The Beatles have always been the ultimate challenge to whether radio can really determine relevance by the age of a song. A decade or so ago, Classic Hits radio programmers decided to move on from the Beatles; one group PD expressed concern to me that those George Martin productions were sounding creaky now. Then the world watched a seven-hour documentary about making a Beatles album.
The Monkees, as it turned out, also did a pretty good job of denting the time-space continuum. Similarly propelled by TV at the outset of their careers, the 1986 return of their series on MTV led to Top 40 KZZP Phoenix and others playing their ‘60s hits, paving the way for the return of the Beatles and Ben E. King to CHR a few months later. “I’m A Believer” got extra currency in 2001 from Shrek and Smash Mouth.
Anybody who’s worked with music research or with Classic Hits radio knows that “Twist and Shout,” “Stand By Me” or “I’m a Believer” all have a “real age” that is effectively 20 years younger than their cohort. At some point, radio decided to move on anyway, usually before those songs stopped doing well in research.
In a guest article, Research Director’s Steve Allan, a veteran Classic Hits PD, worries about radio’s ability to properly pay tribute to artist passings, especially those underrepresented on the air now. Two weeks ago, there were 84 total BDSradio spins for the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer,” three fewer than the Smash Mouth version. This week, following Michael Nesmith’s death, the song received 112 spins. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but I’d rather radio do a better job honoring living legends to begin with.
When Allan was PD, WGRR Cincinnati was one of the ‘90s Oldies boom’s great success stories by going older than the emerging format’s safe list. Now stations like KOAI (the Wow Factor) Phoenix cheerfully target 55-plus and play the now-contrarian safe list of that era. That station, along with KDRI (the Drive) Tucson, Ariz.; WECK Buffalo, N.Y.; and MeTV FM play the ‘60s and ‘70s for the people who were there, or at least for those who learned those songs from the “Kool-FMs” of the ‘90s.
Over the last year, I’ve started thinking that it’s time for mainstream Classic Hits stations to start playing the ‘60s and early ‘70s again as well — at least the handful of titles that continue to test and maintain a presence in pop culture. It wouldn’t be playing these songs for the audience that grew up with them, but for the younger audience that Classic Hits aspires to.
This belief has been forged from seeing the handful of ‘60s titles that will still test when stations choose to still test them; from cultural events like The Beatles: Get Back that radio did not seem to view as an opportunity; from seeing the purchase that Classic Rock stations have over even 18-24 listeners while still playing the ‘60s; from personal knowledge of a Classic Hits station that recently readded a handful of ‘60s/early ‘70s, among a number of other changes, and saw its 25-54 numbers rebound.
Classic Hits moved away from the ‘60s/early ‘70s because the listeners who grew up with the format were children of the ‘80s. Now, all but the oldest five years of the 35-54 audience are the high school class of 1990 or beyond. The 35-year-olds that Classic Hits stations crave are class of 2004. More than half of our target is seeking out music that is before their time. More of those songs may be from the ‘80s, but the handful of older titles they know are not necessarily less relevant.
Classic Hits and AC stations have gotten a surprising number of ‘90s titles to test, but the industry has still not managed to make a ‘90s-based-radio station work. Classic Hits stations still dominate in some markets; in others, they are not the juggernaut they were a few years ago. In part, that is because we are targeting an increasing number of listeners who did not grow up with the music — ‘60s, ‘70s, or ‘80s. We can’t expect them to have the same enthusiasm or know as many songs. If they have an interest in “Get Back” or “I’m a Believer” or “Respect,” we should not leave the older songs they care about on the table.
Classic Hits stations, especially those with heritage call letters, had to prove their relevance to younger listeners by not being the stations they were in the ‘90s and early ‘00s. At this point, that job is done. As current-based formats struggle with a younger audience that they might never repatriate, older music remains a viable all-ages draw, and the time has come to look differently at how we deliver it.