Bias against prog on classic rock radio?

[Digital_Man]

here in the NYC area we got Q104 which plays classic rock.
the only problem is they play the same 3-5 songs from the same bands over and over.
if they play Yes- it's either Owner. Roundabout or Seen All Good People.
Pink Floyd- something from The Wall & DSOTM only.
with ELP- they will only play Lucky Man, Still You Turn Me On and Father Christmas at Christmas time... and maybe FTB.
it's annoying because i can usually predict the song they will play when they announce who's coming up.
Billy Joel- it's always Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Piano Man and Captain Jack
Queen- BoRap, WeWill/We Are, Best Friend & Another One Bites The Dust.
except for PF, ELP & Yes, it's very rare they play any prog...

Even though I used to live in NY(a long time ago) I'm not familiar with that station although it does sound familiar. WNEW used to be good when it was around. WPDH(out of Poughkeepsi NY) is still around but is a typical hard rock/classic rock staion and very similar to WZZO out of Bethlehem. But all these rock stations are all pretty much the same these days(especially the classic rock stations). Also, I'm sure these stations still play the Moody Blues, Jethro Tull and RUSH. While you might not put them in the same prog boat some people do.

[Trane]

Hey! Ronmac! Leave that song alone!

Don't misunderestimate people's desire to hear the same handful of songs over and over again... Radio stations research this stuff. Their goal is to make people "brand loyal" to their station. They don't want you touching that dial once you're tuned into their station. Radio listeners are not the avid music listeners that die hard collectors are. Their comfort zone is very narrow indeed. Give them what they want when they want, and you can squeeze in a bunch of ads in between. That's radio. It hasn't been about the music in a long time.

I'm lucky that I no longer work with a radio person, but I used to have a colleague who'd put the radio on a Lite Rock station here all...day...long....Used to drive me insane because I knew that she'd never make it through 1 song of the music I listen to but she expected me to deal with Beyoncé et al on a daily basis. I could tell you what time it was within 2 minutes because of what song they were playing. She never tired of it. In her world, a song was good because the radio station was plugging the shit of it. She didn't have the foggiest notion that her musical universe was merely a grain of sand in a desert...

Yup, indeed lots of marketing go in this, and there is a need to be filled.

Belgium has a severe linguistic issue, but the State-owned French-speaking Classic Rock station gets a lot of audience in the northern Flemish part of the country (who don't see the point in setting one up in Dutch language), even if some 40% is either "rockier chanson française" or French rock >> Telephone, Ange, Trust, etc...

They just fill a need to listen to "classic rock" stuff.

[GuitarGeek]

Around here, we get:

Yes: pretty much all of The Yes Album, except Clap and A Venture, and all the actual songs on Fragile, except South Side Of The Sky (and when they play Long Dinstance Runaround, they typically include The Fish as well)

ELP: Lucky Man, From The Beginning, Karn Evil First Impression Part Two, and occasionally Fanfare For The Common Man (though usually it's just the actual Aaron Copland composition, not the endless jam that it segues into)

Genesis: I've heard Squonk and I Know What I Like on classic rock radio

The thing you have to remember is that if you start getting too weird with the programming, you start losing listeners. It doesn't matter how big a given band was, or how many platinum records they had in 1975, or which arena or stadium attendance record they broke during said era, today you have to stay conservative. If you start playing something with a weird time signature that you can't tap your foot to or dance to or whatever, people are gonna start tuning over the "not too hard, not too soft" station (or even worse, to the local WAVE outlet, though lately, it sounds like the WAVE is actually playing legitimate rock music now).

[Progbear]

Genesis: I've heard Squonk and I Know What I Like on classic rock radio

The oldest Genesis tune I’ve ever heard on commercial radio is “Follow You, Follow Me.” And that’s obscure.

The only Yes song any station around here anyone ever plays anymore is OOALH. Even “Roundabout” has been completely dropped from any and all playlists.

[Trane]

The oldest Genesis tune I’ve ever heard on commercial radio is “Follow You, Follow Me.” And that’s obscure.

The only Yes song any station around here anyone ever plays anymore is OOALH. Even “Roundabout” has been completely dropped from any and all playlists.

They played The Knife last Sunday on the Belgian-state-owned Classic 21

But then again, the radio's director is the drummer of Machiavel - Marc Ysaye

[Digital_Man]

The oldest Genesis tune I’ve ever heard on commercial radio is “Follow You, Follow Me.” And that’s obscure.

The only Yes song any station around here anyone ever plays anymore is OOALH. Even “Roundabout” has been completely dropped from any and all playlists.

Well back in the eighties I would hear "squonk," "I know what I like," and the title track to Lamb and other stuff(even things like "Firth of fifth" and "watcher of the skies" in Philly(and to some degree in NY when I lived there) and also most of the old YES stuff from TYA and Fragile. I would even occasionally hear some KC. However, I don't remember ever hearing VDGG, Nektar, Camel, Renaissance, Gong or Gentle Giant on the radio(although I have heard people say on here that they have heard them on the radio in the seventies). The only Focus tune I ever heard was "hocus pocus." I did hear some Marillion at one point though when they were sort of popular.