List of Web-Only Easy Listening/Soft Rock Stations

[Avid Listener]

Lite 99 is actually internet-only, not broadcast (we're based on a local FM of the same name/format from the 80's). We get that a lot...

Joy 99.5...I was thinking this was broadcast, too, but it doesn't appear to be. It might have been a broadcast station at one time, given the "99.5" in the station name, but maybe not. The station website domain, joy995.com, is registered to someone in Longwood, FL which is not too far from Orlando. It could be that Joy 99.5 is a tribute station of sorts to the former Orlando soft AC station WJYO "Joy 108 FM", licensed to Mount Dora. Not sure where the "99.5" comes in, as I don't recall WJYO ever being on 99.5 FM. Just a side note, not really related, but I found interesting, nonetheless: Orlando's WJYO is now using the call sign WMGF. The WMGF call letters once belonged to a former soft AC station (WRJM-FM) here in central Alabama I used to listen to quite frequently.

Do ya think maybe something that confusing could use a little explanation? I mean, I'm just sayin'.

 

[Music Lover]

But this thread also has comments, and it has posts that include web-based radio stations that are not web-only. And, there's an interesting potential start to a discussion of what genres and/or formats are or aren't appropriate. In fact, of the 18 posts in this thread so far, only 3 posts include any stations. It's supposedly about "Web-Only" stations, since that's what you titled the thread. Yet your launch posts includes Lite 99 and Joy 99.5, which appear to be broadcast stations that also stream.

Where's your list?

And just what is it that you want to have on your list?

If you really want a list, why haven't you copied any of the entries over from the Looking For Internet Soft AC Streams thread?

First of all, both of those are web-only streams, not broadcast stations.

As for the list, it starts with my first post. After you asked some questions and I answered your replies, my list continues with post #10 on page 1.

As for what is it I'm putting on my list, my first post and the title of this thread explains that it's web-only stations.

As for why I haven't copied any of the entries over from the Looking For Internet Soft AC Streams thread - As I explained that thread is for the purpose of forum members to suggest to me Web-only Soft AC streams that they know of. After sampling the suggestions, I'm picking ones I enjoy best and would recommend most, which is why this list is going to be different from that list.

 

[Music Lover]

Maybe to make it less confusing to you, I'll have the mods close and/or delete the previous threads about this. May also include this one in that request because there's a few changes I've decided on for this list too.

 

[Music Lover]

Mods - Please close and/or delete this thread due to some confusion with another list.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I believe this thread was meant to list those stations which most people today equate as "easy listening" stations, which in actuality are traditionally-based soft adult contemporary (or "soft oldies") stations. KAHM is easy listening, too, but it's instrumental easy listening, or "beautiful music", so it wouldn't apply to the list if that's the case. It's really a misnomer IMO to refer to soft AC stations as "easy listening" stations. Since the general public (for the most part) isn't versed in radio format terminology, they will allocate stations' programming with whatever wording they're familiar with (in this case, traditional soft AC/soft oldies = easy listening). I have even begun using the "easy listening" term when I promote my online station, Lite 99, because most people will refer to the format as such. I don't really care for applying the "easy listening" description to my station since it's really soft AC, but I want to use "format names" with which listeners are comfortable.

Thank you.

 

[Music Lover]

Chimpanzee -

Adult Contemporary - abbreviated "AC" - are adult-oriented pop/rock stations. A lite or soft AC station primarily plays pop/rock ballads and can span from the 60's or 70's through the present time. Because it's heavily ballad-oriented, many people equate a lite or soft AC as a type of easy listening format. Some songs you'll usually hear on a lite or soft AC are:

Elton John - Rocket Man
Dionne Warwick - Heartbreaker
The Beatles - All You Need Is Love
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do I Do It For You
Whitney Houston - I Have Always Loved You
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
Mariah Carey - Vision Of Love
Backstreet Boys - Shape Of My Heart
John Denver - Annie's Song
Carole King - It's Too Late
James Taylor - Fire And Rain
Billy Joel - Just The Way You Are
The Eagles - Hotel California
Debbie Gibosn - Lost In Your Eyes
Barry Manilow - Mandy
The Carpenters - Rainy Days and Mondays
Ronnie Milsap - Smoky Mountain Rain
Chicago - Hard To Say I'm Sorry
The Temptations - My Girl
Sarah McLachlan - Angel
Michael Jackson - Human Nature
Kelly Clarkson - A Moment Like This
Amy Grant - That's What Love Is For
Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love
Phil Collins - Another Day In Paradise
Faith Hill - Breathe
Anne Murray - I Just Fall In Love Again
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Neil Diamond - Song Sung Blue
Barbra Streisand - Woman In Love

 

[vchimpanzee]

I don't like everything on that list but it's not too bad.

 

[passtheword]

Chimpanzee -

Adult Contemporary - abbreviated "AC" - are adult-oriented pop/rock stations. A lite or soft AC station primarily plays pop/rock ballads and can span from the 60's or 70's through the present time. Because it's heavily ballad-oriented, many people equate a lite or soft AC as a type of easy listening format. Some songs you'll usually hear on a lite or soft AC are:

Elton John - Rocket Man
Dionne Warwick - Heartbreaker
The Beatles - All You Need Is Love
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do I Do It For You
Whitney Houston - I Have Always Loved You
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
Mariah Carey - Vision Of Love
Backstreet Boys - Shape Of My Heart
John Denver - Annie's Song
Carole King - It's Too Late
James Taylor - Fire And Rain
Billy Joel - Just The Way You Are
The Eagles - Hotel California
Debbie Gibosn - Lost In Your Eyes
Barry Manilow - Mandy
The Carpenters - Rainy Days and Mondays
Ronnie Milsap - Smoky Mountain Rain
Chicago - Hard To Say I'm Sorry
The Temptations - My Girl
Sarah McLachlan - Angel
Michael Jackson - Human Nature
Kelly Clarkson - A Moment Like This
Amy Grant - That's What Love Is For
Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love
Phil Collins - Another Day In Paradise
Faith Hill - Breathe
Anne Murray - I Just Fall In Love Again
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Neil Diamond - Song Sung Blue
Barbra Streisand - Woman In Love

We play about 99% of those songs on the list (no pun intended). We try to play as much a variety of music as we can, without straying outside of the soft AC format's parameters. Question for you: our local "soft AC" station, WEZZ "Easy 97.3" refuses to play any music by Anne Murray and John Denver, which, for the life of me, I don't understand, as those two artists have been staples of the format for a long time. They will play other EZ artists such as Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, and Barry Manilow, so musically-speaking, I don't see how Anne Murray and John Denver are not similar in nature, other than maybe the fact they are both crossover artists (pop and country). We play both those artists on Lite 99, as does many other soft AC stations including Soft 'N Easy Net Radio, IHeart's "Sunny" Radio (WNIC HD2), and 181.FM's Mellow Gold channel. Just wondering how you felt about those two artists and the inclusion (or exclusion) of them in the format.

 

[Music Lover]

That's rather odd that that station leaves them off. I'm looking at their playlist right now and see they've played Kenny Rogers throughout the day, which makes it even more puzzling.

 

[Music Lover]

Several of us are having an on-going heated discussion in this thread about the lawsuit concerning royalties for pre-1972 music.

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?683562-It-s-2015!-Time-to-get-rid-of-the-70s

The radio pros are saying that no webcasters are making royalty payments for the use of pre-1972 sound recordings and that they will be sued too and be forced to take anything prior to 1972 off the air. Is that true or untrue?

Of course, the pros tend to belittle streaming, which is why I don't exactly trust some things they say.

 

[passtheword]

Several of us are having an on-going heated discussion in this thread about the lawsuit concerning royalties for pre-1972 music.

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?683562-It-s-2015!-Time-to-get-rid-of-the-70s

The radio pros are saying that no webcasters are making royalty payments for the use of pre-1972 sound recordings and that they will be sued too and be forced to take anything prior to 1972 off the air. Is that true or untrue?

Of course, the pros tend to belittle streaming, which is why I don't exactly trust some things they say.

Hmmmm. I seriously doubt that webcasters are not paying royalties for pre-1972 music. We may not be paying as *much* as they want, however... lol

 

[passtheword]

That's rather odd that that station leaves them off. I'm looking at their playlist right now and see they've played Kenny Rogers throughout the day, which makes it even more puzzling.

yes, it's really bizarre. I don't get it myself, other than whoever is programming WEZZ has no background in programming a traditional soft AC format. I have seen Johnny Lee's "Looking For Love" on their playlist...which is more country than pop to me, although that song did cross over to the pop charts.

 

[davideduardo]

Hmmmm. I seriously doubt that webcasters are not paying royalties for pre-1972 music. We may not be paying as *much* as they want, however... lol

You are not paying anything right now for the artist or labels as SoundExchange collects for post-'72 songs, per the conditions in the DCMA.

You are paying the composers and writers for all protected titles via ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and even ASMLA where it applies.

 

[davideduardo]

Of course, the pros tend to belittle streaming, which is why I don't exactly trust some things they say.

The "pros" do not belittle streamers. We just distinguish between 1) hobbyists, who are neither a competitive nor economic threat, 2) the pureplays like Pandora that still do not have a profitable business model and 3) broadcasters who view streaming as simply a new platform which were are going to cover just like we moved from AM to FM decades ago.

And, of course, nobody can be collecting artist / label royalties for pre-72 music since there is no entity collecting for that period.

 

[Music Lover]

I advise you to read the last paragraph of this then: http://www.techlawjournal.com/topstories/2014/0529.asp

And yes, y'all do belittle them. An example of that was when BigA was making fun of how many listeners tune in.

 

[Music Lover]

Hmmmm. I seriously doubt that webcasters are not paying royalties for pre-1972 music. We may not be paying as *much* as they want, however... lol

I seriously doubt that too.

 

[davideduardo]

And yes, y'all do belittle them. An example of that was when BigA was making fun of how many listeners tune in.

Putting things in perspective is not the same as belittling something.

Here is another way to put it in perspective: the AC station in New York City just registered an average weekly cume of 7.1 million in the Holiday ratings. That is one station in one single market. Small webcasters that limit sessions to 50 to 100 might cume a thousand or two unique users across the whole country.

Some over the air terrestrial stations I've come across use Surf Network to stream online. One of the five reasons they say why broadcasters stream on the Internet is because of competition against new media.

Stations stream with the objective of adding a new platform, often improving the OTA signal coverage. The reason to add a new platform is to make money. The same reasoning radio used in expanding into FM way back when...

 

[Music Lover]

Putting things in perspective is not the same as belittling something.

It's not coming across as perspective to us music enthusiasts here.

As for the second thing you quoted, I edited that part out. Must have been at the same time you were typing your response.

Anyway, I'm heading out my local movie theater, so I'll say goodnight all.

 

[Music Lover]

Joy 99.5...I was thinking this was broadcast, too, but it doesn't appear to be. It might have been a broadcast station at one time, given the "99.5" in the station name, but maybe not. The station website domain, joy995.com, is registered to someone in Longwood, FL which is not too far from Orlando. It could be that Joy 99.5 is a tribute station of sorts to the former Orlando soft AC station WJYO "Joy 108 FM", licensed to Mount Dora. Not sure where the "99.5" comes in, as I don't recall WJYO ever being on 99.5 FM.

Popping in to answer about that before I head off to bed. The guy that programs that station also programs a country station called Sun Country 99.5. It's a mix of country hits from the 50s to today. http://suncountry995.com/

He also has an 80s station: http://popinthe80s.us

His oldies station is a tribute station: http://www.coololdieschannel.com/Cool_Oldies_Channel/About.html

 

[vchimpanzee]

We play about 99% of those songs on the list (no pun intended). We try to play as much a variety of music as we can, without straying outside of the soft AC format's parameters. Question for you: our local "soft AC" station, WEZZ "Easy 97.3" refuses to play any music by Anne Murray and John Denver, which, for the life of me, I don't understand, as those two artists have been staples of the format for a long time. They will play other EZ artists such as Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, and Barry Manilow, so musically-speaking, I don't see how Anne Murray and John Denver are not similar in nature, other than maybe the fact they are both crossover artists (pop and country). We play both those artists on Lite 99, as does many other soft AC stations including Soft 'N Easy Net Radio, IHeart's "Sunny" Radio (WNIC HD2), and 181.FM's Mellow Gold channel. Just wondering how you felt about those two artists and the inclusion (or exclusion) of them in the format.

I wouldn't want a station I liked, if it had AC artists at all, to leave out John Denver and Anne Murray. America's Best Music plays them both.