CHR Can’t Afford to Become a Time Machine

By Jason Kidd
Programmer, Talent, President/CEO

In some markets—including my own home base—turning on the radio at times can feel like stepping into a time machine. On stations that are supposed to represent the cutting edge of pop culture, we’re suddenly back in 1996, hearing Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack” in regular rotation. In fact, this summer I’ve heard that song more on CHR stations than I remember hearing it when it was new!

It’s not just that one track. I’ve heard Nelly, Eminem, and other 20-year-old songs creeping back into Top 40 playlists. For a format that’s supposed to live in thenow, it’s a troubling trend.

Don’t get me wrong—theme weekends around holidays like Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, or Labor Day are a different story. Fire up a few throwbacks then, especially if your station has the heritage to pull it off, and it can be fun. I’ve done it myself throughout my programming career—whether at WPGC, KQBT, WKST, WWMX, or others. But even then, I always kept things current around those weekends. That’s Branding 101: know your lane.

CHR stations simply don’t have the wiggle room that Spotify, YouTube, or TikTok have. Those platforms are built to showcase a little bit of everything—sort of like a Jack FM station in the digital world. CHR, on the other hand, has always been about one thing: today’s hits from today’s stars. When a CHR veers away from that core identity, it confuses listeners and risks damaging its brand.

In many cases, stations leaning hard into older music are chasing a quick “oh wow” moment. And sure, they sometimes get it—for a minute. But that moment quickly turns into an “oh no.” Too often these stations don’t have a morning or afternoon show that’s entertaining and funny enough to carry the station, so they look for the easy fix. But let’s be honest:old music is not the fix.

It reminds me of companies like Golden Corral, TGI Fridays and recently, Cracker Barrel. They’ve struggled for years to attract young customers, and their “solution” has often been more of the same nostalgia—menu items, branding, and experiences designed for an aging base. The problem? It doesn’t bring in young people, and it doesn’t truly satisfy older customers either. Instead, it reinforces the sense that the brand is stuck in the past.

Radio is doing the same thing when CHR stations lean on old songs to fill holes. The thinking seems to be:“Young people aren’t here anymore, so let’s play something familiar for the people who are.” But this is a fundamental misread.

• Young listeners still want new music. They’re just finding it first on Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube.
• Older listeners who tune into CHR aren’t looking for a throwback—they have Classic Hits, AC, and even Classic Hip-Hop stations for that.

The net effect is that CHR ends up not super-servinganyone.

And let’s be clear: this isn’t about saying an old song cannever come back. There are legitimate moments where a song resurges in a massive way. But just because a two-decade-old track trends online for a couple of weeks doesn’t mean it belongs in regular CHR rotation.

When WOGL in Philadelphia or The Drive in DC (a station I once programmed) are playing the same Eminem and Nelly tracks as today’s CHR stations, you know the lines are blurring in all the wrong ways. Those formatsown that era of music. CHR does not.

The brand promise of CHR has always been simple:today’s hits, today’s stars. The second we compromise that, we confuse the audience and weaken the format. Listeners will go elsewhere—streaming, YouTube, or to a station that knows who it is.

CHR can’t afford to become a time machine. It has to be the format that knows what’s next, not one that relies on what used to be.