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Could FM Bring back a Music Radio Station like the old WABC ?

JRH said:
You're assuming baby boomers all want to listen to oldies, but they don't. I'm 61, I'd listen to current CHR before I would listen to an oldies or classic hits stations, although I really prefer country, both old and new.

There are some stations playing music for boomers, but they don't have very many listeners.

One is "Cruisin' 1430" in Denver, owned by Entercom. They have a 0.6 6+, so not even very many boomers could be listening to them.

Here's a sample hour of their playlist:

I Got You (I Feel Good) James Brown & His Famous Flames
Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? The Lovin' Spoonful
There's A Kind Of Hush Herman's Hermits
Stay Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) Looking Glass
Gimmie Some Lovin Spencer Davis Group
Singing the Blues Guy Mitchell
Dancing in the Street Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
La Bamba Ritchie Valens
A Summer Song Chad & Jeremy
Ruby Baby Dion
I Can't Help Myself ( Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) Four Tops
A Groovy Kind of Love The Mindbenders
Dream Baby Roy Orbison
That Boy Beatles
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Denver's KEZW Cruisin 1430 is pretty much a one man show that being Rich Crandel. Besides the morning show he also does sales for KEZW too. Most of the spots on 1430 are probably from Rich. The man even put his grand kids on the air some years back. Rich has been there for many of years and I don't know why he is still there other than maybe he does a good job selling for 1430 that and a good contract. Anyway in the event Rich leaves 1430 you could probably bet the farm that the oldies will leave 1430 and here comes Denver Broncos talk 24/7.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
@ Don CT : 'Quality' also counts in a lot of instances.
I recently turned 70, and have been drinking beer since the Navy days. If I have the money left in the monthly SS check, I'll buy the quality stuff (imo) : Heineken, LaBatt Blue, Lowenbrau, Becks, for me and visitors.
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Imports like Heineken, Lowenbrau (which hasn't been an import for many years) and Becks haven't been generally thought of as "quality stuff" since the '80s or early '90s. I don't even see or hear ads from the latter two anymore. You've never tried any of the many imports introduced to the American market since then, or "serious" American beers like the Sam Adams brews? No craft brews either? I'm eight years younger than you and have enthusiastically moved on from the Molson Canadian and Michelob of my younger days.
 
...forgot to add that the baby boomers listen to Denver's KOOL 105 FM instead of 1430. They mainly play the 80s and some 70s and 90s mix in instead. One thing I have notice is that they don't want to hear DJs outside of morning and afternoon drive and sometimes middays. Since WABC is mentioned have you ever played an aircheck of Cousin Brucie when he was on WABC back in the 60s and 70s to someone under the age of say 60 ?? OMG !! They scream at Cousin Bruce telling him to shut up or whatever. They really don't want to hear it. Or that WAVA in Washington aircheck from their overnight show in 1986 that was on You Tube, Everything he did was rejected by so many of today's crowd even the weather . "..OMG why do that ?? Don't people have access to the Weather Channel ??". With the way people are today I don't see how can anyone bring back the old WABC today. It would be a turn off by so many.
 
hamster said:
...forgot to add that the baby boomers listen to Denver's KOOL 105 FM instead of 1430. They mainly play the 80s and some 70s and 90s mix in instead. One thing I have notice is that they don't want to hear DJs outside of morning and afternoon drive and sometimes middays. Since WABC is mentioned have you ever played an aircheck of Cousin Brucie when he was on WABC back in the 60s and 70s to someone under the age of say 60 ?? OMG !! They scream at Cousin Bruce telling him to shut up or whatever. They really don't want to hear it. Or that WAVA in Washington aircheck from their overnight show in 1986 that was on You Tube, Everything he did was rejected by so many of today's crowd even the weather . "..OMG why do that ?? Don't people have access to the Weather Channel ??". With the way people are today I don't see how can anyone bring back the old WABC today. It would be a turn off by so many.
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You nailed it. The weather, the traffic, the sports scores ... most folks today have instant access to all those things and don't need to wait out a song and a couple of ads and some irrelevant DJ chatter to get them. If they're listening to a station that programs music, they want music. Cousin Brucie is still doing a show every week for SiriusXM and it is almost as gabby as those vintage airchecks. He had an audience, and telephone callers, but their numbers aren't growing and never will.
 
When I'm told that the salvation of radio is a return to jocks like Cousin Brucie, I try to imagine that same presentation introducing Adele and Bruno Mars. I can't.
 
as much as I would love to see it happen, I'm seriously doubting it - I don't believe the demos are there, and besides which, most of the guys from that era aren't even with us anymore - the only one would be Brucie (who still sounds as he did 50 years ago). And as for the whole concept itself, we had a chance (and a good one at first) with the return of WCBSFM in 2007 - and when THEY eliminated 60's music, THEY eliminated ANY chance THEY had of EVER getting my vote.....
#TheGolden101
 
Hya Andrea. Long time no dialogue!

I haven't kept track, so I don't know which faded first -- Mark Simone's Saturday Night Oldies show on WABC or the Oldies format on W(W)KBW Buffalo.

Both, of course, are not only 50,000 watt powerhouses but also had been super-ratings magnets in their day.

But those huge trees falling in the empty woods did so the better part of ten years ago. That also means that the sparse listenership concurrently is now that many years older.

Here? It's internet stations now for just about all leisure listening.
Some of these pie-eyed AM music programmers, God bless 'em, might want to think equally between putting on a format PLUS getting up a chat-room. That internet convenience factor is important -- more so for AM than FM at this point.

I own what might be the two finest DX radios in my town. They're both multi-band communications receivers of military design. Yet with today's nationwide 'noise floor', the two once-incredible radio machines are useless on AM in the day amid all the man-made and digital racket.

No doubt, the biggest AM signals will continue to trod along a bit farther to their demise than the smaller signal stations. Those huge stations will be the last on the dial to collapse.

But the idea of the * FM * dial bringing back a WABC-type station, or a WKBW- or WFIL-ish station .... even a Solid Gold WCBS-FM-ish station .... indeed is beyond comprehension. The listening audience would be in the 65-to-Methuselah demo, anyway
 
Gold are still going strong(ish) on AM and digital radio in London, Nottingham and Manchester. Over a million listeners across the three regions for a steady diet of 60s and 70s with a wee bit of 80s. I'd be interested to know how many of their listeners are baby boomers and how many are people like me, born well after the Beatles split but love the music.

They do rely quite heavily on automation though- only a handful of live presenters on there.

http://www.mygoldmusic.co.uk/radio/playlist/
 
I do listen to Gold now and then. It really is a shadow of the former Capitol Gold.


BMR said:
Gold are still going strong(ish) on AM and digital radio in London, Nottingham and Manchester. Over a million listeners across the three regions for a steady diet of 60s and 70s with a wee bit of 80s. I'd be interested to know how many of their listeners are baby boomers and how many are people like me, born well after the Beatles split but love the music.

They do rely quite heavily on automation though- only a handful of live presenters on there.

http://www.mygoldmusic.co.uk/radio/playlist/
Click to expand...
 
The old WABC would be playing currents like they did in their heyday no? I don't think that such an approach would work today for hit music. It would be interesting to see if playing 1 or 2 songs then 1 or 2 commercials rather than the blocks of music followed by 8 to 12 minutes of commercials and promos could work. Everything i know says that it wouldn't but the reality is that no one has tried it in the ppm world. It is just too big of a risk to take in market 1. If one did want to see how that would work today surely it would be tested in a smaller market and not with a station that is currently high in ratings and billing.
 
actually i think such a wabc more music format might work today with today's hit music if approached correctly that is to say if the music would need to change like it did in the mid 1960s with the British invasion.
 
I don't think that music will ever change the way it did from 1964 to 1984. The progression of sounds and the message in the music was astronomical. Current hit music has had a major drop off recently in tempo. 5 to 7 years ago there was a strong amount of turbo pop where as now we have this tropical trap sound that all songs seems to be trapped in a rut. It is an onslaught of mid tempo songs that all have a similar beat and structure. Hip hop is having a resurgence as I see not on the basis of quality but on the lack of quality from pop/edm. I'd love to see some new sound take over and be represented on chr radio but I don't know where that is going to come from. I certainly enjoy the pop stations in the UK and Australia more so then the USA. They move on quicker and are more open to different sounds. The new Rita Ora song is #1 in the UK and while it is certainly cheesy, it is a fun pop song. It would be nice if such songs had a place on American pop stations.
 
TheBigA said:
WIRL got a 1.6 in a diary market.
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And it got a zero (0.0) share in 25-54.

They are 11th in revenue in a market without much national / agency business, meaning that in markets of that size, there is some small amount of money to be had with that kind of format if run very frugally.
 
was giving a example of the format only...since these are different markets this doesn't mean WABC would hold the same rating for this format.
 
K6JHU said:
WIRL. Don't know about now as far a national buys, but it IS the Peoria of 'Will it play in Peoria'.
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Just looked at a few hours of playlists. This is my favorite trainwreck:

7:17 p.m. -- You Should Be Dancing, Bee Gees
7:21 p.m. -- Green River, CCR
7:24 p.m. -- Houston, Dean Martin
 
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