Posted on 09/26/2005 2:15:20 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Chicago Loses Rock Radio Station To Oldies Format
By Douglas Maher- All Headline News Staff Reporter
September 26, 2005
5:06 PM EST
Chicago,Illinois (AHN) - Rock radio has taken yet another hit on the chin Monday as it loses an important outlet for rock bands in the city of Chicago, what many consider to be a cornerstone city for rock and roll for decades.
ABC Radio flipped the switch at noon Monday for WZZN (94.7 The Zone)/Chicago from Active Rock to Oldies, using the name "94.7 True Oldies." The station will run local programming in morning and afternoon drive and Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel, distributed by ABC Radio Networks, in all other dayparts according to Radio and Records Magazine.
"This move was driven by two factors -- one is that this is a market that's oversaturated with Rock stations, and two is that there was an unthinkable void in the Oldies format," says WZZN President/GM Jim Pastor. "On one side, you've got a city full of rock listeners dividing their interest among five Rock stations, and on the other side, you've got a very large and passionate group of oldies fans who haven't had a station to call their own for several months now. When three of the top Rock stations in town are each generating 12+ shares under 2.0, something has to give. We're incredibly excited about this."
Pastor adds, "We decided that if we were going to do Oldies, we had to do it differently and better than others before us.We'll have a personality and energy missing from all those 'we play anything' formats. This isn't going to be the same 200 songs over and over; this is going to be an extremely large playlist, and we're going to play some of those forgotten favorites that oldies fans haven't heard in many years. Scott Shannon is really one of the best programmers in the business, and his vision of what Oldies should be is dead on. I think he cures what has ailed the Oldies format in recent years."
The format follows a growing trend in radio where many rock stations have become oldies stations, rap stations, and latin/spanish stations overnight with little or no official notice given to the public.
One of Miami's only 2 remaining rock stations went all Spanish 6 months ago. I miss 103.5 WSHE...SHE'S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL! which went rap/disco/alternative/back to rap and who knows what now... K-102 FM and 97.3 GTR...all rock stations in south Florida that are forever gone.
Someone from a state with the highest percentage of illiterates (the great William Faulkner and Mississippi) should be careful about bashing my hometown.
When I was in Mississippi, most folks were kind, warm, and open to a New Yorker such as myself. Surely you jest with such a comment.
If they were smart they would switch to mexican music. When was the last good rock album anyway? Do they even do albums anymore?
In New York City there is Classical WQXR 96.3 FM
Come on now, how many great musicians, recordings and recitals has NY City been home to? Quite a few.
If you wait long enough, Classic Rock Format becomes the Oldies Format...
But the children of the 60s don't want to hear that, do they?
Come on now, how many great musicians, recordings and recitals has NY City been home to? Quite a few.
Oh Ok I was only serious. :>)
" I hear the talking of the deejay, can’t understand just what does he say ?"
In New York City there is Classical WQXR 96.3 FM
Boy that takes a load off my mind. Thanks.
Why would a class-less city need classical music?
That's why those communists played all those marches all the time.
Broadcast radio is a dinosaur. Like the recording business, it is a victim of its own indifference to technology and market development. And, like the recording industry, it deserves an ignominious and inevitable end.
Will they play the telephone song from Bye Bye Birdie?
That's why those communists played all those marches all the time.
Thanks for clearing that up!!
Exactly, who even listens to music radio anymore (of any genre).
You could trace much of the wonderful pop music in the 50's and 60's to gospel, blues and classical roots. Today you can trace pop music to too much television and too little education.
The fact that my 19 year old daughter and 16 year old son listen to "oldies" radio stations says it all...
Satelite radio will be a real competitor too. All types of commercial free music, a lot more sports coverage, variety of talk stations.
I haven't commuted around New York recently, but I did so for many years, and it's definitely going downhill. One of the three classical stations suddenly changed over to rock about ten years ago, with no warning. After 911, the local NPR station dropped its classical music to comment on the terror situation, and they never went back to it.
Finally, WQXR is a classical station, but it's run by the New York Times, and it shows. The New York Times used to have pretty good musical taste, but now it leans toward Romantic and modern classical music or lightweight pop classical. Typical liberal mush. Very little Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Baroque, or the like. In the days when there were three stations, it was the weakest, and it's gone downhill since.
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