I started writing something last week and never finished. Great insight here Nick. AMP is now among a list of stations that have unsuccessfully battled Kiss 108 over the years. I'm more surprised though at the choice of format. Looks like they are going after WROR, WBOS, and WZLX but Entercom had WAAF. Why not try to keep some of those older male listeners while you had them? They've jumped ship and I doubt many, if any, AMP listeners have stuck around to hear more Bon Jovi. So now ODS is the fourth (or fifth) station to turn to if you want to hear "Pour Some Sugar On Me", a bunch. I'm not sure there were five stations in Boston that played PSSOM as a current!
Entercom tried the "Jack" format in Boston. It didn't work. It doesn't work in a lot of places, there are exceptions. To me a big reason is that this format depends heavily on a list of songs that are put together, researched, and tested on a national level. They don't take into consideration songs that may not have been "hits" by national standards, but they were hits in Boston. If you're looking to do a classic hits station in Boston with the majority of your catalog from the 80s in 90s it should be more reflective of the market at that time. (Again, they're going after men & probably don't want to take too many of the females from Magic). However from the late 70s through most of the 90s, Boston was a premiere radio market in the country. You had Kiss 108, WFNX, and WBCN that were on the cutting edge of their respective formats. They played the hits, they shared some of those hits, they played album tracks from their core artists, into notable Boston hits. They played imports from Europe. Disco, New Wave, Freestyle, MTV Stars, and VH1 local celebrities all had a place on Boston radio. So why not try Lisa Lisa, Donna Summer, New Order, Missing Persons, Sinead O'Connor, Erasure, and deeper cuts from Prince (7, Purple Rain, Sign of the Times), Culture Club (Tumble, Miss Me Blind), Madonna (Cherish, Dress You Up), & New Kids On The Block (step by step, please don't go girl). Those are just some of the things Boston Radio listeners in the 70s, 80s and 90s would recognize and stay tuned in for...I think.
thanks for reading, Paul! The format choice confused me as well. I was hoping for an Alternative like KYSR or WNYL, but that may just be a reflection of my personal tastes. The dial does feel very crowded with "classics" right now--hits and rock.
I've been listening to BIG the past few evenings and I think they're doing a great job so far. Definitely some local flair, mostly executed through imaging, but also playlist. Song selection feels wide and shallow right now, but I'm hoping for some more deep cuts. That's the stuff that makes radio fun.
“I further suspect, with no data or evidence, that streaming has all but killed the radio single. On-demand platforms enable and encourage frequent listening of the same songs and playlists on repeat. By the time radio picks up a song and adds it to their playlist, a large minority of people are already sick of it.”
Also, when an album is released today, millions more than ever have access to every track immediately (spotify/apple music/amazon music subscribers.) This means spreading singles out over the course of two years won’t cut it, particularly for young listeners. The 6th single off an album, two and a half years later might be a good business model for the record labels, but young listeners see it as a throwback (or oldie for you oldies) at best, or more likely, totally played out.
This is a great point Matt. Albums don't really stick anymore. There are some outlier singles here and there, but it feels like every other hit is a one hit wonder.
Did "radio give up on the younger demo"...or did the younger demo give up on radio? Did the young people abandon radio...or did radio abandon the young formats? Radio doesn't set the trend, it reacts to them.
You're correct. But the industry doesn't have the luxury of that reactionary approach anymore. Ad dollars are shifting away and there are too many other competitors in the marketplace for audio entertainment. The industry needs to actively build national brands and shows with talent. My worry is that they will not have the financial footing to invest in such an undertaking.
I started writing something last week and never finished. Great insight here Nick. AMP is now among a list of stations that have unsuccessfully battled Kiss 108 over the years. I'm more surprised though at the choice of format. Looks like they are going after WROR, WBOS, and WZLX but Entercom had WAAF. Why not try to keep some of those older male listeners while you had them? They've jumped ship and I doubt many, if any, AMP listeners have stuck around to hear more Bon Jovi. So now ODS is the fourth (or fifth) station to turn to if you want to hear "Pour Some Sugar On Me", a bunch. I'm not sure there were five stations in Boston that played PSSOM as a current!
Entercom tried the "Jack" format in Boston. It didn't work. It doesn't work in a lot of places, there are exceptions. To me a big reason is that this format depends heavily on a list of songs that are put together, researched, and tested on a national level. They don't take into consideration songs that may not have been "hits" by national standards, but they were hits in Boston. If you're looking to do a classic hits station in Boston with the majority of your catalog from the 80s in 90s it should be more reflective of the market at that time. (Again, they're going after men & probably don't want to take too many of the females from Magic). However from the late 70s through most of the 90s, Boston was a premiere radio market in the country. You had Kiss 108, WFNX, and WBCN that were on the cutting edge of their respective formats. They played the hits, they shared some of those hits, they played album tracks from their core artists, into notable Boston hits. They played imports from Europe. Disco, New Wave, Freestyle, MTV Stars, and VH1 local celebrities all had a place on Boston radio. So why not try Lisa Lisa, Donna Summer, New Order, Missing Persons, Sinead O'Connor, Erasure, and deeper cuts from Prince (7, Purple Rain, Sign of the Times), Culture Club (Tumble, Miss Me Blind), Madonna (Cherish, Dress You Up), & New Kids On The Block (step by step, please don't go girl). Those are just some of the things Boston Radio listeners in the 70s, 80s and 90s would recognize and stay tuned in for...I think.
thanks for reading, Paul! The format choice confused me as well. I was hoping for an Alternative like KYSR or WNYL, but that may just be a reflection of my personal tastes. The dial does feel very crowded with "classics" right now--hits and rock.
I've been listening to BIG the past few evenings and I think they're doing a great job so far. Definitely some local flair, mostly executed through imaging, but also playlist. Song selection feels wide and shallow right now, but I'm hoping for some more deep cuts. That's the stuff that makes radio fun.
Great Insight:
“I further suspect, with no data or evidence, that streaming has all but killed the radio single. On-demand platforms enable and encourage frequent listening of the same songs and playlists on repeat. By the time radio picks up a song and adds it to their playlist, a large minority of people are already sick of it.”
Also, when an album is released today, millions more than ever have access to every track immediately (spotify/apple music/amazon music subscribers.) This means spreading singles out over the course of two years won’t cut it, particularly for young listeners. The 6th single off an album, two and a half years later might be a good business model for the record labels, but young listeners see it as a throwback (or oldie for you oldies) at best, or more likely, totally played out.
This is a great point Matt. Albums don't really stick anymore. There are some outlier singles here and there, but it feels like every other hit is a one hit wonder.
Did "radio give up on the younger demo"...or did the younger demo give up on radio? Did the young people abandon radio...or did radio abandon the young formats? Radio doesn't set the trend, it reacts to them.
You're correct. But the industry doesn't have the luxury of that reactionary approach anymore. Ad dollars are shifting away and there are too many other competitors in the marketplace for audio entertainment. The industry needs to actively build national brands and shows with talent. My worry is that they will not have the financial footing to invest in such an undertaking.