Posted by Josh M on July 18, 2004 at 22:12:22:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Joe McCoy: Another Opinion posted by Ted David on July 18, 2004 at 21:29:14:
"And don't you think he used focus groups and heavy music testing to makes these decisions? Surely a PD in a shop like that did not simply pick the music based on personal preference and gut."
I'm sure you're right about the focus groups and music testing, Ted. However, if the 80's ballads, and for that matter the additional 70's disco and R&B cuts, that they added tested so highly, they theoretically should have helped the station's ratings at the most rise and at the least stabilize. A great programmer would have realized, 1) that this was one time when it was obvious the research was wrong (assuming research played a big role in this), and, 2) that it was extremely foolish to add in all this "new" music, much of it more compatible with A/C, at the exact same time that all the pre-1964 music was dropped. Why alienate much of your current audience in the hopes that you'll replace them with a younger audience? Wouldn't it have made more sense to integrate these changes over time in order to slowly bring in some younger listeners before driving away the older listeners?
As I said to Craig, while I personally feel that 80's songs such as the songs he mentioned fit well on CBS-FM, I feel that the adding of the 80's A/C ballads combined with the overnight musical transition was botched terribly by McCoy. He deserves some of the credit for CBS-FM's great success over the years just as he deserves to be held somewhat responsible for the blunders that have led to its more recent decline.
JOSH