Markets With A 50s/60s Oldies Station

[vchimpanzee]

I'm hearing this now, except it's by Eric Delaney.

 

[TheFonz]

I am trying to put together a list of top 100 markets with a 50s/60s Oldies station. Off the top of my head, only Milwaukee comes to mind (I know the station is somewhat of a rimshot, but it has good reception downtown). If anyone does not mind, can you add to my list? Thanks in advance.

I'm sure that Knoxville TN is in the top 100 markets. WKCE is a great station that plays about 60% '50s music (including Classic Country) and about 40% '60s music.

 

[TheFonz]

Not sure there is anyone really playing the 50s anymore... there are a few that are 60s/70s like KAZG 1440/K224CJ 92.7 "Oldies 92.7" Phoenix. Even back in the day, in the 1990s, most stations classified as oldies stations then had jettisoned pre-Beatles music and were musically 60s/70s by the mid-1990s.

WKCE Knoxville TN. Great '50s and '60s station. They stream.

 

[ILOVERADIO]

There's a lot of logic behind that, if you think about it.

Someone who was in high school at the beginning of the "rock and roll era" is going to be approaching age 90 now. You're going to be hard-pressed to get any significant amount of listening in that age bracket, unless you are serving retirement homes and nowhere else.

Interesting point. Imagine a radio sales rep approaching every large nursing home in a big city for advertising. Along with funeral homes, listeners to this 50s station would be dying to try out the sponsors. Can’t resist the sick humor.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Interesting point. Imagine a radio sales rep approaching every large nursing home in a big city for advertising. Along with funeral homes, listeners to this 50s station would be dying to try out the sponsors. Can’t resist the sick humor.

While they're not the only advertisers, 63 Big WAYS does have commercials for funeral homes and assisted living.

 

[vchimpanzee]

A new commercial: A Christian company for people who want to buy gold as an investment.

 

[davideduardo]

Interesting point. Imagine a radio sales rep approaching every large nursing home in a big city for advertising. Along with funeral homes, listeners to this 50s station would be dying to try out the sponsors. Can’t resist the sick humor.

While I am sure some of that kind of business gets bought on oldies stations, most is not.

If we figure that the format, with core 60’s and 70’s songs, is going to appeal to mostly people who were at least teens in the 1970’s… so they will be about 60 to 65 and older. Teen listeners to Top 40 in the 70’s were exposed to many 60’s songs as gold so the younger age appeal is younger than it first seems.

So advertisers, while generally not highly targeted national agency accounts, include car dealers, retail, travel, health-related fields, home maintenance, insurance dealers and the like. It’s just a different sales and service approach.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

Not sure if this station has already been mentioned here but I was able to pull it in yesterday evening via skywave in PA... 1270 WILK. They've got a nice selection of 50s/60s along with 70s/80s, so they aren't a perfect fit for the thread here but I think they're close enough to mention. Seems like a really neat locally owned station.

 

[thenetwork]

Limiting this to 50's/60's only is a dead end. Now, a 50's to 80"'s format is more common, like MeTVmusic stations. Although a 50's tune is only played now and then.

50's music on an oldies/gold-based station has always been a misnomer. The 50s songs you usually would hear are from the last half of the 50s, and of those, most are from the rockers or R&B/Doo Wop groups.

Take out all the adult standards artists and crooners who had hits in the late 50s, and really there weren't as many to begin with.

Even when I worked at an oldies station in the late 80s, we played more songs from the early 70s than we did from the late 50s, because more songs fit the Rock & Roll format -- not neccessarily because they were "newer" songs.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

50's music on an oldies/gold-based station has always been a misnomer. The 50s songs you usually would hear are from the last half of the 50s, and of those, most are from the rockers or R&B/Doo Wop groups.

Take out all the adult standards artists and crooners who had hits in the late 50s, and really there weren't as many to begin with.

Even when I worked at an oldies station in the late 80s, we played more songs from the early 70s than we did from the late 50s, because more songs fit the Rock & Roll format -- not neccessarily because they were "newer" songs.

This is very true. Looking at a list of the #1 singles of that decade, it's really not until 1956 that you'd find many that would have been played in a 50s/60s oldies format. But then again, a lot of those true "golden oldies" stations wouldn't play much post-1963 either, sticking largely to the pre-Beatles era. So it would have been '57-'63.

Of course, there were a lot of oldies stations who either started out with or quickly added many post-British Invasion titles to their libraries.

Much of the 50s was dominated by artists like Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Tony Bennett, Doris Day, etc. We do tend to forget that today, don't we? A shame, too, as it was a very fine era in music!

 

[michael hagerty]

Much of the 50s was dominated by artists like Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Tony Bennett, Doris Day, etc. We do tend to forget that today, don't we? A shame, too, as it was a very fine era in music!

Yeah, but that was the moment that pop music became "My Mom's music" versus "My music."

The holdovers from that era continued to score on the pop charts. Dean Martin went to #1 with "Everybody Loves Somebody" in 1964. Perry Como ("It's Impossible" and Andy Williams "Love Story") got significant Top 40 play as late as 1971.

But that doesn't mean someone who wants to hear "oldies" wants to hear those.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

Yeah, but that was the moment that pop music became "My Mom's music" versus "My music."

The holdovers from that era continued to score on the pop charts. Dean Martin went to #1 with "Everybody Loves Somebody" in 1964. Perry Como ("It's Impossible" and Andy Williams "Love Story") got significant Top 40 play as late as 1971.

But that doesn't mean someone who wants to hear "oldies" wants to hear those.

I really appreciate an oldies station that plays all three of the tunes you mentioned. They "fit" nicely into the sonic texture and help give things a little more variety.

But I realize I'm an outlier.

Then again, when I spin tunes like those on my oldies show, I often hear from listeners telling me that those songs bring them back to their childhood and bring back good memories of their parents...

 

[vchimpanzee]

Take out all the adult standards artists and crooners who had hits in the late 50s, and really there weren't as many to begin with.

63 Big WAYS does play "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer" by Nat and there's at least one song by Andy. A couple of other real standards artists might be there too.

"Exodus" by Ferrante & Teicher and an instrumental by Perez Prado are there too.

 

[CTListener]

63 Big WAYS does play "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer" by Nat and there's at least one song by Andy. A couple of other real standards artists might be there too.

"Exodus" by Ferrante & Teicher and an instrumental by Perez Prado are there too.

I'm 70 and those tunes are instant station switchers for me.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I'm 70 and those tunes are instant station switchers for me.

I looked at a list of Andy's hits and saw "Butterfly" and "Are You Sincere". I think the station plays both, but I'm more certain about the first one.

Johnny Mathis could be considered a standards artist. But oldies stations have always played "Chances Are" and "Misty".

There's also Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife".

 

[ted chittenden]

50's music on an oldies/gold-based station has always been a misnomer. The 50s songs you usually would hear are from the last half of the 50s, and of those, most are from the rockers or R&B/Doo Wop groups.

Take out all the adult standards artists and crooners who had hits in the late 50s, and really there weren't as many to begin with.

Even when I worked at an oldies station in the late 80s, we played more songs from the early 70s than we did from the late 50s, because more songs fit the Rock & Roll format -- not neccessarily because they were "newer" songs.

You mean that Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life," and Dan Hill's "Sometimes When We Touch," fit more with your format than, say, Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," and The Platters' "Twilight Time?" The point I'm making is that the 1970s were probably the most ac-oriented decade for top-40 radio. While the early 1950s had a lot of crooners, the rock and R&B revolt of the mid- and late 1950s was really something to behold and listen to.

 

[Mike in Destin]

Not sure if this station has already been mentioned here but I was able to pull it in yesterday evening via skywave in PA... 1270 WILK. They've got a nice selection of 50s/60s along with 70s/80s, so they aren't a perfect fit for the thread here but I think they're close enough to mention. Seems like a really neat locally owned station.

I think you mean WLIK 1270 Newport, TN.
I was listening to them last night, and they were coming in pretty decent here in northwest FL. 500 watts. There's also another good oldies station on the same frequency, WBOJ Columbus, GA.

 

[thenetwork]

I looked at a list of Andy's hits and saw "Butterfly" and "Are You Sincere". I think the station plays both, but I'm more certain about the first one.

Johnny Mathis could be considered a standards artist. But oldies stations have always played "Chances Are" and "Misty".

There's also Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife".

DJ's had no choice but to play "Misty", for fear that one of their groupies could be waiting for them when they get home... 🥸

 

[thenetwork]

You mean that Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life," and Dan Hill's "Sometimes When We Touch," fit more with your format than, say, Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," and The Platters' "Twilight Time?" The point I'm making is that the 1970s were probably the most ac-oriented decade for top-40 radio. While the early 1950s had a lot of crooners, the rock and R&B revolt of the mid- and late 1950s was really something to behold and listen to.

Actually, our format went up to 1974. There was only song after '74 that we would play: "Old Time Rock And Roll". So Debby and Dan were not on the station's radar.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

I think you mean WLIK 1270 Newport, TN.
I was listening to them last night, and they were coming in pretty decent here in northwest FL. 500 watts. There's also another good oldies station on the same frequency, WBOJ Columbus, GA.

Yes, I mean WLIK in Newport, TN. I was saying that I picked them up in western PA. Sorry I didn't make that more clear. Interestingly, I think WBOJ occasionally comes in along with WLIK. I was sometimes hearing other oldies faintly so I'm guessing that's probably it...