How Old Should an Oldies Station Be?

Here in the United States we recently went through a period where oldies stations were being shut down in large numbers. Several of those stations, like WCBS in New York, were legendary stations in major markets. Several were owned by Infinity. And several oldies stations were flipped to the Jack format.

What I was told at the time by programming people with connections, including inside Infinity, was that oldies stations were being shut down because “advertisers don’t want a 45-54 audience”. As a proud member of this suddenly ancient demo, I took personal offense. I pointed out that I, at least, have a lot more money to spend now than when I was 20. But over and over I was told that this lack of interest in the 45-54 demo was fact. One consultant put it like this: “So many managers have told me this that it must be true”. Even programmers within the Infinity organization insisted that this was fact.

We already know that radio sales departments don’t want to hear about our under-25 numbers. If anybody over 44 is also unwanted, yikes! We are all destined to fight it out for 25-44. Not a small part of the population, but hardly big enough to sustain dozens or more stations in a market.

Jack is definitely a “35-44” format, with a secondary strength in “25-34”. So when it works, it would seem like an answer to Infinity’s problems. All the new “adult variety” formats seem to be attempts to create 35-44 friendly oldies stations.

So why do I bring this up now?

I’m bringing it up now because I had an opportunity to talk to a real live Infinity manager. I suddenly remembered this topic, and asked him about it. I wondered aloud why I was no longer a viable advertising target.

And here is the interesting part. He had no idea what I was talking about. As he explained: Infinity, and other companies, are every big as interested in and able to sell the 45-54 demo as they are interested in and able to sell the 35-44 demo.

I believe he was sincere. He doesn’t know how programming people got the idea that Infinity or any other radio group or advertisers had a problem with listeners age 45-54.

So what is the problem with oldie stations? Simply, each year, they are becoming more and more 55+.

Are the managers talking to the programmers? I swear, there are a lot of programming people running around fearful of the 45-54 demo now. They believe that the advertisers don’t want 45-54.

How did they get this idea? I don’t know, but it is widespread.

And this has an effect. Maybe some oldies stations didn’t need to be blown up, just to shore up the 45-54 demo. The less musically “active” 45-54 demo probably doesn’t need 1,500 song libraries like those offered by Jack/Bob/Hank/Max… stations. They probably do need more news, information, and more companionship from their station of choice.

In the United States, Classic Rock has a huge head start in terms of 45-54 men. Perhaps a smart programmer could figure out how to mutate that format just enough to make it female-friendly, without destroying the male appeal.

The lesson?

Perhaps there are two:

1. Managers and programmers within even the largest and most successful companies need to do a better job of exactly defining the problems and what would constitute acceptable solutions. If increased 45-54 would do it, don’t allow people to mistakenly think they have to drop the oldies age target by 20 years.


2. There is untapped programming potential out there. Perfect the ability to retool an aging oldies station to stabilize the 45-54 numbers, and then increase them (and don’t sabotage yourself by worrying about 35-44). You’ll be very much in demand.

With the leading edge of baby boomers just hitting 55, the 45-54 demo will be very hot for the next several years.

What do you think?