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.
GREAT. Cruis'n around with the top down on my '68, I will now have more to match from an additional classic oldies station.
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