Radio Standards



March 17, 2001



JONATHAN SCHWARTZ: When it comes to radio formats, old is a relative term. Play classic rock, classic country, classic soul and the Baby Boom will make your business boom. But if you're pre-Boom, prepare to kiss those Sinatra broadcasts goodbye. On the Media's Tony Maciulis reports. [TUNING THROUGH SEVERAL RADIO STATIONS]

MAN: [SIGHS] [TUNING THROUGH SEVERAL RADIO STATIONS]

MAN: Oh! *%$&!%!# [TUNING THROUGH SEVERAL RADIO STATIONS] [RADIO STATION PLAYING "ADULT STANDARD" MUSIC]

MAN: Ahhh!

TONY MACIULIS: The music that the radio industry calls the "Adult Standards." They're getting harder to find lately. Most of the stations devoted to big band, Gershwin and Sinatra are lost in the fuzzy fog of AM radio if your town has one at all. Most big cities don't. There are nearly 14,000 radio stations in the country, and only 500 of them play the standards.

JONATHAN SCHWARTZ: Clearly-- they're dropping off-- one right after the other -- the New York area lost two of them.

TONY MACIULIS: Jonathan Schwartz hosts a weekend program on WNYC in New York devoted to the music he knew and loved as a child.

JONATHAN SCHWARTZ: Welcome to Saturday afternoon at 93.9 FM--WNYC in New York. This is Jonathan Schwartz. [BIG BAND MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

TONY MACIULIS: The city that gave rise to Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald no longer has a station that plays their songs, and Los Angeles soon won't either. KLAC, the last standards spot on the dial there, changes to all talk next month. The top adult standards stations are now in places most people couldn't point to on the map. Seabring and Pierce. They're in Florida by the way; a place where old people live.

JONATHAN SCHWARTZ: The demographics of the, of the music stations are older and less desirable. We're talking about people, again, between the age of 50 and death!

TONY MACIULIS: Jonathan Schwartz means less desirable to advertisers. Despite outperforming talk and sports in ratings everywhere, adult standards stations attract fewer ad dollars than any other format! The average age of a listener is 67. That might as well be death when it comes to marketing. Ed Mann is a radio syndicator and president of The Mann Group. He explains that getting advertising revenue means reaching the coveted 18 to 34 year olds -- something the standards format hasn't done!

ED MANN: Radio stations, to their detriment, get involved with niche programming to such a degree that they turn other generations off to that radio station.

TONY MACIULIS: It seems strange to call older people a niche. There are 73 million people over the age of 50 in the U.S. - a quarter of the population! They must shop for -- something!

ED MANN: There is a, a widely-held belief that it's impossible to sell things to older people.

TONY MACIULIS: So advertisers shun the adult standards format, but curiously enough, not the music. [THERE'S A SOMEBODY I'M LONGING TO SEE...] Margaret Whiting sang with the greatest bands of the '50s. She says pop culture is still hip to the standards.

MARGARET WHITING:: Every commercial that people do is with the older music, and in the pictures now they have somebody singing all these great songs, so they really never have left us. [I'M A LITTLE BABE WHO'S LOST IN THE WOOD....]

TONY MACIULIS: The Gap, Jaguar and Old Navy have all recently used the standards in ad campaigns, and they weren't aiming for 65 year olds. The music holds a broad appeal. But young listeners accustomed to the refined sound of CDs and FM radio don't like the pace or sound quality of the standard stations on the AM band. Syndicator Ed Mann thinks these stations need to emulate the style of the more popular formats. Catchy jingles and fast-paced promos.

ED MANN: I make the disk jockeys do the sort of patter that would entertain a younger crowd while still playing that kind of music! You've got to play the hits for the younger people. You've got to play the things that they could be most familiar with. You know, I've got you under my skin -- the great Dean Martin hit that was in all the, in all the movies.... [HUMMING: DAH DAH DUNT DAH DAH DUNT, DAH DAH DAH DANT!] [MUSIC REPEATS HUMMING]

TONY MACIULIS: Ed Mann believes a hipper sound could get young people hooked on Ella and Old Blue Eyes and skew the demographic closer to what advertisers want to see. Meanwhile, each season another nostalgia station disappears. For some fans it's like losing a scrap book or a wedding ring.

MARGARET WHITING:: So many older people say what has happened to the music? Well nothing! It's - kids come along and change everything, and some of 'em do it very well!

JONATHAN SCHWARTZ: It seems to me that life is on ongoing series of mirrors that people can gather reassurance by confirming what they felt, heard, saw, experienced at young ages.

TONY MACIULIS: And so Jonathan Schwartz continues to play the music of his lifetime. In New York, I'm Tony Maciulis for On the Media.