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Format change welcome when oldies get old
Chicago Tribune ^ | 6/9/2005 | Eric Zorn

Posted on 06/09/2005 8:26:32 AM PDT by Mike Bates

I get cloudbursts on a sunny day

When it's warm outside, I'm all cold and gray.

I guess you'd say

What can make me feel this way?

"My Girl."

Not talkin' 'bout my girl Johanna. Talkin' `bout "My Girl" the song--the mid-1960s Temptations' hit that, like so many classic oldies, now causes me to cover my ears or lunge for the buttons on the car radio.

It was a pleasant and catchy enough ditty the first 20 or 30 times. But thanks largely to the unrelenting 21-year effort of those who programmed WJMK-FM (104.3), "My Girl" and several hundred other hits completely wore out their welcome in my brain.

Not that they're bad songs or that I don't admire the artistry in many cases. It's just that I don't ever want to hear them again.

So I led the cheering online for the dramatic format shift at WJMK, where last Friday, Infinity Broadcasting chained up "The Unchained Melody" and other familiar '60s and '70s chart-toppers.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: classicrock; lbfca; radio; wcbs; wjnk
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Interestingly (at least to me), the Tribune today has a full-page ad from Sirius Satellite Radio. It starts: ATTENTION FORMER 104.3 FM LISTENERS

Michael M. Bates: My Side of the Swamp

1 posted on 06/09/2005 8:26:32 AM PDT by Mike Bates
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To: Mike Bates
One of the reasons Ipods are so popular.

You can Just Walk Away (from) Rene, or if you don't want to hear (Its) The Same Old Song.

2 posted on 06/09/2005 8:30:28 AM PDT by Semper Paratus
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To: Mike Bates
"Unchained Melody" maybe a moldy oldie, but everything is better when Clay Aiken sings it.
:)

3 posted on 06/09/2005 8:37:51 AM PDT by MaryFromMichigan
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To: Mike Bates

We need some JACK here in Cincinnati.


4 posted on 06/09/2005 8:40:56 AM PDT by GoBucks2002 (MSM now stands for "Muslim Sympathizing Media." http://yankeered.blog.com)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: Mike Bates

Eric Zorn,
The same guy who is moved by Aaron Paterson and thinks that Bernadine Dorn is a great American, now that is a real spokesman for the Average American - who by the way reads the Chicago Sun Times: pencil-necked geeks from the lily-white liberal suburbs get the Trib.


6 posted on 06/09/2005 8:44:02 AM PDT by Pat79thST (Pat79thSt. - Irish arthritis - I get stiff in a different joint every night!)
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To: Mike Bates

Unfortunately, most oldies stations restrict their playlists to about 300 of the most popular songs of the 60's and 70's, thus digging their own graves. I love R & B music from the 50's and the 60's and in my youth in Pittsburgh I'd listen to Porky Chedwick or Terry Lee precisely because they were NOT playing top 40 R & B music. In addition, if you listen to conventional radio, you're more likely to tune into a commercial than a song while dial-surfing.


7 posted on 06/09/2005 8:45:36 AM PDT by NRA1995 (Exactly when did enforcing immigration policy become vigilantism?)
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To: Pat79thST
pencil-necked geeks from the lily-white liberal suburbs get the Trib.

Pat: You rang? :)

8 posted on 06/09/2005 8:46:52 AM PDT by Mike Bates (Irish Alzheimer's victim: I only remember the grudges.)
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To: Mike Bates

MB,
Nothing irritates me more about commercial radio than "classic rock" formats. All that means is the same 100-odd songs over and over and over and...

If they were truly "classic", that is, old(er), they'd have alot more Ramones, Iron Maiden, or Otis Redding than the latest Hootie record.

Feh.


9 posted on 06/09/2005 8:49:06 AM PDT by Gefreiter ("Are you drinking 1% because you think you're fat?")
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To: Semper Paratus

If I had money to throw away, I'd buy a radio station and play "It's the Same Old Song" over and over.

Some goofball radio station in Columbia did that with "Macerena" in 1996. It was nothing but "Macarena," all of the time. I could have changed the channel, I know, but I was drawn to destroy my sanity for some strange reason.

To this day, I can still hear the "Hiya!" and then the beginning notes start again. I hope they're doing that to Saddam.


10 posted on 06/09/2005 8:49:16 AM PDT by scott7278 (Before I give you the benefit of my reply, I'd like to know what we're talking about.)
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To: Mike Bates

Et Tu Bates?


11 posted on 06/09/2005 8:50:17 AM PDT by Pat79thST (Pat79thSt. - Irish arthritis - I get stiff in a different joint every night!)
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To: scott7278
To this day, I can still hear the "Hiya!" and then the beginning notes start again. I hope they're doing that to Saddam.

I think Saddam deserves all Barry Manilow, all the time.

12 posted on 06/09/2005 8:51:03 AM PDT by Mike Bates (Irish Alzheimer's victim: I only remember the grudges.)
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To: Pat79thST

Zorn is a complete tool, but he does have a point about the old 104.3 station. It had a really small playlist, and one does get sick of hearing the same songs over and over again, even if they are really good songs. I never understood why an oldies station had to restrict itself to so few songs. It basically had three decades (50s, 60s, 70s)worth of music to use, which is more than most stations do. Why not have more variety?


13 posted on 06/09/2005 8:51:39 AM PDT by sassbox
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To: Mike Bates

Where have all the oldies stations gone, long time passing?
Where have all the oldies stations gone, long time ago?
Where have all the oldies stations gone, long time passing?
They've changed formats to crappy newer songs.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?


14 posted on 06/09/2005 8:52:47 AM PDT by WinOne4TheGipper (<a HREF="http://www.democraticunderground.com">Fruits and Nuts</a>)
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To: Mike Bates

Spinkle in some 'Feelings' and 'Raindrops'. First time I ever heard 'Feelings' was in a Carol Burnett show skit and thought it was something they made up just for the skit because it was so bad.


15 posted on 06/09/2005 8:57:54 AM PDT by connectthedots
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To: Mike Bates

Seems to me like almost ALL the FM stations have very short playlists. And too many commercials.


16 posted on 06/09/2005 9:02:05 AM PDT by cvq3842
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To: connectthedots
Spinkle in some 'Feelings' and 'Raindrops'.

Don't forget Runaround Sue.

17 posted on 06/09/2005 9:02:16 AM PDT by Mike Bates (Irish Alzheimer's victim: I only remember the grudges.)
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To: Mike Bates
I think Saddam deserves all Barry Manilow, all the time.

Yikes!

18 posted on 06/09/2005 9:04:02 AM PDT by scott7278 (Before I give you the benefit of my reply, I'd like to know what we're talking about.)
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To: scott7278
Yikes!

The Yikes is because it's cruel and unusual, correcto?

19 posted on 06/09/2005 9:05:07 AM PDT by Mike Bates (Irish Alzheimer's victim: I only remember the grudges.)
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To: Mike Bates

Mmm hmm.


20 posted on 06/09/2005 9:06:27 AM PDT by scott7278 (Before I give you the benefit of my reply, I'd like to know what we're talking about.)
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