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Markets With A 50s/60s Oldies Station

KilowattKat said:
Wow, I can't believe how many songs are played that I've never heard before. Like a Walter Jackson song that only reached No. 93 on the Billboard pop chart. Yeah, I'm hearing some songs from the 70's, and some rather obscure stuff. But hey why not, KJAA is just a fun play thing, an AM/FM translator covering an area with about about 20,000 people. Like the slogan on the website says, "None of the hits, All of the time!"
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While most people got to know Rollye as Rollye James, the talk show host, as K.M. says, she started out as Rollye Bornstein.

And before taking the Billboard Vox Jox gig, she was a music director at several great stations in the 1970s---KFRC, San Francisco; KIIS-AM, Los Angeles (in both cases following Carol Archer, who later was R&R's Smooth Jazz/NAC editor); KPOL and KMPC (both times for PD Michael O'Shea).

So if you're hearing great stuff on her labor-of-love station in AZ, that's why. The lady had a great set of ears for the music of that time.
 
radiofan2023 said:
She plays the same stuff as bumper music on her WGN show.
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If you want to listen to a fun talk show about trivia, music, and radio, tune into Rollye 's WGN show. When I last listened, a listener chose his category question from 'Class 1A AM's'. The question: What new 50kw station debuted on 660 AM when clear channel status was eliminated by the FCC? Answer: KTNN Window Rock, AZ. I believe the caller won a Visa gift card. Definitely a talk show for radio nerds!
 
I tried listening once, but she went on and on about some obscure 50’s artist who barely had one hit. She acted like he was the next Elvis. It was so uninteresting, I decided I’d never listen to her show again.
 
K.M. Richards said:
But sooner or later, those 17 people will literally die off.
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I guess I'll count myself as one of those 17, but I don't plan on dying off for, oh, another 50 years at least. Hopefully more.

radiofan2023 said:
I tried listening once, but she went on and on about some obscure 50’s artist who barely had one hit. She acted like he was the next Elvis. It was so uninteresting, I decided I’d never listen to her show again.
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Everyone has an off day every now and then.

That said, I just logged on (tuned in? Talk about anachronisms!) to the KJAA stream, and... it sounds like my song library, but older! (even I've conceded, and have some newer 80s and even 90s stuff).

As much as I like them, the same old hits that get played over and over get boring sometimes, so I like to dig around for older and more obscure songs that were minor hits that time forgot, or not hits at all that never got noticed. It's nice to see someone with the clout to own their own station feels the same way.

I just found myself a new favorite station, I think! I wish I could hear it live over AM, as many of these songs actually sound best over it, as I actually find that AM's inferiority actually masks some of the noise in the old records in a surprisingly pleasing way; it blends with the static nicely (most modern car radios' harsh 4kHz cutoffs make even strong local signals sound like mud, though, which negates this).

c
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Even the syndicated "True Oldies Channel", which played 50s music 10 years ago, no longer plays 50s music.

But I'm not aware of any TOC affiliates in large markets.
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I listen to the “True Oldies Channel” periodically, and they still play a very limited number of 50’s songs, but you’re correct in their focus on 60’s and 70’s tunes, with a growing number of 80’s songs..
 
K.M. Richards said:
Did you read the two posts above yours about TOC being recently added on a HD subchannel of WINS-FM in New York City?
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1Doug1 said:
i believe TOC is an internet only station now
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In our area, (Parkersburg, WV) TOC airs on an AM station and two translators.
AM-FM-DXer said:
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.
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Washington, Pa. Has WJPA-AM/FM, and they also stream. You will hear a lot of obscure oldies, at least when I last listened.
 
vchimpanzee said:
94.9 the Surf Myrtle Beach SC could be described this way. In fact, a lot of the recordings are newer even if the music sounds old. Sometimes the station plays brand new recordings. The format is called "Beach" but some songs considered "classic hits" are also played. Most artists are African-American but the DJs and the listeners are white.
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I listen to “the surf” when vacationing at Holden Beach.
 
cc333 said:
I guess I'll count myself as one of those 17, but I don't plan on dying off for, oh, another 50 years at least. Hopefully more.
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K.M. is exaggerating for effect, but here's the problem with formats that are locked into an era (no new music is ever added):

The clock is ticking from day one.

Once the people for whom that music was popular when it was new age out of the demo, it's essentially over.

Yes, there will be people outside that group in the saleable demos who will like it and will listen...


...but never enough of them, at the same time, for long enough periods, every day, to make up a meaningful rating or share in that saleable demo.


I learned that one programming an independent TV station 20 years ago. Yeah, people 18-49 watched The Andy Griffith Show reruns, but never enough of them, all at the same time, every day. The group that did do that? 65+.

So I went out and beat my former TV station to its own renewal of Frasier repeats. And the third night that it aired on our channel, it beat them 18-34, 18-49, 25-49 and 25-54 in primetime.

If that situation existed today, Frasier would be the 65+ show, and I'd probably have to go poach Modern Family reruns to score like that in prime.

Just time doing what time does.
 
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned KYNO 940 Fresno, CA.

They're nominally post-British Invasion 60s and early 70s, buft I've heard them play songs that are definitely mid-late 50s through early 60s, so they sort of count I think.

c
 
michael hagerty said:
While most people got to know Rollye as Rollye James, the talk show host, as K.M. says, she started out as Rollye Bornstein.

And before taking the Billboard Vox Jox gig, she was a music director at several great stations in the 1970s---KFRC, San Francisco; KIIS-AM, Los Angeles (in both cases following Carol Archer, who later was R&R's Smooth Jazz/NAC editor); KPOL and KMPC (both times for PD Michael O'Shea).

So if you're hearing great stuff on her labor-of-love station in AZ, that's why. The lady had a great set of ears for the music of that time.
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In 1986-87, she also published the “Mediatrix” market profiles. They were self-published, using a dot-matrix printer. But don’t let that fool you. She immersed herself in the market that she was covering for any given issues. Unfortunately, there are just 10 of them, and she didn’t cover San Francisco, a market for which I wish I had a better historic grounding. But she did a profile of Houston, the year after I left, and I can say she got just about everything right. The only wish I would have had is that she would have provided more detail on the news giants of the time, KTRH and KPRC, both now much diminished but big in their day. Otherwise, it’s a great slice of radio history, well grounded in its time and place. It’s an absolute pleasure to read those Mediatrix profiles. They’re available at worldradiohistory.com.
 
KilowattKat said:
They are still streaming on the 'Simple Radio' app. Funny, it still pops up as 1430 KYNO, not 940. The Wolfman Jack show is on right now (6pm PT).
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That app uses the Streema database, which for KYNO points to the same streaming source as the station's web site (http://ice8.securenetsystems.net/KYNO). Mark Roberts said that it was blocking him with a 403 error from his 8* zip code in another thread, so it's possible it will only work in that app for California listeners as well. Anyone else out there want to try?
 
yeoldeschool said:
That app uses the Streema database, which for KYNO points to the same streaming source as the station's web site (http://ice8.securenetsystems.net/KYNO). Mark Roberts said that it was blocking him with a 403 error from his 8* zip code in another thread, so it's possible it will only work in that app for California listeners as well. Anyone else out there want to try?
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I'm in San Diego, so that must be why the streaming isn't geofenced for me.

Which is too bad, they air Live from the 60's with the Real Don Steele on Friday afternoon, and Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story weekdays at noon ( which might be illegal).
 
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I wonder if one could use a VPN or something to bypass the geofencing?

I've read and heard many stories of Chinese and Russian residents using VPNs to access web sites blocked by the Communist censors.

c
 
KilowattKat said:
Which is too bad, they air Live from the 60's with the Real Don Steele on Friday afternoon, and Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story weekdays at noon ( which might be illegal).
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I'm not sure which of those you think may be illegal, but the Harvey reruns are airing on a lot of stations, among them the venerable WGN in Chicago, so there must be some kind of syndication arrangement out there. Perhaps it is his son Paul Jr. who holds the rights ... I recall that he wrote many of them from the mid-1970s on and briefly voiced the feature for ABC after his father's death.

"Live From the 60's" reruns are syndicated by M.G. ("Machine Gun") Kelly alongside his own weekly shows.
 


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