Posted on 06/04/2005 11:56:59 PM PDT by Destro
Rock shock: Nation's No. 1 oldies station changes formats
By LARRY McSHANE
Associated Press Writer
June 4, 2005, 2:07 PM EDT
NEW YORK -- It's the day the music died again.
WCBS-FM, the top oldies station in the nation for more than three decades, stunned its legion of listeners by abruptly switching formats this weekend. Goodbye, Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys.
Hello, Duran Duran and Jet.
"I'm sure this move angered and bewildered its listeners," said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio. "A lot of people punched in WCBS-FM, heard Pink's `Get The Party Started,' and said, `Something's wrong with my radio."'
The station switched to an oldies format in 1972, initially as a bastion for the doo-wop sounds of the '50s. Although the playlist changed over the years, WCBS-FM always remained the outpost for classic Top 40 radio in the nation's largest radio market.
It was also the home to many of New York's legendary Top 40 DJs, including "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, Harry Harrison, Dan Ingram and Norm N. Nite. Radio formats came and went _ disco, punk, hip-hop, talk, sports talk _ but WCBS-FM remained unchanged, a warm and welcoming presence at 101.1 on the FM dial.
The station's new format is called "Jack," an eclectic mix of hit music from the '70s through the present. The station's owner, Infinity Broadcasting, made the same format shift Friday at its Chicago oldies station, WJMK-FM, where classic Top 40 had aired for the last 21 years.
There are currently about a dozen stations nationally using the Jack format.
"Youth must be served," Taylor said about the changes. "If you look at a lot of media, older Americans aren't important unless you're selling Craftmatic beds."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
When they degragulated the media industry allowing this consolidation - the ability of one media company to own multiple radio and television and newspapers in one area - it created the horrible conditions we have now - with segments of the population who offer a still viable market like mature adults no longer marketed to and thus their voice no longer matters.
PS: I am not a fan of "oldies" music per say but I liked the idea of scanning and maybe catching an old Beach Boys or Elvis song now and then as I drive.
The first song played on the new 'CBS-FM: "Fight for Your Right" by the Beastie Boys.
This has been a popular topic lately:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416494/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1416590/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1416408/posts
If they get rid of my mom's oldies station, no advertiser will ever reach her again. She gave up on country when it stopped being country, and she gave up on TV long ago. She has hundreds of CDs with all her old favorites.
The only thing she would need would be news and weather, and my dad can pull those off the Internet.
We have a brand new oldie station in Bakersfield...'60's. I hope it lasts: It's wonderful.
Oh man, you gotta be kidding me. I live in NYC and have listened to this station for years, only because it`s a hell of a lot better than listening to the results of the MTV holocaust from 1981 on that destroyed all music as we use to know it. Well now it`s the American Idle holocaust, as if the MTV one wasn`t bad enough.
They gotta be kidding me, as if there isn`t enough crap stations out there. Freggin` infinity, I remember when they switched formats on K-Rock to grunge around 1994 and I said to myself, they will be playing this crap for the next 10 years, and sure enough, here we are 2005 and they`re still playing "Jeremy spoken" by those idiots who named their band after the gay slang for jizz on bread. Oh what genuises.
Man, radio today is a nightmare from hell, I don`t know how these disc jockeys can take it. As if playing the same stuff over and over and over isn`t bad enough because of payola, they also play the worst crap ever recorded. I was driving yesterday and turned it on and right off the bat they had the current Milli Vanill clone, Ashlee Simpson warbling and that`s all I could take. Click to off.
Yeah, and I can imagine the second name that goes with that.
I pressed my preset for WJMK on Friday and heard Duran Duran, followed by Guns N' Roses, then followed by The Fixx.
Not bad tunes, but definitely not what I had expected to find. Now I'll have to find a different source for oldies when I'm in the mood. Perhaps an iTrip for my iPod?
I own a an iPod but what is an iTrip?
It's a cool FM transmitter.
http://griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/
Again - not my kind of music but 'corporate' and 'consolidation' have destroyed the medium of radio.
Oh for turning it into a radio - cool - works only for FM? no AM version available?
I'm not aware of an AM version -- it would probably require way too much power.
Heh - Where in the world did you hear that?
The story I've always heard is that 'Pearl Jam' is named for Eddie Vedder's aunt (or grandmother) Pearl's homemade jelly.
"The first song played on the new 'CBS-FM: "Fight for Your Right" by the Beastie Boys. "
I hate "screaming" songs. I have young adults in my family; the agreement is they can listen to whatever they want in the car with me as long as there is no screaming or profanity.
If I turned on my oldies station, and heard the Beastie Boys, it would be like getting hit with a cold water balloon. I'd sure be ticked.
Sounds like another argument for getting XM Radio.
Get her an XM Radio subscription. Terrestrial broadcast is useless except for news/talk radio on AM. Commercial free music radio via sat is the ticket.
Here's where we turn in Chicago for good rock:
http://www.realoldies1690.com/main.html
I have my doubts that any new rock-and-roll has even been created in the 21st century. The genre's dead or close to it.
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
Now, I'm sorry they changed the format for those of you who loved this sort of thing, but I gotta tell you, if I never hear one of these tired, overplayed warhorses again, it wouldn't bother me in the least.
I'm in a mix-CD trading circle at work, where about 20 of us regularly put together CD's of stuff we like and pass them around. Age of this group varies from 25 to 60. As a result I currently have in my music rotation the following:
The BoDeans
Lucinda Williams
Blink-182
Flat Duo Jets
The Mavericks
Reverend Horton Heat
John Hiatt
Bela Fleck
Cowboy Junkies
Show me a radio station that will put together a playlist like that.
By the way, I'm 52 years old.
I have vowed to myself that I'll never get stuck in that oldies rut.
I've seen a few posts from people upset by this situation. Sad, it stinks to lose a favorite station. Personally I gave up on the radio offerings when rap came out (yes, back when (c)rap became prevelant on the radio around 1992. It's been some 13 years now.) I built up my own collection of musical tastes and listen to only talk radio now.
Whats that?
Isn't the band where NPR broadcasts?
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