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80s gone from WBMX

It would appear that Mix 104.1 has finally done away with 80s music, except on Friday nights. Their new branding appears to be "The best mix of the 90s 2000s and now." I believe it was around 1995 or so when they switched from "70s 80s and 90s" to "80s 90s and Today." I wonder why it took them this long to do away with the 80s, and I wonder if Back to the 80s will eventually be replaced with Back to the 90s. It doesn't even sound like they play a lot of 90s music.
 
My observations:

In 2008 while still on 98.5, the logo was modified so that the slogan on the bottom read "#1 FOR THE 80's, 90's & NOW!"

When they made the move to 104.1, the new logo reverted to saying "TODAY'S BEST VARIETY" on the bottom, even though they still used the #1 For Variety positioner on the air. Today's Best Variety was a registered trademark of CBS Radio as of a year ago. If they still hold that trademark, that might be a reason for keeping it in the logo.

I noticed that last week, they began using "The Best Mix of the '90s, 2000s & Now" on-air, yet the logo slogan remains. They have not actually said "Today's Best Variety" on-air in over 2 years.

During last week (excluding "Back to the '80s Friday Night" and the "Retro Pop Reunion"), they only played about 5 songs from the '80s. They were a few Bon Jovi songs including "Livin' On A Prayer" (1987) and The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" (1987). These select few appear to be the only '80s hits that were in rotation last week.

Side grammar note; I am very picky on the use of proper grammar. The use of the apostrophe after the year digits is incorrect. The apostrophe should be before them, as to indicate the abbreviation of the year... (i.e., 90's=wrong, '90s=correct).

EDIT: I forgot to mention... during the WBMX legal ID, the female voiceover is saying "A service of Infinity Broadcasting; a CBS Radio company". I find this very strange. At the end of 2005, Infinity was once again known as CBS Radio. There isn't any current branding references of Infinity with any CBS Radio products, except for one: http://www.infinityradio.com. Strangely enough, all CBS Radio stations are listed, but it shows the Infinity Radio logo. I can't explain this one.
 
A lot of prominent Hot AC's have dropped 80s. Classic Rock, Classic Hits and AC have that nailed down. Just the evolution of the format.
 
Off topic ... I'd bet that you also dislike "73s" in lieu of "73".


Richard J. Cabral said:
Side grammar note; I am very picky on the use of proper grammar. The use of the apostrophe after the year digits is incorrect. The apostrophe should be before them, as to indicate the abbreviation of the year... (i.e., 90's=wrong, '90s=correct).
 
Richard J. Cabral said:
... When they made the move to 104.1, the new logo reverted to saying "TODAY'S BEST VARIETY" on the bottom, even though they still used the #1 For Variety positioner on the air. Today's Best Variety was a registered trademark of CBS Radio as of a year ago. If they still hold that trademark, that might be a reason for keeping it in the logo. I noticed that last week, they began using "The Best Mix of the '90s, 2000s & Now" on-air, yet the logo slogan remains. They have not actually said "Today's Best Variety" on-air in over 2 years...

I wonder if "The Best Mix of the 90's, 2000's and Now" is also a registered trademark of CBS. I guess they have a knack for this practice. They also own the phrase "The Rock You Grew Up With," which is the positioner for Philadelphia's WYSP.
 
Will said:
The 80's aren't gone entirely...they played "Just Like Heaven" 10 times last week and "Livin' on a Prayer" 7 times.

Also played today a couple times was U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (1987)
 
Richard J. Cabral said:
EDIT: I forgot to mention... during the WBMX legal ID, the female voiceover is saying "A service of Infinity Broadcasting; a CBS Radio company". I find this very strange. At the end of 2005, Infinity was once again known as CBS Radio. There isn't any current branding references of Infinity with any CBS Radio products, except for one: http://www.infinityradio.com. Strangely enough, all CBS Radio stations are listed, but it shows the Infinity Radio logo. I can't explain this one.

Okay it's a bit of a stretch, but here's what I see:

Hemisphere Broadcasting was the company that eventutally became Infinity Broadcasting. Their first station was KOME San Jose, then WBCN Boston. Hemisphere became Infinity, which we all know eventually became CBS Radio. However when you go through the FCC ownership reports, you see that the licensee for WBMX (the former WBCN) is listed today as simply "infinity." When you go into the actual ownership report and look at the ownership structure of all the CBS Radio properties, it shows that WBMX is the only station owned by Hemisphere Broadcasting Corporation, a division of CBS Radio Media Corp, a division of CBS Radio Inc > CBS Broadcasting > Westinghouse CBS Holding Company > CBS Corporation.

So! WBMX is the last station that's technically owned by the original infinity broadcasting... why you'd put that in a Legal ID, I have no idea.
 
I know I am being critical, but Fun 107 saying '90s and Y2K actually means all of the 1990s and just the year 2000. I hear them play stuff from the early 2000s beyond 2000 during the noon hour, like Play by J-Lo, so '90s and 2Ks makes more sense.

Mix 22 on XM Radio actually says "The Best Mix of the '80s, '90s, 2K and Today". Personally for Mix 104.1, I think "The Best Mix of the '90s, 2Ks and Now" would sound unique and would make people think :) You can't say "ohs" or "zeros" of course, lol.

EDIT #1: I forgot to add that The Pulse on Sirius XM's slogan is "2000s and Today", so they also say the long two-thousands... well, it's only 3 syllables now... not that bad :p

EDIT #2: Food for thought... what will they say in the year 2110? "The Best Mix of the '90s, twenty-one-hundreds and Now"??? Maybe stations will just temporarily stop using decades in their positioner statement until 2130, when they drop the 2100s from their rotation and it can be "The Best Mix of the '10s, '20s and Now". Okay, I'll shut up now... too much time on my hands this evening/morning. :p
 
OlderRadioGuy said:
Off topic ... I'd bet that you also dislike "73s" in lieu of "73".

LOL... that is correct sir! I cringe when I see or hear it! :) I had to edit this message to add "and hear it", which I do on 2m sometimes.
 
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