The reason for my suggestion is that if you're a small operator - especially on AM - you MUST offer something innovative! If you don't, listeners will have NO incentive to flip the bandswitch and tune over to your station! With WLPA and WHYL within relatively easy 'reach', I feel this becomes more of a factor. Moreover, with the artists I suggested, I don't feel the music would be too unfamiliar.What you describes sounds like the original Magic 103 circa 1975 when it came on the air. Music would be too unfamiliar to succeed. Might make for an interesting internet station however.
I completely agree! I might suggest the moniker 'light classic hits'.I think we should avoid the adjective "chicken" when describing WPDC. It's a negative term, associated with someone who is frightened or cowardly.
WPDC's format might best be called "Soft AC" or "Classic AC." Check out the ratings for WDUV 105.5 in Tampa. It's #1 in the ratings by a wide margin, #1 in cume and #1 25-54. The format is the soft hits of the 70s and 80s with an occasional song from the late 60s or early 90s. And there are similar stations in San Diego (KIFM also #1) and Miami (WFEZ, #6). KIFM and WFEZ do play a few current and recent soft hits, but mostly concentrate on softer songs from the past.
As for 1490 WLPA Lancaster, they are carrying the syndicated format "America's Best Music." That also plays soft hits but goes back to the 60s and sometimes 50s. And it also features some Adult Standards from Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Barbra Streisand, etc.
A few posts back, soft rock album tracks were mentioned as a format option. I recall a few years when the format was tried and had some success. Most of these stations positioned themselves as the alternative to album rock radio of the day. The idea was to sound cool, current and such, just like the AOR format. There usually was about a 25% mix of 'hits' or singles, past and present sprinkled in the mix. Emphasis was saying a song was from a certain album, etc. Like AOR, the format tended to have a heavy rotation of currents, many of which would be the hit from the album the top 40 would play in a couple of months. Some stations used the moniker of 'mellow rock'. Many added a late night jazz show, say 10 to midnight, that worked nicely in many markets. Some of the stations had somewhat of a Mother Earth News slant with tidbits of information on things like gardening, alternative power sources and the environment. I suppose the more grassroots, more acoustic-based format better matched the earlier proponents of DIY and Green lifestyle.
In today's world I can't see it working but I'd certainly listen to such a station. The format may have been credited to KNX FM in Los Angeles. I do know the format was syndicated as KORJ in Orange, California utilized the format into the late 1970s. 102.9, billing itself as Magic, opted for the format around the mid 1970s in Dallas/Fort Worth. KAFM in Dallas even had a somewhat similar format at one point in the mid 1970s. It was one of the more long lasting formats on the frequency. Then KRLD's FM, you could count on an annual format change during most of the 1970s when frequently the format was automated.
small AM stations are meaningless & worthless. MANY willl leave the air in the coming years. They
Won't be worth owning & paying the electric bills .
First you haven't the guts to pick a name and post under it. Second, I'll name you Tim just for the hell of it. No doubt some AMs will fail in the coming years, it's been happening. But WLPA has the resources of Hall behind it and WPDC 1600 has the determination of me. Interesting that 4 AMs went music in 2 months time---WHYL came back on 960, WPDC went MOR/oldies, after which WLPA went Standards w/ a satellite, and 1400 in Hbgnow has Nash on it. The more music on AM the better. I am proud to be in the forefront of the renaissance!