Why is classic rock radio the way it is?

I mean, I know it's b/c of Clear Channel, and that it's like fast food, but I'm trying to dig below the surface a little and figure out why -- what kind of opinion of humankind must you have to think that people will never want to hear anything new?

So as I said, it really has little to do with music. The owners of the stations really don't care if people hear anything new. They care if people hear about the 3-for-1 deal at Taco Bell.

It's been proven in market studies that people would rather listen to music that they already know than to hear something new.

The owners *have* to care about what they play, otherwise no one will listen to the commercials that you suggest (probably correctly) are their raison d'etre! You can't *just* listen to the commercials.

It's been proven in market studies that people would rather listen to music that they already know than to hear something new.

I'm trying to avoid despising people, Dave -- stop making it hard for me!

btw, the best, most varied classic rock station I've ever heard was a Clear Channel station (although they recently changed formats overnight)

The fact is, it's safe to have 40 songs that you know will inspire X # of people to tune in to listen to the commercials.

the other one i used to listen to in my hometown had a speciality show on sunday nights where they played all kinds of nuggets-esque stuff for about two hours. i think they probably felt that it was the lowest rated time for listening, anyway, and stuck it on there for hardcore listeners.

An old station in Richmond actually used to have (don't think they have it anymore) a "deep cuts" hour where they'd play non-singles stuff -- not mindblowing, but way more interesting than their normal programming.

all heard about PCC (pre-Clear Channel) DJs who took chances with certain records and broke them big time, made new niches and increased and excited their audiences hugely

This only helps the band, not the radio station.

Re: only playing 4 out of 15 hits...this comes from auditorium tests. You play a hook of a song and ask 200 people in a room to rate it. Why would you play a song that comes back 55% positive when you've got four songs that score 75% positive?

It hurts all the more because I like some classic rock; it's just that the critical/aesthetic mindset with which it seems to go hand-in-hand tends to really repulse me.

But they're not even playing all of those. My local classic rock station played some pretty cool stuff in the 70s that it doesn't even own now.

But, yeah, basically OTM

no, Mungojerry, stop

And quite calling people who do enjoy it "sheep", fer chrissakes.

But we want to listen to it.. If only it were better.

okay, how about "lemmings"?

I don't get this thread at all. If you don't like it, don't listen to it.

Sorry, I guess I'm just not that "simple." I enjoy trying to discuss things that I don't like as well as things I do like. There are interesting things going on with classic rock radio that have no relation to how I feel about it.

Teeny, what kind of station do you run? And how do you live with yourself? ;-)

I mean, I would request something I've never heard and that would blow my mind, but how would I request it if I've never heard it? Geddit? You know it's bad when hearing "Stranglehold" on FM radio seems like a revelation. (Holy shit, this sounds like Loop!!)

Broheems -
RE; Why? .. because we (I mean "I") would like to be able to listen to the radio sometimes, instead of putting on records.. I don't necessarily want to hear anything new either (not in the classic-rock genre anyway..) - I'm just sick of the 60 songs that they always play.

Just sayin'.

My point just now kind of ruined my initial point. Let me say, I'd love to hear new and awesome stuff on the radio, especially new (to me) and awesome classic rock stuff. But it never gets played! And there's sure not much current coverage or discussion of the stuff. When I heard "Strangehold" for the first time recently, I realized that Nuge had some awesome songs! But those moments are few and far between; usually it's just the same token Zep --> token Boston --> token new shit Nickelback or Indigenous horror --> token Skynyrd --> ad infinitum.

the weird beatific tones of the announcers and all...

Oh, and also they've been reviving those King Biscuit Flower Hour live things too, on Saturday nights! That's where I heard that Thin Lizzy set I mentioned to you, stence. A few weeks back it was a late 70s Kinks set. So, not too bad.

"Americana" radio hits Denver.

the syndicated shows on these stations are the fucking pits, all those unctious announcers interrupting the songs to spout banalities about how awesome are some terribly overexposed rock band.

this is pretty much it, especially if your local classic rock is Clear Channel. God. Damn. Them.

Luckily, the classic rock station in my town (which is Clear Channel) has started doing these "deep cuts" week-ends. It's still 66% shit, but it's cool hearing stuff like Aerosmith's "Mama Kin" evey once in a while.

It occurs to me that Clear Channel has this all mapped out for themselves. "Alternative rock" stations for the kiddies, "classic rock" stations for the adults. So then they can easily force-market one type of horseshit to one demographic, then slowly over time let them bleed into the other market, which markets the same exact horseshit to them again, only this time they won't even have to bother pretending it's edgy or rebellious. Beeee-autiful.

And what kills me most is they don't even jibe with the other ol' fogey standard bearer of taste Rolling Stone. For every best of list i've ever seen in that ragazine, there's stuff in the top 20's i've never heard played. That should really be a programmers mainstay shouldn't it?? Even the stuff they do play from those albums, it'll always be the same damn 2-3 songs at best.

While i'm thinking about it, why does the playlist all of a sudden free up overnights and weekends a helluva lot more...like after midnight they could give a F*** about upsetting the boat.

appparently to Clear Channel- controlled station it is. Someone mentioned upthread that there's about 60 songs in rotation on these "Classic" rock stations. Seems like there's less than that. I'm not saying they have to dig out some long-forgotten B-side; It is *commercial* radio after all. They don't want the masses turning the station because a tune's a bit obscure. But how about a little "Gimme Back My Bullets" interspersed between the "Free Bird/ Sweet Home Alabama/ Two Steps" three-fers???

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/showcase/chi-020414radio-station-list,0,4376289.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Here's another reasonably accurate article:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20001005d.asp?prodtype=grn

I disagree Kenan. Free-form Fm radio is/was cool but classic rock has always been just an evil marketing formula. You're never gonna hear Little Richard, Buddy Holly, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground,Stooges, anything from Nuggets, just the stuff that business types decided would be appreciated by boomers. I think it's sad that the artists I've mentioned are not considered "classic" by
way too many Americans. Sure lots of the artists on classic rock radio are worthy, but the format has created a narrow canon that should be wider. Yea, I know it's commercial radio but still. Here in the DC area I don't have a college radio station I can pick up in my car, so if I want to hear old rock I end up listening to "oldies" radio instead.

Any rock older than ten years on that station is not fair game, just safe major label album rock. I was a college radio dj in the early '80s, when do I get my music nostalgia--I wanna hear the Replacements and Minutemen and Husker Du. I guess I have to settle for Mtv pop-punkers and the Strokes utilizing early 80s non-"classic" sounds.

Call me old-fashioned (haha, I'm 23 for chrissakes!), but what ever happened to tastemakers? I work part-time in wine retail, and my girlfriend works in a record store -- believe me, people *want* tastemakers. They *appreciate* being guided (not patronized) helpfully by enthusiastic folks who love what they do and what they know. Radio stations lack balls. I realize that they make a ton of money -- or, rather, they make Clear Channel a ton of money -- but that's a ridiculously conservative way to run a business. How is it in any way scientifically sound to play to people in a room a bunch of shit they've already been force-fed their whole lives -- by RADIO nonetheless! Doesn't that strike anyone as odd and sort of viciously circular?

Kashmir
Lunatic Fringe
Already Gone

Does Lunatic Fringe get played anywhere else?

http://rockclassics.tripod.com/rftartcl.html
http://jdblackfoot.tripod.com/jdarticl.html (blackfoot's page)
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/MUSICSONGS/ksheclassics.html

What could classic rock radio play more of? I like my local station, but I have heard the O'Jays and Al Green on there, but no Curtis Mayfield, for example. I also never hear Joni Mitchell. You can occasionally hear blues artists, too. What do you think they could play more of, esp. black artists? I noticed they play Talking Heads and The Clash, too.

I'm heavy into this genre right now but sick if the formula so I make my own "classic rock" playlists that I spike with stuff that I feel fits in with the genre.

My local classic rock wouldn't get near O'Jays or Al Green, so consider yourself fortunate. Heads and Clash are a rarity, if at all. When I listen (almost never) it's Zep/Petty/Eagles/Doors/REO/CCR/Seger/Skynyrd 24/7.

The one in my area is horrendous; there's as much Bon Jovi, Stone Temple Pilots, and hair metal as there is Zep, Aerosmith etc. The only Black artists the station plays are Hendrix, Living Colour (and only "Cult of Personality") and War (and only "Low Rider") (and not very often).

The only point in their favor is the occasional bizarre curveball: Lou Reed's "New Sensations" (heard this a week before he died, so it wasn't a deep-cut tribute) and a Richard Thompson song I couldn't identify.

We have a hard rock station competing with the classic rocker, so that's where the hair metal has gone locally.

Last 4 artists played on classic rock: Queen, Seger, Triumph, Aeorsmith
Hard rock: Black Keys, Soundgarden, Cult, Foo Fighters

Pretty sure our classic rocker doesn't even include "Walk On The Wild Side" let alone "New Sensations."

I'm in Chicago - we get "Walk on the Wild Side". The Drive is pretty good but I think they could play more black artists instead of post-grunge crap.

very weird how stone temple pilots have somehow entered the classic rock radio canon

"Lamentations about the state of commercial radio have become so standard over the last few decades that they have achieved something of the rote tedium the critics ascribe to the medium itself: how radio consultants -- led by [Lee Abrams], creator of the album-oriented rock and classic rock formats -- have taught station programmers to slice and dice their playlists to appeal more precisely to specific demographics; how more and more stations have come to play fewer and fewer songs," reported the New York Times in an article entitled "One Way to Get Radio Play: Do It Yourself," published in 2006.

Paradoxically, Abrams was hired by XM satellite radio supposedly because the formats and trends he popularized at FM had resulted in playlists with no innovation or variety.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2008/03/la-times-company-hires-man-who-ruined.html

I listened to "Court and Spark" today and wondered why classic rock radio doesn't play "Help Me". Surely "Free Man in Paris" would sound great on a classic rock station!

Toronto's Q107 does play it.