Posted by Marty Brooks on August 03, 2007 at 21:11:21:
In Reply to: Re: am i crazy posted by Chris on August 02, 2007 at 10:44:05:
"he station has to play the "core" songs over and over again. They have to remain with music that is "familiar" -"
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This conventional wisdom is total B.S. We have enough great Rock and Roll songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s so that they don't have to play the same songs over and over.
And I will maintain again that the songs don't have to be familiar -- only the sounds have to be familiar (unless you have no respect for the audience.) Virtually everyone of a "certain age" who listens to CBS-FM listened to WABC-AM when WABC played new music. The reason they don't listen to other radio stations that play new music is NOT because they don't want to ever hear anything new - it's because they don't like the TYPE of music that new music stations play. We looked forward to always hearing new music in the WABC days. It's an insult to think that these listeners don't want to hear new music now (and by new music I mean music from the 60s, 70s and 80s that hasn't been drilled into our psyche.)
I've posted this argument several times in the past and I'll repeat it again here: Let's say they put Good Lovin' in the rotation for three months and play it six times a day. After the three months is up, they take it out and put Mustang Sally in the rotation for three months and play it six times a day. What would have been the difference if they had them both in the rotation for six months and played them three times a day each?
To someone who listens a short time, they would have had no perception of the difference. To someone who listened a long time, there would have been less repetition and therefore, more interesting radio.
Ever hear the phrase, "familiarity breeds contempt"? Hearing a familiar song isn't necessarily a good thing. It could bore the hell out of someone and they can tune out.
CBS-FM has a bit of honeymoon because it's been a while since oldies have been heard continuously on a NYC major radio station, so even overplayed oldies are sounding fresh. But they won't keep the audience unless they keep it interesting.
The audience's CD and iPod collections are vast. A radio station should have a larger and more interesting playlist than the average listener's personal record collection. The usual 300 tracks doesn't cut it - two or three Rhino box sets covers that much material.