it becomes a 'Huh?' song, you reconsider."
Many long-time WCBS-FM listeners didn't like losing the countdown then and a number of 'KXW listeners are unhappy now.
Listener Tom Natoli, for instance, says killing the countdown, which Tandler spread over his five-hour show, reduces the variety that was a big part of vintage top-40 radio.
"Now," says Natoli, "instead of hearing Styx, Ben E. King, Grand Funk and Rufus all on one show, plus maybe other songs like 'Up in a Puff of Smoke' by Polly Brown or 'Shaving Cream' by Benny Bell or 'Nightingale' by Carole King, it will be the same tired oldies that every other station plays."
Natoli also argues that since Tandler's countdowns were based on WABC surveys, and WABC stuck to the hits, there would be few unfamiliar records anyway.
Natoli notes that a 1975 survey Tandler was going to feature included, in its lower reaches, John Lennon's "Stand By Me." On a 1974 survey, the No. 57 and No. 58 songs were "Jet" by Wings and "Mockingbird" by James Taylor and Carly Simon.
"Hardly obscure," says Natoli.
But the deciding factor here may simply be the passage of time. As the case of WCBS-FM illustrates, radio stations eventually need an influx of younger listeners to keep from "aging out" of their appeal to advertisers. This means balancing favorites of long-time loyalists against potential appeal to new listeners.
"A show that worked 10 years ago can outlive its time," said McCoy several years ago. "At some point, you say 'It's been a great run' and move on."