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I’m Officially Done With WCBS-FM - My Thoughts and Memories of the Station.

As I am recording the last show with my favorite pal, Scott Shannon from the Blythedale Children’s Hospital, I’m going to talk about why I am done with WCBS-FM along with my thoughts and memories about the station.

After 4 decades of listening to the station, CBS-FM is not going to be the same anymore, everything is different. Now they are playing all 80’s with less 70’s, and then the 90’s, and of course, some from the 2000’s which were not my cup of tea. I’m not a fan of artists that played on the station like OutKast where they played “Hey Ya”, the Black Eyed Peas called “I Got A Feeling” and of course, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” where they played during Scott Shannon’s final week on the show.

I was a CBS-FM loyal listener for a very long time, and now, after Scott Shannon leaves the airwaves today, I’m moving on to another radio station. I will be removing WCBS-FM from my favorites on my Audacy app, and I will be listening to a different radio station instead of CBS-FM.

My parents used to listened to CBS-FM back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and we used to drive around when Bob Shannon was on at the time. That was my favorite memory for me.

I love the oldies, and I love the music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s and I love doo-wop music a lot, and I’m going to listen to “Doo-Wop Drive” with Allan David Stein on WMTR later tonight where they’re playing doo-wop the way that Don K Reed used to played them on CBS-FM every Sunday where he hosted the “Doo-Wop Shop” for 27 years, and I was a fan of Don K Reed.

For decades, we listened to some legendary DJ’s like Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Bill Brown, Bob Shannon, Bobby Jay, Norm N Nite, Dan Daniel, Dan Ingram, Day Taylor, Mike Fitzgerald, Randy Davis, Max Kinkel, Marc Summers, Ed Baer and Cousin Brucie, and of course, Joe McCoy, the then program director for CBS-FM. Those were the good old days. And now, Scott Shannon will be on my list of past DJ’s.

CBS-FM was one heck of a rollercoaster for me after all these years. If you are a longtime CBS-FM loyal listener, there are a lot of stations where you can get your oldies fix. There’s phone apps and Alexa devices where you can listen to like WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5”. The link is down below.


There’s also WGNY-FM’s “Fox Oldies” if you want to check them out.


There’s also WLNG if you want to hear them, go check them out.


And finally, there’s WMTR where you can listen to the oldies whatever you want, so go there.


And of course, there’s TuneIn where you can get oldies stations from elsewhere outside of CBS-FM. There’s iHeartRadio where you can listen to 50’s music on iHeart 50’s, iHeart 60’s and iHeart 70’s, and then, there Pandora and Spotify as well.

Before I’m going to post Scott Shannon’s last show on WCBS-FM, let’s go back in time to 7/10/72 where CBS-FM kicked off it’s first week on the air as the “Golden 101” where they were playing 50’s and 60’s oldies. I wasn’t even born in 1972 when it first came on the air.


This is just my opinion, but feel free to leave it in the post below. I’m not going to offend by this, and I am recording Scott Shannon’s last show on CBS-FM right now. After his final show, I’m going to post his last show later today, and that would be it for me. I’m not going to listen to CBS-FM ever again.
 
I always enjoyed the specialty shows in the Joe McCoy era such as the Top Twenty Countdown, Tuesday Night Trivia, Soul of the City, and the Doo Wop Shop among others.
 
After 4 decades of listening to the station, CBS-FM is not going to be the same anymore, everything is different. Now they are playing all 80’s with less 70’s, and then the 90’s, and of course, some from the 2000’s which were not my cup of tea....

My parents used to listened to CBS-FM back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and we used to drive around when Bob Shannon was on at the time. That was my favorite memory for me.
CBS-FM hasn't been "your parents" station since they returned as a "classic hits" station after the JACK disaster. Scott's departure has nothing to do with it. John Foxx taking over for Jim Ryan as brand manager has the potential for bigger changes to the overall sound of the station than Scott's departure does, but they haven't been the place to find 60's music since they got Jacked.
 
Oldies is a dying demographic

that has been said for decades, the music has always moved to fit the P1

Elvis? The real one not Costello.... when was the last time you heard him on the radio

A few years ago, it was everything pre British invasion that was cut, now it is anything pre Disco with the exception of legacy artists and they are played on Classic Rock stations and not "oldies"

Heck even the former Oldies 103 WODS FM Boston dropped the "oldies" part of their imaging long before the format was dropped in 2012

I hate to sound like a broken record, but there is a reason I pay for a Amazon Music and SXM subscriptios to the tune of about $240 a year
 
Oldies is a dying demographic
A format is not a “demographic “. A format is a kind of programming for a specific age range, gender, ethnicity and such
that has been said for decades, the music has always moved to fit the P1
The P1 is the result of designing and executing a format. P1’s are the primary, more than any other station, listeners.
Elvis? The real one not Costello.... when was the last time you heard him on the radio
No station really wants mostly listeners over 70 unless they are in The Villages, Florida.
A few years ago, it was everything pre British invasion that was cut, now it is anything pre Disco with the exception of legacy artists and they are played on Classic Rock stations and not "oldies"
The audience advertiser s want is mostly under 55 to 60. The are keeping that target and some listener s age out.
Heck even the former Oldies 103 WODS FM Boston dropped the "oldies" part of their imaging long before the format was dropped in 2012
Because the word, well, sounds old.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but there is a reason I pay for a Amazon Music and SXM subscriptios to the tune of about $240 a year
Great. Because commercial radio can’t make money with that.
 
In corporate settings, it usually only works places where they are trying to flank for another station in a cluster. Let's say you have a high rated station like WCBS-FM, and another cluster of stations with similar or competing formats. You might be able to chip off some of WCBS-FM's older listeners by playing Oldies on an underperforming station in the cluster and then help prop up your other station that competes with it. Maybe package market them together to advertisers. This is done in certain areas, but not in major markets.

Otherwise nobody is doing Oldies in major markets. WABC does on the weekends.
 
And after all of my complaints about the station, I decided to go out with a bag. If you have missed the show this morning. Here it is, just for Auld Lang Syne.

This is Scott Shannon’s last show ever on WCBS-FM from earlier this morning. This special show was recorded live at the Blythedale Children’s Hospital, and it features live performances by the Holiday Express, John Mayer, Rob Thomas, Dave Matthews, and more, including Constantine Maroulis former of WABC where he hosted the “Constantine Maroulis Show ‘Cuz Saturday Night Rocks” and “Broadway With Constantine”, plus special guests including Race Taylor who did fill-ins for Scott Shannon, Sue Allard, and Bill Evans from WLNG where he did the weather with Brian “The Cannon” Bannon who left the station back in May, and an incredible cast of characters.

What an incredible way to end the show after 8 years doing mornings on WCBS-FM, almost 40 years where started at “Z100” back in 1983, and it was a sad goodbye for my favorite pal, Scott Shannon.

This will go down in the history books of all of the legendary DJ’s that made CBS-FM so successful including Harry Harrison, Cousin Brucie, Ron Lundy, Bob Shannon, Bobby Jay, Dan Daniel, Norm N Nite, program director Joe McCoy, Don K Reed and the rest that put the station on top for 33 years when it was an oldies station from 1972 through 2005, and 15 years on the Classic Hits station from 2007 through the present. And now, the music has changed, 80’s music is still going strong with less 70’s and all of the 90’s and some from the 2000’s. Whenever I hear “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars, or “Shake It Up” by Taylor Swift, I’m no longer a CBS-FM loyal listener. I’m still an oldies fan, and I’ve been a CBS-FM listener for a long time, and now, I’m movin’ on to another oldies station.

Let’s enjoy Scott Shannon with his swan song on WCBS-FM from earlier this morning.

All I can say is good luck to Scott Shannon and the fans who listened to Z100 and WPLJ back in the day.

 
Last edited:
As I am recording the last show with my favorite pal, Scott Shannon from the Blythedale Children’s Hospital, I’m going to talk about why I am done with WCBS-FM along with my thoughts and memories about the station.

After 4 decades of listening to the station, CBS-FM is not going to be the same anymore, everything is different. Now they are playing all 80’s with less 70’s, and then the 90’s, and of course, some from the 2000’s which were not my cup of tea. I’m not a fan of artists that played on the station like OutKast where they played “Hey Ya”, the Black Eyed Peas called “I Got A Feeling” and of course, Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” where they played during Scott Shannon’s final week on the show.

I was a CBS-FM loyal listener for a very long time, and now, after Scott Shannon leaves the airwaves today, I’m moving on to another radio station. I will be removing WCBS-FM from my favorites on my Audacy app, and I will be listening to a different radio station instead of CBS-FM.

My parents used to listened to CBS-FM back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and we used to drive around when Bob Shannon was on at the time. That was my favorite memory for me.

I love the oldies, and I love the music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s and I love doo-wop music a lot, and I’m going to listen to “Doo-Wop Drive” with Allan David Stein on WMTR later tonight where they’re playing doo-wop the way that Don K Reed used to played them on CBS-FM every Sunday where he hosted the “Doo-Wop Shop” for 27 years, and I was a fan of Don K Reed.

For decades, we listened to some legendary DJ’s like Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Bill Brown, Bob Shannon, Bobby Jay, Norm N Nite, Dan Daniel, Dan Ingram, Day Taylor, Mike Fitzgerald, Randy Davis, Max Kinkel, Marc Summers, Ed Baer and Cousin Brucie, and of course, Joe McCoy, the then program director for CBS-FM. Those were the good old days. And now, Scott Shannon will be on my list of past DJ’s.

CBS-FM was one heck of a rollercoaster for me after all these years. If you are a longtime CBS-FM loyal listener, there are a lot of stations where you can get your oldies fix. There’s phone apps and Alexa devices where you can listen to like WROW’s “Magic 590/100.5”. The link is down below.


There’s also WGNY-FM’s “Fox Oldies” if you want to check them out.


There’s also WLNG if you want to hear them, go check them out.


And finally, there’s WMTR where you can listen to the oldies whatever you want, so go there.


And of course, there’s TuneIn where you can get oldies stations from elsewhere outside of CBS-FM. There’s iHeartRadio where you can listen to 50’s music on iHeart 50’s, iHeart 60’s and iHeart 70’s, and then, there Pandora and Spotify as well.

Before I’m going to post Scott Shannon’s last show on WCBS-FM, let’s go back in time to 7/10/72 where CBS-FM kicked off it’s first week on the air as the “Golden 101” where they were playing 50’s and 60’s oldies. I wasn’t even born in 1972 when it first came on the air.


This is just my opinion, but feel free to leave it in the post below. I’m not going to offend by this, and I am recording Scott Shannon’s last show on CBS-FM right now. After his final show, I’m going to post his last show later today, and that would be it for me. I’m not going to listen to CBS-FM ever again.
Why does everyone, always talk about the good years from the 80s up when IMHO they sounded the best from 1972 to 1979, unless you guys were too young to remember, same with WCAU-FM 1971 until disco ruined them in 1975.
 
I dunno, they played alot of British Invasion, Surf tunes, Doo Wop, Motown, early R&B, Classic Soul and Country, teen idols, local hits, girl groups/singers, garage cuts, Japanese and Mexican artists,, Instrumentals, many songs I never heard before and loved first listen, great jocks Bob Dayton, Dick Heatherton, they just sounded fantastic, if anyone here lived through this era they know exactly what I mean, after 1980 they started to decline IMHO, can I get a thumbs up from any old goats on here.
 
IMHO, can I get a thumbs up from any old goats on here.

Once again, everyone has their own definition. Your parents wouldn't agree with you. Historically, the 1930s are considered the Golden Age of Radio

 
I dunno, they played alot of British Invasion, Surf tunes, Doo Wop, Motown, early R&B, Classic Soul and Country, teen idols, local hits, girl groups/singers, garage cuts, Japanese and Mexican artists,, Instrumentals, many songs I never heard before and loved first listen, great jocks Bob Dayton, Dick Heatherton, they just sounded fantastic, if anyone here lived through this era they know exactly what I mean, after 1980 they started to decline IMHO, can I get a thumbs up from any old goats on here.
What "Mexican" artists were played on US Top 40 radio back then?
 
@david, re the Villages :
My Folks moved to there in 1994, when a station licensed to nearby Wildwood on 640 played a magic mix of bluegrass country in the day and screaming Southern Gospel fare at night.
By 2001 the station went to all-Standards and the calls WVLG. For me, the sound was a middle-ground music-heavy mix, between the semi-local WLBE Leesburg being more of a full-service MoR and the fainter WRNZ 720 playing the really older Standards, from the north.
As the attritional median age of The Villages made for a younger listenership, WVLG went to softer A/C rock, and by around 2005 were straight Oldies. To what extent? Well, one of the jocks was a Long Island pal -- Ed Newlands -- a younger fellow who had worked for some time at WLNG!
Nowadays WVLG is lieted as 'Classic Hits'.
At one time, the Standards WVLG showed in the Gainesville- Ocala ratings, with like a 0.4, and WRZN a bit higher. In area, The Villages is about 3/4's the size of The Bronx and touches three counties, each of which are listed in three separate books if I'm still viewing maps correctly, hi.
 
Once again, everyone has their own definition. Your parents wouldn't agree with you. Historically, the 1930s are considered the Golden Age of Radio
Of course 'radio' was genuine entertainment in the 30's and 40's BTV (before television). It had to compete with the movies of course but the music (mostly live) and comedy and serials (mix of live and recorded) offered listeners the chance to listen and enjoy in their own minds. Radio doesn't do any of that today.

Recently I've been watching and listening to old Jack Benny programs on both radio and TV. IMHO the radio shows were better.
 
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