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The new 102.9 DRC

MarcB

MarcB

Having an open mind I sampled the new 102.9 DRC this morning for 20 minutes. In the 20 minutes I listened there was only one song I knew - the "LOLA" song. I won't be listening to 102.9 DRC anymore. It's sad that for the first time in 25 years I have to change the radio station. Yeah I've been a DRC listener on and off for 25 years.

P.S. Their website now forwards to a GO DADDY page that hasn't been set up yet.
 
"It's sad that for the first time in 25 years I have to change the radio station."

Who are you kidding, that happened seven years ago when WXCT flipped.
 
A friend of mine from Newington is spearheading a "Bring Back The Big D" Facebook group. :)

After listening to his comments and the songs they're now playing, he's right. It's now basically WPLR-FM North. He said that come July 22nd, their on-air DJs will come from the studios in Connoisseur studios in Milford. :(
 
Yeah, I thought I was listening to PLR 30 some years ago this morning. The jock even sounded like "The Litch". It was great when I was home wearing my headphones with the volume at 11 of 10 and writing papers for college. Now, not so much. I'll give them another week on my kitchen radio, but I'm already listening to DirectTV music while on my main computer. So far I'd say the music is so so, too many "album" songs. The jock provided one story during the time I listened.
 
Wow. How right folks are. In Hartford we have WCCC, WHCN, and even WAQY with WPLR all playing the same stuff. We need another station with this format like we need holes in our heads. The only difference is that the so called NEW DRC sounds so small market it makes me want to hurl. There's no ties into the history of DRC on the air - its true saving grace. I'd compare this to watching an old sports star going down the dumps. Both are sad to see tank. I'd rather have seen the Big D go dark than to see it suffer this. We'll know the true results when we see WRCH #1 by a landslide.

Btw; where in Hartford will folks go for Elvis, Earth Wind & Fire, and others? To paraphrase the Buggles:
Connoisseur killed the radio star.
 
They have nowhere to turn for those acts in Boston, either, since WODS went Rhythmic CHR. WROR plays much the same music as the new WDRC-FM -- no Elvis, no R&B, no disco, no lighter pop. I guess that even though those artists and many others were popular at the same time the music we now call classic rock was, suddenly nobody wants to hear them anymore. An early-'80s Rolling Stones hit is fine, a early-'80s Earth Wind & Fire hit is not.
 
They should have tried Urban AC, similar to NYC's WBLS and the new WNBM. The only Urban AC in all of New England is WYBC and their signal is spotty north of New Haven county.
 
ansky212 said:
They should have tried Urban AC, similar to NYC's WBLS and the new WNBM. The only Urban AC in all of New England is WYBC and their signal is spotty north of New Haven county.
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Urban AC a tough sell, as it lacks the crossover appeal in the mostly white suburbs that hip-hop and soul/Motown oldies have. WYBC pounds into New Haven proper and that's all it really needs to do, because that's where most of its audience is. 102.9 is too big a signal to be used on a format that will only get strong numbers in Hartford and Waterbury.
 
WDRC!!! What are you doing!!!! killing yourself seems to be what your doing.Just heard that mike stevens ,floyed wright, ROCKEN RON my favorite!! and winters got canned.Very verry bad day indeed.Where rocken ron goes I will follow!!
 
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This was not a bright move. Now WDRC sounds like five other stations. I may be missing something, but CBS FM is doing well, KRTH hit the #1 spot in LA and WOGL in Philly is solid as well. These are success stories, so why are stations moving away from classic hits? WDRC was doing well and had the format all to itself. Maybe the demos will be lowered a bit, but is it really worth it?
 
benale said:
This was not a bright move. Now WDRC sounds like five other stations. I may be missing something, but CBS FM is doing well, KRTH hit the #1 spot in LA and WOGL in Philly is solid as well. These are success stories, so why are stations moving away from classic hits? WDRC was doing well and had the format all to itself. Maybe the demos will be lowered a bit, but is it really worth it?
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They seem to actually be playing MORE '60s and early '70s songs than they were before the changeover: old Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Led Zep, etc. Even "Oh, Pretty Woman" got a spin tonight. More '90s too, to be sure, but I have a gut feeling that the median year of all songs played is probably somewhere in the late '70s, just as it was before Monday morning. So is this an age demo reducer? I don't see it. What they may be going for, though, is to lose some of the female demo to get more of those hard-to-reach 25-44 males, the same demo targeted by sports talk, to listen. Dumping "I Will Survive" and "Your Smiling Face" for "Whole Lotta Love" and "Walk This Way" might accomplish that.

I get an odd, uneasy feeling when listening to this new DRC. I think it may be a mental association with waiting uneasily at the garage, not knowing how much my car's latest repair is going to cost, while the mechanics in the work area have WAQY cranked up. Classic rock is to auto repair shops what AC is to dentists' offices.
 
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I can get 102.9 DRC FM from an empty parking lot next to a small abandoned factory building on Peck Hill Road in Johnston, RI. Peck Hill, at 500 feet is one of the highest points in Johnston, 8 miles west of Providence. You have to be parked at just the right position or angle to get it clearly over 102.9 WPXC from Cape Cod. I would often stop there to listen to listen to DRC FM because they played the best mix of 60's, 70's, and 80's including a lot of Motown, soul, and disco, which I really like. From the same spot I can also get 100.5 WRCH, 101.3 WKCI, 102.1 WAQY, 105.9 WHCN, and 106.9 WCCC clearly all the time. Southern New England is becoming ClassicRockHits-Ville. In RI, I can get 105.7 WROR in Boston, B101 (101.5) in Providence, and Cool 102 (101.9) in Hyannis (tower in Falmouth) and they are all mostly classic rock hits. The one station that comes close to the what DRC FM used to be is 98.9 ORC FM in Worcester (tower in Dudley, MA). The play a nice mix of 60's, 70's, and 80's pop, soul, disco, and Motown. It can be heard well in northeast CT and northwest of Route 295 in RI. I am sure 98.9 WORC will be getting a lot more listeners from northeast CT.
 
Does anyone think WHCN would tweak their format? Not sure how the Clear Channel classic hits sound. As for DRC its to bad CBS couldn't buy it as they program classic hits well plus would fit well with already owning WRCH.
 
radiolives said:
Does anyone think WHCN would tweak their format? Not sure how the Clear Channel classic hits sound. As for DRC its to bad CBS couldn't buy it as they program classic hits well plus would fit well with already owning WRCH.
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CBS dumped classic hits for CHR in Boston. Actually, the station I hear that most resembles the DRC of a few years ago is Clear Channel's WTRY in the Albany area. They're still playing a lot of the late '60s/early '70s music that DRC ditched in the past year. Unfortunately, their playlist is much shorter than DRC's ever was, so it's not what we'd want to hear on a station here.

I just don't get the "conventional wisdom" that nobody wants to hear softer pop, soul and disco anymore. All three coexisted comfortably with rock on Top 40 radio through the '70s and most of the '80s. I remember listening to it all, seldom changing the station. These aren't bad songs that PLR For Dummies is playing -- some are actually longtime personal favorites -- but knowing that yet another staple of classic rock is going to be played next ruins my favorite part of the oldies/classic radio listening experience: the variety of musical styles present on hit-oriented radio during those decades.
 
The reason for this station is that WDRC-FM is starting to play song that are not exactly pop and upbeat disco hits, it only plays a lot of classic rock stuff like the one that WBPM started to adjusted it since 2007 or 2008 when the format tweaked to go after its rival WPDH.

In the Hudson Valley area, WGNY-FM's "Fox Oldies" played a lot of songs as well as a lot of pre-1964 oldies like Elvis, Lesley Gore, Connie Frances and a few doo-wop songs thrown in. This is why I don't listen to "Fox Oldies", because the station sounds bad. Van Ritshie, Buffalo Bob and Joe Manglass sounds terrible and lots of voice tracking which sounds a lot bad along with Bob O. Bad jocks. So I ended up listening to WROW's "Magic 590" in Albany and it sounds way better than "Fox. Oldies" and I hope it does succeeded.
 
CTListener said:
I just don't get the "conventional wisdom" that nobody wants to hear softer pop, soul and disco anymore.
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Well, here in NYC we had a new station sign on last week - Radio 103.9 WNBM. They are playing mostly slower/softer R&B. But obviously the demographics of Central CT are different and may not support this type of music as much as NY/NJ area.
 
But River 105.9 could always tweak if they decided to. But doubt they would. Don't see anyone else trying to fill the new void. CBS isn't going to flip any stations.
 
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