If you're male, mid 50's and still listening to radio, what the heck is there?

[TheBigA]

There's a view that the 80's country was more "Urban Cowboy" than the older stuff. The fans of the 50s and early 60s are very hostile to the later stuff, And the Hall of Fame has yet to embrace the most popular country acts from the 70s and 80s, like Milsap or Rogers.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

On line I heart radio has Foggy Mountain, which has some good country classics, mostly 60's-90's with an occasional 50's tune thrown in. Also KMPS online has a good country classics station too, but of course both are only online.

 

[landtuna]

I could be wrong. Maybe Doo-wop is making a come back.

Doo Wop was not a mainstream music genre. It was popular in the big Northeastern cities but not many songs or pure Doo Wop groups made it to the big time and lasted beyond the late 50's. Be Bop and what we now call Rock n Roll steamrolled Doo Wop and very little of it was picked up on the Top 40 music radio stations of the day. There were maybe a dozen or so Doo Wop groups that changed their music enough that some of their songs made the top 40 but that's about it. Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time" is the last Doo Wop song I can remember (1984 or so).

There are a couple of large collections of Doo Wop classics on CD if you are really into that sort of music but don't look for it on radio today.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

I could be wrong. Maybe Doo-wop is making a come back.

Doo Wop was not a mainstream music genre. It was popular in the big Northeastern cities but not many songs or pure Doo Wop groups made it to the big time and lasted beyond the late 50's. Be Bop and what we now call Rock n Roll steamrolled Doo Wop and very little of it was picked up on the Top 40 music radio stations of the day. Billy Joel's "For The Longest Time" is the last Doo Wop song I can remember (1984 or so).

There are a couple of large collections of Doo Wop classics on CD if you are There were maybe a dozen or so Doo Wop groups that changed their music enough that some of their songs made the top 40 but that's about it.really into that sort of music but don't look for it on radio today.

Brooklyn Bridge, featuring the late Johnny Maestro, former lead vocalist of The Crests.

 

[joshzz]

Doo Wop lives today and here is its home. http://wvlt.com/index1.html

 

[rob1010]

WMID plays doo wop songs intermixed with REAL CLASSIC OLDIES from the 50s and early 60s...WMID would have made a nice simulcast for those over age 50 on WPEN 950 AM...classic oldies 24 hours a day....

 

[doowopvault]

Beyond WXPN, WRTI and Christian WBYN is there anything? And PLEASE don't say "I listen to sports talk radio all the time". I outgrew that a long, long, long time ago.

Betrayed, if you love Doo Wop, r&b vocal groups and rock from the 1950's and early 60's,then listen to the "Doo Wop Vault" log onto www.wbzh.net on Thursday nights, and on Saturday morning at 10:00am www.wkva920.com because WKVA doesn't stream,their website has a link that is connected to my 24/7 podcast at www.doowopvault1950s.podomatic.com hope this helps. I know how you feel, it isn't the radio I grew up with.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Listen online and find real oldies stations that play 50s , 60's music. OTA radio generally won't play the music we like, because the advertisers don't want listeners who are over 49 years old, and generally doo wop listeners are pushing 65-70+. Same with other forms of music that OTA radio won't play for the same reason (Big Band, Standards, Classic Country, Real Oldies (50's - 60's), Classical Music, Jazz, Western (think Son of the Pioneers), etc.

Remember the listener is the product, the advertiser is the buyer. The advertiser wants young folks who will believe their commercials and who don't have loyalty to a certain brand ( for example I've driven Ford vehicles and no matter how much Toyota advertises, I'm not interested). So even though the Baby Boomers have money to spend, they don't want us for that reason. NO problem as far as I'm concerned. I do listen to sports talk at work (WWTX, WIP-FM, WPEN-FM, and WENJ 97.3) as a great alternative to listening to the same ole BS that is Rush/Beck/Hannity or the local Rush wannabe and the other political talkers.

I also listen to audio books ( I work alone in a lab so I can get away with that). Most radio stations offer listen live buttons, so you could find a station you like in another city and then listen to their station online. I also listen to online music where I can pick what I am in the mood for on that particular day. ONLINE Radio is a great thing. I even listen to my local AM stations online (WDEL, WWTX, WILM, WNTP, WPHT), because then they sound like FM.

You seem to like the older oldies so why not listen online to WVLT, but there are other online choices.

Now if you're talking about riding in your car I just listen to either sports talk stations (we have 4 I can get in my area) or listen to a talk station or NPR. Sometimes I listen to the CLassical Music station in our area, but other than that, I'm listening on line quite a lot.

 

[rdcuffpa1]

Listen online and find real oldies stations that play 50s , 60's music. OTA radio generally won't play the music we like, because the advertisers don't want listeners who are over 49 years old, and generally doo wop listeners are pushing 65-70+. Same with other forms of music that OTA radio won't play for the same reason (Big Band, Standards, Classic Country, Real Oldies (50's - 60's), Classical Music, Jazz, Western (think Son of the Pioneers), etc.

MIkefromdeleware's post is a reasonably succinct assessment of online vs. terrestrial radio nowadays. Further, online radio offers social / interactive features that the young-uns are used to that radio (on its own) can't duplicate.

Real-time example: I'm a baseball fan, and was traveling yesterday between Reading and Allentown. So I streamed ESPN's game coverage through my iPhone and connected its headphone jack to my car stereo. For most of the ride I couldn't get WPEN-AM (which carried the games) or WTKZ up in Allentown.

However I still tuned over to WEEU for the late afternoon traffic update to make sure there were no bad surprises, though I could have also used WFMZ's app on my phone to get that same info.

Richard in Allentown

 

[landtuna]

WMID plays doo wop songs intermixed with REAL CLASSIC OLDIES from the 50s and early 60s...WMID would have made a nice simulcast for those over age 50 on WPEN 950 AM...classic oldies 24 hours a day....

.....so I anxiously tuned in to WMID this morning about 9:45 MST expecting REAL CLASSIC OLDIES and I got......Fatburger. Yes, there he was in all his glorious flab.....Pizza The Hutt.

Sorry....but there is no music on Earth that is good enough to get me to listen to Rush to hear it.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Limbaugh's morning commentary is 60 sec. long. So you surly could hang in that long (the spots are just as annoying and there's far more of them). His show doesn't air until 12noon (eastern). Was this a rebroadcast from the day before?

 

[landtuna]

Limbaugh's morning commentary is 60 sec. long. So you surly could hang in that long (the spots are just as annoying and there's far more of them). His show doesn't air until 12noon (eastern). Was this a rebroadcast from the day before?

Thanks for the tip. I'm back listening. I'm programmed to hit the STOP button immediately should one of the bloviating big mouths begin sounding off.

WHOOPS....there he is again. Sorry WMID but I can't take Fatbaugh. I'm history.

 

[klutch00]

WMID plays doo wop songs intermixed with REAL CLASSIC OLDIES from the 50s and early 60s...WMID would have made a nice simulcast for those over age 50 on WPEN 950 AM...classic oldies 24 hours a day....

I like the idea! As we all know it won't happen. One idea I thought of would be for CC to buy 950 and put WDAS-AM there! Make FS an offer they couldn't refuse and let 'em have 1480!

 

[joshzz]

I don't understand why WMID would choose to air Limbaugh on their station. The 60 second bits don't agree with the music. If people want to listen to talk they'll tune in to an all talk station. People that tune to oldies want to savor the enjoyment oldies provide, the escape and the peace it offers. It's all about good feelings and it lowers your blood pressure. The truth is, studies show that people that listen to talk radio have higher blood pressure, greater anxiety, are less happy and are much more cynical. This contrasts as opposite to the people that listen to oldies music. Oldies people are happy people. Rush doesn't belong on WMID. Put him where he belongs, in a mean room. :'(

 

[uncamark]

I don't understand why WMID would choose to air Limbaugh on their station. The 60 second bits don't agree with the music. If people want to listen to talk they'll tune in to an all talk station. People that tune to oldies want to savor the enjoyment oldies provide, the escape and the peace it offers. It's all about good feelings and it lowers your blood pressure. The truth is, studies show that people that listen to talk radio have higher blood pressure, greater anxiety, are less happy and are much more cynical. This contrasts as opposite to the people that listen to oldies music. Oldies people are happy people. Rush doesn't belong on WMID. Put him where he belongs, in a mean room. :'(

I assume that Limbaugh brings in more ad money than music would in that time slot. In addition, AM stations don't have the at-work listeners that music formats depend on in midday.

 

[joshzz]

Hi Mark,

You bring up a good point being, "AM stations don't have the at-work listeners that music formats depend on in midday."

However they can now more than ever, grab those listeners. Most stations do stream on the internet and offer high quality, low bit rate streams, so as not to get the boss mad.

At our station we've invested in the latest technology and will have a very high quality (low bit rate 64 kbps) AAC stream running on-air shortly. Currrently we're running window media player but our new Telos Prostreamer offers far superior streaming capability.

WMID can be a leader and should in my humble opinion, stick with what it does best, playing great oldies.

 

[doowopvault]

Hi Mark,

You bring up a good point being, "AM stations don't have the at-work listeners that music formats depend on in midday."

However they can now more than ever, grab those listeners. Most stations do stream on the internet and offer high quality, low bit rate streams, so as not to get the boss mad.

At our station we've invested in the latest technology and will have a very high quality (low bit rate 64 kbps) AAC stream running on-air shortly. Currrently we're running window media player but our new Telos Prostreamer offers far superior streaming capability.

WMID can be a leader and should in my humble opinion, stick with what it does best, playing great oldies.

Josh, One of the stations that I broadcast on doesn't stream. they added a link to my 24/7 on demand podcast on their webpage. The reason is the royalties. It isn't good enough they are paying these royalties for broadcasting on terrestrial radio, if they stream on the web, they have to pay the same royalties, to the same entities, a second time for the same recordings for broadcasting on the web. This is why many stations are turning to a talk format.

 

[joshzz]

Hi Doowopvault,

You bring up a very good point. There is a local station in our market that decided to drop all music and go to a mostly local talk format with a bit of national talk because it was getting too expensive paying the fees required by BMI, ASCAP & SESAC.