Southern Cross Austereo and Edison Research Announce Strategic Alliance Australia’s largest radio company, Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) and Edison Research have announced a strategic relationship between their two companies. This relationship will include bringing Edison’s research advancements to the Asia Pacific region, representation of SCA’s innovations in North America and in the future, a further […]
When Edison Research did its last national test of holiday music in 2007, nearly half of the best songs–those making up the top sixth of the songs tested–came from 1967 or before. In any other radio genre, time marches on, songs lose their currency, and new listeners age into the target demo and bring a […]
When it comes to holiday music, one particular novelty song is still a total dog. “Jingle Bells” by the Singing Dogs—the 1955 version of the holiday standard that is actually barked, not sung, is still the most-disliked holiday song, according to a new holiday music test by Edison Research. The Singing Dogs are joined in […]
Last fall, three Eastern Long Island, N.Y., stations briefly tried swapping out spots in favor of sponsorships. That idea had too much appeal not to come back and last week, heritage Modern Rocker WFNX Boston announced that it was trading spots for a 40-day sponsorship by Snapple. How does it sound?
Handicapping each year’s “song of the summer” has become a national pastime, not unlike the U.K.’s annual Christmas No. 1 derby. This year, Edison Media Research’s Sean Ross weighs in early on possible summer song candidates, and the relatively healthy supply of uptempo feel-good product in most formats.
There has been a lot written lately about how hip-hop is losing its mass-appeal and pop is reasserting itself. But, not unlike Country radio a few years ago, Hip-Hop may be suffering most from fragmentation. Because no matter how hot a format is, there is rarely room for four of anything in a given market.
Two months ago, consultant Alan Burns announced his new “Movin’” format, essentially a newer Jammin’ Oldies for listeners who grew up with more rhythm than rock on the Top 40 stations of the late ’80s/early ’90s. Now the format has its first affiliate, the former KLSY Seattle.
Christmas Music continues to be a powerful force in American radio. Among the 119 continuously measured FM radio stations in the top 100 markets that went with all Christmas music during the 2005 holiday season, on average they gained 10% in both 12+ share and 25-54 share over the remainder of 2005. Among the target demographic of many of these stations, Women 25-54, the average gain was also 10%.
It has become the single biggest cliche of midday radio–the battle between jocks and the contest winner who can’t scream at the office. Sometimes jocks turn abusive, at the very least, they manage to point out at length just how unexcited listeners are about your radio station. So how can stations better handle their workplace winners?
Two years ago, the Top 40 charts were the province of younger acts-some of them making teen-oriented records, some of them hoping to fill the shoes of older artists. At that moment, age was much more than a number for artists-it could keep you off the charts, except as the writer or producer for somebody younger. So does the success of Daniel Powter and James Blunt mean there’s room for adults at Top 40 again? And, if so, is Top 40 willing to accept a new female artist who is, gasp, 30 years old?
“Women who rock” were the swing vote when Rock radio overtook Top 40 in the early ’80s. They were there for the
“New Rock Revolution” of 1994 and the birth of Modern AC a few years later. So with Hot AC in a state of transition, where are the women who rock now? They may be at Country radio – their destination in the early ’90s. Or at Bob- and Jack-FM, even those listeners who seem too young for a ’80s-centered format.
You haven’t read much about Modern AC lately. The female singer/songwriter movement that helped spur the format in the late ’90s has long dissipated, leaving only Sheryl Crow, Jewel, and newcomers K.T. Tunstall and Missy Higgins to represent the genre on the most recent Hot AC chart. The edgy, interesting Hot AC stations these days are playing the Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna, not Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam. Then there were the Bob- and Jack-FMs, which managed to upstage many of their newer focused Hot AC counterparts last year by bringing back all those Bryan Adams and Phil Collins records that Hot AC once phased out because of Modern AC.
