Marsden wrote:

Therein lies the problem. 

Almost every time a radio station gets a few calls from a listeners saying they don't like a song - that radio station removes the song from their library. Over a short period of time a lot of songs get removed. 

With very little left, radio stations feel safe playing the 30 songs remaining. And then to be really safe - the station plays those 30 songs over and over and over.

No adventure.  

While I have exaggerated slightly to make a point - it really is happening.

On a panel a number of years back - a listener ask an unnamed PD "why does radio play the same song every few hours?. The PD said - "Do you know how long most people listen to the radio?" 

I guess it's a Which Came First The Chicken or The Egg" kind of thing. :-) 

In the car, it is a short time - but for some stations the playlist is so short the same songs keep coming up every time I listen for just 10 minutes. One of the worst offenders for this I’ve heard is across the border from me, KISM in Bellingham, WA. I swear their playlist must be only 15-20 classic rock songs.

Marsden is right but it goes farther than that. Every station in North America tightens playlists and the culprit is one word. Safe. I'll use a football analogy. If you have a lead , chances are you have your defence play a "prevent" defence. It's considered safe but it can backfire like it did in the Buffalo-Kansas City game. " Safe" doesn't win but it's supposed to keep you from losing. I would argue that in the radio business it actually doesn't work. Classic rock and even Oldies  before that have been around for 50 plus years in some cases and the songs are tired. I love Gimme Shelter but I'm tired of it. Play Happy, Fool To Cry or any of the other songs that rarely get played. At the very least it would freshen things up. 

I am wondering if we will start to see fewer classic rock stations and more like FM 96 London that are playing a larger variety of music and some current tracks.  Note they still play some album cuts and have a weekly top 20 rock countdown of current music. Is top 40/CHR getting ready to start playing rock oriented hits again? One local CHR station where I live plays Beck's Dreams in their gold rotation and also charted Italian band Maneskin with a remake of Beggin'.  https://fm96.com/playlist/

mace wrote:

When I tire of traditional Classic Rock I switch to KOZT "The Coast" in Ft. Bragg, Ca. Played this morning: Dig A Little Deeper In The Well-Eric Bibb, There Must Be A Better World Somewhere-B.B. King/Dr. John, Sugar Magnolia-Grateful Dead, Looking For My Life-George Harrison, Downhill From Everywhere-Jackson Browne, Cruise Control-Bruce Hornsby, Life During Wartime-Talking Heads, Walk On-U2, Heart Of Stone- Rolling Stones, Sweet Evening Breeze-JohnMellencamp. The station is locally owned in a small town [7300]with most of their ad revenue coming from local vendors. The market probably isn't measured by any ratings service, so they can afford to have a wide and deep playlist.

I have been  checking this station out. Thanks.

Last edited by cash (May 9, 2022 11:02 pm)

Deep cuts = big loss in listeners. People like familiar songs to bring back memories and provide comfort. Playing a song that a majority of the population is unfamiliar with will cause them to change stations, which… in market 1 (PPM Toronto), not a smart strategic move.

As for songs getting complaints & getting pulled, not 100% true. Depending on the situation, some songs do get “rested” until a situation returns to normal or tapers off. Stations don’t pull songs because one person complains about it - that is ridiculous. One person does not speak for 1000’s or in Toronto’s case, millions.

I'm not saying I disagree with many here about the ongoing ennui some have with classic rock. But I came across this article that tries to argue exactly the opposite. See what you think. 

"Classic Rock welcomed more stations to the format in the past two years than anyone of other than the Contemporary Christian Music format. Classic Hits and Classic Rock have shown the most audience growth at a time when many other formats are losing audience. Go to a bar on Trivia Night and you see thirty-somethings and forty-somethings playing “name the oldie” and answering trivia questions from a time before they were born. Clubs playing 80s and 90s music attract an audience as young as college age."

The Era of Vintage

ten more they can play:

nobody knows - rod srewart
rain - the beatles
sugar mama - mungo jerry
seagull - bad company 
sorrow - david bowie
let it rain - eric clapton 
brothers in arms - dire straits 
only you know & i know - dave mason
the man's too strong - dire straits
can't find my way home - blind faith

This is not really classic rock related but speaking of Mungo Jerry as someone above did. I never heard the song Pushbike Song by The Mixtures when it was released but I heard later on FM 108 a few times and surprisingly the DJ's never mentioned the similarity to In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry including the Marc Bolanesque vocal touches. Eventually Mungo Jerry covered the song but here is the original:





​

betaylored wrote:

Wonderwall will make me change the station.
Looking at you Boom 97.3 🤨

Pretty well any Tragically Hip song has me doing the same thing <ducking for cover>.
 

The solution is easy....

1. Bring on a Music Director who knows their stuff. Then let them go to work. 

2. Bring on a Program Director who has creativity and a genuine feel for communication. Then let that person get to work. 

It may take a year or so to build that station - but when they do sales will skyrocket.
 

Tq345 wrote:

Charlie wrote:

Fitz wrote:

This is not really classic rock related but speaking of Mungo Jerry as someone above did. I never heard the song Pushbike Song by The Mixtures when it was released but I heard later on FM 108 a few times and surprisingly the DJ's never mentioned the similarity to In The Summertime by Mungo Jerry including the Marc Bolanesque vocal touches. Eventually Mungo Jerry covered the song but here is the original:



​

Christ, was that awful.

 

 
Question: Why do they call it a pushbike? You don't push it, you pedal it.

This is the first thing I got when I googled:

As others have said, the push in "push bike" refers to having to push on the pedals to make it move. It only came about to distinguish from motorized versions once they became a thing. Lots of things get named like this, and then the extra adjective gets dropped after (if) it they become the dominant form
 

Ten more songs they could play:

night owl - gerry rafferty
dear mr fantasy - traffic
till it shines - bob seger
south city midnight lady - the doobie brothers
my old school - steely dan 
seems like a long time - rod stewart
scarlet begonias - grateful dead
changes - phil ochs 
changes - black sabbath l
looking forward - csny