Posted by Steve Green on August 02, 2007 at 11:10:39:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Polarizing Music posted by Allan Sniffen on August 02, 2007 at 09:56:39:
Without meaning to pigeonhole things too much (let alone dangle too many participles :-), there has been some debate as to whether 60s-70s-80s is a better 'fit', symbiotically, than were the 50s-60s-70s. I thought that was a possibility.
Poster Mike Piazza disagreed with me. And now I agree with Piazza. A station going after a younger demo of pop music listeners has no choice but to try and *make* the 60s-70s-80s fit. A lot of credit has to go to management's decision to attempt such a success, but really, were there any other genuine, alternative gambits?
Keep in mind as well that this was not an upgrading/tweaking of an existing greatest hits station as was the case of WOGL. In effect, this mix is being tried by a brand new station. Thousands of the former listeners flocked back, which is completely different from WOGL, where the listeners already were.
Either way the credit goes, by proactivity or by default, the new format at once has to forage the 80's for every possible add while keeping the core reassured. The search for viable 80's tunes might prove just as fraught with complications as the search for relevant 50's songs is. But from a different agenda.
The thinking here at the lunchtime keyboard is twofold.
a) The station should pursue the appeal of every possible 80s song regardless of tempo. In other words, niche labels should be unimportant. Rap, hair-metal, A/C, country crossovers and others have to be spun in the music rooms. Aside from the wimp ballads, what else *was* on the charts then?
b) The station must broaden its 70s and late 60s base despite any blustering from the 300-song auditorium advocates. All of this more modern 80s effort isn't going to mean a thing if these newer 'discoveries' are getting mixed with the same dog-eared myopia that eroded the premise. If people in the older core are willing to tolerate an 80s tune on an only-game-in-town, they are CERTAINLY going to put up with a resuscitated favorite from their own time.
And the thinking here is that vice-versa stands a good chance of taking place ; that the younger listeners wouldn't mind hearing such.
The station should peruse every 80s possibility. It should also reconsider its own older-end core at the same time. An only game in town would be foolish to leave things the way they've been at one end while 'progressing' at the other end. An only-game-in-town can have both newer advocates and a larger O-word base. If the demos do fall short of desire or expectation, at least a bigger crowd will be present with which to deal.