Continuing today's theme of 'Trainwreck Radio', I'll give this one a listen.
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Comprehensive List Of Stations Still Airing the Soft AC/Easy Listening Format?
- Thread starter cc333
- Start date
At some point a thread about train wrecks will be needed, but here's more from WVLG, whose DJ right now reminds me of Top 40 DJs from way back when.
"Tainted Love" Soft Cell
"Doctor! Doctor!" Thompson Twins
"Heat of Glass" Blondie
"Think It Over" Buddy Holly
"Big Shot" Billy Joel
"Rolling in the Deep" Adele
"Some Like it Hot" Power Station
"Rock the Boat" Hues Corporation
"Mr. Roboto" Styx
"Waiting for Tonight" Jennifer Lopez
"'65 Love Affair" Paul Davis
"Invincible" Pat Benatar
"Tainted Love" Soft Cell
"Doctor! Doctor!" Thompson Twins
"Heat of Glass" Blondie
"Think It Over" Buddy Holly
"Big Shot" Billy Joel
"Rolling in the Deep" Adele
"Some Like it Hot" Power Station
"Rock the Boat" Hues Corporation
"Mr. Roboto" Styx
"Waiting for Tonight" Jennifer Lopez
"'65 Love Affair" Paul Davis
"Invincible" Pat Benatar
I think you'd enjoy WJMJ Hartford a lot more. Few, if any, rough edges to their approach to soft/standards/oldies 2024-style. Of course, you'll need to sit through at least five minutes of Catholic news or dogma every hour, as the station is owned by a seminary affiliated with the Hartford Archdiocese. What do you think of this hour of music, chimp?
The Whitney Houston song sounds like another train wreck. Other than that it makes a good soft AC station, better than the current America's Best Music.
I haven't listed any last songs played for the two standards stations I have spent the most time on, as standards wasn't specified.
This is a decent playlist, covering softer 70s/80s with some 50s and 60s scattered in (and no oldies station's playlist would be complete without a Beatles record)!
@vchimpanzee I agree, and if I were programming this, I would probably prefer to replace the Whitney Houston song with something softer, but it did top the AC charts for 1987, so it does technically fit the format, even if it sounds wrong and out of place relative to other songs on that playlist.
c
How about a playlist like this:
Wildfire
Michael Martin Murphey
Steal Away
Robbie Dupree
Romeo and Juliet
Dire Straits
I'm Your Puppet
James & Bobby Purify
Rio de Janeiro Blue
Nicolette Larson
Solitary Man
Neil Diamond
Honey
Bobby Goldsboro
Missing You
Diana Ross
Change The World
Eric Clapton
Alone Again (Naturally)
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Daniel
Elton John
I.G.Y.
Donald Fagen
Groovin'
The Young Rascals
Aubrey
Bread
c
Wildfire
Michael Martin Murphey
Steal Away
Robbie Dupree
Romeo and Juliet
Dire Straits
I'm Your Puppet
James & Bobby Purify
Rio de Janeiro Blue
Nicolette Larson
Solitary Man
Neil Diamond
Honey
Bobby Goldsboro
Missing You
Diana Ross
Change The World
Eric Clapton
Alone Again (Naturally)
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Daniel
Elton John
I.G.Y.
Donald Fagen
Groovin'
The Young Rascals
Aubrey
Bread
c
Regarding Whitney, she belongs in an actual soft AC format, but otherwise, this is a thread about stations that resemble America's Best Music.
I don't know about these songs because I'm not familiar with them.
Romeo and Juliet
Dire Straits
I'm Your Puppet
James & Bobby Purify
Rio de Janeiro Blue
Nicolette Larson
The Donald Fagen song was played on WERT when I was still listening to it. It is very much a standards station in what it includes but it does have some train wrecks. And I would probably prefer "I.G.Y." not be included.
If international counts, then you gotta count CMBQ 530 kHz "Radio Enciclopedia" out of Havana, Cuba. A clear channel old school easy listening signal in the US southeast.
There's a very nice 'true' Standards station in the OP's region. KJZY Sebastopol, CA.
Cuban stations haven't used callsigns since the 1960s. There are lists of historic calls floating around here and there, but they have no present-day relevance.
It's just Enciclopedia on 530.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Great song from the "Making Movies" album, which also yielded the single "Skateaway" (which I still play as a Forgotten 45 on The Eighties Channel™).
REALLY??!!?? I thought everyone from the Baby Boomers era knew that one ...
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I'd listen to that, but I'm well outside the saleable demo.
Someone I know, who used to work in Knoxville is on the air there.
About ten years ago, he said he was 52, so he's barely a baby boomer!
That should be "Heart of Glass".
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Unless you want to heat it up to the melting point, of course.I'd consider KAZM 780 Sedona, AZ under their relatively new ownership as a candidate, but it seems like they air more news than music per hour during the day. Some of the songs they do play seem like they were plucked from SiriusXM's "Yacht Rock" channel - maybe even the "Yacht Rock Deep Cuts" online station.
WMST is a local for me. I listen daily here in Central Kentucky.WDEA 1370 actually runs the Local Radio Networks Adult Standards format, not ABM. It's the same format heard on KWXS.
How to tell if a station is running ABM: if you don't hear any live DJs but just liners read by the same female VO artist, you're hearing ABM. If it sounds satellite-fed but has actual DJs, it's most likely LRN. LRN's playlist seems to be bigger than ABM's, both at the older (i.e. Doris Day) and more recent, soft AC leaning (i.e. Expose's "Seasons Change," Mariah Carey's "Hero") ends.
My additions to the list:
WTLO 1480 AM/97.7 FM Somerset KY - LRN Adult Standards (formerly ABM, until they switched last year)
WTLO Radio 1480 AM/97.7 FM
WTLO Radio is home to the long-running buy, sell, and trade program, Dial-a-Deal, and plays music from the 50's through the early 2000's. The Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Bengals, and Western Kentucky University Football and Basketball air on the station. WTLO features When Radio Was and...player.listenlive.co
WCMY 1430 AM/93.5 FM Ottawa IL - LRN Adult Standards with some weekday talk
The New 935/1430 WCMY
KHAR (Gold Rush Radio) 590 AM/96.7 FM Anchorage AK - America's Best Music
Gold Rush Radio | Connoisseur Media Player
Your station for 24-Karat Classicswww.alphamediaplayer.com
WMST 1150 AM/106.9 FM Mount Sterling KY - America's Best Music
KLUX 89.5 FM Corpus Christi TX - Beautiful Music (owned by the Catholic diocese, it runs religion in both English and Spanish on Sunday mornings)
Listen Live - KLUX 89.5
KHOY 88.1 FM Laredo TX - Beautiful Music (like KLUX, also owned by the Catholic diocese)
ChristianNetcast: Stream Not Found LIVE Stream | Listen Online Now!
Listen to ChristianNetcast: Stream Not Found on your computer, your mobile device, in the car, on Google Home and Amazon Alexa!www.christiannetcast.com
I stream WEMP on OnlineRadioBox, and the playlist log is helpful in identifying the music they play, a lot of which I've never heard before. The other day WEMP played a version of "Walk on By" (the Dionne Warwick hit) by '60s British teen queen Helen Shapiro. Considering that her version of that song was never a single (according to Wiki anyway) and that her only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 was a song that peaked at #100, that blew my mind. They're also playing a lot of the Bonneville custom versions of songs I remember from WJOI 97.1 FM in Detroit during its time as a Bonneville affiliate, plus a lot of MOR album cuts that weren't put out as singles (Helen Reddy's "If It's Magic" is one example).
I have to wonder how, or if, WEMP is making any money though. The only time I hear any commercials is during the TOH network newscasts. Other than that, they're virtually commercial free. I guess they're being subsidized by their five sister stations (a Country FM, an AC FM, a Classic Rock FM and AM/Translator combos running Classic Country and Oldies). Enjoying it while it lasts!
Owned by Gateway Broadcasting, they also own 990 WWKY, Winchester while not standards, they play soft AC from the past 5 decades.
I have to go a little farther south the hear WTLO. I'm about 80 miles from them. I do listen to it when I go to Lake Cumberland.
It's funny that they still display the call letters prominently on their website, maybe just for old times sake or an old-timey audience?
XEQR from Mexico City had a Spanish language adult standards/nostalgia format that bordered on easy listening at times, dropped the format, and then returned to in in 2023.
ERTU Al-Moseeka 98.8 from Cairo, Egypt also has an old-school easy listening format. Unfortunately, I can't find a working stream for it, but here's 15 hours recorded OTA from 2022.