What Should Be The Minimum Age For A Classic Hits Station?

[EvanJ]

What should be the the minimum age of a song for a Classic Hits station? WCBS-FM played Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting For Tonight."

[leonagwen]

I would say at least 15 to 20 years.

[craziaskowboi]

I'd say 25 years. The local Classic Hits station where I live has started including some 1990s "grunge" in the playlist.

[EvanJ]

I was thinking 20 years. There's a difference between early 1990s grunge and 1999. WCBS-FM just played another song from 1999, Smash Mouth's "All Star."

[roadrunner]

I'd say 30 or late 20s . Love WOMC 104.3 Detroit. Great station.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Depends on the kind of music/audience they play. If they focus on rock, I'd say cut off before the Creed/Nickelback era. If it's pop, I'd say up to 2002ish.

[EvanJ]

Apr 18, 2018 16:22:57 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

Depends on the kind of music/audience they play. If they focus on rock, I'd say cut off before the Creed/Nickelback era. If it's pop, I'd say up to 2002ish.

WCBS recently played rock (Journey and Bon Jovi), singer-songwriter soft rock (Sheryl Crow), dance (Madonna and Human League), and R&B (Michael Jackson and Prince). I don't know what year every song is from, but of their last 29 songs I think the newest is "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing," which is older than "Waiting For Tonight" that I stated in my first post.

[alliecat17]

I would have to say 15 years imo

[Josh Spicer]

15 years seems solid enough.

[msiclover92]

You see, this is the problem! People aren't ready to accept the fact the 2003 was 15 years ago. The Classic Hits format can't play music from the 70, and 80s forever. Time is moving too fast. in fact, I thought about them making a new format called "Throwback Hits". I know it's a silly name but I can't think of anything else. But they would play r&b/rock/rap/pop/dance from the 1990-2009. It would focus heavily on upbeat music. The kinda stuff that'd make you say "OH SNAP! That was my jam!". Don't get me wrong, I like classic hits. But we need something to appeal to Gen Y too.

Does anyone agree? That we need a station like this?

[owenlovesmusic]

Yeah probably 15 years ago.

[musicismypassion]

20 years

[ListenToItTwice]

I agree with 20, especially because nostalgia seems to run in 20-year cycles

[blanksnake17]

I wish there was a station for songs older than 2 years

[Deleted]

I wanna say classic counts as 25 years or older like it does for cars.

[filthy]

Right now I would say pre-millennium songs

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Aug 5, 2018 23:02:20 GMT -5 blanksnake17 said:

I wish there was a station for songs older than 2 years

Check your local Hot AC station.

[blanksnake17]

Aug 6, 2018 14:16:39 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

Aug 5, 2018 23:02:20 GMT -5 blanksnake17 said:

I wish there was a station for songs older than 2 years

Check your local Hot AC station.

Yeah I guess that one does play a lot more recurrents

[mkarns]

about 20 years, or 15 at the latest. Perhaps even some more recent ones that still test well, though by then we're butting up against current CHR and Hot AC recurrents.

Exactly what songs would qualify as "classics", particularly more recent ones, is up for debate but we shouldn't ignore entire eras. One thing that has frankly annoyed me is how so many classic hits stations have been playing the same 1970s and 80s focused formats (with a rather limited selection of songs) for many years now but act as if most of the 1990s never happened. As stated, this can't go on forever.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I think at this point, "classic rock" is more of a genre rather than a specific term applied to music that is of a certain age. In the same thought, I think "80s" has become lumped together into its own genre and "90s" too. There's some overlap there though, particular with early 80s rock songs that would probably better fit the "classic rock" classification and the 90s has defined sub-genres like grunge.

[getoffmylawn]

Depends on genre for me

Rock - 1985 and older

Metal - 1995 and older

Pop - 2005 and older

R&B - 2000 and older

Rap - 1995 and older

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Jun 30, 2018 23:04:04 GMT -5 msiclover92 said:

You see, this is the problem! People aren't ready to accept the fact the 2003 was 15 years ago. The Classic Hits format can't play music from the 70, and 80s forever. Time is moving too fast. in fact, I thought about them making a new format called "Throwback Hits". I know it's a silly name but I can't think of anything else. But they would play r&b/rock/rap/pop/dance from the 1990-2009. It would focus heavily on upbeat music. The kinda stuff that'd make you say "OH SNAP! That was my jam!". Don't get me wrong, I like classic hits. But we need something to appeal to Gen Y too.

Does anyone agree? That we need a station like this?

I don’t know if a station could sustain itself playing music from 1990-2009. Oddly enough, classic rock stations are able to do it and barely ever change their limited playlists, but I think the targeted audience of 90-09 music already tune into online stations and streaming. I’d be curious to see it though. I’d listen!

[Deleted]

I think 20 years is fairly standard. In the 80s all the oldies stations played 60s. 90s = 70s. 00s = 80s. 10s = 90s. Mind you, I recognize there are variances. And many oldies stations even vary their titles depending on the day part or workday vs weekend, etc. 

I've also noticed that it's become increasingly more difficult for oldies stations to stick to anything too specific. It's hard to find an 80s stations that ONLY plays 80s, for example. I had one station start up in my market a couple years ago, promoting itself as "yacht rock", that soft rock sound from the late 70s and early 80s. I loved it. But then, without changing its name, it dropped the yacht rock tagline and within 6 months it started to also play 90s songs, and now I even hear early 00s songs. It simply comes down to audience and bottom line. They hook you with something and then bring in more of a varied audience with songs that you also know and love, but nearly 20 years newer.

The other day I heard Fleetwood Mac "Dreams" go into No Doubt "It's My Life" on what on a station whose imaging is predominantly 80s.  

[emperortigerstar]

20 years has a newly born person become an adult. It represents the rough span of a generation. Classics mean they stand the test of time, so a multi-generation span seems a fair standard, so I'd go with 20 years.