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At last-great oldies in Albany!

C

ChuckRoast

Over the last few weeks MAGIC 590, WROW Albany, has evolved from standards on weekdays and oldies on weekends to all oldies all the time. These are not the small play list no fifties oldies garbage that WTRY has been plaguing the Capital Region with for years. WROW is playing a variety of oldies including 50’s, 60’s and 70’s with a super new set of jingles. They still play too many sleepers but at least they are all charted hits now. Is it a coincidence that this change came about the time when John Gabriel was let go from Cheap Channel and joined the 590 on air staff? Could he have been a driving force behind this welcome change? Now all we need is to get some Little Richard hits to be played and we’ll have a real oldies station back in the Capital City. I’m still hoping against hope that the station could add a FM signal(like 104.9?)

And for that poster who called real oldies fans “old geezers”, it’s us “old geezers” who still listen to radio not the young Turks who have nothing to do with AM/FM. And we have a lot more money regardless of what those market surveys tout. Don’t be smart. One morning you’ll wake up an “old geezer’ too and you can be ignored.
 
This is great news...WROW is a super station!

ChuckRoast said:
Over the last few weeks MAGIC 590, WROW Albany, has evolved from standards on weekdays and oldies on weekends to all oldies all the time. These are not the small play list no fifties oldies garbage that WTRY has been plaguing the Capital Region with for years. WROW is playing a variety of oldies including 50’s, 60’s and 70’s with a super new set of jingles. They still play too many sleepers but at least they are all charted hits now. Is it a coincidence that this change came about the time when John Gabriel was let go from Cheap Channel and joined the 590 on air staff? Could he have been a driving force behind this welcome change? Now all we need is to get some Little Richard hits to be played and we’ll have a real oldies station back in the Capital City. I’m still hoping against hope that the station could add a FM signal(like 104.9?)

And for that poster who called real oldies fans “old geezers”, it’s us “old geezers” who still listen to radio not the young Turks who have nothing to do with AM/FM. And we have a lot more money regardless of what those market surveys tout. Don’t be smart. One morning you’ll wake up an “old geezer’ too and you can be ignored.
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Perfect time for Magic 590 to go Oldies with 98.3 WTRY being all Christmas. Smart move ABC, now simulcast on 104.9 FM with this great format after Thanksgiving.
 
They do sound good -- great to have a -real- oldies station anytime, but particularly when the alternative switches to (ugh!) all-Christmas. Wonder why WROW hasn't changed their website yet with the new "Oldies Radio 590" slogan; it still looks like a standards station
 
That's an interesting change. WROW's "Magic 590" has been playing oldies for quite sometime, but it's great to see the older oldies format or a real oldies format returns to the Albany area. WGNY's "Fox Oldies" has the same format playing a lot of pre-1964 music on this station on 98.9 on the FM in the HV listening area, but oldies still survives after the demise of WCBS-FM back in 2005, but it will gain some of its longtime CBS-FM listeners to the table. But I hope maybe New York City needs a hole for a real oldies format in the market. I hope maybe soon if oldies should return to New York City at some point, this would be a questionable reason to discuss in the NYC board. In the meantime, if "Magic 590" should rename it, it should call it "Oldies 590: Good times, great oldies". That would be better.
 
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Fox Oldies is picking up no listeners from CBS-FM. It's nowhere near the NYC metro.

The possibility of a "real oldies" format happening on a full market FM in NYC is zero. CBS-FM made the right move by morphing into what it is today. Its ratings and billings prove that fact.

"Good times, great oldies" -- the early 1990s called and they want their slogan back.
 
I've been listening most of the morning --- really nice sound, and a great playlist! I've heard some songs I haven't heard on other stations in a LONG time. I also like the jingles. I hope this goes well for the owners. There are quite a few "real oldies"-type stations popping up. Maybe the radioheads are beginning to recognize us Boomers as the huge, burgeoning demographic that we are. That'd sure be a nice change.
 
luperm said:
Fox Oldies is picking up no listeners from CBS-FM. It's nowhere near the NYC metro.
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How many people in the target audience who grew up with WCBS-FM? Some of them who remembers CBS-FM from back when it first started back in 1972 until the end of its format in 2005 when it became "Jack". WGNY-FM's "Fox Oldies" sounded a lot like CBS-FM circa 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 and the rest are from the Joe McCoy era except during the Bill Brown era. Many people in the Hudson Valley listening area who usually grew up with Cousin Brucie, Bob Shannon, Dan Daniel, Harry Harrison, Dan Taylor, Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Max Kinkel, Marc Sommers, Gary Clark, Norm N Nite, Bobby Jay and the lists goes on and on and on. Does people under the age of 20 wants to listen to "Fox Oldies"? I don't think so. The ratings still never showed up in the Spring book, but what's gonna happen in the Fall ratings book? Still the same, zero ratings.

The possibility of a "real oldies" format happening on a full market FM in NYC is zero. CBS-FM made the right move by morphing into what it is today. Its ratings and billings prove that fact.
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Like I said, New York hasn't had a "Real Oldies" format since CBS-FM flipped to "Jack" in 2005. WMTR in Morristown still has an oldies format at 1250 AM and it continues to impact NYC and also at night when you can't pick up the station. There's satellite radio like Sirius/XM, Pandora, TuneIn and other devices to get your oldies fix. CBS-FM went to a classic hits format after the ill-fated "Jack" in 2007 playing the right music from the 60's, 70's and 80's. And what's gonna happen a year from now, maybe CBS-FM will add some 90's music to the format. As for oldies in New York City, not at the moment. Look at what WROW is doing at 590, they're playing Real Oldies" than "Fox Oldies" plays now.

"Good times, great oldies" -- the early 1990s called and they want their slogan back.
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I hear some of the sweepers on "Fox Oldies" were they called the slogan which it dates back to the early 90's. But now the slogan is started to get old and tired. Remember WBPM's former "Cool 92.9"? That's the same slogan, and remember "Oldies 97.7"? Same thing. "Fox Oldies " gets tired of using "Good times and great oldies" which is a term for an oldies station back in the early 1990's. why not call it "Motown, Soul and Great Rock & Roll" or "The Greatest Hits of All Time" and not the "Good Times and Great Oldies" tagline. It is dead in the water. Bar none.
 
It;s nice to have a station playing real oldies..the 50's,60's and early 70's. There are a lot us over 55's who welcome this. I wish some underperforming AM or even FM in other markets would consider a true oldies format. Scott Shannon's syndicated channel is good,but even he is adding late 70's songs.It would be nice for, say, the fifth station in a cluster, the least performing would pick up a real oldies format. Kudos to WROW for acknowledging there are listeners over 55.

I find it very hard to listen to most oldies/classic hits stations these days. Too late 70's,80's for my taste,but I'm over 60.so it doesn't matter.
 
I must be in the minority here. I'll still tune in 590 for a bit each day...BUT...I enjoyed them far more with the standards (even though they still have a few here and there) As for that "new" jingle-package...........I have to literally TURN THE VOLUME DOWN between EVERY song just to AVOID hearing those awful things!! WHY,WHY,WHY do they need to be played AFTER EVERY SONG????????????? Please explain why that's necessary. They are the most obnoxious, redundant, lengthy, segue-destroying pieces of audio I've ever heard! About 4x an hour would be sufficient.

All I can say is, I'm so glad we still have 1190 WSDE/Lite 94.3 since everyone else who USED to do standards in this area has jumped ship. So please.......Ed Sherlock, DON'T change your format!!!
 
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