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fad: The '80s. Natch.
It's hot, notably in offices. This too shall pass.
By Gabriel Spitzer
Believe it or not, there are people out there still walking around in T-shirts that say "Impeach Reagan."
Nostalgia for the 1980s, practically unthinkable half a decade ago, has arrived with a vengeance. Now it’s rearing its head on the radio with the birth of a hot new format: '80s music.
During Arbitron’s fall 2000 survey alone, 13 new '80s stations had sprung up across America, bringing the total to 20 stations in the nation’s top 53 markets.
But just like the "hair bands" and post-disco grooves that grace these stations’ airwaves, the '80s format runs the risk of falling from listeners’ graces like so many other fads.
Since this is a fledgling format, data from '80s stations is just now beginning to trickle out. Two recent studies by Coleman and Arbitron deliver decidedly mixed results.
It’s hard to argue with the format’s short-term success, particularly as a vehicle for listeners ages 18-44.
Coleman’s research, based on numbers from all 20 '80s-format stations, finds that 82 percent of all the stations’ listening comes from this demographic, compared to an average 51 percent for the top ten stations in their respective markets.
About 41 percent of the stations’ total audience is ages 25-34.
Arbitron, surveying the seven '80s stations that were in place before the fall 2000 book, reports that about half of each station’s audience falls within a ten-year age span, enabling precise demographic targeting.
Some would say too precise.
"I don’t believe in the '80s format. You say, ‘hey, how can I reach people 25-49? I’ll give them what they loved when they were younger.’ So on paper it makes some sense. We talk about niche marketing, but I think this is just too limiting," says Howard Nass, executive director of local broadcast at TN Media.
"A couple of years back they tried the '70s format, and it didn’t work. It’s only a ten-year span, and it becomes repetitive. I think the listeners will get turned off by the same music, over and over again."
Arbitron finds that '80s listeners generally work full-time, have a college education and a household income over $75,000.
The '80s format is very strong at work, where 40 percent of the listening takes place.
Another 38 percent takes place in the car, where the p.m. drive ranks as the format’s highest daypart. Just 20 percent of the listening occurrs at home.
The format probably competes most with Modern Adult Contemporary, Alternative, Contemporary Hits Radio and Album Oriented Rock.
The format’s competitors vary from market to market, depending largely on what type of '80s format each station goes for.
The Coleman study finds three variations on the '80s format emerging.
"Flashback" stations are geared more towards the alternative-music fan, pure '80s stations will take anything as long as it was produced between 1980 and 1989, and then there is a more rock-driven format culling the decade’s best rock and roll.
"It seems like the rock-based format is the most viable in most of the markets that we looked at," says Warren Kurtzman, vice president of Coleman and author of Coleman’s report.
"The one I have the biggest concern about is the middle one, where the only common feature is that all the songs are from the '80s. That’s the one I’d expect to take off big from the box and then fade away pretty quickly."
Kurtzman foresees some shifting around within the format, with the '80s music bleeding into other decades.
"There are styles of '80s music that are more compatible with '70s or '90s music than with other '80s music. I expect to see more stations take a '70s-'80s approach, or an '80s-'90s approach. I don’t think the pure '80s approach is going to last," says Kurtzman.
Projections are not terribly rosy for the format’s long-term survival, at least as it’s constituted now.
Coleman finds that the four stations that have been around for at least a year experienced an average 31 percent drop in share from their first Arbitron books to their fourth.
The drop was steepest between books three and four, where the four stations lost an average 21 percent of their share.
Of the 20 stations Coleman surveyed, only three held shares above the average for the market’s top 10 stations.
The format’s quick ascent raises questions about the future of the manifold oldies-type formats that have popped up over the last decade.
"I’d guess that we’ll see more fragmentation. Ten years ago, an oldies format meant one thing: a '60s-based station. Then we got Classic Hits, centered on the '70s. Now we’re seeing a new incarnation based on the '80s," says Kurtzman.
If it is to succeed, the '80s format will have to shake off the perception that it is simply riding a fad.
"I think the guys that aren’t performing well are looking for new formats that they think have an edge. But when you explore and then fall on your face, you could hurt yourself badly, especially in this market," says Nass.
Nass predicts that it will be another half-year before we know whether an '80s format is viable or not.
"It will be two books; that will tell us whether this has a life expectancy or not, and how long."
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Listening
totals for '80s format |
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| Format |
Average number of listening occasions per week: |
Time spent listening per occasion: |
Total time spent listening per week: |
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Alternative |
6.4 |
0:58 |
7:08 |
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CHR/Pop |
6.2 |
1:00 |
7:16 |
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Rock |
6.1 |
1:02 |
7:38 |
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Classic Rock/'70s |
5.6 |
1:11 |
8:08 |
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Hot AC |
5.5 |
0:58 |
6:25 |
|
'80s |
4.7 |
1:09 |
5:30 |
| Source:
Arbitron, based on survey of seven stations with '80s format during
all of fall 2000 survey: KSTJ-FM, Las Vegas; WXST-FM, Columbus, OH;
WMLL-FM, St. Louis; KYPT-FM, Seattle-Tacoma; KVMX-FM, Portland, OR;
KXPX-FM, Denver-Boulder; and WXXY-FM, Chicago.
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Top '80s
artists for the week |
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U2 |
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The Police |
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The Cars |
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John C. Mellencamp |
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Journey |
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Madonna |
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Prince |
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R.E.M. |
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Pat Benetar |
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Duran Duran |
| Source:
Mediabase 24/7, '80s Hits Artist Chart, reported by Arbitron
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Demographic composition of '80s stations |
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Listener age |
Percent of cumulative listening |
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12-17 |
7 |
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18-24 |
15 |
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25-34 |
37 |
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35-44 |
25 |
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45-54 |
12 |
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55-64 |
2 |
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65+ |
2 |
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Source: Coleman, based on all 20 '80s stations in top 53 U.S. markets (does not include KSTJ, Las Vegas) |
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Performance index of all '80s stations |
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Station |
Index |
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WXCD/Chicago |
54 |
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WXXY/Chicago |
33 |
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KIOI/San Francisco |
100 |
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WPTP/Philadelphia |
37 |
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KHPT/Houston |
78 |
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WCMA/Puerto Rico |
90 |
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KYPT/Seattle |
76 |
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KBZT/San Diego |
53 |
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KMSX/San Diego |
43 |
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WXPT/Minneapolis |
74 |
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WMJC/Nassau-Suffolk |
16 |
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WMLL/St. Louis |
73 |
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KXPX/Denver |
78 |
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KVMX/Portland, OR |
123 |
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KCNL/San Jose |
68 |
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WXST/Columbus, OH |
26 |
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KISN/Salt Lake City |
92 |
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WMXQ/Jacksonville |
120 |
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WBZA/Rochester |
54 |
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WPTI/Louisville |
56 |
| Source:
Arbitron, reported by Coleman. Based on data from 20 '80s stations in
top 53 U.S. markets on the air for at least a portion of fall 2000
survey. Index is comparison of each station’s performance to the
average performance of top ten stations in its market.
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April 23, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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Gabriel Spitzer is a staff writer for Media Life.
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