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An open letter to Tony Harris

W

wibgradio99

Banned
WMGK HD2 has been oldies for over 10 years and there hasn’t been many changes. It’s the same stale 200 titles that Philly stations in the past have been burning out and which usually caused their demise outside of the great WCAU FM which had a great variety. The reason for this post is there are stations all over the country I have been streaming newest WAIZ Hickory NC and some I listed on another post mostly AM with the FM translator playing oldies that shouldn’t even be heard in their very rural areas some only Philly hits and many never been played since they came out these signals boast over 10,000 titles. I don’t understand your on an HD2 you more or less have the freedom to do whatever you want so why don’t you just open up the billboard book and play everything 55 to 75, it’s not gonna hurt and many people that tune in I think would really get a kick out of it. Just my two cents worth. How could a city with great music roots be barren with a good oldies station and have a bunch of dying AMers and these rural areas have great stations…
 
wibgradio99 said:
WMGK HD2 has been oldies for over 10 years and there hasn’t been many changes. It’s the same stale 200 titles that Philly stations in the past have been burning out and which usually caused their demise outside of the great WCAU FM which had a great variety.
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Yes, because HD2 is a failed business model. It is more likely to go away totally, like Club Ben did, than get refreshed.
 
wibgradio99 said:
How could a city with great music roots be barren with a good oldies station and have a bunch of dying AMers and these rural areas have great stations…
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Philly Gold Radio plays a lot of those Philly roots records you’re talking about but they’re online only. The nice thing about them is they play the Billboard Pop songs AND the Billboard R&B songs whereas a lot of Oldies channels tend to focus on one or the other.
 
Those are the songs that test well that everyone likes. The big playlists hit a problem with people not liking a song and going elsewhere. Radio is a business first. Sure, nothing to lose on HD channels but why spend the time on something that does not make money nor secure your position. That time gets spent somewhere and you can bet it will be spent on enhancing what brings in the revenue.

Adding to the playlist is not just adding songs, it's marking fades, applying rules, labeling, selecting categories and such...very time consuming.
 
I don’t think I’ve ever heard any commercials on WMGK HD-2. If I am correct I am surprised (and pleased) it has stayed on the air. Station doesn’t stream so there is no income from there.
 
Lar6434 said:
Wouldn’t you also have to pay more royalties if you had a larger song catalog?
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No. In general, radio operates on a blanked licensing scheme for over the air play. It doesn't matter if a station plays only Yellow Submarine on repeat, or plays every Casey Kasem countdown show from the 1970s, they pay the same licensing rate.

Streaming is a different payment structure, but there is still no extra cost for having a larger catalog.
 
Larry said:
I don’t think I’ve ever heard any commercials on WMGK HD-2. If I am correct I am surprised (and pleased) it has stayed on the air. Station doesn’t stream so there is no income from there.
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I wonder why nobody mentions WRDV. They have been around a long time, and seem to fill the need for Oldies and Standards.
 
It seems they only do oldies on weekends but since they acquired 88.1 they are listenable in all of South Jersey good move.. WMID has been listenable daytime since they moved their signal and went back to 1kw and WHAT is off the air but the great stuff from the 50s and 60s are gone for much updated cuts…
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
No. In general, radio operates on a blanked licensing scheme for over the air play. It doesn't matter if a station plays only Yellow Submarine on repeat, or plays every Casey Kasem countdown show from the 1970s, they pay the same licensing rate.

Streaming is a different payment structure, but there is still no extra cost for having a larger catalog.
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gr8oldies said:
I'm going with no, you still have only so many songs in an hour.
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Makes sense to me. Thank you guys
 
KilowattKat said:
I wonder why nobody mentions WRDV. They have been around a long time, and seem to fill the need for Oldies and Standards.
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They mostly play all Doo Wop on the weekends which has even less mainstream appeal than 24/7 Jammin’ Oldies.

But since you brought them up, my opinion is that they’ve really dropped the ball on the Oldies format. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking them, it’s their station and they can do whatever they want. They were a nice alternative to the Top 40 Oldies stations of yesteryear. The problem is there are no more oldies stations except for VLT which is a rimshot at best. WRDV could have taken the bull by the horn 20 years ago and started playing The Beach Boys, Elvis, Jackie Wilson, classic Motown, Four seasons, early Beatles, etc., you know, the stuff that nobody plays anymore. By doing so they would have increased their audience overnight. But for some odd reason they’ve never gotten away from 80 year old Big Band tunes and obscure Doo wop records that almost nobody knows or cares about.
 
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