As much as it pains me to say this, there IS a place for an
all-90s station. I wouldn't listen, but I'm not the target demo.
I think there are several ways to slice the decades 70s - 90s:
#1 - 74 - 82-ish (focused on soft rock / R&B / variety)
#2 - 81 - 87-ish (if labeling as an 80s station, your audience would let you go to 79 for Devo & B-52s & all the way to maybe 90 or 91 for Technotronic, C&C Music Factory, MC Hammer & the like.)
#3 - 84 - 95-ish (this might need to be further trimmed, but with a focus on synth-pop, dance & rap.)
Anything starting later really needs to exclude the 80s; start at about 90 or 91 with the grunge / alternative scene, unless you're doing an "all-90s" format and then you can get away with throwing all of the various clashing styles in together.
Speaking of the 80s & 90s: one of the strange things to me about both KBEZ & Mix 96 is that they seem to focus mainly on early to mid 80s and current soft AC. There's this huge gap of songs from the late 80s and most of the 90s that rarely seems to get played. I assume they tested and they burned, but the gap is strange to me, and obvious to my ears.
...BTW, my two cents' worth, I vote AGAINST calling a station "The Past." Anything that says, "you the listener are OLD" is a bad thing IMHO, although I'd rather hear "Memories 106" or even the slightly hip "Retro 106" than to be told I'm living in The Past.
JournalGuy, you are saying EXACTLY what I said corporate would say that would keep them from trying it. Never mind that the 80s station across the nation have had either rimshot signals, or fatiguingly tight rotations, or BOTH. Besides that, if a corporate owner told a local station how to program 80s, I suspect they would do a similar, self-destructive format.
There ARE a few companies in town who I believe would give their program directors the freedom to build a successful 80s station... but without the hard numbers to back up the idea (all my examples are circumstantial evidence, I know), they dare not risk it.
...Except maybe 106, who might save money by turning off the transmitter.
Also, Jack is having a hard time surviving, too. Last time I looked, they are slowly sinking, book by book in most locations.
I'm not against running WCBS's playlist locally. Heck, I'm not against simulcasting the two of them!