Blog Does the end of WLTE symbolize the death of easy listening?

Today’s announcement that longtime Lite FM station WLTE will be switching to a Top 40 country-radio format Dec. 26 undoubtedly sent a few dentists’ office waiting rooms into a flurry of panic, but it also raises an important question about the nature of today’s music climate: Does easy listening even exist anymore?

It seems like ages ago now, but only a little more than a decade ago people like Celine Dion and Toni Braxton could score No. 1 hits with dramatic love songs and get massive, broad-appeal radio play with what people used to refer to as “VH1 music.” Take one look at the current charts, and it’s pretty evident that today’s hits are more likely to be determined by teenagers with iTunes accounts and access to their parents’ credit cards than by adults who might like their music to be a bit more mature than LMFAO’s “Sexy And I Know It” or songs by that creature they call Ke$ha.

Would “Unbreak My Heart” even manage to crack the Top 50 anymore? Adele proved this year that the right ballad at the right time can still occasionally grab the nation by its collective heartstrings—but, for the most part, today’s easy-listening music is at the mercy of people like Colbie Caillat, Christina Perri, and other artists who practically make Dido seem dynamic in comparison.

Ironically enough, two of easy listening’s biggest hits in recent years (Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me”) came from country artists who managed to pull off crossover hits. As the majority of mainstream country continues to round off the bulk of its edges, the genre switch that comes with the horrendously titled BUZ’N 102.9 probably won’t even draw much attention to casual dial flippers, save for the few moments a day when Miranda Lambert is threatening to burn her boyfriend’s house down.

Still, the death of WLTE seems like the end of an era, as the station’s lingering existence served as a reminder of a time when Mariah Carey was still the girl next door and every female singer filmed a black and white video in an abandoned castle. If only they had had time to discover chillwave.