Dec 19, 2016 4 min read

It was a very good year. Or was it?

Some final thoughts from the watercooler:

• Other than the presidential election campaign, perhaps the most prevalent discussion in 2016 may have been the wave of music industry deaths. The impact on music fans, I think, was greater because many of those who passed were still-active veteran acts whose careers spanned decades and generations. It’s doubtful anyone was yet labeling Glenn Frey, Prince, David Bowie or Greg Lake as creatively irrelevant. The deaths also sparked a mortality awakening for baby boomers who perhaps thought “the day the music died” were just words from a song.

• Television has inadvertently become its own worst enemy. In an effort to respond to critics of reality programming and to attract attention from social media, many cable channels began or expanded scripted programming to the point where more than 400 new series were on the air or in production this year. The overabundance has resulted in some deserving series canceling each other out, while others have been overlooked entirely. “Eyewitness” found few eyes sampling it on appointment TV-heavy Sunday night. The superb “This Is Us” found an audience mostly because NBC plugged it incessantly over the summer, perhaps at the expense of another new series, “Timeless,” which is struggling in the ratings.

• The litmus test for the fact that TV may be producing too many good series for its own good are the Golden Globe nominees, announced last week. Among the shows nominated are “Atlanta,” “Graves,” “Transparent,” “Divorce,” “Insecure,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “The Night Manager” and “Goliath.” Even if you’ve heard of these well-reviewed series, chances are you either can’t find them among the myriad number of channels or haven’t had the time to watch them.

• TV’s breakout series this year has undoubtedly been “This Is Us,” although many point out that “Parenthood,” which perhaps was a vague footprint for “This Is Us,” was virtually ignored. One big difference, I think, is that “Parenthood” aired at 10 p.m. That’s no longer a viable air time for many viewers. As proof, there’s not one hit network drama currently slotted in that time period. ABC’s “Designated Survivor” is doing well only because a significant number of its viewers watch it on a delayed basis.

• Television also is having difficulty with its 9:30 p.m. comedies. Perhaps it’s the relatively late hour, perhaps it’s the fatigue factor of following three other sitcoms, but “The Real O’Neals,” “The Odd Couple,” “blackish” and “Life In Pieces” do not generate the audiences of comedies that precede them in their respective two-hour blocks.

• It’s not unrealistic to expect that some day soon a network will attempt to adjust its programming forward to 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. If it works – and it just might – the other networks will follow suit. Will anyone watch “Wheel of Fortune” at 10:30?

• This has been a watershed year for classic hits radio, as stations across the country continued hitting the delete button on ’50s and ’60s hits. Most notably in this area, 3WS canceled its “Sunday Night Diner,” which specialized in oldies, and replaced it with old Casey Kasem ’70s countdowns. The trend for classic hits 2017 will be the gradual infiltration of ’90s tunes, with the ’80s – as opposed to the ’70s – becoming the heart of the music mix.

• Expect one other music change as well. In the past, oldies and then classic hits stations ignored teen acts, believing they had outlived their popularity. Not so with ’90s music. Evidently, songs by Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block, among others, are still testing well with audiences.

It didn’t hurt that Beebs – now Mr. Justin Bieber to the music industry – had the No. 1 song of the year.