By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) The “Songs That Made a Difference” saluted in this article every year are the ones that drive radio’s contemporary music formats in a direction in which they might not otherwise go. This year, with Mainstream Top … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) It’s amazing how happy this made me. We were on summer vacation. That helped. We were driving on a sunny morning from the airport to the first stop. After some punching around, I landed on a … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) They can be easily identified now as the worst musical years in CHR radio’s history, but that’s not how the early ‘90s started out. There was excitement in 1989 when Scott Shannon launched Pirate Radio on … Continued
Forty Years of Genre Burnout, Part II (See Part I here.) By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) It’s thought of as a brief, intense period of Top 40 and rock radio history. It’s usually abbreviated as “hair metal.” And it’s always characterized … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) In September ’83, R&B fans could agree on two things about “Just Be Good To Me” by the S.O.S. Band. It was the record of the moment. And that song’s slow-but-muscular groove was very similar to “Don’t … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) It sits among the many reader comments on CHR’s solid gold summer of 1983: “I’ve always blamed the introduction of dance oriented CHRs like KPWR for part of the decline,” said reader Brian Craig. “That format … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) Week one was the major-market success stories, including the rise of the once-politically-untenable “Cubaton” format in Miami. Week two went for some of the year’s more eclelctic offerings, as well as the online innovation of Spotify Discover Weekly. … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) How much new music do listeners want? For more than a decade, it has been grimly noted that the year’s most attention-getting new formats are usually based in older music, whether Journey and Def Leppard (Adult Hits) … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) The best format story of 2016 happened largely off the radar of most of the industry. The numbers for SBS’ WRMA (Ritmo 95.7) Miami weren’t even cleared for use by the trades by Nielsen until early this … Continued
By Sean Ross (@rossonradio) I can like the hits of 2016 if I think of them differently. I’ve whined enough this year about the lack of tempo, not just at CHR, but at almost every major format. I’ve put a … Continued