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KOAI Flips to The Wow Factor

John Sebastian doesn't have to move to program the first station in his new 55+ format.

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/180795/the-wow-factor-debuts-in-phoenix/

That hour was likely to to have been a first exposure to either Coldplay or Keith Urban for any Moody Blues fan who might have been tuned in. Judging from the most recent songs played, there's not much real depth here. It's a Jack knockoff with more country than most. Alan Jackson has been played, too.

BTW, the stream is geofenced, so only folks in the Phoenix market can listen in.
 
That hour was likely to to have been a first exposure to either Coldplay or Keith Urban for any Moody Blues fan who might have been tuned in. Judging from the most recent songs played, there's not much real depth here. It's a Jack knockoff with more country than most. Alan Jackson has been played, too.

BTW, the stream is geofenced, so only folks in the Phoenix market can listen in.

I'm listening online from Houston without having to deal with any geofencing.

I'll withhold judgement on how deep the library is until a few weeks have passed. It hasn't been on the air long enough to make that call.
 
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I'm listening online from Houston without having to deal with any geofencing.

I wonder why they'd extend the streaming area that far out of the home market. I thought the idea was to make sure advertisers on the stream reach only local ears. A Houston listener is just as useless as a Hartford listener to a station with Phoenix advertisers.
 
I can imagine some longtime fans of the station who are not happy with this new format, primarily because of the country songs. Especially since some of the country songs are from the 2000s. This looks like more of a tribute to Sebastian's personal experience, since he programmed country stations in that era.
 
Not much WOW in that first hour. Aerosmith, Journey, Elton John and other bland burned out fare. I guess it's a Juke Box approach with some different genres on shuffle. Same stuff people can get at the local tavern or pub.

Radio really is a desert when it comes to fresh ideas. DULL would have been a better moniker...
 
Radio really is a desert when it comes to fresh ideas..

I don't know any classic hits stations that choose to play some 2000s country songs as part of the mix. Those songs might be fresh to people sick of Journey. Then again, I don't know of many people in this demo looking for something "fresh." If so, why would they want to hear 50 year old songs?
 
I don't know any classic hits stations that choose to play some 2000s country songs as part of the mix. Those songs might be fresh to people sick of Journey. Then again, I don't know of many people in this demo looking for something "fresh." If so, why would they want to hear 50 year old songs?

Sebastian says his format is aimed at 55+ Baby Boomers. That's a very large group of people with different tastes. Some may prefer the Woodstock Era, some British Invasion, Country, etc... It's impossible to be everything to everyone. You end up being "Nothing to Nobody".

Most of this playlist is already in rotation at other stations. Maybe the presentation will be unique in some way, but it's hard to get excited when they plod along a well worn groove...
 
I'm listening online from Houston without having to deal with any geofencing.

I’m also in Houston and listening to the stream. It does not autoplay, however, and it takes a few moments to start once you hit the play button.

Lots of tunes I haven’t heard on the radio in quite some time. Enjoy it while it lasts.
 
Just turned on the radio at home and see that although the RDS still says “TheOasis,” the voiceover says “the wow factor.”
Hmm...
 
I was driving around Phoenix today & had it on tin the car. It was an interesting mix. I heard Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles and a couple other tunes that are rarely played on the radio these days.
I am soooo tired of all the clone 70s-80s stations that play the same crap over & over. I think 95.5 must be required to play "Don't fear the reaper" "We will rock you" and "Blinded by the Light" at least 3 times an hour.

I plan to give it more of a try.
I hope they throw in a few more 60s tunes that the others aren't beating to death.
 
It's something a little different when it comes to terrestrial radio, I'll give it that.

Well, maybe...or perhaps it's a different way to mix and present some of the same songs.

The main difference being the combination of 60s,70s, 80s hits with 90s & 2000s country hits.
 
This reminds me a lot of KCDX, with some really moldy oldies and country added.

It sounds like only one channel is being broadcast, though. As I write this, The Happenings' See You In September is being played, with only half the vocals. The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour didn't sound right, either, and I believe they'd stopped putting the instruments on one channel and the vocals on the other by 1967.

BTW, they're advertising as also airing on KZON 103.9-HD2 as well as on 95.1 and 94.9.
 
This reminds me a lot of KCDX, with some really moldy oldies and country added.

It sounds like only one channel is being broadcast, though. As I write this, The Happenings' See You In September is being played, with only half the vocals. The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour didn't sound right, either, and I believe they'd stopped putting the instruments on one channel and the vocals on the other by 1967.

BTW, they're advertising as also airing on KZON 103.9-HD2 as well as on 95.1 and 94.9.

The HD2 is nothing new. It nominally feeds the translator. (Same for KKFR's 96.1 translator, the nominal parent is KZON HD3)
 
That I'm somewhat excited about this oldies-based station reminds me how the creativity, love and adventure have been SUCKED OUT of terrestrial radio. Was it by design? NONE of us on this board may ever know for sure.
 
That I'm somewhat excited about this oldies-based station reminds me how the creativity, love and adventure have been SUCKED OUT of terrestrial radio. Was it by design? NONE of us on this board may ever know for sure.

It depends. One man's creativity is another's self indulgence.
 
Yeah, the KZON-HD2 broadcast has been there for quite a while.

I’ll give the new format a chance, but so far I’m not feeling any interest.

Of all the 80s-ish stations here in The Valley of the Sun, KOAI is _not_ the one I’d have chosen to eliminate (change the format of).
 
I've listened to the stream, and on my way to work this morning, listened on the radio. The song quality SUCKS. It sounds worse than AM. One song may sound normal and the next song's quality sounds like it was a recording of a recording from an AM station 30 years ago onto a cassette tape. I've never heard Fine Young Cannibals sound so horrible.
 
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