RETHINKING COVER VERSIONS OF GREAT SONGS • PODCAST AUDIENCE SHOWS IMPRESSIVE GROWTH • MORE NIELSEN SPING 2019 RATINGS

Yesterday we published a comparison of WEKU and WUKY in the Lexington market. 

We said: dual-format WUKY seems to play a large number of songs by current artists covering great hits from the past.

We criticized WUKY for playing:

Neil Young’s Everybody Knows This is Nowhere by Dar Williams.

Jack White’s Steady As She Goes by Corinne Bailey-Rae.

Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues by Chris Stapelton.

And, Tom Petty’s American Girl by Elle King.

Gregg McVicar

In response, we received a thoughtful commentary from Gregg McVicar, producer and host of UnderCurrents [link]. 

McVicar’s complete commentary is posted below. We encourage your comments.

Here are a few excerpts from McVicar's note:

McVicar: "I used to share your view about covers until a few years ago when one of our client PDs encouraged us to embrace covers performed by today’s artists."

"Just think about it — we all know and love those hits from the ‘60s and ‘70s (Cash, Petty, Young, et al), but so many of these artists are no longer with us.  Younger listeners were not alive when these hits were burned into our brains by AM and FM radio."

"A hit from 1969 was 40 years ago.  If they’re under 50, they won’t even remember it the way we do, just as a relic of the past on oldies radio."

"Sprinkling in covers in today’s AAA is not lazy or self-indulgent, it’s a sophisticated strategy to bridge generations of listeners. Passing along the best musical DNA from generation to generation is a good thing, not a compromise."

Thank you, Gregg.

TOP TEN PODCAST PUBLISHERS DOUBLE THEIR AUDIENCE IN A YEAR

The July Podtrac rankings of the Top Ten podcast bring some important signs of the times:

• The Unique Monthly Audience for podcasts publishers grew at an amazing rate between Jul7 2018 and July 2019. Seven of the Top Ten saw their audiences grow in double digits over the past year.

• Commercial podcast publishers had the largest rate of growth, led by “soft porn” publisher Barstool Sports, was up 60%. Wondery and iHeartRadio were also up by big margins.

• NPR and PRX also had notable growth but other publishers with ties to public radio were flat. In July 2019 six of the Top Ten publishers were for-profit companies.

• Few if any new publishers are cracking Podtrac’s Top Ten. Apparently what you see is what you will continue to get. As podcasting matures, there may be less room at the top for new publishers and producers.

NIELSEN AUDIO SPRING 2019 RATINGS FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND COLORADO

Outside of Los Angeles and San Siego, KCLU from Thousand Oaks is the major NPR News/Talk player in Southern California. 

KCLU actually has two “home markets.” Oxnard-Ventura is where the station is located, but Santa Barbara is where KCLU is having its greatest success.

KCLU has far more AQH listening than two LA noncommercial radio giants KCRW and KPCC. 

This is a credit to the staff and management of KCLU, particularly the news team. 

The only other market where we see this happening is the front range of Colorado.

Last we week published the Nielsen Audio ratings for Colorado Springs, an hour south of Denver. KRCC in the Springs is blocking Colorado Public Radio’s (CPR) quest to become the states dominant radio news provider.

Today we see the same thing is happening in Fort Collins-Greeley, an exurban market north of Denver. CPR News has actually lost AQH share in the market over the past ten years.

Hometown AAA KJAC The Colorado Sound has a substantially larger share than CPR’s AAA repeater – now known as Indie 102.3 – in Fort Collins.  The Colorado Sound and Indie 102.3 both have many listeners in the Denver metro.

Neither KRCC nor CPR News has a big presence in metro Pueblo. 

iHeart’s commercial News/Talk KSCJ-AM is by far the top station in the market.

ENTIRE TEXT: GREGG MCVICAR’S COMMENTARY ABOUT YOUNGER ARTISTS “COVERING” GREAT BOOMER ERA HITS

I used to share your view about covers until a few years ago when one of our client PDs encouraged us to embrace covers performed by today’s artists.

Just think about it — we all know and love those hits from the ‘60s and ‘70s (Cash, Petty, Young, et al), but so many of these artists are no longer with us.  Younger listeners were not alive when these hits were burned into our brains by AM and FM radio.  A hit from 1969 was 40 years ago.  If they’re under 50, they won’t even remember it the way we do, just as a relic of the past on oldies radio. 

Remember when you discovered the Beatles and the Rolling Stones? They made their mark with covers of the blues and R&B greats.  The older music heads said “yeah, I like the original versions better” — that would rankle me, but now I get it. And come to think of it, John Mayall played mostly covers.  The Brits were students of the roots and teachers of the next generation.  Passing along the best musical DNA from generation to generation is a good thing, not a compromise.

Sprinkling in covers in today’s AAA is not lazy or self-indulgent it’s a sophisticated strategy to bridge generations of listeners.  Folks our age can feel lost in a mix of new names like Tei Shi, Tyco, Hembree, etc….yet throw in Runnin’ with the Devil by The Bird & The Bee or Heart of Gold by Midnight Shine and you’ve instantly accomplished two things:

1) older listeners can feel anchored to the mix with a familiar lyric and appreciate the new spin put on it by young artists, and

2) younger listeners are introduced to classics (“standards”) by young artists who share their musical sensibilities.

So this is a very audience focused approach that has the added benefit of showcasing the latest production styles and recording quality — the music is fresh and new again, and the station sound now.

My 2-cents,

Cheers,

Gregg