W.A."BEETLES" C. as Cousin Brucie called it once.
Posted on 06/04/2005 7:45:24 AM PDT by raccoonradio
It was hit the road, Jack, for oldies fans who listen to WCBS-FM radio after the station yesterday ended 33 years of playing rock classics and abruptly axed legendary DJs Cousin Brucie, Harry Harrison and Bill Brown.
WCBS, 101.1-FM on the dial, changed its name to "Jack" and stunned listeners by ditching its tried and true playlist to embrace a new format that features random songs of various styles.
"We're going from 400 to 500 songs to well over 1,200 songs, with less repetition," said CBS-FM vice president Chad Brown, who flipped the switch to the new format at 5 p.m. "This is going to be different than anything else in the market." ...
"I think my audience is going to go out of their minds," said Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, who lost his gig along with former Monkee Micky Dolenz, who celebrated his 100th wake-up show on the air yesterday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
More I-pod inspired radio, and a legendary oldies station is gone. "101.1, WCBS-FM...Newwww Yorrrrrkkkkk...."
WCBS-FM was reminiscent of the Top-40 AM stations of the 60's and 70's. That's where Cousin Brucie and Harry Harrison came from.
This is disastrous.
WJMK Chicago went Jack radio. It's as if my 14 yr.old nephew
controls the radio dial. Annoying.
04:02 PM ROD STEWART Maggie May
04:07 PM BILLY JOEL Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
04:11 PM RAY CHARLES Hit The Road Jack
04:13 PM THE SILHOUETTES Get A Job
04:16 PM CHUCK BERRY Johnny B. Goode
04:18 PM THE COASTERS Charlie Brown
04:21 PM BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Glory Days
04:24 PM CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG Woodstock
04:28 PM FRANK SINATRA Summer Wind
Then a pre-programmed package featuring:
04:35 PM FRANK SINATRA New York, New York (w/ Tony Bennett)
Jack is born:
05:01 PM THE BEASTIE BOYS (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right
05:02 PM EMF Unbelievable
05:06 PM BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
05:09 PM JAMES BROWN & THE FAMOUS FLAMES I Got You (I Feel Good)
05:12 PM ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS Radio Radio
05:15 PM BLACK EYED PEAS Let's Get It Started
05:19 PM BELLE STARS Iko Iko
05:22 PM THE GREG KIHN BAND Breakup Song
05:25 PM NO DOUBT It's My Life
05:29 PM LED ZEPPELIN D'yer Ma'ker
05:33 PM THE ROMANTICS Talking In Your Sleep
05:37 PM C&C MUSIC FACTORY Gonna Make You Sweat
05:41 PM THE ROLLING STONES Ain't Too Proud To Beg
05:45 PM KID ROCK Cowboy
05:49 PM THE OHIO PLAYERS Love Rollercoaster
05:54 PM TOM PETTY Runnin' Down A Dream
05:58 PM THE B-52's Rock Lobster
I'm still scared to turn the dial.
Happening all over the place. In Boston it's WMKK 93.7 "Mike FM". "We play everything" Well, no Muddy Waters or Merle
Haggard or Irish Rovers or Frank Sinatra, but hits of the past few decades...Aerosmith segued with Village People and a taped announcer (who needs DJs?) attempting to crack a joke.
Oldies on the way out, nationally? Or at least they're playing stuff from more recent decades. Notice how many oldies stations stopped playing 50s stuff after awhile? They figured folks who grew up in the 50s are now too old in the "demographics", etc. Ratings were growing stale for some oldies stations, and I guess this is how WCBS-FM responded.
Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge....
Huh! Good point. I hadn't thought of what effect iPods (and for that matter, Sirius/XM) might be having on traditional radio.
Not to be outdone, some other station became a "Jill" format, which is the same strategy, but more aimed at women. So now we have "Jack and Jill" LOL
Harrison and Morrow came from WABC, New York, which helped me get through high school.
W.A."BEETLES" C. as Cousin Brucie called it once.
"WPLJ executive Tom Cuddy said he was "shocked" by the move.
"It's off the map," he said. "It's rap to rock to pop to one-hit wonders. Now there's no oldies station in the world's largest radio market."
"...oldies stations are "changing now at the rate of one or two a month" because they no longer deliver the younger listeners advertisers demand."
(In other words, they're saying, move over, grandpa... So
much for oldies in NYC and elsewhere.)
Remember WMCA? The "GOOD GUYS" with Murry the "K".
Yes, once in awhile there's an "oh wow" song. Something you like that hasn't been played in years. For example Mike 93.7 in Boston dusted off one-hit wonder "Sausolito Summernight" by Diesel (1981) which I think had a great 'hook'.
It is kinda interesting to have a station that plays both rock-based and R&B-based stuff but some folks won't like it;
you're rockin' to Aerosmith and they follow it up with
the Spice Girls or something. Or you're enjoying Abba's
"Dancing Queen" and they follow with Quiet Riot's "We're
Not Gonna take It". But if you like BOTH styles of music...
Aaaaaa bay !
Aaaaaa bay !
Kuwazawazaway !
"...But if you like BOTH styles of music..."
Country AND Western??? :)
It's interesting when a station changes its format with no warning (which is the norm these days). In the late 70s, Boston's WWEL 107.9 and AM 1430 were playing elevation music but one day they re-emerged as "Kiss 108 Disco". That was a bit jarring for the "beautiful music" listeners! (These
days the _AM side_ of what is now WXKS AM and FM has
Air America crap).
Remember the first episode of WKRP in Cincinnatti when
DJ Johnny Caravella (Howard Hesseman) re-emerged as Dr.
Johnny Fever, dragging a needle across a record of
elevator music: "OK Cincinnatti it is time for this town to get down! You've got Johnny--Dr. Johnny Fever--and I am burning up in here, whoa!" And he launched into raucous
rock'n'roll.
But they still had sponsors from their own incarnation,
including 'Shady Hills Rest Home'...
>>"...But if you like BOTH styles of music..."
>Country AND Western??? :)
"Wait a minute, YOU'RE the Good ol'Boys?" :)
(Put up the chicken wire fence...the Blues Brothers
are about to play a little 'Rawhide')
"I'm still scared to turn the dial."
That's exactly how I feel. I feel like a person I've known my entire life has died.
I'm just incredibly sad and upset about this.
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