Remember when radio would stop playing songs and you'd never hear them again?

[bandit957]

Does anyone remember back in the '80s and '90s when certain songs would be minor hits on the radio, then all the stations would stop playing them and you'd never hear them again? Peter Wolf's solo hits were like this, as well as any song by Katrina & The Waves or Wang Chung other than their best-known. (Yes, Katrina & The Waves did have more than one song.) A couple of Scandal and Simply Red songs were like this too.

I'm sure radio still does this, but nobody notices since nobody listens to radio anymore, and most songs that were minor hits can be found on YouTube now anyway.

[jp the roadgeek]

I remember quite a few Rod Stewart songs that were hits back in the '80's you'd hear all the time, then they'd disappear.  Young Turks, Tonight I'm Yours, Baby Jane, his cover of People Get Ready to name a few.  Most of Men At Work's catalog is now off limits to radio stations beyond Who Can It Be Now? and Down Under, though several other tracks off of Business as Usual and Cargo made the airwaves.  Even the deeper tracks on Born in the USA were played for a while, then all but the title track, Glory Days, and Dancin in the Dark disappeared.  Long gone is the day of Album Oriented Rock where deeper tracks would often make an appearance.  Now it's all corporations with a 300 song playlist, so they can only take 3 songs by each artist.  God forbid we hear Brighton Rock instead of Bohemian Rhapsody. Oh and one more that comes to mind: Take Off by Bob and Doug MacKenzie with Geddy Lee.

Sirius Deep Tracks is also a great station to hear songs that I haven't heard in years.  Hadn't heard Had a Dream by Rodger Hodson on FM radio in almost 30 years then it turned up on there, and it brought back memories of 1985 when I was 10 and life was a lot more carefree.     

[SidS1045]

nobody listens to radio anymore

93% of the US population (according to a study done by Arbitron in 2010) listens to radio at least two hours a day.  That's not "nobody."

[bandit957]

nobody listens to radio anymore

93% of the US population (according to a study done by Arbitron in 2010) listens to radio at least two hours a day.  That's not "nobody."

That was back in 2010 - 6 years ago.

[GCrites]

A lot of people involuntarily listen to the radio 8+ hours a day such as at indoor blue-collar jobs.

[74/171FAN]

A lot of people involuntarily listen to the radio 8+ hours a day such as at indoor blue-collar jobs.

Exactly.  I even listened to the radio for entire shifts at Cracker Barrel.  (One night I had to listen to "We Can't Stop" by Miley Cyrus, a song that would be near the top of a personal "worst songs I have ever heard" list, at least 7 times back in 2013. )

[SidS1045]

That was back in 2010 - 6 years ago.

It didn't drop from 93% to "nobody" in six years.  In 1984 it was 95%.  The figures have not changed more than a few percent since the 1940's.

[Takumi]

The radio at work plays random obscure songs from the 80s and 90s. Howard Jones' "You Know I Love You" plays once a day.

[ET21]

That was back in 2010 - 6 years ago.

It didn't drop from 93% to "nobody" in six years.  In 1984 it was 95%.  The figures have not changed more than a few percent since the 1940's.

Would the surveyor include streaming radio stations? I'd assume yes so probably the stats would remain the same.

[SidS1045]

Would the surveyor include streaming radio stations? I'd assume yes so probably the stats would remain the same.

No.  Over-the-air radio stations only.

[bandit957]

People always used to have the radio on at gatherings and stuff. Now they never do.

That's because American radio now is UNLISTENABLE. Contrast it with what it was like 30 years ago. There's no comparison.

[english si]

93% of the US population (according to a study done by Arbitron in 2010) listens to radio at least two hours a day.  That's not "nobody."

While it's clearly not 'nobody', I find that hard to believe. I'd believe 70%, but 93% is too high for 2 hours a day even in 2010 in the US (with it's big-name talk radio programmes with absurd reach).

[thenetwork]

I worked at an oldies station in the late 80s.  We had a library of nearly 1500 songs -- all on "carts". 

In the late 90s, I worked at another oldies station where the library was down to 400 songs.

Today, I have an Ipod that has more music than all the local commercial radio stations combined!!!

IT all boils down to the Bullshit they call "time tested" songs that survey groups like the most.  Here's my idea, lock those survey groups in a room for a week playing those same 200-300 songs to death and see if they still choose those songs.  It's the lack of variety and deeper tracks from artists that is what is killing radio station listenership today -- along with eliminating radio talent and original programming.

[SidS1045]

While it's clearly not 'nobody', I find that hard to believe. I'd believe 70%, but 93% is too high for 2 hours a day even in 2010 in the US (with it's big-name talk radio programmes with absurd reach).

The figure for 2015 is 91%, from the same source (now called Nielsen Audio).

[jeffandnicole]

People always used to have the radio on at gatherings and stuff. Now they never do.

That's because American radio now is UNLISTENABLE. Contrast it with what it was like 30 years ago. There's no comparison.

OK, we get it - YOU don't listen to the radio.  But many others do.  Otherwise, we still wouldn't have thousands of stations with advertisers advertising on those stations.

BTW, there are about 1,000 more registered radio stations (commercial, non-commercial & non-profit) today than there were about 5 years ago, clearly disproving your statements.

What's unlistenable now compared to 30 years ago?  The music?  Change the station...

[bandit957]

What's unlistenable now compared to 30 years ago?

This is what real radio sounded like...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQI33Ki5GEQ

[SidS1045]

I worked at an oldies station in the late 80s.  We had a library of nearly 1500 songs -- all on "carts". 

In the late 90s, I worked at another oldies station where the library was down to 400 songs.

I'm a lifer in radio...so far, 47 years.

IT all boils down to the Bullshit they call "time tested" songs that survey groups like the most.  Here's my idea, lock those survey groups in a room for a week playing those same 200-300 songs to death and see if they still choose those songs.  It's the lack of variety and deeper tracks from artists that is what is killing radio station listenership today -- along with eliminating radio talent and original programming.

Every single bit of research done over the last 40 years contradicts your view.  Shorter playlists = bigger ratings.  At the height of its popularity in the early 1970's, WABC's list of current songs was no more than 16 records, and the top four records were on short rotations (every 70-90 minutes).  At that time the station was earning double-digit audience shares throughout the day (18 in mornings, 31 in middays and 28 in afternoons, in a market with 60 stations reporting to Arbitron) and had cumulative audiences of six million listeners per week.  Whichever little pipsqueak calls itself #1 in NYC today is lucky to have a 5 or 6 share, as the audience is more fragmented and has way more choices.

As for eliminating talent:  Where would they get it from?  Small markets no longer employ air personalities since most of those stations are automated.  There's nowhere for a budding Robert W. Morgan or Dan Ingram to perfect his craft so he can make it to a major market.  Setting some untrained voice in front of a mike reading cards is not going to be any kind of draw.  The top radio personalities who were around in the 1950's through the 1970's had their own followings and made it worthwhile to listen, as much for them as for the music.  Most of the air personalities these days are relatively untrained and don't have nearly the same draw their predecessors had.

[jeffandnicole]

IT all boils down to the Bullshit they call "time tested" songs that survey groups like the most.  Here's my idea, lock those survey groups in a room for a week playing those same 200-300 songs to death and see if they still choose those songs.  It's the lack of variety and deeper tracks from artists that is what is killing radio station listenership today -- along with eliminating radio talent and original programming.

300 songs, at approximately 4 minutes per song, is 1,200 minutes.  Add in approximately 12 - 15 minutes of advertising time per hour, which is about 300 minutes per day.  Total: 1,500 minutes, or 25 hours.   If a radio station doesn't repeat their music library, they will on average play each song about once a day.   Factor in sleeping time, and the audience will hear the song even less.

So, again, your theory isn't doing anything to cause radio station listenership to drop.

[bandit957]

Every single bit of research done over the last 40 years contradicts your view.  Shorter playlists = bigger ratings.  At the height of its popularity in the early 1970's, WABC's list of current songs was no more than 16 records, and the top four records were on short rotations (every 70-90 minutes).  At that time the station was earning double-digit audience shares throughout the day (18 in mornings, 31 in middays and 28 in afternoons, in a market with 60 stations reporting to Arbitron) and had cumulative audiences of six million listeners per week.

WABC was popular because they had a great signal, a big promotional budget, and they were AM in an era when AM was dominant.

[jwolfer]

I agree radio sucks for music. Same songs over and over.  I heart radio made a big deal about getting stations fro different cities, but the stations are the same in every city, nothing unique

[formulanone]

If you think FM radio sucks, then explaining the phantasmagorical phenomenon of XM Radio's "The Blend" will probably get me kicked off this site.

[thenetwork]

If you think FM radio sucks, then explaining the phantasmagorical phenomenon of XM Radio's "The Blend" will probably get me kicked off this site.

Oh, I am stuck listening to that............station, along with "The Pulse" (more like "The Flatliner") at work.  Why they still have some 1-2 year old (annoying) songs in heavy rotation (a.k.a. every 3-4 hours) on stations that claim they play music from the last 6+ years, when there are other newer songs that should get the top billing instead. 

Many of the songs heard on The Pulse make Phoebe Buffet's "Smelly Cat" song sound like a Beatles classic, IMHO.  Just Sayin'

[formulanone]

If you think FM radio sucks, then explaining the phantasmagorical phenomenon of XM Radio's "The Blend" will probably get me kicked off this site.

Oh, I am stuck listening to that............station, along with "The Pulse" (more like "The Flatliner") at work.  Why they still have some 1-2 year old (annoying) songs in heavy rotation (a.k.a. every 3-4 hours) on stations that claim they play music from the last 6+ years, when there are other newer songs that should get the top billing instead. 

Many of the songs heard on The Pulse make Phoebe Buffet's "Smelly Cat" song sound like a Beatles classic, IMHO.  Just Sayin'

I get stuck at one or two places a year that play it over the PA or use it for background music. Glad I'm not the only one who's finds it very repetitive. I can deal with genres that aren't my favorites at a workplace, after all, it's their house...not mine. But hearing the same dozen songs 2-3 times a day (with some others on a much less consistent basis) along a five day week is usually reserved for a place just a bit more wholesome than "torture chamber".

[GaryV]

Remember when radio stations would play the same songs at the same time every day?  Or was that just one station in Grand Rapids?

[jbnv]

Give Lost 45s a listen.