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Is "Radar Love" right for CBS-FM?

here's a post of mine from an industry message board on this subject

the fact is that "Radar Love" was a HUGE hit on 77 WABC back in the day,so Sniffen will just have to get over it...
CBS FM plays "Bang A Gong" by T.Rex, and they should be playing Bowie's "Space Oddity" as well(his one glitter era hit to break through at US Top 40/WABC, with some physical help from a well known Mainman employee at the time)...
I've also heard "Little Willie" by Sweet on CBS FM,and hopefully they're playing Cooper's "School's Out" and Gary Glitter's "Rock& Roll Part 2"...all the glam ole days....
as it appears on "The Velvet Rope"
 
Jack Garrett said:
Before this discussion gets to the same backbiting level as it did on Herr Doktor's board, let's remember that

a. WCBS-FM is not an "oldies" station, it is a classic hits station

b. The record in question Golden Earring's "Radar Love" was played (from vinyl) during Turntable Tuesday as a special song. It is not in any regular rotation. Neither is the Brenda Lee song "Coming On Strong" (that is referenced within the "Radar Love").

As to Mr. Doll's complaint of the station playing is Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" and Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", you have probably not figured out that 'CBS-FM ain't "New York's Oldies Station" these days.
Click to expand...

Nice catch on this thread. If you're living the Hudson Valley area, WBPM's "Classic Hits 92.9" has the same exact song "Radar Love", but they play more mainstream that WBPM plays right now. Look at WBPM's playlist which is on this link. This was the playlist that WBPM plays as of 10/30.

http://www.wbpmfm.com/played.php?pickdate=2007-10-30

I guess CBS-FM needs to add more mainstream rock to make it a classic hits station like WBPM is doing right now.
 
Radar Love was not mainstream rock, it was a NYC Top 40 smash hit single/45 RPM record whose sales forced it onto Music Radio 77 WABC,which is what CBS FM should be reflecting/paying homage to....the same applies to the previously mentioned "Bang a Gong","Space Oddity", etc
 
It seems as if Jack hasn't totally left the building.....could part of the CBS-FM programming plan be to try and keep some of the Jack FM listeners by throwing in a "Jack" song every once in a while?

If I'm scanning up the FM dial and come across Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Radar Love, etc., my first thought is that I've come across a Jack station....
 
wgliradio said:
"Radar Love", the 45 edit, is fine. "Family Of Man"??? What is he sniffin? I actually had to go back and refresh myself with that song and remember how forgetable is it. With all the Three Dog Night records out there, you pick that?
Click to expand...

Cuz it's catchy. :)

I just saw a cover of it done on Youtube.com by another harmony group and I was grooving along to it. I'd certainly play it if I had the 45 handy...but then again, I was never one to follow playlists or formats. 8) ;D
 
"Family of Man" is one of many underplayed hits by Three Dog Night and I agree with Stephanie - it's catchy! ;)

Another is "Eli's Coming" - I was cranking that one up last week in Chicago as WZZN 94.7 was playing it out there.

Actually, if you live far enough east on LI to pick up WDRC-FM, you'll note that "Family of Man" is on their playlist. So, it is not some unheard of moldy oldie....but it doesn't get on the playlists of most oldies/classic hits stations that program 300 songs or less.
 
they should also work in some of the post-Ross Supremes classics(with Jean Terrell) that were Top ten monsters in NYC like "Up The Ladder To The Roof", "Stone Love",the duet with the Four Tops on "River Deep Mountain High" and "Nathan Jones";NY 70s age group members would flip over hearing these tracks, which, in the current R&B market, sound very contemporary in a way
 
lalumia said:
they should also work in some of the post-Ross Supremes classics(with Jean Terrell) that were Top ten monsters in NYC like "Up The Ladder To The Roof", "Stone Love",the duet with the Four Tops on "River Deep Mountain High" and "Nathan Jones";NY 70s age group members would flip over hearing these tracks, which, in the current R&B market, sound very contemporary in a way
Click to expand...

You're right! Those are all great songs!

In particular, "Nathan Jones" and "Up the Ladder to the Roof" hardly ever get airplay (anywhere) and would really sound great. So would the long version of "Stone Love" - which isn't heard nearly often enough.

One big problem with oldies/classic hits stations is that they play too many of the same songs all the time. Why not mix in a few "new" oldies now and then? Particularly when they're really upbeat, high-quality, songs from time-tested musical groups....

After all, just how often can we stomach hearing "Build Me Up Buttercup" and "Take it Easy"?
 
StephanieNYC said:
Cuz it's catchy. :)

I just saw a cover of it done on Youtube.com by another harmony group and I was grooving along to it. I'd certainly play it if I had the 45 handy...but then again, I was never one to follow playlists or formats. 8) ;D
Click to expand...

But it's not a highly recognizable tune, when you consider the other Three Dog records out there ;D
 
wgliradio said:
But it's not a highly recognizable tune, when you consider the other Three Dog records out there ;D
Click to expand...

True, but I was thinking that probably its catchiness would make listeners say, "Hey, that's a cool tune I've never heard before. Who sings that? Three Dog Night? Cool!" :)
 
That can be dangerous. To be honest, in 17 years in radio and as an avid oldies fan since I was five, I may have hear that Three Dog Night record... twice on the radio, maybe???
 
wgliradio said:
That can be dangerous. To be honest, in 17 years in radio and as an avid oldies fan since I was five, I may have hear that Three Dog Night record... twice on the radio, maybe???
Click to expand...

And is that bad? You should be cherishing those moments, rather than falling back on hack playlist taste ;D Perhaps we need such so-called dangerousness, in order to weed out moron simpleton listeners.

But yes; once again, the so-called problem is exactly that it counters "only the familiar" logic Mr. Dentist professes to...
 
Not on a station that's pop/R&B

If CBS-FM were programmed the way the fanboys on this board want it the ratings would go into the toilet, just like the US dollar.

"The Greatest Hits of the 60's, 70's and 80's" is NOT necessarily what was played on pop/"Top 40"/CHR radio back in the day. Z100 has pruned its gold. PLJ has pruned its gold. Even WABC in the Musicradio years pruned its gold.

Radio stations occupy certain niches. Stray too far from that niche and you open yourself to attack. Look at how Fresh 102.7 hurt 106.7 Lite FM.
 
Re: Not on a station that's pop/R&B

chuckydoll said:
If CBS-FM were programmed the way the fanboys on this board want it the ratings would go into the toilet, just like the US dollar.
Click to expand...

So what? Maybe the ratings should go down the toilet, in order to destroy a sleazebag business which caters to tasteless morons ;) ;) ;) ;)

Though to be honest, my previous comment was sort of "setting a fanboy straight", in its own right. (That is, a lot of oldies-radio fanboys have allowed the oldies to stunt their musical scope, esp. by the standards of an age with so many more musical-knowledge resources beyond terrestrial oldies radio...)
 
wgliradio said:
StephanieNYC said:
Cuz it's catchy. :)

I just saw a cover of it done on Youtube.com by another harmony group and I was grooving along to it. I'd certainly play it if I had the 45 handy...but then again, I was never one to follow playlists or formats. 8) ;D
Click to expand...

But it's not a highly recognizable tune, when you consider the other Three Dog records out there ;D
Click to expand...

AS I see it, the only recognizable tunes" approach leads to a gradually diminishing pool of songs as people forget lesser hits or leave the area.

Oldies are different than say AC, most fans already own the most popular songs and while I as a jukebox operator must stock the popular titles, radio is in a much better position to 'stretch" the audience's taste.

I was listening yesterday to the filler misic that WNYH runs between their brokered programs. I don't know who programs this music but they almost allways come up with something I hadn't heard in years. This time it was "I Never Dreamed" by The Cookies. With over 7 thousand records and atleast as many song files, I still had not heard this since it was new in approx 1963 (great song btw).

This, for me is what oldies radio is about.

Lino
 
There are lots of great songs by artists such as Three Dog Night that I would love to hear on Oldies radio stations (even if in a very slow rotation, and made even slower by doing a modern day version of the old "double shucking" rotation where Top 40 stations using a card file system for rotating oldies -- if you wanted to slow the rotation of two songs by an artist, you would paper clip two cards together, play the song on the first card when it came up, move it to the rear so that the other song would get played when those two cards came up again).

I would love to hear these on CBS-FM from Three Dog Night:

Liar
Out In The Country
Family Of Man
One Man Band
Try A Little Tenderness

Those ALL hit at least the Top 20 on Billboard nationally.

Since someone listening to Top 40 radio in the late 60's or early 70's would be in the demo now, those (and tons of other not crispy oldies) should be at least familiar to the target demo...A very slowly rotated category of spice oldies such as these played once a half hour wouldn't be that much of a turnoff since you'd hear a more familiar song before & after. But it would do much to create a wow factor twice an hour...
 
wgliradio said:
That can be dangerous.
Click to expand...

Agggghhh that so sounds like a dentist comment! ;D 8)

Nah, seriously, probably the only reason that radio stations probably refuse to play it is because it wasn't a "chart hit". So people don't hear it and don't know it. So programmers don't play it......repeat ad nauseum.
 
I didnt see a problem with playing "Radar Love" It's a 30 year old song that brings back memories. CBS is a station that brings back memories no matter whether the song they play is rock, or R&B, or Motown.

I dont think they've played "Radar Love" other than that day during a specialty theme show. The DJ that actually played "Radar Love" posted in response to Sniffen and explained the song was part of a specialty theme "Turntable Tuesday"

I'm downloading Sniffen's "Board Reflections" podcast where he apparently discusses the issue in a 10 minute dissertation. Can't wait to hear it!
 
They just played Led Zep "Whole Lotta Love"

Hopefully, he didnt have CBS-FM playing in his office then, while he was filling a cavity or doing a root canal. :)
 
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