Classic Country? Check Yes Or No

With "sameness of sound and too much repetition" reoccurring listener complaints right now, is it time for a station playing country classics from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, allowing the today's/hot/new country stations to be  just that, especially in this age of consolidation with one owner controlling two or three country FM's in a market, fortressing the format and looking to broaden country's reach and defend all flanks?

A&O&B works with a number of very highly-rated (12+) diary market classic country stations, so we are big believers in "classic country" viability and saleability in the right situations.

I ask the question right now given two recent developments.

Good news for the format:  L & L Broadcasting sees potential in Oklahoma City to fill the hole left when KKNG went religious.

Meanwhile, in Calgary, new owner Bell Media dropped it in favor of comedy in this PPM market on what had been Canada's only classic country station.
 
In the history of format radio, country's CUME has NEVER been smaller "THIS year" than it was "LAST year."  The constant cume growth for country, plus the fact that we have ALWAYS needed at least 30% of the mix to be current to get any significant 25-54 numbers means classic country (oldies-based country) takes a special broadcaster who knows how to sell an upper-demo, leading edge boom audience to make it work in a stand-alone situation unless it's an owner who simply wants a non-competitive niche and really is committed to selling without ratings.

Rock oldies of the 60's, classic rock and adult standards are mass appeal rebirths of formats that were MASS APPEAL at the time the songs were popular. 

Country has always been a niche format and never truly been MASS APPEAL in that sense even during its high water marks of popularity.

It has really only been since 1989 that 25-34 discovered it in any quantity at all.  By 1993, THAT group of 25-34 year-olds had already started to turn 35.

Even after the boom of the last several years mainstream country skews older than it has for years.  There are many theories as to why this might be. 

Mine:  today's Gen Xer was a teen at a time when country was in the doldrums and even though their kids love country they never developed as deep a love for it during their formative years, musically. 

As a result, a lot of very solid mainstream country stations do best 45+ and then 18-30 with a "dip" in 35-44.  Boomers and Millenials, of course, are the biggest population groups, but a smaller share of the smallest generational cohort has meant that mean ages of many leading country stations are now in the low to mid-40s, leaving even less room for a classic station to create a large enough cume to be competitive.

Frankly, in many markets,  I don't think that we really WANT a 45+ version (classic-based).  It would only serve to segment and fragment already very competitive (due to the adult impact of CHR today) 18-44 shares.

Hank/Indianapolis, for example, has done much better over the last few years as Emmis' management team moved it from a "male country music" position to mainstream country.

Even as today's boomers age out of 25-54 to be replaced by Gen Y when mean ages will evolve back downward due to the size of that age cell, the question will be (as was true in the early 1990's, for example) will there be a large 45+ group feeling unserved because stations will no longer play the hits of the late 80's and early 90's?  If so, will they also want to hear 60's and 70's?

We who believe in classic country - in the right areas - are going to find out as we watch the playlists of Hank and his friends.

Leaving The "Class Of 1989" Boom Tunes To Classic Country

Is 2011 going down in country radio history as the year that "country boom years" (1989 to 1995) titles and artists move from mainstream country playlists to classic country libraries?


A&O's 8th annual "Roadmap" perceptual study was conducted in January and February by more than ten thousand listeners to 80+ radio stations across the U.S. and Canada of many stripes.

For the first time, listeners to the mainstream stations rated the early 90's era the lowest ever, while users of classic country stations ranked that music 42% higher.


Should mainstream country stations defend aggressively when they start to hear a classic country station they duplicate cume with move newer?

Only if they want to play lower testing songs with their 2011 target listeners.

.. and, only if they want to expose music that today's 25-44 year old country fans don't enjoy anywhere near as much as they do today's country.

The better new country music does with 25-54 and 18-49, the more exciting the potential becomes for classic country stations to move into the rich vein of songs and artists from country's biggest decade ever, the 1990's.

Classic Country, "Check Yes Or No?"

With "sameness of sound and too much repetition" reoccurring listener complaints right now, is it time for a station playing country classics from the 60's, 70's and 80's, allowing the hot/new/fresh country stations to be just that, especially in this age of consolidation with one owner controlling two or three country FM's in a market, fortressing the format and looking to broaden country's reach and defend all flanks?

A&O says "yes," with #1 12+ classic country stations from KTPK, Topeka, to KAYO, Wasilla. We even caught a Bass (WOMG) in Springfield this fall.

Want more info on how it's done? Call Michael O'Malley at 732-937-5757 or drop him an email.

And, no, your frequency doesn't have to end in ".9" to make it work, but in these three cases it sure hasn't hurt, either!

Happy Trails

CFDR Dartmouth/Halifax – after 46 years of AM service – will sign off on Monday, July 27. The Newcap Classic Country station, as its final out, will air the old Roy Rogers/Dale Evans classic tune: Happy Trails.

And with CFDR’s going dark, it brings to an end AM radio service in the large Nova Scotia market.

Broadcast Dialogue reports Morning show co-Host Frank Lowe will leave while co-Host Stephanie Woodin will stay with Newcap in another capacity. CFDR was part of a trade-off with Rogers, which gave up CIGM Sudbury to Newcap.

A&O proudly works for FX-101.9/Halifax, and we know that Maritime President Robert Pace, OM Scott Clements at the market's remaining country station take the responsibility of serving the large area's many country fans very seriously, while tipping our hats to the people who contributed to CFDR's heritage and history.

Classic Country Rides The Riverside Rapids

A fast lesson in PPM heartburn: the Inland Empire's classic country The Toad went in January's monthly from a .7 6+ all the way up to an impressive 3.0 in February, but now falls back to near oblivion (0.2) in the March PPM book.

What could have done it? Who knows?
Perhaps an ultra core fan of the station cycled into and out of the panel?


Or, was that big February the result of cell phone weighting? Is that why ARB has stopped doing that?

Who knows?

And, of course, this is the one market where ARB has PPM accreditation... (??)