A new radio format-Music with Class

[jimac51]

According to Friday Morning Quarterback,a St. Louis station owned by Emmis Broadcasting is trying a new wrinkle in formats. Not quite nostalgia,not smooth jazz-this is a hyrbid of music that pretty much centers around Frank Sinatra. They are programming artists like Frank,Bobby Darin,Tony Bennett,Peggy Lee but adding the current crop of Diane Krall, Brian Setzer,and(unfortunately)Rod Stewart. Not a joke like the lounge fad or so fast paced as the neo-swing era of a few years ago,they may be onto something. They say that when you walk into an upscale store like the Pottery Barn or Starbucks,this is the stuff you are listening to. What would happen if this stuff was played on the radio and people with incomes that can afford places like Starbucks listened to it and,in turn,listened to the commercials for the Pottery Barn or Starbucks. The station ,WMLL,is billing itself "Red 104.1- Music with class". Very interesting-imagine the demo-25+,male and female with upscale incomes....what more does an advertiser want? Mac

 

[Rudy]

This sort of sounds like the XM radio station "Frank's Place". I've been pleasantly surprised by a lot of XM's programming thus far.

 

[Harry]

I was listening to this a bit yesterday. It's available as a webstream at :

http://www.red1041.com

This 'new' format has made quite a buzz in the industry. Probably because other than old Christmas music, there hasn't been ANY buzz about formatics in radio for quite a while.

Much of the stuff on this Red 104.1 is played regularly on our WPEN. Demos skew quite old - too old for any of today's modern advertiser/agency minds.

Harry
...where it's 0° Fahrenheit this morning, online...

 

[jimac51]

Thanks,Harry,for the link. I just read about this when I wrote the post last night. I was wondering if they were webcasting. As you know,WPEN is the first station that I can remember hearing-distinctly remembering Perry Como singing "Catch A Falling Star" during its heyday in the 1950s while listening to Jack O'Reilly("Oh really? No,O'Reilly",as his jingle went). And 'PEN is still a mighty wonder as nostalgia stations go-they're best when they play this stuff without looking backward-hey,its just the best music available on the radio. This St. Louis station seems to be looking for a wider audience-playing this stuff on FM is a big step(the famous Sid Mark weekend Sinatra broadcasts are not quite the same since he was booted off of FM a few years back-he's on a 50,000 watt-lower case- clear channel station so people in the state gton may hear it but the sound quality is so diminished). As bad as the Rod Stewart albums are,they have sold pretty well on the strength of TV alone. Likewise,Josh Groban(another guy I can't stand),Bette Midler & Barry Manilow and a few others are selling respectable numbers with virtually no radio exposure. I suspect this station will have a tighter playlist than 'PEN-usually a bad thing but maybe that will get some of these new ears needing to be reassured that a particular artist they like is around every once in a while. I'm listening to this now and Rod Stewart is ruining "As Time Goes By"-(wish they would have the guts to play the whimsical version that Julius Wechter did with the Baja Marimba Band). Follwed by a recorded promo and Sammy & Basie-"New York is My Town"-yummy! Doesn't sound like anyone is there "live",yet-I hope they remember the importance of real personalities introducing this stuff-something that 'PEN does better than any other. I could listen to 'PEN even if there wasn't any music. Mac

 

[Rudy]

I agree on the Rod Stewart: I listened to some sound samples at Amazon and was amazed at how bad they were. It's a tactic that unfortunately many artists try when their careers are washed up: put on the formal wear and record pop standards with a big band or orchestra.

The only nostalgia we get in Detroit is a lower-powered AM station from Ontario, across the water, that most of the 'burbs can't even pick up. But Music Choice (on DirecTV and many cable systems) has, I think, a "singers & standards" station, and XM has Frank's Place, which I originally thought was Rat Pack 101 but seems to be similar to what this new station is playing.

It just shows how shallow some of these execs are though. Yes, demographics may be skewed older, but did it ever occur to them to try the format on mainstream FM radio and see if it picks up a younger audience? Maybe some younger listeners pick up on the Diana Krall or Rod Stewart and start listening...and then realize they like some of that "old fogie music" and get their friends to listen to it. "Y'know, I have all of Britney's albums, but I can't get this old Sinatra song out of my head!" Plus, this type of station would play well in doctor's office waiting rooms, and as background in stores. Music that's got substance, and is non-threatening to just about everyone.

Yeah, I'm more optimistic than most, but there's always a slim chance one of these formats will catch fire and make the advertisers some money. And if anything, it might get older listeners back into listening to radio, since in the past 20 years, their needs have been virtually ignored.

 

[jimac51]

I've been giving this format the benefit of the doubt-there's such potential here but corporate radio seems to be killing this early on. They are so hell bent on keeping in that hipster-rat pack mode song after song that there seems to be an invisible Louis Prima "zooma-zoomz-zooma" beat under virtually all of their selections. That gets real tiring real soon. And without anyone to talk to you about this stuff,there is no context between the past and the present. Right now they are playing Nina Simone's "Need A Little Sugar in My Bowl"-a fairly risque tune,even today and a tune that probably never got any air play during it's time,let alone the ruckus it received when Bessie Smith originated it decades earlier. Here,it's just out there because of the beat and the time fits the computer-what a cryin' shame! Mac

 

[jfiedler17]

It just shows how shallow some of these execs are though. Yes, demographics may be skewed older, but did it ever occur to them to try the format on mainstream FM radio and see if it picks up a younger audience? Maybe some younger listeners pick up on the Diana Krall or Rod Stewart and start listening...and then realize they like some of that "old fogie music" and get their friends to listen to it.

Couldn't agree more! If mainstream FM / Top 40 radio gave veteran artists like Rod or traditional-pop artists like Krall any kind of chance at all (isn't it a tad pathetic that 99% of all veteran artists have so much difficulty cracking the Top 40 these days?), I think they'd get a better reaction from younger listeners than they think. Haven't radio programmers learned ANYTHING from the success of Norah Jones? I mean, how many Top 40 stations across the nation who never in a million years would have played something like "Don't Know Why" before had to cave in and add it to their regular rotations? It got some pretty unexpected response on the local Top 40 station from younger listeners. A lot of younger listeners were just happy to be hearing something DIFFERENT!
If young listeners can be interested in Norah Jones, who's to say they wouldn't like Diana Krall, either?
A lot of young listeners have far more eclectic tastes than radio programmers realize, and if they'd be willing to take more chances (and, honestly, how many records have you heard on Top 40 radio in the last five years that have made you think, "Wow! They have guts playing this!"), I think the response would be a heck of a lot better than they believe.

As for Rod's albums, I just wish he'd go back to making regular pop records. I was really starting to enjoy his singles again before he did a complete 180. Loved "I Can't Deny It." Loved "Ooh La La." (Mostly 'cause The Corrs were on it! )

 

[Rudy]

A lot of young listeners have far more eclectic tastes than radio programmers realize, and if they'd be willing to take more chances (and, honestly, how many records have you heard on Top 40 radio in the last five years that have made you think, "Wow! They have guts playing this!"), I think the response would be a heck of a lot better than they believe.

Shoot...I gave up on "current" radio programming in the mid 90's. I was in an alternative rock phase for awhile since we had a station over in Windsor (CIMX, 88.7FM, aka "89X") that did it well, playing current hits and mixing in a few classics and having the cojones to play something outside the mainstream. (Since Canadian stations don't follow FCC rules, they actually played the uncensored versions of songs occasionally.) I've seen stations come and go. I've mainly been a classic rock listener because there is nothing else on Detroit radio!! Detroit had a couple of neat formats come in, including a "classic soul" station...but soon the programmers took over and it was back to the extremely limited playlist day in and day out. (Why do all these stations appear to work on a four- or five-hour programming loop??) I think over time, the programming has changed listening habits to where we expect to hear the same songs at least four times a day. In a way they've channeled us into it. Granted, Top 40 radio has always been that way, but this shallow programming came at the expense of the "underground" and AOR stations who played the deep cuts and album tracks the other stations missed.

I'm hoping satellite radio catches on. If more people would stop thinking of it as a car-only system, it would catch on like wildfire at home, I'd think. Their programming makes broadcast radio look pretty darned bad. To think, I actually bought a used AM/FM tuner for my main hi-fi rig...but now I have no use for it. XM's it for me now. I can't even listen to terrestrial FM anymore. After a month I turn on WCSX and they STILL play the same old songs. XM isn't just music either--the higher profile stations have added DJs. But, to listen to radio and not even hear the same ARTIST on an oldies stations for a few hours, but to not hear the same song more than a couple of days in a row.....wonderful stuff. My XM receiver was a bargain after the rebate. For as much as I listen to it, I get more bang for the buck out of $9.99/month than I do for the last new CD I bought. Which by now I've totally forgotten about and filed away, and paid more for.

One thing I noticed at the Auto Show today was that XM is becoming optional equipment in many of the vehicles out there. (And I'm glad to say it was XM and not Sirius.) Once the "kids" spend any amount of time in their vehicles and listen to these for awhile, and XM receives (to borrow an ill-conceived marketing term) critical mass, it could deal quite a blow to terrestrial radio. Think about it: I filled out a survey with WCSX and they included at least four or five satellite radio questions on it. This was before I had XM. But I could tell they are concerned enough to want to know my feedback about it. And I gave it. They know what they need to do to keep me as a listener, and they won't...because they can't.