Not-so-easy listening

On 9 July 1990, Melody FM, a new sound for London's "over 50s" population landed on 104.9 FM.

Initially close to what exists today in the form of Boom Light, Angel Radio or Serenade Radio, I'm not sure a 50 year-old even then would have been overly pleased about being considered within the target audience for a station like that! But tightening demographics is a whole other article entirely.

Shortly after Melody's move to a new frequency, 105.4, it would flip to a more contemporary and economically viable Soft AC format just before joining the Magic network under new owner Emap in 1998.

Over at GMG, Smooth would replace Jazz FM in Manchester and subsequently London in the early-mid 2000s which eventually morphed into an easy listening format that has become synonymous with the Smooth brand.

Except, the Smooth and Magic brands today - as built up by Global and Bauer respectively - stand for something a little different.

Magic

It became noticeable just ahead of going national on D1 that Magic was becoming a little more upbeat. This came towards the end of its days on AM in northern England in favour of a regionally-delivered classic hits format (Metro 2, Hallam 2, Radio City 2, etc) so thinking at the time was that this could be a subtle transition period for the MW network together with a general test of the water.

Just over a year later came the launch of Mellow Magic and Magic Chilled (now Hits Radio Chilled), the former adopting Magic's heritage position and the latter comprising a mix of contemporary chilled pop with 90s & 00s R&B.

This cemented Magic's current position as a more rhythmic pop-based national AC brand, focusing primarily on new wave, power ballads and softer current music. It is described as "the UK's favourite upbeat-optimistic station" - confirmation of realignment if ever it was needed!

I would add, full of warmth and personality to back up that statement. I'm a fan.

In my view, the loveliest way anyone can describe a radio station is “homely” - and it perfectly sums up the feel of @magicfm.

— Harrison RB (@HarrisonRBRadio) December 2, 2021

Oh, and who could forget becoming the first UK national radio station to flip to an all-Christmas format throughout December which has proved popular every year since. The only time of year they’ll play anything by Nat King Cole these days.

Smooth

Of the two, Smooth is the closest to what it once was - a "you're never far away from a power ballad" Soft AC mix - although you're also never far away from an 80s synth or a disco ball.

Once "Your Relaxing Music Mix" - a slogan now carried by its ten-month-old digital sister station, Smooth Relax - the main station has been positioning as "Always The Best Music" for the last two years.

Its latest marketing is skewed towards music icons with George Michael, Bee Gees, ABBA and Whitney Houston taking centre stage in the station’s meta description and stirring memories of Capital Gold’s “Where Legends Live” strapline (now being used by Greatest Hits Radio - with the addition of “On” - and iterations heard on Virgin Radio Anthems).

In conclusion...

The repositioning of heritage Soft AC brands and new station launches just demonstrates how the "older" audiences of today are different and how radio listening is primarily mood-driven - in other words, while it has its place, does research suggest most wouldn't want to listen to something laidback 90% of the time?

It also makes sense, if you're looking for a presenter to put a smile on your face, you're probably also looking for a music mix that does the same job.

I've run the RAJAR Q2 2024 numbers for a few of the main national "chilled" music stations:

• Capital Chill (chilled house and ambient dance): 241k
• Hits Radio Chilled formerly Magic Chilled (R&B and stripped back pop): 462k
• Mellow Magic (traditional Soft AC / easy listening): 443k
• Smooth Chill formerly Chill (ambient / trip-hop): 531k
• Smooth Relax (traditional Soft AC / easy listening): 494k
• Virgin Radio Chilled: (acoustic singer-songwriters): 249k

Together, listening to these stations makes up 4.8% of all radio.

While there is little point in comparing with the mothership Magic and Smooth audiences, given they do not have as much if any heritage to lean on and not as much marketing behind them, it does at least suggest that easy listening is perhaps more niche than it once was.

Has the return of pop saved CHR from an identity crisis?

"Woke up this morning, thought I'd write a pop hit" - the words of Sabrina Carpenter, in 2022, who would go on to have three pop hits at numbers one, two and three consecutively in the UK singles chart for several weeks two years later.

It has been declared many times by many people over many years that pop music is "dead" - whenever new styles appear, or existing genres face a resurgence, within the hip-hop, dance, rock or country scenes - but pop music has never truly died; much like most entities, it has always changed and evolved.

That said, it is true to say mainstream / commercial radio-friendly pop has not always been the thing of the moment - like in the 90s with britpop here in the UK plus the rise of grunge and hip-hop around the world that left CHR / Top 40 radio in limbo, including New York's Z100 which famously flipped format with a mishmash of alt-rock and pop that decimated its audience.

Similarly, the DnB / trance / drill boom of recent years resulted in a noticeable increase in recurrents and even some 15-20 year-old pop hits on certain CHR networks. It's worth noting this repositioning is also a result of the downward trend in hours / TSL (time spent listening) among TikTok-obsessed teens.

Pop is back

When we look at 2024 musically, it's safe to say this has been one of the best years for CHR and Hot AC in a little while - and that's even with the power of TikTok to influence tastes, which will always have the potential to cause problems.

To make matters more exciting, this isn't primarily owing to the likes of Dua Lipa and billionaire Taylor Swift who have still been on-hand to help out. There are new kids on the block (no, not them).

Take a look at the four best-selling songs in the first half of the year, according to Official Charts:

1. Noah Kahan - Stick Season
2. Teddy Swims - Lose Control
3. Benson Boone - Beautiful Things
4. Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso

While you may had heard a couple of those names before this year, through more niche channels or previous fame, not one has enjoyed this level of worldwide chart success until now. Four new pop artists releasing huge pop songs which slip into the aforementioned formats like a hand into a glove.

Why does this matter?

As highlighted by the Z100 story, a radio station needs a focus - and the focus of most radio stations is varied energy / genres (some more than others) under the umbrella of mainstream rhythmic pop.

The current charts are still an important resource to understand what's hot - because you're not testing brand new songs every week - but no music programming decision should be based entirely on data or an algorithm. Sound is king.

If you have access to music research, you'll look at how recurrents / the back catalogue scored and go with your gut (or use your talents - that sounds better doesn't it) as a programmer to establish whether or not a new track complements your most popular songs.

It's when the charts suddenly become an eclectic mishmash (word of the day clearly) of, say, urban, trance and extremely slow or spacey ballads that any "pop" radio station with a new music playlist, in particular those that are known for playing the current hits, are faced with a dilemma over which music policy shift to implement (do you increase recurrents, do you dig deeper and take risks on new pop, do you refocus entirely, etc).

AC is in a stronger position to withstand the change because your core is older songs and your current music playlist is less familiar to the audience and less tied to what the kids are listening to, so you can either play more classics or add suitable new pop non-hits (like Radio 2 and others) and ensure presenters sell them.

Is pop here to stay?

There will always be pop, just as there will always be classical. The question is will it continue to dominate the charts. And nobody has an answer to that because music goes through phases which, thanks to TikTok, are coming and going faster than ever before.

It is certainly promising that 2024 has arguably raised more new distinctive pop stars than any other year in recent times, but whether or not they are the future is yet to be seen.

While this is a good time for any CHR Head of Music, the overriding challenge radio faces is catering for younger audiences who have much shorter attention spans.

Stations all around the world are thriving on TikTok, with reach and engagement through digital platforms now an equally important part of the brand strategy, but how do we ensure we don’t become a victim of our own success?