I was thinking the same thing. They're playing those songs now because they were inspirations for current hits. It feels odd to some of us old skool radio nerds because that's not what "Oldies" stations do. It still takes me a minute to remember that Oldies morphed into Classic Hits for a reason. Very different set of rules.
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Big 98.1
- Thread starter AM/FMRAINMAN
- Start date
Those are all 25 year old songs. The format is time shifting to align with the target demo. These are songs that would be familiar to people who are in their 40s right now.
And this right here is among 98.1’s biggest imaging issues. I hear the same thing at work from people in their 40’s and 50’s. So long as 98.1 retains the WOGL calls, they can literally play gangster rap and will STILL be thought of as the oldies station.
I’m not arguing they shouldn’t be played, it’s just been interesting to hear the sound of the station shift while essentially retaining the same format for decades now
The same thing happens to currents-based stations. At some point, people age out of the CHR demo. They want to continue to hear music from a certain period. What happens next is either they go to a classic hits or Hot AC station, or they leave broadcast radio for a custom feed.
I'm in the demo for what WOGL plays now and would rather hear the 70s R&B gold. But I'm an outlier.
Though there is some amusement to me that 98.1 is playing some what are now "old school" hip-hop titles. I guess they're putting the "OG" in WOGL.
That's a great point and it got me thinking (and blew my mind to realize) that a station like Q102 has a completely different sound than it did ~25 years ago, yet I don't feel the same type of "way" over it. It makes total sense for a format to adapt to its current timeframe (unless it's explicitly an era-based format). It does feel kind of a shame that eras of music are essentially being dropped from the airwaves, though in 2025 you're always three taps or clicks away from hearing anything. With most major radio conglomerates in the dire straits they're in, it makes sense to try to achieve maximum profitability with maximum relatability.
I also just heard Ms. Jackson by OutKast and Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars.
I think they removed Friday night 80s and Sunday night 90s…but they basically play this anyway minus 1 and sometimes 2 70s an hour.
I think the 70s are aging out and could see them completely removed by next year.
I think they removed Friday night 80s and Sunday night 90s…but they basically play this anyway minus 1 and sometimes 2 70s an hour.
I think the 70s are aging out and could see them completely removed by next year.
Why in the world are they playing the Gotye song? Way too new for a Classic Hits station. Successful Classic Hits stations typically fall 50 50 men to women. Looks to me like 98 has decided to abandon men for the most part to MGK. Potentially hurting co owned B101 in the upper female demos. Ghetto Superstar peaked at #15 when it was a current. Doesn't make sense to be playing that one unless it tested hugely. And honestly in the current financila state, how much music research are Audacy stations doing today?
Bruno Mars on 981. That is ridiculous. Are they purposely trying to impact B101 negatively? Sure seems like it.
All you folks are focusing on the handful of new songs that you don't like, and ignoring the fact that the station is still playing music from over 50 years ago. Any radio station in any time, including all the legendary AM stations from the 60s, will play songs some people don't like. That's the nature of the beast. No curated playlist is perfect. It is designed to appeal to a demo, not individual, personal taste.
Have to disagree here respectfully. Unless listeners pay close attention to the legal ID (they don't), no one would notice if the station changed its calls. They never use them on-air. If they changed their calls today to WZNQ, it wouldn't make an iota of difference because the only thing that would change for the listener is a half-a-second once-per-hour that no one even notices.
It's because we expect current-based formats to change with the trends, because that's what we've always heard them do. They play what's new, and what's new is constantly evolving. But formats like "Oldies"/Classic Hits, Adult Hits, Classic Rock, etc. have come across as more "stick to the format," so when they make a change, it's super-noticeable, especially to us nerds.
If the Gotye song didn't test well with the demo, they absolutely, positively would not be taking the risk. (After all, when does any large- or medium-market station take risks these days?)
Also, no company (in this case, Audacy) would purposely abandon any chunk of its audience (in this case, literally all the males) to a station owned by another company (in this case, Beasley), unless they are doing a complete format flip.
And we've covered this topic a lot in the past: How a song (in this case, "Ghetto Superstar") performed at CHR when it was released has no bearing on how a completely-differently-formatted station's audience reacts to it literally 26 years later. Also worth noting: Peaking at #15 on a chart of 100 songs is a pretty darn good position!
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I've been thinking of it a bit differently. Audacy owns both B101 and Big 98.1, of course. It became obvious that they had to make B101 hotter and more current, so they perhaps resisted doing the same with Big 98. That didn't seem to be working, so maybe the thinking is, "If we have no choice but to have a lot of overlap on two of our stations, we can lean into that from a sales perspective." To paraphrase an Oldies 98 title, it's not unusual.
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Comparatively, how much overlap is there between WMMR/WMGK/WBEN? Especially as WMGK adds "newer classic rock" titles from Soundgarden, STP, and Pearl Jam...
Also- how small is WOGL's playlist? It feels like every time I'd check in on the playlist in recent months, Green Day's "When I Come Around" always seemed to be recently played, and just over these last few days it seems like "Hey Ya" has been there every time I checked.
Also- how small is WOGL's playlist? It feels like every time I'd check in on the playlist in recent months, Green Day's "When I Come Around" always seemed to be recently played, and just over these last few days it seems like "Hey Ya" has been there every time I checked.
Playlists for radio stations change every week. Even for classic hits stations. The thing isn't the size of the list, but how often certain songs get played. That also changes every week. So this past week, Hey Ya was played 18 times. The week before, it was played 6. The Green Day song was played 19 time last week. But it got 28 spins the week before. So every week is different. No song gets more than 30 spins a week. Compare that to a currents based station where the heavies get 75 spins a week. Whenever people say a station plays the same 25 songs every week, it's wrong.
How much overlap? Once again, it doesn't matter. They each have unique presentations. That's what matters. A radio station is more than a song list. It's an entire package. That's why I say people shouldn't focus on the handful of recent additions when the most played song on WOGL is from 1977.
Not really. Classic hits stations may have songs that rotate for a while and then are rested, coming back again in a cycle with other songs. Still, those songs are on the playlist with just a different rotation than the power categories.
But few classic hits stations today even have twice a year music tests, so the playlists are pretty fixed for 6 to 12 months.
They still play the same library of songs, but they may rest some songs, change rotation levels and the like constantly. One of the issues I always paid attention to was that group of songs that were right on the border, score wise, between a faster and slower rotation category. In many cases, every week or so I'd "flip-flop" a few of those songs up and down between rotation levels. That was my solution, but other PDs may have different and equally effective techniques.
Very true. Even stations with the same "format" will have different size libraries and different rotational and category assignment criteria..
And as I said, it changes every week. I didn't say they are completely unique songs every week. There may be some of the same songs, but in different rotations. There may be a core library that has been tested, and they play a portion of that library every week. But the playlist itself changes and is tracked and reported by Mediabase.
Yes that's what I said.
I'm thinking, is WOGL making changes just for the sake of making changes? It doesn't seem logical.
In April 2022, WOGL relaunched as a Classic Hits station with the moniker "Big 98.1." Audacy also renamed a few other classic hits stations as "Big." WOGL got more uptempo, more white and less 70s. Almost no ballads, almost no dance or rhythmic songs. People on this board remarked it sounds a lot like Ben-FM. The upgrade worked. The station went from around #10 to around #7.
So why the switch now to more rhythmic music and more 2000s? Since the 1980s, Classic Hits stations have concentrated on music that was 25 to 35 years old. If today you are 54 years old, the upper end of the 25-54 demo, your high school years are roughly 35 years earlier. So that's why they play music from 25 to 35 years ago, with a few big hits minus and plus five years.
Why mess with that formula? Especially if Audacy owns an AC station in Philadelphia that is also targeting a similar but slightly younger demo? WOGL is #8 and WBEB is #6.
I have a hard time believing music tests six months ago said WOGL listeners want a rock-leaning classic hits format. Then a week ago, the tests told Audacy that listeners want a 1/3rd rhythmic playlist, including songs that only reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Why re-invent the wheel?
In April 2022, WOGL relaunched as a Classic Hits station with the moniker "Big 98.1." Audacy also renamed a few other classic hits stations as "Big." WOGL got more uptempo, more white and less 70s. Almost no ballads, almost no dance or rhythmic songs. People on this board remarked it sounds a lot like Ben-FM. The upgrade worked. The station went from around #10 to around #7.
So why the switch now to more rhythmic music and more 2000s? Since the 1980s, Classic Hits stations have concentrated on music that was 25 to 35 years old. If today you are 54 years old, the upper end of the 25-54 demo, your high school years are roughly 35 years earlier. So that's why they play music from 25 to 35 years ago, with a few big hits minus and plus five years.
Why mess with that formula? Especially if Audacy owns an AC station in Philadelphia that is also targeting a similar but slightly younger demo? WOGL is #8 and WBEB is #6.
I have a hard time believing music tests six months ago said WOGL listeners want a rock-leaning classic hits format. Then a week ago, the tests told Audacy that listeners want a 1/3rd rhythmic playlist, including songs that only reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Why re-invent the wheel?