So Just HOW Often Does Your Area Classic Rock Station Play Certain Artists?

We know every station hears it from the listeners sometimes..."Hey, you guys play way too much ______!! " But just how much are these particular artists getting played on classic rock stations across the country? One writer for a website called Fivethirtyeight.com has done some research. Not sure how long it took to compile the data, but the author monitored  25 classic rock radio stations from 30 of the country’s largest metropolitan areas for a week last month. It's really no secret that the New York City area loves Billy Joel. But would audiences in other major cities like Detroit or San Francisco necessarily want to hear a playlist dotted with New York State of Mind or Captain Jack as much? Probably not.

From the article

What plays in New York — a disproportionate amount of Billy Joel, for example — won’t necessarily fly in San Antonio, which prefers Mötley Crüe. Classic rock is heavily influenced by region, and in ways that are unexpected. For example, Los Angeles is playing Pearl Jam, a band most popular in the 1990s, five times more frequently than the rest of the country. Boston is playing the ’70s-era Allman Brothers six times more frequently.

The author also goes into the philosophical debate of what is and is not classic rock and what years were the played songs recorded. What years were strongest for classic rock?  Read the FULL article HERE

The 10-year period from 1973 to 1982 accounts for a whopping 57 percent of all song plays in the set. Besides a small trickle of music from 1995 onward — a trickle to which the Green Day song that inspired this article belongs — the last year to make an actual dent in the listings is 1991. That’s largely due to releases by Nirvana, Metallica and U2, the groups that make up the last wave of what is currently considered classic rock.