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Clear Channel's Real Oldies Format

A

AlexBrowne

These days, my favorite broadcast station of Oldies music from the '50s and '60s is WINR, Binghamton, NY, which I listen to via the iHeartRadio app (I haven't lived anywhere near Binghamton for 30 years -- but my current city lacks a good Oldies station). I believe most of WINR's schedule is a feed of Clear Channel's Real Oldies format, and I wonder what other broadcast stations are scheduling this Clear Channel format. Does anyone know?

In addition to an excellent mix of Oldies music, the stream also includes great old commercials from the '50s and '60s (don't know if the actual broadcast includes those, or is replaced by local commercials).
 
From 2003 to 2006 the Real Oldies format was on WRLL in Berwyn, Illinois (Chicago market). I made some airchecks via the good ol' Internet. The station's airstaff included Larry Lujack, Jerry G. Bishop, Tommy Edwards, Herb Kent, and former KRLA/KGIL/KIIS/KPRC jock Tom Murphy (who voice-tracked his show from Los Angeles). The station is now WVON, "The Talk Of Chicago," but the oldies format can still be heard on the aforementioned good ol' Internet at http://www.realoldies1690.com/
 
LARadioRewind said:
From 2003 to 2006 the Real Oldies format was on WRLL in Berwyn, Illinois (Chicago market). I made some airchecks via the good ol' Internet. The station's airstaff included Larry Lujack, Jerry G. Bishop, Tommy Edwards, Herb Kent, and former KRLA/KGIL/KIIS/KPRC jock Tom Murphy (who voice-tracked his show from Los Angeles). The station is now WVON, "The Talk Of Chicago," but the oldies format can still be heard on the aforementioned good ol' Internet at http://www.realoldies1690.com/
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That was a very good station with some great air talent. Unfortunately their terrible position on the dial produced a very substandard signal which couldn't cover most of the Chicago area. Larry Lujack used to joke on the air about the signal and mentioned frequently how the police calls had better coverage.
I know PD Tommy Edwards fought long and hard with the powers at Clear Channel to try to get the format on a better Chicago frequency, but to no avail.
 
LARadioRewind said:
A dead link? "Sorry about that, Chief." Try these:

Clear Channel has made the "Real Oldies" channel available via iHeartRadio at http://www.iheart.com/#/live/4717/ and you can also listen online to Real Oldies 680, WINR in Binghamton, New York, at http://tunein.com/radio/Real-Oldies-680-AM-WINR-s29615/
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O.K. LA...............I did finally get into iHeart. I guess I was expecting something different. Your original post mentioned WRLL. On terestrial radio, the music on WRLL's "Real Oldies" format went from the early '50s to about 1964. We never heard the British Invasion and beyond. Seems that now the definition of Real Oldies has changed.
 
TheFonz said:
LARadioRewind said:
A dead link? "Sorry about that, Chief." Try these:

Clear Channel has made the "Real Oldies" channel available via iHeartRadio at http://www.iheart.com/#/live/4717/ and you can also listen online to Real Oldies 680, WINR in Binghamton, New York, at http://tunein.com/radio/Real-Oldies-680-AM-WINR-s29615/
Click to expand...

O.K. LA...............I did finally get into iHeart. I guess I was expecting something different. Your original post mentioned WRLL. On terestrial radio, the music on WRLL's "Real Oldies" format went from the early '50s to about 1964. We never heard the British Invasion and beyond. Seems that now the definition of Real Oldies has changed.
Click to expand...

WRLL did extend their music through the late 60s after WJMK got Jacked.
 
WRLL originally played 1954 through 1963 and featured a few MOR hits each hour: Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Tony Bennett, Gogi Grant, Julie London, the Four Lads et al. After a few months the MOR hits were dropped. Now the Real Oldies format is mostly 1960s.

In 2004 New York/Los Angeles DJ Scott Shannon launched The True Oldies Channel, which focuses on 1964 to 1979 but plays a few 1955-63 hits and a few early '80s hits. http://www.trueoldieschannel.com/

I'm thinking of assigning the class an essay question: Compare and contrast "Real Oldies" and "True Oldies."
 
LARadioRewind said:
WRLL originally played 1954 through 1963 and featured a few MOR hits each hour: Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Tony Bennett, Gogi Grant, Julie London, the Four Lads et al. After a few months the MOR hits were dropped. Now the Real Oldies format is mostly 1960s.

In 2004 New York/Los Angeles DJ Scott Shannon launched The True Oldies Channel, which focuses on 1964 to 1979 but plays a few 1955-63 hits and a few early '80s hits. http://www.trueoldieschannel.com/

I'm thinking of assigning the class an essay question: Compare and contrast "Real Oldies" and "True Oldies."
Click to expand...

Is there another link to that particular "Real Oldies 1690" stream or are they definitely gone?
 
LARadioRewind said:
WRLL originally played 1954 through 1963 and featured a few MOR hits each hour: Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Tony Bennett, Gogi Grant, Julie London, the Four Lads et al. After a few months the MOR hits were dropped. Now the Real Oldies format is mostly 1960s.

In 2004 New York/Los Angeles DJ Scott Shannon launched The True Oldies Channel, which focuses on 1964 to 1979 but plays a few 1955-63 hits and a few early '80s hits. http://www.trueoldieschannel.com/

I'm thinking of assigning the class an essay question: Compare and contrast "Real Oldies" and "True Oldies."
Click to expand...

I believe that the term "oldies" was first used by radio in the early '70s. It applied to a '50s/early '60s music format. Therefore, either "Real" or "True" would properly describe a '50s/early '60s format today. Since that format no longer exists in commercial radio, the terms "Real" and "True" should be retired.
 
Mister radioman148, the Real Oldies 1690 link goes to a Clear Channel page with a 2012 copyright but the player does not open. I declare the link to be "no good," if not "dead."

Fonz, you make a good point: most people think of 1950s-60s songs as "oldies," whereas 1970s-80s songs are considered "classic hits" (at least by the radio industry). However, I could make a case for using the word "oldie" for any song that has been off the chart for more than six months. By the way, Ralph Malph and Potsie Weber said to tell you hello. :D
 
LARadioRewind said:
Fonz, you make a good point: most people think of 1950s-60s songs as "oldies," whereas 1970s-80s songs are considered "classic hits" (at least by the radio industry). However, I could make a case for using the word "oldie" for any song that has been off the chart for more than six months. By the way, Ralph Malph and Potsie Weber said to tell you hello. :D
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Aah yes, Ralph and Potsie. We had some great fun together. I don't have a problem with the word "oldies". It's "real" and "true" that I object to, for the reasons stated. I saw a format somewhere that was called "Hit Oldies". Now that has a nice ring to it, but we know that terestrial Oldies radio doesn't necessarily play songs that were hits. It plays songs that "test well".
 
How about this phrase: "Modern Oldies." In July 1993, San Diego legend Rich "Brother" Robbin realized that oldies stations were still focusing on 1950s-60s so he converted KCBQ-FM to a '70s-based oldies format. He called the format "Modern Oldies," an oxymoron if ever I heard one!
 
The term oldies as in " Oldies but Goodies" was used as early as 1961.
Golden Gassers was also used at that time.
 
After Los Angeles MOR station KFWB switched to top-40 in January 1958, their oldies were referred to as "flashbacks." Seven years later, KHJ dropped AC and became "Boss Radio 93/KHJ" and they called their oldies "goldens." In 1980 KMPC had an MOR oldies format and the songs were called "unforgettables" (just like the Nat "King" Cole song---get it?).
 
DaveArnold said:
The term oldies as in " Oldies but Goodies" was used as early as 1961.
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Interesting. I wonder what kind of music it referred to. Rock & Roll was only about 6 years old in 1961. I guess that might qualify as "old". Or maybe the station was playing Pop form the '40s and early '50s.
 
Art Laboe is usually credited as originating the phrase "oldies but goodies." Usually. We may never know for certain who used it first. Laboe is still heard on Los Angeles r&b oldies station KHHT. He's also worked at KFWB, KXLA/KRLA, KPOP, KDAY, KPPC, XEPRS, KRTH and KFI. in 1959 he released the first of what would be a series of 15 Oldies But Goodies albums on his Original Sound record label. It included Confidential, Earth Angel, Eddie My Love, Dance With Me Henry, Stranded In The Jungle, In The Still Of The Nite and six other hits from 1954-57. So some of those "oldies" on that first album were only two years old. Can you imagine an oldies station today playing songs from 2010? Rude Boy and California Gurls on the same station as the Beatles and the Four Seasons? Yikes!
 
LARadioRewind said:
Art Laboe is usually credited as originating the phrase "oldies but goodies." Usually. We may never know for certain who used it first. Laboe is still heard on Los Angeles r&b oldies station KHHT. He's also worked at KFWB, KXLA/KRLA, KPOP, KDAY, KPPC, XEPRS, KRTH and KFI. in 1959 he released the first of what would be a series of 15 Oldies But Goodies albums on his Original Sound record label. It included Confidential, Earth Angel, Eddie My Love, Dance With Me Henry, Stranded In The Jungle, In The Still Of The Nite and six other hits from 1954-57. So some of those "oldies" on that first album were only two years old. Can you imagine an oldies station today playing songs from 2010? Rude Boy and California Gurls on the same station as the Beatles and the Four Seasons? Yikes!
Click to expand...

The amazing thing about Art Laboe is that he is still on six nights a week at the age of 87. His passion for what he does is incredible.
 
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