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CBS-FM Adjusting Playlist

At least some of them would. The 1961 doo-wop song "Those Oldies but Goodies (Remind Me of You)", which popularized the term "Oldies", wasn't singing about rock'n'roll, which by then was only a few years old. It was singing about the big band and crooner music of the '30s and '40s.

The real question would be "how many of the listeners back then made that connection?" I suspect few or none, and that still wouldn't have made Tommy Dorsey acceptable as a Gold spin in 1961 on a top-40 station.
 
Case in point: The iconic "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang was released August 2, 1979.
I was chatting with another programmer the other day about reggaetón, which many think of as a new phenomenon. Some, in fact, think it is a fad like disco was and not a permanent musical shift.

In fact, in the late 1980's in Puerto Rico there was even a TV station that ran reggaetón videos all day, 24/7. So that genre is approaching 40 years old! And I think we can say that it is not a fad.
 
The real question would be "how many of the listeners back then made that connection?" I suspect few or none, and that still wouldn't have made Tommy Dorsey acceptable as a Gold spin in 1961 on a top-40 station.
As a person who came "of musical age" in the first years of rock 'n' roll, I can say that in 1961 "oldies but goodies" were Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and Elvis, not the bands and crooners.

Since Top 40 radio did not play "oldies" back then, remembering those songs from the 1955, 1956 and 1957 period was definitely a treat.
 
The real question would be "how many of the listeners back then made that connection?" I suspect few or none, and that still wouldn't have made Tommy Dorsey acceptable as a Gold spin in 1961 on a top-40 station.
To a teen in 1961, wouldn't a song like "Rock Around the Clock" or "Get a Job" be considered an "oldie"? As a 13-year-old listening to WRKO's "Million Dollar Weekends" in 1968, "Duke of Earl" and "The Wanderer," from only six years earlier, were very much oldies
 
To a teen in 1961, wouldn't a song like "Rock Around the Clock" or "Get a Job" be considered an "oldie"? As a 13-year-old listening to WRKO's "Million Dollar Weekends" in 1968, "Duke of Earl" and "The Wanderer," from only six years earlier, were very much oldies
And the early adopters of Top 40 were teens and young adults. To them (or "to us" in my case back then) a song that was just one year old was an "oldie". We just had not been taught yet what to call them.
 
To a teen in 1961, wouldn't a song like "Rock Around the Clock" or "Get a Job" be considered an "oldie"? As a 13-year-old listening to WRKO's "Million Dollar Weekends" in 1968, "Duke of Earl" and "The Wanderer," from only six years earlier, were very much oldies

Yes, and that was what Bill Drake used as the basis for "goldens" when he created the "modern" top-40 format at KHJ (and later at WRKO). But, once again, that only worked when you got into the 1960s and are able to use the hits of the late 1950s as gold. In the 1950s themselves, there was no such convenience given the entirely different sound of the music that was part of the immediately preceding era.
 
Yes, and that was what Bill Drake used as the basis for "goldens" when he created the "modern" top-40 format at KHJ (and later at WRKO). But, once again, that only worked when you got into the 1960s and are able to use the hits of the late 1950s as gold. In the 1950s themselves, there was no such convenience given the entirely different sound of the music that was part of the immediately preceding era.
Yet remember that Top 40's did not drop Sinatra and Doris Day when "Rock Around The Clock" came out. They added the "new" artist hits to the playlist, and we still hear... as late as the end of the decade Bobby Darrin with Mack The Knife and Pérez Prado with "Patricia".

Those of us who lived in Cleveland towards the end of the 50's were fortunate to always have three Top 40 stations so when an old-sounding MOR song or MOR artist played on one, we could switch to another station.
 
Those of us who lived in Cleveland towards the end of the 50's were fortunate to always have three Top 40 stations so when an old-sounding MOR song or MOR artist played on one, we could switch to another station.

WABC played Al Hirt, the Sandpipers, and Kyu Sakamoto in regular rotation. Plus Dominique by the Singing Nun. All on a station that called itself "W-A-Beatle-C. The main thing is they were all currents.
 
Also Gloria Estefan no longer plays her music on WCBS-FM and on WLTW 'cause is gone.

The only Gloria Estefan played two songs on the Uforia's Betty radio online are "Si Voy a Perderte" and "No Séra Fácil" (Miami Sound Machine).
 
WABC played Al Hirt, the Sandpipers, and Kyu Sakamoto in regular rotation. Plus Dominique by the Singing Nun. All on a station that called itself "W-A-Beatle-C. The main thing is they were all currents.
And the Carpenters were all over Top 40 radio in the '70s. Roger Whittaker had a big hit. So did Barbara Streisand. It wasn't until the '80s that MOR (AC) all but disappeared in favor of power pop, synth pop and New Wave.
 
Also no longer plays any songs of Rod Stewart, Janet Jackson, Los Lobos' La Bamba, Exposé's Point of No Return, Will to Power, Yes' Owner of a Lonely Heart, Michael Sembello's Maniac, Toni Basil's Mickey and more...
 
Also no longer plays any songs of Rod Stewart, Janet Jackson, Los Lobos' La Bamba, Exposé's Point of No Return, Will to Power, Yes' Owner of a Lonely Heart, Michael Sembello's Maniac, Toni Basil's Mickey and more...

I cannot speak to WLTW as I do not monitor them; however, WCBS-FM has added about 60 songs from 1990 through 2004 (out of a total of just under 300) and those songs are, in my view, the right ones for that period. They are still playing 35 titles from the 1970s, so it is obvious they are widening the range of years. When a CH station does that, they are obviously going to remove the songs with lower scores from testing overall so as not to dilute the turnover time.

In general, a lot of those titles and artists have declined in play, regardless of market. So I do not find this terribly surprising.
 
Also no longer plays any songs of Rod Stewart, Janet Jackson, Los Lobos' La Bamba, Exposé's Point of No Return, Will to Power, Yes' Owner of a Lonely Heart, Michael Sembello's Maniac, Toni Basil's Mickey and more...
I did notice they replaced Rod Stewart's forever young with the original song by Alphaville. La bamba, owner of a lonely heart and mickey were overplayed and I'm glad they took those songs out of rotation for now. Also love that live and let die is back on after a couple years absence
 
I heard the 2Pac version of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" last night. I had to check the station display twice because I couldn't believe it.
 
I heard the 2Pac version of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" last night. I had to check the station display twice because I couldn't believe it.

Sacrilege. Or ironic, if you consider the lyrics and the economic circumstances that may be affecting 2Pac's target audience.
 
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