I’m Officially Done With WCBS-FM - My Thoughts and Memories of the Station.

[davideduardo]

I just checked out several lists. It definitely seems that no performer born in Mexico has had any impact on the charts here. All the "usual suspects" were born in this country or, as in Perez's case, another country that isn't Mexico. Hard to believe!

Shows you how marginalized Hispanics were, particularly in the Southwest. In the East, however, you had Puerto Rican musicians mixing with jazz artists in New York City and creating salsa with their brothers from the Island. And in Miami, you had many exiled Cuban artists and musicians, converting that city into a center for the recording of Latin artists from all over South America. By the 70's, there was a profusion of garage bands, including Miami Sound Machine.

 

[ThePowerCow]

Some NPR stations still do radio theater. Prairie Home Companion was based on that idea. So is the Grand Ole Opry on WSM.

Be cool if WSM would do an oldies show one night.

 

[Tibbs4]

Kinda hard to be upset with you for being sad and a bit angry after reading what you said. Scott being your pal says it all. THAT is radio. That is why radio should be special and different. Its become more distant. I think we all get that. We try to not be that way. Very touching. Hopefully we will touch on more of his career. Pretty cool. Someone here in Nashville from the old WMAK says asked me today if he could be considered the Walt Disney of the airwaves. Maybe a big accolade and a touch out there, but he sure captured one guy’s heart on here. I’ll take that.

 

[davideduardo]

Kinda hard to be upset with you for being sad and a bit angry after reading what you said. Scott being your pal says it all. THAT is radio. That is why radio should be special and different. Its become more distant. I think we all get that. We try to not be that way. Very touching. Hopefully we will touch on more of his career. Pretty cool. Someone here in Nashville from the old WMAK says asked me today if he could be considered the Walt Disney of the airwaves. Maybe a big accolade and a touch out there, but he sure captured one guy’s heart on here. I’ll take that.

The real authors of the immense WMAK success in the late 60's and early 70's were PD Joe Sullivan and GM Jerry Adams as well as George Mooney himself. They created the environment that allowed people like Shannon to prosper and grow.

 

[Yabadabado1]

Shows you how marginalized Hispanics were, particularly in the Southwest. In the East, however, you had Puerto Rican musicians mixing with jazz artists in New York City and creating salsa with their brothers from the Island. And in Miami, you had many exiled Cuban artists and musicians, converting that city into a center for the recording of Latin artists from all over South America. By the 70's, there was a profusion of garage bands, including Miami Sound Machine.

Brings up sort of an interesting question. Even though they basically speak the same language as America [sans Quebec], Canada had CANCON, requiring that radio stations in Canada play 20%-30% of music from Canadian artists [which gave us some god-awful covers of hit songs from USA artists re-recorded by Canadian artists]. Now, even though they mostly speak Spanish in Mexico & other South American countries [sans Brazil] does Mexico, etc have a content content requirement for their stations or they don't really have to worry about it because of the language difference?

 

[davideduardo]

Brings up sort of an interesting question. Even though they basically speak the same language as America [sans Quebec], Canada had CANCON, requiring that radio stations in Canada play 20%-30% of music from Canadian artists [which gave us some god-awful covers of hit songs from USA artists re-recorded by Canadian artists]. Now, even though they mostly speak Spanish in Mexico & other South American countries [sans Brazil] does Mexico, etc have a content content requirement for their stations or they don't really have to worry about it because of the language difference?

The only nation in Spanish speaking Latin America with free radio that has content requirements is Venezuela. The quotas for Venezuelan artists were imposed by the Chávez regime, along with the confiscation or closing of TV networks and radio stations.

Mexico has no language or origin requirement for music, and none of the other Spanish language nations where I have worked has music origin, language or content rules (I never programmed or worked in Cuba or Nicaragua).

However, there is an intangible reward for supporting local artists. I won a "Martín Fierro" award in Argentina (their own combined Oscar-Emmy-Grammy award) for creating the first local rock station that only played Spanish language rock by only Argentine artists. That, and $5, gets you a mate* at a nice location in Buenos Aires.

* Before you think this is a euphemism for something nasty:

Mate or maté[a] (/ˈmæteɪ/) also known as chimarrão or cimarrón,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(drink)#cite_note-3 is a traditional South American caffeine-rich infused drink. It is made by soaking dried leaves of the yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis), in hot water and is served with a metal straw in a container typically made from a calabash gourd (the mate proper), but also in some areas made from a cattle horn (guampa). ​

 

[Marcos_C]

Be cool if WSM would do an oldies show one night.

Classic country on WSM, yes; oldies, no.

 

[ssetta]

What’s gonna happen to the syndicated America’s Greatest Hits?

 

[TheBigA]

What’s gonna happen to the syndicated America’s Greatest Hits?

According to this, he continues hosting it, as well as running his oldies format:

Bye, Buckaroos: Scott Shannon's Final CBS-FM Show Leaves 'Beautiful Legacy.'

“Things could go off the rails today,” Scott Shannon warned as he opened what may be the final weekday show in his career spanning five decades, wrapping eight years at

www.insideradio.com

he continues hosting the syndicated “Scott Shannon Presents America’s Greatest Hits” airing on CBS-FM, and programming and voicing his True Oldies Channel, heard on CBS-FM’s HD3 channel, and Steele leaves broadcast radio to focus on her podcast “The Deep 6.”

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

As I am recording the last show with my favorite pal, Scott Shannon from the Blythedale Children’s Hospital, I’m going to talk about why I am done with WCBS-FM along with my thoughts and memories about the station.

After 4 decades of listening to the station, CBS-FM is not going to be the same anymore, everything is different. Now they are playing all 80’s with less 70’s, and then the 90’s, and of course, some from the 2000’s which were not my cup of tea. I’m not a fan of artists that played on the station like OutKast where they played “Hey Ya”, the Black Eyed Peas called “I Got A Feeling” and of course, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” where they played during Scott Shannon’s final week on the show.

I was a CBS-FM loyal listener for a very long time, and now, after Scott Shannon leaves the airwaves today, I’m moving on to another radio station. I will be removing WCBS-FM from my favorites on my Audacy app, and I will be listening to a different radio station instead of CBS-FM.

My parents used to listened to CBS-FM back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and we used to drive around when Bob Shannon was on at the time. That was my favorite memory for me.

I love the oldies, and I love the music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s and I love doo-wop music a lot, and I’m going to listen to “Doo-Wop Drive” with Allan David Stein on WMTR later tonight where they’re playing doo-wop the way that Don K Reed used to played them on CBS-FM every Sunday where he hosted the “Doo-Wop Shop” for 27 years, and I was a fan of Don K Reed.

For decades, we listened to some legendary DJ’s like Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Bill Brown, Bob Shannon, Bobby Jay, Norm N Nite, Dan Daniel, Dan Ingram, Day Taylor, Mike Fitzgerald, Randy Davis, Max Kinkel, Marc Summers, Ed Baer and Cousin Brucie, and of course, Joe McCoy, the then program director for CBS-FM. Those were the good old days. And now, Scott Shannon will be on my list of past DJ’s.

CBS-FM was one heck of a rollercoaster for me after all these years. If you are a longtime CBS-FM loyal listener, there are a lot of stations where you can get your oldies fix. There’s phone apps and Alexa devices where you can listen to like WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5”. The link is down below.

http://albanymagic.com

There’s also WGNY-FM’s “Fox Oldies” if you want to check them out.

Home

Oldies 98.9 Playing the Best of the 50's 60's and 70's

wgnyfm.com

There’s also WLNG if you want to hear them, go check them out.

WLNG - Home

East End's Best Music 92 One

wlng.com

And finally, there’s WMTR where you can listen to the oldies whatever you want, so go there.

WMTR AM - Classic Oldies

Classic Oldies

wmtram.com

And of course, there’s TuneIn where you can get oldies stations from elsewhere outside of CBS-FM. There’s iHeartRadio where you can listen to 50’s music on iHeart 50’s, iHeart 60’s and iHeart 70’s, and then, there Pandora and Spotify as well.

Before I’m going to post Scott Shannon’s last show on WCBS-FM, let’s go back in time to 7/10/72 where CBS-FM kicked off it’s first week on the air as the “Golden 101” where they were playing 50’s and 60’s oldies. I wasn’t even born in 1972 when it first came on the air.

This is just my opinion, but feel free to leave it in the post below. I’m not going to offend by this, and I am recording Scott Shannon’s last show on CBS-FM right now. After his final show, I’m going to post his last show later today, and that would be it for me. I’m not going to listen to CBS-FM ever again.

Thanks for your very informative post. I'm going to switch from KRTH 101 ( with a very limited playlist, where they play mostly 90's & the same 80's songs every 90 minutes or so). David Eduardo makes a good point - it's a business, and the station needs listeners in the age group that will buy products - not people over 70. Very best wishes to Scott Shannon. 🙂

 

[radio128]

Actually, the station needs listeners who are of the age group most receptive to buy products from hearing them advertised on the station.

 

[TheBigA]

Thanks for your very informative post. I'm going to switch from KRTH 101 ( with a very limited playlist, where they play mostly 90's & the same 80's songs every 90 minutes or so).

Factually there are no songs that get played on KRTH every 90 minutes. There is a group of about 25 songs that get played every 6 hours. There is a group of 100 songs that get cycled out of the playlist every week for rest. The working library is about 550 songs. I didn't count, but it appeared the majority are songs from the 80s.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

Factually there are no songs that get played on KRTH every 90 minutes. There is a group of about 25 songs that get played every 6 hours. There is a group of 100 songs that get cycled out of the playlist every week for rest. The working library is about 550 songs. I didn't count, but it appeared the majority are songs from the 80s.

Factually KRTH played "Billie Jean" and "Livin' on a Prayer" twice last night much closer than 6 hours, because I listened for only about 3 hours. I will listen tonight and keep a playlist with exact times for each song. - Daryl

 

[TheBigA]

Factually KRTH played "Billie Jean" and "Livin' on a Prayer" twice last night in about 90-110 minutes. I will listen tonight and keep a playlist with exact times for each song. - Daryl

I get my information from Mediabase that electronically tracks every play of every song. Billie Jean was played 34 times total last week, once in every daypart: Morning, Midday, PM Drive, Evening, Overnight. That song is one of only 20 songs that gets played that often. Living On a Prayer is also among their Top 10, and it also gets played 5 times a day, once in every daypart. It's possible that it was scheduled towards the end of one daypart, and near the start of another, or there was a scheduling error. I also notice there were a couple of extra overnight spins that aren't accounted for.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

Shocker. KRTH just played Tommy James and the Shondells "Mony Mony" from 1968. 8:34 PM PST 12-18-22. They're really getting retro tonight. I'm tracking these songs and times that they played. 🙂

 

[Greg Goodfellow]

Some NPR stations still do radio theater. Prairie Home Companion was based on that idea. So is the Grand Ole Opry on WSM.

My wife and I just returned from a visit to Nashville, so one of our many stops was at the Grand Ole Opry, and we saw a great Christmas show.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

I get my information from Mediabase that electronically tracks every play of every song. Billie Jean was played 34 times total last week, once in every daypart: Morning, Midday, PM Drive, Evening, Overnight. That song is one of only 20 songs that gets played that often. Living On a Prayer is also among their Top 10, and it also gets played 5 times a day, once in every daypart. It's possible that it was scheduled towards the end of one daypart, and near the start of another, or there was a scheduling error. I also notice there were a couple of extra overnight spins that aren't accounted for.

I believe you. I'm tracking this now, and if I hear songs played double in 6 hours, I'll report it; then we can see if it matches up in Mediabase. By the way, they play "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", heavily, which they are doing ( again) right now. 8:37PM PST.

 

[TheBigA]

By the way, they play "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", heavily, which they are doing ( again) right now. 8:37PM PST.

That song is further down their list. It gets 15 spins a week, primarily in evenings and overnights. Never in AM drive.

 

[AceBiscuits]

Factually there are no songs that get played on KRTH every 90 minutes. There is a group of about 25 songs that get played every 6 hours. There is a group of 100 songs that get cycled out of the playlist every week for rest. The working library is about 550 songs. I didn't count, but it appeared the majority are songs from the 80s.

BigA - can you tell if WCBS-FM is doing similar things with its rotation? There’s a handful of songs that I find almost always play at the top of the hour, the aforementioned “Livin On A Prayer” being one, another being “Don’t You Want Me” by the Human League.

 

[TheBigA]

BigA - can you tell if WCBS-FM is doing similar things with its rotation? There’s a handful of songs that I find almost always play at the top of the hour, the aforementioned “Livin On A Prayer” being one, another being “Don’t You Want Me” by the Human League.

WCBS plays it's top songs half as often as KRTH. While KRTH plays a group of 20 songs 30-35 times a week, WCBS plays its heavies 15-17 times a week. So Living On A Prayer is in that group. That means maybe twice a day, primarily in evenings. Human League was in that group last week. It got 15 spins last week. This week, it dropped way down the list and got a total of four spins. That's how they keep songs from burning out. They vary the number of spins each week.