Putting 'Oldies' Into Today's Focus

When you ask someone what the term "Oldies Music" means, they usually will respond with things like, "It's the old stuff from the '60s ... songs that were hits back in the day, songs that my parents grew up with," etc.

Oldies is still a very viable format, both in ratings and revenue. You just have to decide what part of the continuum you want to be on. Oldies is NOT a death sentence for a radio station. Oldies is not just for the Geritol crowd.

If your station needs not only a strong 25-54 Adult base, but within that broad demographic, you need a BIG piece of the 30-45 Adults, then playing a lot of songs from the '60s and early '70s is probably not going to assist you in gaining those demos.

Over the past five to seven years, the term "Classic Hits" has become a big "brand" for Oldies stations. However, some are not "being true to what they say they are." They play current titles and try to be all things to all people.

There are many variations of Classic Hits formats. They can be Rock-based, Pop-based, Classic Rock-based, or AC-based. They can feature music from the late '60s and '70s, a combination of the '70s and '80s, or -- now in 2008 -- there are very successful stations that have been able to do something that we in radio have always said could not be done: merge several decades of music into one format and make it a strong player in the market.

It is amazing. We in radio are too caught up in being "radio people" and not thinking like a listener/consumer. What do most people put on their iPods? Songs back to back from different genres, eras, artists, tempos, etc. If we listened to anyone's personal iPod, would we hire them as our Program Director? Why not? Don't these people fill out ratings diaries? Don't they use radio without any bias from the radio industry?

It reality, you have to use an intelligent mix of street smarts and industry experience to make this format work.

In Oldies, or in any format, the Golden Rule is: Do not overestimate product knowledge on the part of the listener.

That means, don't just assume that we know what they want and give to them. ASK them. Be in touch with them, live their lifestyle, see what makes them want to turn the radio up just a little bit louder in their cars, in the office, or at home.

Most successful Oldies stations do not live in the past when it comes to content. They are uptempo, happy, community-relating radio stations that just happen to play music from the past.

Research has taught us for many years that people 30+ who love Oldies don't want to be made to feel old, especially from their favorite radio station.

The psychograph of the audience for Oldies-based radio is still "hip." They are NOT the same 30, 40 or 50-year-old person that your Mom and Dad were when we were growing up. They are much more in-tune to the Internet, today's trends, health consciousness, and they love to act and think at least 10 years younger than they really are.

Therefore, if you are programming Oldies radio, make your station fits the psychographic make-up of the people you need to attract to be a financially healthy business.

Oldies, Classic Hits ... whatever you want to call it ... has a very strong future. We just need to make sure we make our product fit the people who use it.