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Aug. ratings are out and WCBS takes the lead

Amazing to think that CBS killed 101.1 a little while back for "Jack." Bet they are glad they reconsidered.....
 
Amazing to think that CBS killed 101.1 a little while back for "Jack." Bet they are glad they reconsidered.....

Before the jubilation becomes total, keep in mind that CBS-FM is 5th, not first, in 25-54 and is down over 15% from its June peak.

And, of course, the format that CBS-FM replaced with Jack was "oldies" while the station returned with "classic hits" which is demographically a very different format
 
Amazing to think that CBS killed 101.1 a little while back for "Jack." Bet they are glad they reconsidered.....

Dirty little secret...the music on today's CBS-FM is more or less what they played on Jack-FM...classic hits.
You could say that Jack may have leaned a little more rock and that CBS-FM is straight up classic hits, but it's the same idea...lose the 50s and 60s stuff, and add a bunch of 80s music.
Jack-FM was the right idea -- just poorly executed in the case of WCBS-FM.
 
It was, in part, the Jack "approach" that killed the station. Not the musical approach...the "attitude" of the format. That and the then-managment's total indifference to what the audience thought about it. Also, consider New York is a giant melting pot. You can't get big numbers strictly with a white bread rock and roll format in NYC...not with the current makeup of the listening audience there.
 
Amazing to think that CBS killed 101.1 a little while back for "Jack." Bet they are glad they reconsidered.....

more proof music was just better sounding back in the day.

dear artists of today.. as you write your millionth song about your latest breakup, romance, or struggle...please remember there are other topics to sing about.
 
It appears that WQXR-FM is not on the list this month; is its rating published only a couple of times a year? The WNYC stations are in the book every month.
 

And, of course, the format that CBS-FM replaced with Jack was "oldies" while the station returned with "classic hits" which is demographically a very different format

Aside from the target listener age and average age of the music played being about 10 years younger, what is so different about it? Even a lot of Oldies stations are now playing at least some '80s music.
 


Aside from the target listener age and average age of the music played being about 10 years younger, what is so different about it? Even a lot of Oldies stations are now playing at least some '80s music.

The difference in 10 years means the station appeals to an entirely different demographic, which is why "oldies" is one format and "classic hits" is yet another.

Your question is similar to asking the difference between an AC station and a Hot AC station. Again, the difference is in the demos.

Aside from a few AMs and suburban signals, very few of the rated markets have oldies stations any more. And if a station is playing from the 80's, it is not an "oldies" station anyway....
 
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New York: http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb001
Nassau-Suffolk: http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb321
Middlesex-Somerset-Union, NJ: http://ratings.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb413

August 2013 age 6+ overall publicly released ratings for subscribing stations cover the survey period of Thu. 7/18/13-Wed. 8/14/13.
Next survey period will be September 2013 covering Thu. 8/15/13-Wed. 9/11/13 with the data delivery date being Mon. 9/30/13.

AllAccess.com's August 2013 PPM Ratings Analysis featuring the top 5 (or so) stations in the 25-54, 18-34 + 18-49 demographics
(scroll down slightly for New York):
http://www.allaccess.com/arbitron-p...search-director-inc-presents-exclusive-august
 
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It was, in part, the Jack "approach" that killed the station. Not the musical approach...the "attitude" of the format. That and the then-managment's total indifference to what the audience thought about it. Also, consider New York is a giant melting pot. You can't get big numbers strictly with a white bread rock and roll format in NYC...not with the current makeup of the listening audience there.

The truth is that Jack built up to a better 25-54 performance than the oldies format that WCBS-FM had discarded was generating.

The reason for the change to Classic Hits was the advent of the PPM: CBS management saw how WOGL, after some significant adjustment, was performing in the new ratings system, and believed they had a new measurement overperformer. So they made a second flip on the signal.
 
It appears that WQXR-FM is not on the list this month; is its rating published only a couple of times a year? The WNYC stations are in the book every month.

If the numbers were not on the list distributed to the press, it means that the station was not subscribed for this ratings period or that the site that published the list skipped it by accident.

The publicly released 12+ or 6+ numbers from Arbitron only include stations that subscribe to the ratings service.
 

Your question is similar to asking the difference between an AC station and a Hot AC station. Again, the difference is in the demos.

Not a good comparison, because both AC and Hot AC play current hits... they just pick and choose among those hits differently.

"Classic Hits" is just a nice way of saying "Oldies that are slightly less old". In fact, when the Oldies format was invented in the mid '70s, the music they were playing at the time (late '50s) was less than 20 years old... these days, even Classic Hits plays music older than that.
 
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Not a good comparison, because both AC and Hot AC play current hits... they just pick and choose among those hits differently.

And Hot AC was splintered off of CHR, not AC... while Classic Hits was clearly splintered off of Oldies.

Hot AC was a "hole filler" between CHR and conventional AC; a found opportunity filled by a new format. It's differences involve rotations as well as song selection and the current / gold blend percentages. Quite a few of the most successful Hot ACs transitioned from more mainstream or traditional AC's, including the superstar of the format, KBIG.

Classic Hits may have been a progression from Oldies, but it is not a splintering. As the Oldies demos aged and the top 48 markets hit the PPM era, oldies stations discovered that they needed to be more cume driven as the old long TSL advantage of Oldies had disappeared, along with much of the under-55 listening.

Some stations, such as KOLA, made clean cuts from the 60's. Others gradually killed the pre-64 stuff, and gradually reduced the later 60's while at the same time adding 80's cuts.

So, in most cases, after a transition period, Classic Hits was a substitution for the geezer-appeal of an oldies station.
 


Not a good comparison, because both AC and Hot AC play current hits... they just pick and choose among those hits differently.

"Classic Hits" is just a nice way of saying "Oldies that are slightly less old". In fact, when the Oldies format was invented in the mid '70s, the music they were playing at the time (late '50s) was less than 20 years old... these days, even Classic Hits plays music older than that.

You're right...Classic hits continue to play 60's music, which at one time were considered "oldies" and now, they are considered "Classic hits". Strange huh?

Any song that's 20 years old and older is an oldie or a classic....really the same thing. Today's kids say the music of the 80's and 90's are oldies or parent's music.
 
You're right...Classic hits continue to play 60's music, which at one time were considered "oldies" and now, they are considered "Classic hits". Strange huh?

Not strange at all.

Oldies stations concentrate on 60's. Some may play a bit of the 50's, and some early 70's. The core appeal is 55-65 years old.

Classic hits plays 70's and early to mid 80's, with some later 60's that the 40-54 core is familiar with and likes.

While some 55+ persons will like a classic hits stations, very, very few 40 year olds will like an oldies station..*

* There will be "count 'em on the fingers of your left hand" exceptions, but not enough to make oldies appealing to time buyers today.
 
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