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deaconlight.com/aor
Looking Back/Going Forward
The future of rock radio is uncertain. But there are ways to gage what could happen. Rock and roll radio operates in cycles - at least it has so far. Many people are comparing the '80s with the '60s in that we are entering a song era again. The SONG is the main focus of rock radio, not the album.
"What we're doing now is returning to a cycle that started about twenty years ago," says Buck McWilliams, Music Director for Toledo's WIOT. "Kind of like the lull we had between '57 and '64 where really the only superstar we had was Elvis. Then all of a sudden everybody comes home from England, which you see now - England and Australia. It's different bands and a different kind of music, but again, we've returned to a cycle."
Are we entering a new progressive era? "I don't think it's really new," says Bob Welch at WPYX in Schenectady. "It started several years back. Certain stations were playing groups like The Clash. Then all of a sudden they come out with a record that's selling No. 1 and wow that's happening. Why didn't we hear that? The Clash and U2 are probably the most important groups of the whole new modern music thing."
"It all depends on who's thinking about it," says KFOG's Logan. "People who are older now, in their 30s, they think of the '60s as great, the '70s - there's nothing really relevant there, and the '80s - if they can find a radio station that can speak to them, which is rare, they probably think it all sucks or they don't have an opinion on it."
"Younger people between 16 and 24 - they have passionate opinions. I think if anybody's going to go back and look at the '80s there will be some sort of image of a revolution having had happened. The Police, The Clash, Thompson Twins will be real hot. U2 is going to go on to become a total monster band. Men at Work are going to be a Top 10 smash. Michael Jackson is basically the new mixture of Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye so that doesn't count. He's going to be very heavy - he already is - but he's not a cult figure NOW to be a legitimate star in his own right and an innovator in that vein. I think I'm also going to become a very big Prince fan. Thomas Dolby is one of my new favorites. The Clash when they are not too self-indulgent. Talking Heads - they will be a major band.
"Those people are going to be real landmarks. But The Who - forget it. Rolling Stones - let's talk about stiff. Make your albums, that's fine, then get out of the way. Don't go around strutting like you're God's gift to music. It just isn't that way anymore. When you grew up and were rapping with your parents about music and they're sitting there saying 'Oh yeah, Perry Como, Pat Boone, boy they still make great records.' and you're going 'please Mom.'"
"Radio is getting back to where it was when AOR first started becoming a legitimate format," says EMI/America's Hensley. "It was nice because then they reacted quicker to music, played more, and gave it more push."
The '70s were more or less defined by a handful of so-called supergroups like Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac. Many programmers say we are now in a period where supergroups generally will not be as important, although they will exist. It is much easier now for a band to come up with a catchy song and get airplay without having to rely so much on creating a superstar image.
But opinions vary on this. "Every era has its supergroups," says Program Director Smokey Rivers of WKDF in Nashville. "I feel that U2 is the supergroup for the '80s. Obviously Men at Work is a monstrous band. If they are going to be a supergroup depends largely on the success of their new album. I don't know if the material's there. It all comes down to being able to put out material on a song-by-song and album-by-album basis. Each one has to be strong and accepted as an entity until itself. I don't think that we are going to have that many image-conscious bands in the '80s. People aren't going to say 'well, gee, I've gotta make a record like Led Zeppelin' to be accepted.
"Here's a case in point. Yesterday I heard the new Kinks' record - Ray Davies and that band have always been a little bit out in front of what's going on. It's really out there. It's not like 'You Really Got Me' back in 1965. It's real different. As time goes on even the older bands who are able to adapt to what's going on will still be considered 'in vogue.' That's why I think Foreigner and REO Speedwagon aren't about to dry up and go away."
The public is more responsive to new sounds, but the AOR audience is becoming more divided in its tastes. KFOG's Logan says. "Radio will get back to the concept of narrowcasting rather than broadcasting unless they are the only AOR in the market." Logan believes radio will begin focusing more on a specific rock audience and play their type of music, and specialize. Some stations will have a more modern sound, others heavy metal, others perhaps a softer rock, and some will continue to mix everything together. Some radio people suggest that AOR is phasing out, or is already gone. Since formats are so tight, album-oriented rock radio has become more album-cut radio. That is, only one or two songs are played off of a record instead of in-depth exposure of an album. And there is the similarity between AOR radio and Top 40 radio.
"It's (AOR) probably going to disappear," says WBCN's Miller. "If you look at the playlist of an AOR station and a CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio) station and even some of the Adult Contemporary stations, the differences between the playlists in the different formats are really shrinking."
Though predictions are difficult, there are stations and artists that are considered trendsetters for the '80s. Rock stations on the cutting edge that have helped to pave the way for modern formats include KROQ (Pasadena), WLIR (Long Island), KFOG (San Francisco), WBCN (Boston), and (KNAC) Long Beach. Other leading stations for the '80s are WSHE (Miami), WMMR (Philadelphia), WIOT (Toledo), WXRT (Chicago), and KEZL (Dallas). The list gets longer as more stations add newer music to their formats.
Time will tell if the artists surfacing now will last.
"I'm not sure that what we are seeing right now is going to last as long as the revolutions in the '60s did," says WHJY's Utz. "I'm not sure that the bands coming out right now are gonna have the longevity that the bands from around 1970 have had. The Led Zeppelins and the Pink Floyds." On the other hand, Utz predicts some bands to watch include "U2. Duran Duran definitely. We've already seen the Clash. The Clash is going to be around for a long time."
The good news is that most industry insiders agree that stations have many more sound choices when it comes to selecting new music to play.
"There's some vibrant new music out now," says Warner Brothers' Hudson. "U2 is a good example. A band that reaches more people would be a Men at Work-type situation. It's songs again. On the other hand I have a new Talking Heads album that is absolutely wonderful that would be over the heads of 90% of the Men at Work fans. Most of the English bands that have hit - Thomas Dolby, Duran Duran - they're not overnight sensations. They've been out there for three or four years. They've put out two or three albums or more. Echo and the Bunnymen, these kinds of people. They are going to come on strong. I don't see them going away.
"I think bands from the States like R.E.M. and hopefully the dBs, will be given a shot."
Warner Brothers' Sire label has been a leader for the past five years in signing newer bands including the Ramones, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Madness, Richard Hell, and newcomer Madonna.
The newest label to show promise is IRS. Led by Miles Copeland, IRS was formed as a farm label for A&M. Copeland is the manager for The Police, who are on A&M, and is also the brother of Police drummer Stewart Copeland.
"The success of the Police," says IRS Assistant Director of Promotions Keith Altomore," gave Miles the ability to go to A&M and say 'Let's do this label with alternative music, like the Buzzcocks, Fashion, and the Fall.' The agreement initially was that after a certain number of records sold on IRS, the record would go to A&M. That agreement started and the first two acts to go to A&M were Oingo Boingo and John Cale.
"After those records, we found that A&M wasn't doing a superior job of signing more records. They weren't exposing new music as well as we were. So we severed the agreement and we retained ownership to all our acts, which was great because the next release that came out was the Go-Gos."
The mission of IRS is to seek and sign superior bands with a style of their own. If someone in the organization finds an artist worth considering, everyone gets in on the process. The label gets hundreds of cassette tapes each month.
"Take an act like R.E.M.," says Altamore. "Our vice president believed in them completely and wanted to sign that band. The rest of us listen to the tapes. Some of us loved it and some of us thought it was ok. Hearing a band on tape and seeing them live, if the two gel, the most important thing with us is attitude. Because we're not like a major conglomeration that we throw six records out and one of them sticks, that's fine. We take our bands and work with them one at a time, or two or three at a time but we don't stop working those bands. You have to want to go out and tour. You have to be dedicated to what you're doing. You have to know you're not going to make a heck of a lot of money up front. We don't give a lot of money up front, like some record labels have an do. The money that they make comes later on.
"Each of the acts that we do sign has some kernel of ability to take them to the next step, to go from college radio into commercial radio. A year or two ago people didn't actually sit back and believe 100% right away that Wall of Voodoo would make it on (commercial radio), but with belief in the act they will produce and radio will change and come to that point.
"The record we put out for R.E.M. [Murmur] didn't have any Top 40 smashes. I think R.E.M. is capable of producing Top 40 smashes. English Beat would certainly as well."
Among the artists to watch for in the '80s include The Clash, The Police, Duran Duran, Thomas Dolby, R.E.M., rock veteran David Bowie, and most notably, U2.
Next - Part 10: U2 - The Band with The Spark >>
1983 AOR Radio Snapshot Index
This page was updated March 7, 2008.
Please contact us to report errors or out-of-date links.
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