Just wrong!

[Big E]

Tell me whats wrong with this scenario...

Rob Thomas/Smooth on K-Earth 101 last night.  Granted it was late, but how is this considered an oldie?  Isnt this song like 5 years old?

[michael hagerty]

Tell me whats wrong with this scenario...

Rob Thomas/Smooth on K-Earth 101 last night.  Granted it was late, but how is this considered an oldie?  Isnt this song like 5 years old?

Time flies...it'll be 9 years old later this year. Which means it's about as old as a 1963 hit was on KRTH when it launched in 1972. And KRTH played them then.

Helps that Santana is a core artist with roots reaching back to '69, too.

---Michael Hagerty

[calguy]

Time flies...it'll be 9 years old later this year. Which means it's about as old as a 1963 hit was on KRTH when it launched in 1972. And KRTH played them then.

Helps that Santana is a core artist with roots reaching back to '69, too.

---Michael Hagerty

It's funny, I wouldn't have agreed with you 5 years ago.  For most of the 90's and the latter part of the 80's most true oldies stations wouldn't play anything that "new".  However back in the late 70's oldies stations would play any song that was 2 to 3 years old or older.  Now that the oldies format has started to die off in cities all over the nation it seems prudent to play newer music in order to keep the format fresh and to attract younger demos.  KRTH is doing just that.  I also think that it's part of Jhani Kaye's plan to crush his old station KOST.  He's no dummy, and it's taken a few years, but since CC has tied the hands of it's programmers and thinned out the staff at KOST he may yet get his wish.  The people left there may be overworked, but they're still very good at what they do and I hear KOST still does well in most of their target demos though so they may hold him off or at least compete.

[vonrollskyway1]

fully agree.it seems like they are reaching out a bit farther than there target listening age.

[Lkeller]

Michael Hagerty said: "Time flies...it'll be 9 years old later this year. Which means it's about as old as a 1963 hit was on KRTH when it launched in 1972. And KRTH played them then. Helps that Santana is a core artist with roots reaching back to '69, too."

Similarly, I remember that in the early and mid 90s, KRTH Oldies sister station KFRC (San Francisco) played "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys in regular rotation less than a decade after it's release...well...because it was the Beach Boys.

[Marv-L.A.]

Before evolving into a 'classic hits' station almost two years ago, KOLA/Riverside always played 'Kokomo' for much the same reason that Kaye has added 'Smooth' to KRTH's library, in spite of 'Kokomo' being much newer than heritage songs by the Beach Boys such as 1966's 'Good Vibrations', since 'Kokomo' was a #1 single in 1988.

The same goes for not-that-old songs by other KRTH heritage artists such as Aretha Franklin, who had a smash at CHR in 1985 with 'Freeway Of Love'.

[Lkeller]

"The same goes for not-that-old songs by other KRTH heritage artists such as Aretha Franklin, who had a smash at CHR in 1985 with 'Freeway Of Love'."

And for "Pink Cadillac" by Natalie Cole (written by Springsteen), which was released the same year - a big hit and a great song.  Bruce's version is good too, but was never a hit. I thought of it because "pink cadillac" is mentioned in both songs - clearly a sexual innuendo in Aretha's song.

[oldies76]

"Smooth" was #1 in 1999 or almost 9 years ago! Why not play it with other oldies?? A song that's 9 years old is old and should be mixed in with other "oldies", especially by an artist that had much older songs, like Santana..ie.."Black Magic Woman" or "Evil Ways". Geez...the 80's music is approaching the 19-28 year old timeline..why not call them oldies too?? Did radio stations in 1970 play music from 1942?? Most likely not.

[Lkeller]

"...the 80's music is approaching the 19-28 year old timeline..why not call them oldies too??"

Isn't "oldies" a dirty word now? I'm surprised it hasn't been put on the list of the words Radio-Info won't let you say.

Actually, the word "oldies" is not that...uh...old.  I believe Art Laboe popularized it with "Oldies but Goodies." But in the 60s and 70s, mainstream top 40 stations called them "goldens" or "solid gold." The first two oldies stations in the  SF Bay Area were KNEW in the 70s, which played "California Gold," then KSFO/KYA-FM in the 80s, which played "Rock and Roll Classics."

I've noticed the K-Earth still lets the dreaded word slip onto the air on occasion, but everywhere else, it's "Classic Hits" now, isn't it?