Commentary: More Six-Decade Music Formats To Follow (June 14, 2005)

In the last ten years that I have been doing intelligent commentary on USENET, Compuserve, the web, and now on my own online radio station, dfsxradio.com, the year 2005 for radio is much different than it was in 1995 when I first started doing reports on celebrity birthdays and Dr. Demento show playlist transcripts, and radio back then was still mostly independently-owned but in the beginning stages of consolidation that would not only reshape the business model of the radio station on the inside, but little did the now-big corporate radio companies knew that something was on the horizon that would undermine their collective influence of the broadcasting barons and force them to do what nobody ever thought they would ever do: expand their playlists infintium!

As Clear Channel and Viacom began swallowing up the smaller broadcasters who put their stations and station groups up for sale, the playlists for Top 40 radio began sounding more homogenetic, not differing between, say, Channel 933 in San Diego and KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, losing its sense of humor and intelligence, relying on genres and groups that don't make a lasting impression like the songs from the 80s and before once did. Limited-playlist niches were served on sister radio stations playing mostly one or two genres that sound alike. Whole genres such as pop electonica, comedy and filk, and even adult rock were left in the dust while Clear Channel exerted its influence on stifling musical creativity by playing bland groups from the genres of rap, r&b, hip hop, hot AC, and soft alternative.

Meanwhile, back in 1999 when broadband cable and DSL were just being rolled out and 56K modems were the rule, someone came up with the idea of compressing a song into a small enough file and sending it out to friends or posting them on their websites. The compression was basically similar to that used by KPIG, WMVP, and other radio stations that were among the first to put their radio signals on the Internet via streaming from Real Audio at speeds from 8kbps to 24kbps. After the birth of the MP3, someone decided to make it easier to share them by creating controversal point-to-point software, with Napster being the first, and sharing not only songs created by the authors, but breaking the law by sharing copyrighted music from other artists. Although the RIAA's lawyers did a good job scaring P2P users away, but the ability to listen to songs that radio isn't playing with their mp3 collections began taking off.

Now in 2005, we have millions of people not only listening to their mp3 collections on their computers, they're listening to them on portable devices such as iPods and CD players that can play MP3s on CD-R discs. With broadband being the new rule, it's faster than ever to download a higher quality MP3 ranging from 128-320 kbps, and radio station streams are upgrading to take advantage of the bigger pipeline broadband provides. With that much competetion, and that's not even covering the four million people who subscribe to either of the two 100-channel satellite services, many of which also download or listen to streams, broadcast radio has seen many listeners, especially the Generation X music fans, steer towards the alternatives as well as radio, while the younger generations after that are abandoning FM radio in droves in favor of their iPods.

The older part of the Generation X pack and Baby Boomers for the most part don't have the time to hunt and download songs or deal with an iPod, but they are rich enough to pay for satellite radio and broadband Internet, so FM radio is also screwed with those generations as well listening to their stations less often.

Which leads us to 2004 when someone in Canada had an idea for a radio staiton to emulate, rather poorly, what an mp3 player on shuffle would sound like, playing whatever it has in their collection (i.e.: songs it prefers to listen to). For Jack FM, it plays only the MOR hits from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, all basically in the lite rock neighborhood. For many people, their mp3 collections are much more varied, playing traditional jazz, folk, electronica, new wave, disco, polka, dementia, or even teen pop, playing whatever they like.

Putting on a format with songs other music directors from the past is a no-brainer. People in the Boomer and Gen X age groups have heard the songs before, and are probably sick of hearing them again and again, which was why they left radio in favor of other genres they learned about from college or the Internet, sold all of their Motley Crue and Olivia Newton John record collections on ebay, and are enjoying bluegrass, blues, folk, or whatever mixture of formats they enjoy on satellite, Internet, or downloads, stuff broadcast radio still isn't touching and stuff people in those age groups would rather hear instead of MOR pop songs they have long outgrowned and don't stand the test of time. Who cares to hear Tiffany flub "I Think We're All Alone Now" for the 27th time this month?

Now that music lovers like myself are having the times of their lives, enjoying genres that commercial broadcasters have never embraced and ignored, what are the likes of Viacom, Clear Channel, and other companies coming up with? You guessed it. Jack-like formats with different names! Someone joked about a radio station coming up with a Jill FM handle playing women's hits from three decades as a parody, but guess what? Nobody's laughing, because that Saturday Night Live parody has come true in Los Angeles County when 92.7 flipped to Jill FM just last month. We can't even joke about these things anymore, because someone reading this website or the forums will be stupid enough to try out our parody ideas in real life, and we're not the ones laughing about it.

A sign of desperation is when a station such as 540/1260 serving Southern California switches to a Jack-like shuffle format, playing music from an even wider range of decades. That is the ultimate pop shuffle format, playing anything from Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" from 1955 right through today. We could finally see some intelligent decisions on the music directions of Clear Channel and Infinity come to life. For instance, KGB-FM could play the adult rock songs I hear on XM and Sirius channels playing new music cover six decades of rock and roll inclding Buddy Holly and Haley, not just the 60s and 70s ad nauseum. We could see Magic 92.5 play R&B/soul/dance songs for six decades (even some 50s and 60s doowop) on a regular basis instead of just the last three decades. We could see My 94.1 (if it's still going to exist after Z possibly moves there) do their own "Jill FM" format playing women's hits that they enjoy from 50 years. We could see KSON, Smooth Jazz 98.1, KYXY, 91X, 94/9, KPRI 102.1, and other stations which have been playing hits from the last three decades expand their collections to cover five or six decades, maybe seven, but eight should be enough! Maybe we'll hear some 60's jazz instrumentals on KIFM or even Pat Boone's 50's hits on KYXY. How about some old Gene Autry classics on KSON? Why not old psychedelic rock bands on 91X? They were closer to punk than rock back in the 60s.

Even then, this idea of covering more than three decades in a playlist is stolen directly from the thousands of Internet radio stations, playing whatever the webmasters want, and covering a wide range of decades. DFSXRadio.com, my station for instance, covers novelty and comedy hits on Billboard from the 40s through the 70s, as well as songs made famous by Dr. Demento and other Internet deejays from the 70s through today, most of which radio continues to ignore, Billboard never ranks, and Ryan Seacrest never counts down.

Radio can do whatever it needs to do to get back the listeners, but if all they're playing are songs that Baby Boomers and Generaion X music fans enjoyed when they were radio hits from 1955-1991, then that's the only kind of audience that radio will be getting for the most part when they're too busy to fiddle with an MP3 or iPod. Tuning in a radio station is still the easiest thing anybody can do, and convieience is where radio has got their competetors cold. The younger generations, however, are into video games, DVD movies and videos, TiVo, and downloads, but are fast ignoring radio like I did once when I was a teenager because radio isn't aiming their music at them, and why should radio aim their product at a demographic such as as 14 year old boy who doesn't have a job, has only a $5 a week allowance, is in school (including commuting) for 11 hours a day, doing homework and spends the rest of their time watching TV, playing games, or doing family activities?

Maybe the older listeners 25 and up that have jobs, money, and lack of time to deal with downloads is what broadcast radio really needs to care about, as it's the 25-54 demographics that are the prime target for advertisers, and programming that brings in that kind of age range is what radio needs to do, but why keep playing the songs that other music directors from decades past again and again when that kind of age range is into more than just the Top 40 genres they heard on the radio when they were once poor teenagers whether they liked them or not?

Bring in the programs they want and they'll come. Talk shows that are aimed at them work. Music genres that sound mature does work. Comedy music brings them in. Fast music such as punk and electronica is great for background music while you work, as well as to drive to. Relaxing genres that are not watered down into mush brings in the listeners.

Radio is right to target the 25 and older demographics, but don't just play the great adult hits from the last 50 years, and stop playing the watered-down fluff or blasted teen pop stuff they don't want to hear anymore (lose Tiffany, please!). Play the genres they have discovered by other friends and on satellite radio, and introduce the best of the songs from these new competeting mediums onto broadcast radio and shuffle them in between the other songs into their respective formats.

Want to hear some Internet radio of the shuffle variety? Check out K-Bear 101 http://k-bear101.tripod.com/. It plays what it wants, songs that are in the genres of modern dance, rock, and a few surprises. Look for the bear with an iPod on the screen! This is something that should be on local radio!