DISQUS

Ted · 8 months ago

Great post, Jeff! Top 40 stations of old aren't seen as viable business models today because people in the demographic top 40 reaches (12-25) don't have the cash to buy the products advertisers are selling -- or so many in the industry surmise. So, the industry concentrates on the multiple variations of AC formats to lure the 35-54 set -- which is a format that is so conservative in terms of adding new artists to their playlists.

And because the formats are so niche (and often programmed for the 35-54 demo) radio is facing two problems:

1. An aging demographic.
2. Very few new customers.

The aging demo will stay with radio until they die, but the younger demo that radio doesn't even bother with, are bonding with the following: iPods, cell phones, the Internet, satellite radio, and yes, TV. And you see where this is going if radio doesn't change.

DwDunphy · 8 months ago

Ah, but radio isn't going to change. In New Jersey, we had New York's WNEW rock station, owned by CBS. That format crapped out so they went to talk radio. That crapped out, so they went to Jack. Then they became a Lite-Rock and stayed that way.

Last month, K-Rock, which was also owned by CBS, went Top-40. K-Rock was rock, then talk during a bizarre time where Howard Stern went to satellite and was replaced terrestrially by David Lee Roth, then went back to rock, and now plays the "hits". Z-100 has been Top-40 for a decade now. Our home station of G-Rock has just flipped to a Top-40.

As far as rock radio in this area is concerned, the only one left is WRAT (you can't make this stuff up, folks) in the Jersey reception area. However, they're plagued with the same problem K-Rock had and, ultimately, why people stopped listening - a constant stream of Guns 'N' Roses, AC/DC, Zeppelin and, when they're feeling poppy, U2. It's so common, it's a joke.

Radio could survive if it weren't for the industry having sold its collective soul to the charts.

DavidMedsker · 8 months ago

I find this fascinating. It makes perfect sense that this would happen. It's depressing as hell, but it makes sense.

DwDunphy · 8 months ago

Television placement is considered the prime target for the new musician. It trumps every other exposure medium aside from a huge viral video - but there really hasn't been a buzzable viral musician in a while now.

JonCummings · 8 months ago

My problem with TV song placements is one that's familiar from FM radio: usually when a show plays a song over a key scene, it doesn't identify the song in the end credits. So you have to run from the TV to the Internet while you're still thinking about it (which for me becomes a shorter and shorter amount of time as my brain turns to mush from watching TV in the first place) and go to the show's website or a fan site to find out the name & artist.

If only more shows would take the lead of the late, nearly great "Swingtown" and partner with LastFM or some other site.