• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Songs WOGL should start to play again

A

atrainradio

Guest
I'll admit that I have not listened to WOGL for years. I used to grow up on a steady diet of WOGL because that is all my mom would have on in the car. I remember the days when WOGL was more resemblant of Ocean City, NJ's WIBG 94.3. If WOGL wants to be the 60's 70's and 80's, then they should maybe start to play the 60's again.

I say the following songs should be thrown back in to their mix.

"Sunshine Superman"- Donovan
"California Dreaming"- Mama's and the Papa's
"Crystal Blue Persuasion"- Tommy James and the Shondels

Sure, I'm not a productions manager, but let's throw in some of the old Summer of 67' tunes. Have some variety for God's sake.
 
WPHT was WCAU. And Julius keeps telling us what they should do.
WOGL was WCAU-FM. And you keep telling us what they should do.
For the past 57 years both have been owned by CBS.
Both you and Julius are way out of each station's target age groups.
Coincidence?

Funny you take your screen name from a New York subway line. Wouldn't something like "MarketFrankfordTrain" be more appropriate?

PS: Production managers typically aren't the ones who pick music.
 
The only times I bothered listening to WOGL the past decade or so was to hear Don Cannon. I worked for the guy once (almost twice) and considered him to be the best morning pop-music show host ever. So I didn't care what he played .... Hooked On A Feeling, Build Me Up Buttercup, Brown-Eyed Girl : The songs didn't matter. I wanted to hear this guy, who had been called -- no offense meant here, Italian-Americans -- 'that egotistical ginney f*** from the Bronx who has the arrogance of talent' by another former PD of mine.

Onliest other time I spent considerable listening to WOGL was on Memorial Day a year or two back, when this gal named The Redhead In The Room did some A to Z countdown. And the only reason I found her and her delightful show on the dial was because the WODE Allentown 99.9 Memorial Day special had been giving the word 'lame' a bad name. In fact, they UPDATED the definition with every passing Bill Idol song.

When WODE was Oldies I once found them to be a terrific car-radio listen during an idle dial spin en route to NYC. But a pal I visited -- a non-radio friend from grammar school -- warned me otherwise. He told ME, the industry geek, that WODE, which put a nice signal into his DX setup in Manhattan, had a short playlist. Vinny was right. En route back to here in NE PA, I heard a lot of the same songs.

Ditto 'Alice' -- WLCE 104.5.
But I managed to figure that one out myself. I thought they were terrific on a car trip to Philly once. The guy doing the 'Alice' voicers was a panic*. But the return trip tore away the facade to reveal WLCE as little more musically than the Foreigner-Of-Your-Life format. It's odd to hear many of the same songs today, on, of all things, WODE -- 'The Hawk' !

But the targeted listeners listen to these stations. Perhaps it's a default thing -- the best of a sordid and indifferent bunch of choices. The only game in town. The station that everyone at work agrees is better than nothing.
Or maybe these programmers know exactly what they're doing, at WOGL, WCBS-FM, WODE, et al.

We non-average-listeners and posters could come up with a thousand songs WOGL should be playing, A-Train. It wouldn't make any difference. We may as well put the list of tunes in a bottle and toss it into the Schuylkill.
 
atrainradio said:
I'll admit that I have not listened to WOGL for years. I used to grow up on a steady diet of WOGL because that is all my mom would have on in the car. I remember the days when WOGL was more resemblant of Ocean City, NJ's WIBG 94.3. If WOGL wants to be the 60's 70's and 80's, then they should maybe start to play the 60's again.

I say the following songs should be thrown back in to their mix.

"Sunshine Superman"- Donovan
"California Dreaming"- Mama's and the Papa's
"Crystal Blue Persuasion"- Tommy James and the Shondels

Sure, I'm not a productions manager, but let's throw in some of the old Summer of 67' tunes. Have some variety for God's sake.
Click to expand...

It's an interesting question, but I would suspect if those songs tested well enough with the trget audience, you'd see them in the roation. It may be a while before they let go of all remaining vestages of the '60s, but the trend is pretty clear, it's trimming them, not adding more. And the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes--the results are solid, as they appear to have stayed on top of what people entering the demographic want from them.
 
No Fred, I get my "atrain" from my nick name from my football team. It is really spelled "A-Train", since my first name is Anthony. I do not get it from the new york train name.
 
Atrain. They actually do play California Dreamin'. I heard this song today. You should be thankful they are playing 3 60s an hour. Pretty much all the other classic hits stations are playing 1 60s an hour tops...so of them 1 every 3 or 4 hours. I do like some 60s music, but am an 80s and early 90s music lover. I respect 60s music, but am in the camp that I wish WOGL would play more 80s.
 
WOGL sucks now. It isnt sure what it wants to be.

It was one of the best oldies stations ever back in the day. Hasnt been the same since changing formats to a greatest hits station.

Thank god I have an awesome oldies station in my area playing mostly 60s with some 50s and early 70s
 
If they want to be successful, though, they are. Quite successful, actually.

Back in the day, they were great for that audience. Today, they're great for the audience that fits their current demographic, as measured by consistently strong results. They've adapted, as any station that wants to be successful over a sustained period needs to be.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Onliest other time I spent considerable listening to WOGL was on Memorial Day a year or two back, when this gal named The Redhead In The Room did some A to Z countdown. And the only reason I found her and her delightful show on the dial was because the WODE Allentown 99.9 Memorial Day special had been giving the word 'lame' a bad name. In fact, they UPDATED the definition with every passing Bill Idol song.

Speaking of an A to Z countdown on OGL.. The day before new years eve they started a countdown of all the hits from every decade I think..top 10 I guess and played them in reverse alphabetical order with the letter in the title of the song I think.. I was at work so had to llsten to this.. from 3 pm to about 4:30 they played every slow and sad song ever made. " Memories by Barbara Streisand ..Karen Carpenter..stuff...oh my god I thought I was going to slit my wrist.. then they played Bee Gees Tradegy.. I thought what an appropriate song to play.. Why the alphabet to organize a play list.. This sucked.. I wrote them an email about it..never heard back...
Click to expand...
 
Right, TGunn. On that Redhead air shift, she was playing things like 'Morning Has Broken'. Not exactly a song designed to get the barbeque crowd roaring off their lawn chairss for a rousing game of badminton.

But as I said, I had tired of the tired WODE ennui, and flipped the radio a few notches. The Redhead herself lit up the room. And, as in the case of Don Cannon, I found myself enjoying her breaks more than whatever music she was issued.

The vast majority of the listeners are tuned in for reasons other than what (I presume) most of the radio posters want or hope to hear. I agree with Bob Eubanks that the syndrome is * working * as far as the desired demos go. My gripe is that only-games-in-town should take more advantage of that prestige. The audience is not going to vanish if the song fits the sound, sonics and energy. Besides, to where are they going to flee ?
 
A good question, Steve. I'd suggest the answer is bigger than the radio dial...however outdated that term may be. :)

Today, at least so far, I'm listening to the stream of a radio station out of Virginia. I happened to find it on a long drive and decided to keep listening from the Philadelphia region. More likely though, Pandora, iTunes Radio, Spotify and a seemingly endless stream--no pun intended--of similar options, not to mention their own music libraries, for those that can't stream. At least one person on my floor has a portable satellite radio receiver/speakers in their office. Maybe some even venture off to WRNB or WMGK depending on their taste. Perhaps even Ben. No one source need see a mass influx--it's death by a million paper cuts.

I think perhaps the mark of a good operation is one that does the best testing--to your point, Steve, identifying songs that fit the sound/sonics/energy, and asking the listeners via solid research. No doubt any of us could rattle off a slew of titles that *could* fit a given station, like WOGL, but much as I might like to hear them, if your audience--in aggregate--tells you a resounding no, for whatever multitude of reasons, does it make business sense to defy that?

I like XM radio in my car. Big fan of the '70s-'90s channels. They seem to dig out a "forgotten hit" once an hour. More often than not, I immediately see why they're forgotten, though some might enjoy them for sure. I hit the button in a matter of seconds and move to the next channel. For XM, it's no big deal...I'm staying in their walled garden But if I exhibit that behavior and leave WOGL for WMGK, CBS isn't quite so lucky.
 
Viper, would that be WVLT? That is one awesome oldies station! Beautiful audio as well! Eq'ued perfectly, and not over compressed!
 
Hey Bob. What station are listening to in Virginia? My favorite years of music are from 1979-1992. I have found a station out of Milford, Delaware called Cool 101.3. They have all requet 80s lunch and when I mean all request...i don't mean the same guys they play throughout the day like WOGL. They go from late 60s to early 90s...but definitely an 80s focus.
 
Hey AM/FM, it's 96.5 WCTG, and I stream it via TuneIn. It's variety/adult hits...kind of Ben Fm on steroids. Covers through today. Though I haven't bothered tryng to analyze a ratio of songs by decade, there's plenty of 70s and 80s. Interesting for a music station of the sort, they run a Westwood One news update hourly as well. Strong local service--I was streaming when the rocket exploded a few months back at the nearby launch facility, and they dumped the regular format to go to talk, on the fly, with residents. And they carry high school football (so skip Friday nights in the fall :) ).
 
Last edited:
Follow up,to AM/FM: I just checked out the playlist for Cool. Looks...um.....cool. Put it on my TuneIn list to check out when I have time to steam for a while.
 
Thank you Bob. I am going to check out the station in Virginia. I think you will like cool. Its pretty good. Here is a CBS classic hits station down in Orlando. its called Sunny 105.9. Check out this playlist http://1059sunnyfm.cbslocal.com/playlist/. This is definitely more my era than what WOGL is. WOGL leans too old for me. I think you will love this station. I play this one all the time in the car.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom