Originally Posted by James Martin 2:
“More than a few!
LOVING the new sound of Club Classics, although I stand by my earlier statement that Chaka's "I'm Every Woman" (the only 70s track - 1978? - I heard) sounded sonically out of place.
Something worth pointing out is that Heart's bullseye listener is supposed to be (I think) a 35-year-old woman. Today's 35-year-olds were born in 1976.
Looking at our woman's "significant" birthdays, they were 13 in 1989, 16 in 1992, 18 in 1994, 21 in 1997, 25 in 2001 and 30 in 2006.
Although there's clearly songs which are timeless across generations (Dirty Dancing's soundtrack is the obvious example) our woman probably won't really have started to take an interest in the charts until she was 10, in 1986.
So, really, Heart shouldn't be playing that much stuff from before the mid-80s - and in the next 18 months I would say you will see Heart be the first station to properly pick up the baton of the "90s, 00s and Now" format - a format not really used in UK radio - if at all - but one I think will be a winner if programmed right.
How come the processing on Crawley is so top-heavy though? Is Brighton the same? I know Crawley was originally Hit Music but it flipped way before the CHR stations had their processing sh*gged up.
106.2 doesn't sound nearly as "harsh" although my reception of the flagship in Gatwick isn't that great.”
I suggested that maybe BRMB in Birmingham should concentrate musically on the last 20 years, with Capital hot and fresh on one side, and Heart playing music from the 60's to today and have been shot in flames.
But agree, at some point some stations I think will need to cut down the '80's to appeal to the 35 year old woman. As a 42 year old male, I would welcome a station that was chart ish music from the last 20 years. The only flip against that is aside from some re-entires two years ago, to wipe out the '80's you take out Michael Jackson, like or loathe him still a popular artist (although often one of Hearts the most played artists, seems a liitle excessive).
Mind you as they are oft compared, I do notice that Real Radio seems to avoid the 1970's (at a guess 1981- today), so to suggest in a few years Heart would dump the '80's. might be premature when you still hear 70's music. As I am often told Real has lost listeners faster than some Hearts.