Re: even more format changes...

[hmglaz@webtv.net (Howard Glazer)]

Ron Gitschier wonders about the '80s format explosion. 

I'd imagine it's happening because the start of the '80s is now two
decades removed from the current year and the music can now be
classified as oldies. Fans of this music are now in or moving into their
thirties, prime buying years in the eyes of Madison Avenue.

Also, traditional oldies stations have added the music of the '70s --
the whole decade, not just the pre-disco years -- to their playlists but
have pretty much left the '80s alone (while dropping all but a few songs
from the '50s, whose listeners don't buy anything anymore, according to
advertising dogma). Most of the pre-hip-hop and pre-grunge music of the
'80s (Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Men At Work, etc.) doesn't work at CHR
anymore, so a programming void exists.

This format may have a longer lifespan than the '70s format, IMO, if
only because the '70s format was hatched late in the '90s and almost
immediately co-opted by oldies-formatted stations. I don't think today's
oldies stations would want to add a lot of '80s music so soon after
adding all those '70s hits.

Howard