What Classic Hits Added … Then Dropped

As Classic Hits stations push forward into the ’90s, ’00s, and even 2010s, not every song with which they modernize works on the air, even if it’s a song that may have been added to the station as a result of music testing. Every year, this column reports on “What Classic Hits Stations Added” in the past year. But what songs did they decide didn’t fit? For the first time, we followed up to see how those station adds were faring 10 months later.

Every year in that article, some stations add 1-2 songs (if any) for the first time. Others have more sweeping changes, including WOGL (Big 98.1) Philadelphia. Nearly a year ago, that station went noticeably into the early-’00s Hip-Hop and R&B titles that had been the calling card of the Throwback Hip-Hop format, as well as being shared with some Hot AC and CHR stations, especially now as those formats become older and deeper.  

The move followed the successful addition of some similar titles at sister KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles, including “California Love” by 2Pac, which has worked its way up to a 20x-a-week song over the years. K-Earth in particular has used “I can’t believe it’s an oldie” titles from multiple genres, particularly Alternative, to successfully evolve the station over the last decade. 

With songs like Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” already established as a successful multi-format tester, it was inevitable that Classic Hits stations would start to look to ’00s throwbacks, particularly given how the early 2000s are the high-school years for listeners at the younger end of the 35-54 target. But the early ’00s also give Classic Hits more overlap with other formats, including CHR, and any of those titles — whether Eminem or Evanescence — can be provocations for older listeners.

At the 6-plus level, the Nielsen PPM monthlies showed WOGL dropping behind rival WBEN (95.7 Ben-FM) last April and trailing or tied ever since. In the January PPM, both stations rebounded, but WBEN still led 3.6 to 3.3. (The publicly available numbers are 6-plus, which can sometimes hide a success story in younger numbers when a station contemporizes, but a station would also be less likely to retrench if that was the case.) 

There are still a handful of Throwback Hip-Hop titles that remain on Big 98.1: Dr. Dre & Eminem’s “Forgot About Dre” (still 10x a week), “California Love” (8x), Nelly’s “Ride Wit Me” (11x), and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” (11x). Also, the songs that Classic Hits stations decided not to keep come from all genres. Overall, though, the old-school Hip-Hop is less noticeable on Big 98.1 than it was a year ago.

These are the adds from last year that WOGL continues to play:

• Gotye, “Someone That I Used to Know”
• Kelly Clarkson, “Since You Been Gone”
• Lauryn Hill, “Doo Wop (That Thing)”

These are the songs that didn’t receive spins in the two-week period we looked at:

• Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, “Tha Crossroads”
• Dr. Dre, “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang”
• Dr. Dre, “Still Dre”
• Fun, “We Are Young”
• J-Kwon, “Tipsy”
• Lady Gaga, “Poker Face”
• Lumineers, “Ho Hey”
• Luniz, “I Got 5 On It”
• Next, “Too Close”
• 2Pac, “Changes”
• Usher, “Yeah!”

Sister WCBS-FM New York has backed off some titles as well, according to Mediabase. None of the songs first tallied last year — 2Pac’s “Changes,” Nelly’s “Ride Wit Me,” or Pink’s “Just Like a Pill” – were played last week, although there are still about 30-35 2000+ titles overall. The presence of 2Pac in particular was noticeable last year, since WCBS-FM has Throwback Hip-Hop WXBK (The Block) in its cluster.

The songs we reported on last year were titles that had been played for the first time on a given station over the previous year. Depending on when a station had made its last music changes, songs could have been playing for anywhere from a month to nearly a year when we reported them. While there’s no guarantee that particular songs were in regular rotation — as opposed to weekends/features — we did look for songs playing at least 3x a week, according to Mediabase.

This time, we were looking for songs from last year’s article that weren’t played in the two weeks leading up to February 22. Again, no knowledge of a station’s internal music process is claimed here, and it’s possible that the lack of a title could mean it is being temporarily platooned out, not dropped. But it’s also common for a station to pull a song that tested on to the playlist after hearing it a few times, or when there’s a subsequent music test.

With those caveats, here’s a look at what the other stations we reported on last spring had added, and which titles still remain. In a number of cases, stations have added titles similar to the ones not kept, indicating a title-by-title issue, not a genre question. 

Stingray’s CHBM (Boom 97.3) Toronto still plays all the songs we reported last year. Three are alt-leaning: Blink-182’s “All the Small Things,” Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Otherside,” and Sublime’s “Santeria.” The other is Canadian (Souldecision’s “Ooh It’s Kinda Crazy”).

Anaheim’s KOLA Riverside, Calif., is not currently playing Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta,” the one add we identified last year. KOLA has added a significant number of titles since then, including Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life,” Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” and Bruno Mars’s “Locked Out of Heaven.”

Cox’s KONO San Antonio, Texas, is still playing En Vogue’s “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” but not Alanis Morissette’s “Hand in My Pocket” and “You Learn” or TLC’s “Creep” and “No Scrubs.” It has added TLC’s “Baby-Baby-Baby” and Destiny’s Child’s “Jumpin’ Jumpin’” since last year’s article.

iHeart’s KQQL (Kool 108) Minneapolis is also still playing “Santeria” (9x a week in this case), but did not play the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” last week. 

KSE’s KXKL (Kool 105) Denver had one add in last year’s survey, Nena’s “99 Luftballons,” which was still playing 10x last week.

K-Earth 101 kept Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” but not Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold the World” or Offspring’s “The Kids Aren’t Alright.” In addition, two newer versions of existing library songs are gone — Smashing Pumpkins’ “Landslide” and Ataris’ “The Boys of Summer.” (The originals remain.)  Over the last year, K-Earth has added the likes of “Heathens” by Twenty One Pilots and “How You Remind Me” by Nickelback, meaning that there’s no stylistic retrenchment at work here.

Sister KXSN (Sunny 98.1) San Diego also dropped the Smashing Pumpkins cover and Coldplay’s “Yellow.” It continues to play Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” and MGMT’s “Kids” 8x a week. It’s also still playing Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Scar Tissue” and Bob Marley & the Wailers’ “Is This Love.” Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” an add last time, played once.

WAKY Louisville, the successful older-leaning outlet we looked at last time, has undergone a sale from W&B to Randy Michaels’s WAKYANA group, but is still playing the three titles among last year’s adds: 38 Special’s “Hold On Loosely,” the Romantics’ “What I Like About You,” and Bob Welch’s “Ebony Eyes,” which played 4x last week. That song’s continued presence alone suggests that WAKY has not been forced into compliance with Classic Hits law as practiced elsewhere.

Cumulus’s WLS-FM Chicago didn’t play Alanis Morissette’s “Head Over Feet” or Matchbox Twenty’s “Unwell” last week. Again, that’s indicative of subsequent bicycling, not a philosophical change, since WLS did subsequently add “Yellow” by Coldplay and “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” by Train.

Audacy’s WOCL (105.9 Sunny FM) Orlando, Fla., contemporized far ahead of most of its peers, but it wasn’t still playing either the Backstreet Boys’ “Larger Than Life” or Shaggy’s “Angel” when we checked.

Sister WOMC Detroit didn’t drop “Ride Wit Me.” It also kept Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” (8x) and Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated.” It didn’t play Nirvana’s “All Apologies” last week.

iHeart’s WMJI (Majic 105.7) Cleveland, with Adult Hits WLHK (The Lake) next door, has been slow to move even into the late ’80s. It has kept Aerosmith’s “What It Takes” and “Janie’s Got a Gun” and Great White’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” but not Def Leppard’s “Armageddon It.” A few of the other songs we reported on last time — Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to Talk About,” Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis,” and Mr. Big’s “To Be With You” – got one spin. “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” by Tom Petty is currently a 5x a week song.

Beasley’s WROR Boston has been one of the most aggressive stations in terms of adding titles during our last few reports. Nirvana’s “All Apologies” is now a 10x a week song, as is “Come as You Are.” Others that remain are 3 Doors Down’s “Here Without You,” Cardigans’ “Lovefool,” Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open,” “Bring Me to Life,” No Doubt’s “Just a Girl,” “Scar Tissue,” and Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train.” Not represented last week were Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” and George Michael’s “Freedom ’90.”

Press Communications’ WWZY (Boss 107.1) Monmouth/Ocean, N.J., still has the three songs added before former PD Robby Bridges’s departure: “One Love/People Get Ready” by Bob Marley & the Wailers, “Underneath It All” by No Doubt, and Maroon 5’s “Memories.”

As gold-based formats contemporize, there are typically stutter steps involved. Stations back off certain titles that turn out to be provocations, only to readd them several years later, and it’s likely that some of these titles could be back on the same stations at some point. In a future article, we’ll look more at stations venturing into the 2000s and ’10s, how to decide whether your Classic Hits outlet needs to go there, and how to finesse the change.