It's already starting to happen, to some degree - but it's not of radio's doing. With radio losing its exclusivity in breaking hits, artists no longer need to cater their singles to formats as radio defines them.

As a result, we have "country" artists like Jelly Roll charting on Rock or Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs on CHR. Taylor Swift has gone Country to Pop to AA and back again. Olivia Rodrigo has all the making of a pop-star but her latest single may as well be this year's "You Ougta Know:"
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RadioActive wrote:

A thought-provoking piece from one of my favourite radio writers, who covers the medium in L.A. The references he makes are to local stations there, but they could certainly be applied to our own in Toronto. See if you agree with his conclusions that the old style of Top 40 - where listeners could hear Mama Cass followed by Cream - was far more attractive to listeners than the narrow one-genre-only we have now. 

And he believes it may be one way out of the radio wilderness so many outlets now find themselves in. 

"Sean Ross...writes in RadioInsight.com that most people fondly remember their own top 40 listening days from “when top 40 played it all,” and you have the answer: play it all.

"Top 40 has always thrived when it played it all and has always stagnated when it limited itself. You saw it happen with too much “bubblegum,” too much disco, too much country, too much of “the Miami sound,” too much grunge and too much hip-hop. All of those eras had temporary success, but ultimately led to ratings declines as listeners left for other stations."

It may not be the answer. But maybe it's worth a shot.

Why oldies stations might be showing us the future of radio

Speaking of Cass and Cream.  A pic from her house in Laurel Canyon from 1968. Maybe dreaming a dream outside the white room with black curtains. You may recognize a few other luminaries.

[img][/img]

 

Last edited by Fitz (September 6, 2023 1:23 pm)