Carter Alan

[THE_VIKING]

Carter Alan is still with WZLX, is he not? He seems to be missing from the WZLX jock page at this moment.

 

[Lucylu]

If he is gone, that would be just about the final nail in that coffin. I like Chuck Nolan, but I don't think he can carry that station by himself.

 

[Mickey37]

ZLX used to be such a great station once. Now I can barely last through two songs before it's time to hit the button.

 

[redbaron]

Carter remains intact.

 

[Lucylu]

That’s good to know. Now, what happened to the Brockton Biscuit? She was the only thing not covered in cheese on the morning show. Please tell me you gave her a show of her own.

 

[jane grant]

what happened to the ZLX website? Staph instead of staff?


http://www.wzlx.com/pages/33501.php

The old one was more functional and looked better. Carter's photo isn't on the Staph page, and Bill Abbatte looks older than Chuck Nowlin

Never heard of Al Cole, but he looks like a cross between Prince/Freddie Mercury/Rocky Horror Picture Show Tim Curry. Face made for radio? Maybe face made for the sequel to Rocky Horror

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

Glad to see that Carter Alan is still part of the WZLX staff. Probably one of the more intelligent jocks around...
As for WZLX in general, their playlist is far too limited/stale. They really need to broaden their scope. For example -
if you play Clapton, DO NOT play Layla, Cocaine, After Midnight, etc. Give those songs a nice, long rest. Overdone - let's hear something else from him. Call it album cuts, deep cuts - whatever. Just something DIFFERENT!

For my money, 92.5 the River is the most interesting station around here these days. They did a thing (last Fall, I believe...) they called Undercover Weekend. All weekend was songs you knew, but cover versions, done by different people. Some worked, some didn't. But it was different and interesting...

 

[THE_VIKING]

what happened to the ZLX website? Staph instead of staff?


http://www.wzlx.com/pages/33501.php

The old one was more functional and looked better. Carter's photo isn't on the Staph page, and Bill Abbatte looks older than Chuck Nowlin

Never heard of Al Cole, but he looks like a cross between Prince/Freddie Mercury/Rocky Horror Picture Show Tim Curry. Face made for radio? Maybe face made for the sequel to Rocky Horror

"The Rev." Al Cole has been doing overnights at WZLX for some time... at least since the mid 90s.

 

[Lucylu]

Perhaps the staff/staph thing is why Carter had his pic. removed from the page? Or maybe he just knew he couldn't compeat with that hot, hot Al Cole and The Time photo. ;D ;D ;D

 

[Varulven]

Carter has vast knowledge that few jocks on radio today have. In fact, I just sold his Dinky Dawson LIFE ON THE ROAD book last week for Dinky - to Europe, no less! So Carter is now read in Europe. I sell, Dinky drop ships! But that being said, as Ray Manzarek noted, "Classic Hits radio is only going to play the hits" (paraphrased off my TV show) - thus it doesn't matter if it is a Carter Alan B.(I forget how to spell his last name) doing the programming, or some intern, it's the same music you'll hear in New York, Los Angeles and most other "classic rockers". The whole thing is so formula. Not Carter's fault, not Chuck Nowlin's fault, not Harvey Wharfield's fault. That's the way CBS wants it.

 

[TowerBuzz]

Actually Classic hits is more what WROR does. Classic hits stations lean toward the male and female demographic equally separating them from Classic rock with bands like Fleetwood Mac and James Taylor who can be more female friendly. Classic Rock stations target men only. The music comes from research and who they want to listen there isnt a company wide play list from CBS, Clear Channel, Greater media or anyone. Carter has been around so long the station sounds the way he's desigining it to, he's pretty legendary.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Now, what happened to the Brockton Biscuit? She was the only thing not covered in cheese on the morning show. Please tell me you gave her a show of her own.

It sounds like her function was essentially replaced when K&M brought Heather Ford with them into the morning show. The Biscuit was part of the Sweeney crew.

what happened to the ZLX website? Staph instead of staff?

They revamped the website to make room for the "Hottie of the Day" feature, which wasn't on the old one.

As for WZLX in general, their playlist is far too limited/stale. They really need to broaden their scope. For example - if you play Clapton, DO NOT play Layla, Cocaine, After Midnight, etc. Give those songs a nice, long rest. Overdone - let's hear something else from him. Call it album cuts, deep cuts - whatever. Just something DIFFERENT!

If they stopped playing Layla, etc... their ratings would go down (even more). As I've posted elsewhere, we who post on this board are radio and music afficionados. We have listened to a lot more radio than most average people, for many more years. We've heard all the hits overplayed into the ground to the point where we're sick of them.

However, we're in the minority among the listenership at large. Most mainstream commercial radio listeners, especially to retro formats like "Classic" and "Oldies", actually do want to hear their same few favorite hits over and over again every day. It's the background to their workday, their commute, their weekend cookout... they generally don't listen to radio and music in an academic way as we might, or want to be "educated" about music they don't know. When most average Classic or Oldies listeners hear a song that they don't know all the lyrics to, or every "air guitar" lick to, they change the station to find one that they do know by heart.

This was proven by WROR in 2001 when they tried adding deep album cuts from the late 60's and 70's AOR era to their Classic Hits playlist. They called the format "Timeless Rock And Roll Classics". A "cult following" of music afficionados, including myself, thought it was great! But, their ratings took a sharp nose dive into the tank and stayed there for two books, when they were forced to pull the plug on the idea and go back to (more or less) their current Classic Hits format. Then, their ratings came back up, to the point where they have been surpassing WZLX for the past couple of years, with an even more limited playlist than 'ZLX!

Carter has vast knowledge that few jocks on radio today have.... But that being said, as Ray Manzarek noted, "Classic Hits radio is only going to play the hits"... - thus it doesn't matter if it is a Carter Alan... doing the programming, or some intern, it's the same music you'll hear in New York, Los Angeles and most other "classic rockers". The whole thing is so formula. Not Carter's fault, not Chuck Nowlin's fault, not Harvey Wharfield's fault. That's the way CBS wants it.

And, unfortunately, that's because it's what works best today among the majority of listeners to the format. Not only CBS, but Classic Rock stations owned by most any company. I have a lot of respect for Carter, he doesn't "talk down" to the audience, and his position allows him to mention interesting anecdotes about the artists and music history and slide something out of the ordinary onto the air once in a while, but he knows he has to be careful about that or he'll tune out all those who really want the same old, same old...

 

[SonicOverload]

Carter has vast knowledge that few jocks on radio today have. In fact, I just sold his Dinky Dawson LIFE ON THE ROAD book last week for Dinky - to Europe, no less! So Carter is now read in Europe. I sell, Dinky drop ships! But that being said, as Ray Manzarek noted, "Classic Hits radio is only going to play the hits" (paraphrased off my TV show) - thus it doesn't matter if it is a Carter Alan B.(I forget how to spell his last name) doing the programming, or some intern, it's the same music you'll hear in New York, Los Angeles and most other "classic rockers". The whole thing is so formula. Not Carter's fault, not Chuck Nowlin's fault, not Harvey Wharfield's fault. That's the way CBS wants it.

Dinky rocks.. I remember seeing Motorhead at an all-ages show at the Channel and Lemmy told the crowd, this is my stage, that's yours (referring to the dance floor).... from then on, every time there was an all-ages show, Dinky would go "As Lemmy would say... that's your stage"...

 

[TravisWMLN]

I was nerding around zlx' website.... http://www.wzlx.com/pages/65642.php? that is carter isn't it?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I was nerding around zlx' website.... http://www.wzlx.com/pages/65642.php? that is carter isn't it?

That's his page, so I guess it's him behind the mask.

 

[Lucylu]

That picture when up after this topic was started. I wonder if that really is Carter Allen behind the mask, and if so; has be become so ashamed to ZLX that he's hiding his face? Just wondering.

 

[mcamp]

The funny thing about "classic rock"...most of the music that comprises it, was what came out of AOR radio...not hit singles.
Take for instance: David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust"; the album peaked at #75, and the highest charted single was Starman at #65, a song rarely played, yet songs Suffergette City, Ziggy Stardust are regulars.
I could come up with countless others (songs that were not hits, but are "classic rock hits"), but whats the sense. And there are songs that were hits, but for some reason are not "classic rock hits".
The point being: the classic rock format is not consistent. They play Elton John, but not Chicago....they play the Clash/ U2, but not the Ramones/ Elvis Costello/ Joe Jackson...etc.
They've revised history...or maybe it's just selective memory.
If the "classic rock" format is so fragile, where as, playing an album track will send the masses in a frenzy, with cars flying off the road while searching for the scan button, why would they even chance it by playing ANYTHING that wasn't a Top 40 hit or better? What purpose does it serve, when all they are concerned with is ratings? Give me the hits! Give me the Hits!!....come on everybody...GIVE ME THE HITS!!....

 

[Lucylu]

These days it seems almost that a song has to be used in a commercial before it gets played on classic rock (case in point: The Clash vs. early Elvis Costello).

 

[Eli Polonsky]

If the "classic rock" format is so fragile, where as, playing an album track will send the masses in a frenzy, with cars flying off the road while searching for the scan button, why would they even chance it by playing ANYTHING that wasn't a Top 40 hit or better? What purpose does it serve, when all they are concerned with is ratings? Give me the hits! Give me the Hits!!....come on everybody...GIVE ME THE HITS!!....

In Classic Rock, certain select album tracks were/are hits, even though they weren't Billboard hit singles. There were Billboard album charts as well, and a few certain select songs from certain top albums that weren't necessarily singles were pushed heavily on AOR stations in the 70's and since, and therefore remained well-known.

If Classic Rock stations played only Top 40 hit singles, they would be the same as Classic Hits stations. WZLX is already losing to WROR in the ratings. Copying them would be death.

What I've said about today's majority of Classic and Oldies listeners only wanting to hear their favorite hits doesn't necessarily mean only Top 40 hit singles. Mostly, but there were a few very popular AOR album hits as well that weren't singles which are still very well known. It's whether the audience knows the song, regardless of whether it was a hit single, or a favorite from a hit album.

 

[mcamp]

If the "classic rock" format is so fragile, where as, playing an album track will send the masses in a frenzy, with cars flying off the road while searching for the scan button, why would they even chance it by playing ANYTHING that wasn't a Top 40 hit or better? What purpose does it serve, when all they are concerned with is ratings? Give me the hits! Give me the Hits!!....come on everybody...GIVE ME THE HITS!!....

What I've said about today's majority of Classic and Oldies listeners only wanting to hear their favorite hits doesn't necessarily mean only Top 40 hit singles. Mostly, but there were a few very popular AOR album hits as well that weren't singles which are still very well known. It's whether the audience knows the song, regardless of whether it was a hit single, or a favorite from a hit album.

Exactly my point...a formula that once worked...playing a good song regardless if it was a single.
Just think if "they" eased in a few more "edge" songs, you can reach an audience and achieve a comfort level. With that being said...with todays conservative approach to radio, playing just the hits is still the safest bet...why venture beyond those boundaries.