Comments on: My blood runs sorta cold

By: Lisa Paul

Lisa Paul — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:22:22 +0000

And Fillyjonk, having been in the nefarious business of advertising, I can tell you that the younger set does indeed have more disposable income. Once you get a mortgage, kids headed to college and other responsibilities, you are less likely to spend frivolously, impulsively and in response to advertising. Which “disposable” is code for.

By: Lisa Paul

Lisa Paul — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:20:21 +0000

Thank heavens in San Francisco there are areas where the sixties never ended. On local station KFOG, the playlist is the same as when the Jefferson Airplane (before it was a Starship), the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin were all hanging around the Haight.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:55:33 +0000

As I said over there, For me, rock and pop music falls into three eras – the 70s, before the 70s and dull new stuff I don’t care about – and it is disturbing that music in the latter category is now “classic” or “oldies”.
But you’re right; marketers like the word “classic” not actual classics.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:18:52 +0000

Because OKC radio has more crap than a Panhandle poultry farm.

Good one, Brett.

Also, the Spy is supposedly returning in about 40 minutes (midnight, Nov. 23), so OKC radio might be a little less crappy tomorrow.

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:32:35 +0000

I use the iPod-plugged-into-a-cassette-player-adapter format, except for certain hours of the weekend when Hardluck Jim plays the blues. Because OKC radio has more crap than a Panhandle poultry farm.

By: Donna B.

Donna B. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:08:24 +0000

Why must I, my age, and my tastes be classified?? I think I made the right decision to sell my speakers.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:18:47 +0000

“Urban” is radio’s preferred synonym for “black.”

AOR is what displaced so-called the “progressive” radio of the late Sixties-early Seventies; they still played “deep” (translation: “non-single”) cuts, but the formatting was tighter and the playlist decidedly limited. You don’t see much AOR anymore. In its place are “Active Rock” (more mainstream rock acts), “Modern Rock” (more indies), and “triple A” (“Adult Album Alternative,” which has less edge and a wider range.

Top 40 itself is now Contemporary Hit Radio, which is often divided into two flavors: CHR/Pop and CHR/Rhythmic. The latter is, um, more urban.

The least-formatted format, perhaps, is whatever the hell they do at Jack FM, “playing what we want.”

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:36:13 +0000

Actually, I find a lot of the designations kind of baffling. “Adult Contemporary”? “Album-Oriented Rock”? “Urban Contemporary”?

Now, “Hair Metal,” that I get. And “Old-Skool Hip Hop.” But some of the others don’t really tell me what they are.

The digital-music package that comes with my cable does have a channel that plays 50s rock and doo-wop. They call it “Malt Shop Oldies.” (I’m not sure to respond to that with “Ugh” or “Sigh.”)

By: McGehee

McGehee — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:33:12 +0000

It’s reached the point where, when I listen to local radio, the auto-dealer ads are often more entertaining than the music.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:29:59 +0000

I used to use the following equation:

(Top 40) – (Adult Contemporary) = (Classic Rock)

until I found that it didn’t allow for Rod Stewart.

By: Jeffro

Jeffro — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:24:36 +0000

One of the local FM stations around here changed their format from “classic rock” to more modern hard rock, which had far more appeal to the younger set. So, even “classic rock” will eventually go away. I’ll miss it, but there are only so many times one can listen to Stairway to Heaven, Money, or other overplayed standards.

And what is included in classic rock seems to be a pretty specific subset of the Top 40 stuff from years ago. Certainly disco is right out, anything by Madonna and Prince, no Neil Diamond or Barry Manilow – not that I’d care to hear it anyhow!

By: CGHill

CGHill — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:31 +0000

Or maybe we’re more set in our ways and less amenable to persuasion of that sort.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:22:14 +0000

I like a lot of that stuff, too. But I think once a person passes out of that 18-34 “magic” demographic, what they like matters a lot less. (Not that what I liked ever mattered much any way, I tend to have unusual tastes).

It seems odd to me because 18-34s, you would think, would have less disposable income than older folks. Then again, maybe they’re more willing to dispose of what they do have than we in our 40s and beyond are…