What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

[mel]

IBadget, it's clear from your postings here that you like Adult Standards. What exactly are Adult Standards?

Ivan has an Adult Standards Yahoo Group at this address:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/AdultStandards/

Ivan has long been a fierce and loyal fan of that type of music or just about anything else that can simply be described as "old fut" music.... not that it is bad, but in the radio industry it is simply that in our market, the demographic is just not there. The radio stations that have tried this format don't make money aiming at the 50+ audience. Most of the really old people have either died out, are agining baby boomers that grew up on rock n roll (hence classic rock and oldies are still popular), prefer to listen to talk radio (lot of senior citizens call into KHVH and possibly even Perry & Price on KSSK) or too few in numbers. Adult standards florish in places where there is a large retirement community like Florida.

If you look at the ratings of adult standards over the years in Honolulu, the format has been a poor seller bringing in less than 2% of the audience.

What is an adult standard? In the olden days this format would have been either "Middle of the Road" (MOR) which featured music by artists such as Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, etc. Then there was "Easy Listening" music which for a longtime was a mainstay on both KUMU AM & FM. Easy Listening is the kind of music we call "elevtor music", the kind of orchestral music that is essentially watered down versions of past pop hits. We also have big band, some jazz and perhaps even soft rock thrown into the mix.

What KUMU AM had that defined their last foray into adult standards was kind of a mix of all of the above with soft rock by artists such as Barry Manilow, The Carpenters, Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand and others being the predominant artists on that station. They never played much big band or jazz unless it was on a specialty show.

Anyway I don't know if I did a good job of defining what adult standards are because I even asked this question on Ivan's Yahoo Group and don't remember getting a definitive answer. I think through time as populations age, the definition of adult standards will probably change to include perhaps the more popular soft rock and new age artists of our day.... Celine Dion, Enya, Kitaro for example.

[Albert]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Well, KHPR does have that awful hour of Frank Sinatra recordings once a week. Maybe if they didn't start it off with "fly me to the moon" I might be able to listen, and even more if they featured early recordings with Tommy Dorsey, but it's mostly late Sinatra. I'd rather read a book.

[Albert]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Oooops, it's KIPO, not KHPR, which has the weekly hour of Sinatra. Sunday at five in the afternoon, following Michael Lasser's mostly-wonderful "Fascinating Rhythm". Although why I should say anything nice about Lasser after he subjected us to a Doris Day recording yesterday, I don't know.

[pzarquon]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Thanks, Mel, for the explanation. I guess I wasn't aware of the difference between "Adult Standards" and "Easy Listening."

I actually did use KUMU 94.7 as "background music," but I guess by then it was already past "Adult Standards" and in the Muzak-esque phase with only a few named vocal artist pieces mixed in with non-intrusive but unremarkable instrumentals. I remember smirking whenever a synth-string rendition of a rock song would come on. "Hey... isn't this 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'?"

Such a station definitely had a place when businesses needed "white noise" for restaurants or waiting rooms or even restrooms or telephone hold. But at the last place I worked, we quickly gave them up for Oceanic's Music Choice when that became available... why subject our customers to advertising from potential competitors? Sure, it's wasn't free, but you had a wide range of genres, a consistent "feel," and no commercials.

Besides... playing a radio station in your place of business, particularly if it's for customer enjoyment, is likely to run you afoul of ASCAP.

I agree, though, much as the "Adult Standards" genre has a following, I can't see it surviving in a commercial market. I mean, I love showtunes and orchestral sci-fi themes, but I don't begrudge the universe for not devoting a broadcast frequency to it. If the music you like isn't the music that sells, forget radio. There's always tapes, CDs and MP3 players... or even satellite radio, which I've noticed has far more 'granulated,' dedicated genre stations.

[IBadget]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

I too listened to "Fascinating Rhythm" on KIPO yesterday. It was such a joy to hear "It's Magic" by Doris Day and "I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me" by Frank Sinatra on that show.

[mel]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Besides... playing a radio station in your place of business, particularly if it's for customer enjoyment, is likely to run you afoul of ASCAP.

I know this issue came up in our old message board, but I still find it appalling that the publishing companies like ASCAP and BMI will go after businesses just because they have the radio on playing music. Doesn't the airwaves belong to the public, of which business is a part?

But then this would be a topic for another thread......

Yep, listening to elevator music, I always thought it was quite hilarious to hear some muzak version of a hard rock song such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I've even heard a couple of Metallica songs done in a nice, soothing muzak dervived orchestral mix.... too funny.

[Albert]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

"It was such a joy to hear "It's Magic" by Doris Day"

Takes all kinds.

[Albert]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Michael Lasser's weekly hour is really *the* place for "Adult Standards" and last weekend's show was exceptionally good. Songs from the Thirties, the Great Depression, all vintage recordings for a change.

Much as I love Iz, gotta say that Judy's original recording of "Over the Rainbow" rules ... and that Libby Holman version of "Love for Sale" was just wonderful.

[Ty Lee]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Here's my theory.......

Everybody who is old enough to remember Adult Standards since childhood has bought every Time Life collection, Album, CD, cassette tape, coffee mug, biography and so on. And the listener is most likley fed up with todays programming.

TY

[craigwatanabe]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Before the Time Life collections was the Longines Symphonette where the master was half-mastered then stamped direct to disk. Readers Digest had a good selection of Adult Standard music as well. Ah those painful days at the Dentist's office waiting room with the cold AC and listening to KUMU still sends shivers up my spine whenever I hear those old Jackie Gleason orchestrial music then Bill Edwards, "It's a beeeeeuuuuuutiful day in Hawaii Nei today." Those were the days!

[mel]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Wasn't Bill Edwards with KGMB radio for the longest time? I vaguely recall he did mostly the news on that station and of course the weather where he had that tag line, "It's a beeeeeuuuuuutiful day in Hawaii Nei today." I am sure many of our adult standards fans used to listen to Aku on KGMB radio in the mornings. He played a lot of old fashioned music that I cannot recall today.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: What are Adult Standards - Why it's not successful

Aku's sidekick was (I'm spelling it phonically so forgive my ignorance to the language) Akapido Bennington Smyte? Or something like that. Aku did his own news as I recall during the morning drive. He also ran Chicken Man, Benton Harbor and The Story Lady. I managed to archive a lot of The Story Lady cuts and made a CD out of it. For some reason there was a 10-1/2 NAB reel to reel with all the cuts from that series in the KGU archive room. I was given the order to clean up and toss out all the reels. We ended up donating all the jazz albums to KTUH, but I kept two reels, one 5" tape of Aku doing a newscast and the other of course all The Story Lady episodes.

But getting back onto Adult Standards, Aku played a lot of Patsy Kline (?), Doris Day, Dinah Shore, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, (who does King of the Road?) and a host of other's in that era including the Andrew Sisters and of course Bing Crosby.

George Groves aka Granny Goose did either mid days or afternoon drive, but I'm sure Bill Edwards' weather preface was made popular on KUMU. Now Scott Edwards worked at KKUA back in the early 70's.

Those sure were the days back when it was called KGMB AM with the banner of Bob Sevey across what is now the newsroom windows facing Kapiolani BLVD.

One thing I do agree with Ivan is that Adult Standard is a great era for music where a simple melody carried the tune and not the beat, and all music was original and not some redue ripoff. Naleo Pilimehana does a great Andrew Sister's redue though. Almost chillingly accurate in style, and thank God for Don Tiki. Their last performance at the Hawaii Theater had Martin Denny and virtually all of his original band performing for probably his last time. It was an incredable performance.