New Year's Eve...

[andreajesus]

and CBSFM is playing "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang and I'm sitting here at my computer, bopping along to it...so to all the nay-sayers who have knocked this station in the past for playing it, I just quote the words of William Shatner and say "GET A LIFE"!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, BABIES!
Andrea

 

[Jeffrey]

that's awesome! That is a true oldies station.

 

[neo11]

The narrow line of thinking on the "other" board, either from otherwise respected industry pros, is amazing. We're seeing the 60's and 70's being lumped into one exclusive category that nothing else can be added to. I'd like to know...in 1972 when CBS-FM first became an oldies station, with 8 years of music from the 70's yet to be released, just what was considered "oldies" and what wasn't. And why that definition at some point evolved to include the rest of the 70's, but at some magical cut-off point known only to oldies purists, that progression stopped and "oldies," by definition, was restricted to 1964-1979.

They say the music from the 80's doesn't sound like the music from the 60's and 70's. But what do the 60's and 70's sound like? The Beatles? Smokey Robinson? Frankie Valli? Donna Summer? Barry White? Elton John? Rod Stewart? Fleetwood Mac? The Temptations? There's a huge variation in sound between those staple oldies artists, yet that doesn't seem to be much of a problem (most definitely because their ears have gotten used to it). Now you're bringing something new (by oldies standards) into the mix, but still music that is 25-30 years old, and it's led to an uproar.

I don't wish to insult anyone but it almost seems to be a fear of aging manifesting itself through musical preferences. Hearing something unfamiliar (for them) inevitably takes away from what is familiar (to them), and it must be a jarring notion. I know it's more complex than that, but it really comes across that way.

And yes, the Sugarhill Gang and Rappers Delight *should* be heard on CBS-FM some more. It's a recognizable, upbeat song from the early 80's with popular appeal and fits right in with a lot of what CBS-FM already plays.

Eventually, like it or not, the 60's and, many more years later, the 70s will have to be phased out, to keep up with the type of audience CBS-FM and its advertisers will continue to want to reach. If oldies doesn't do that, it will die off. And when that happens, the same whiners and complainers will come here to lament the loss of the station which they trashed and criticized, much the same as what we saw in June 2005.

 

[RADIO TRUTH]

WCBS-FM, just like every other classic hits/former oldies station, is backed into a demographic music corner. Enjoy the format while it lasts, because it will be going bye bye sooner, rather than later. WCBS-FM would be better served being an 80s station with an 80s presentation rather than trying, in its feeble attempt, to combine totally dissimilar music from three decades. WCBS-FM's present format will irritate a majority of the audience. Listeners who want to hear 60s music, don't want to hear 80s music. Listeners who want to hear 80s music, don't want to hear 60s music. Cater to the audience who like 60s music and ad agencies won't buy the age of the audience. When you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to anybody. That is what CBS-FM is doing today. The handwriting is on the wall. The format is dead meat. The geeks who write on this board are not in any way representative of the average radio listener.

 

[oldies76]

WCBS-FM's present format will irritate a majority of the audience. Listeners who want to hear 60s music, don't want to hear 80s music. Listeners who want to hear 80s music, don't want to hear 60s music. Cater to the audience who like 60s music and ad agencies won't buy the age of the audience. When you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to anybody. That is what CBS-FM is doing today. The handwriting is on the wall. The format is dead meat. The geeks who write on this board are not in any way representative of the average radio listener.

There are no such classic hits stations that just play 60's, or just 70's or just 80's. They are ALL mixed. That's how the format is presented. WCBS is doing an outstanding job in presenting these songs, whether by daily rotation or by specialty.

Someday (as time marches on), more "recent" classic hits will eventually be added (90's and early 00's) and the older ones may be phased out. But they will not be totaly eliminated. Key songs will still be played and will never go away, because they are part of the rock and roll scene and history.

Songs from pre-1955 have by far, mostly left the airwaves, because they are not part of the rock era.

Maybe decades down the road, when a new era is defined, then rock and roll could be phased out, just like pre 50's music and big band were phased out decades back when rock was taking hold.

In the mean time...enjoy what you've got!

 

[scooty430]

WCBS-FM, just like every other classic hits/former oldies station, is backed into a demographic music corner. Enjoy the format while it lasts, because it will be going bye bye sooner, rather than later. WCBS-FM would be better served being an 80s station with an 80s presentation rather than trying, in its feeble attempt, to combine totally dissimilar music from three decades. WCBS-FM's present format will irritate a majority of the audience. Listeners who want to hear 60s music, don't want to hear 80s music. Listeners who want to hear 80s music, don't want to hear 60s music. Cater to the audience who like 60s music and ad agencies won't buy the age of the audience. When you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to anybody. That is what CBS-FM is doing today. The handwriting is on the wall. The format is dead meat. The geeks who write on this board are not in any way representative of the average radio listener.

Got to think outside the box folks. Prior to the success of JACK, for example, nobody thought a big playlist, or combining genres, would work. It went against "radio wisdom" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Yes, JACK did not work in NYC as it replaced a beloved institution (and was poorly executed to boot,) but it's a success in many other places, five years or so later.

And apparently, CBS is now proving that playing late 50s through 80s can work. In fact, as discussed elsewhere, they are currently airing a lengthy special that begins with Bill Haley and Elvis.

 

[andreajesus]

That's "The History of Rock and Roll" - now they're gonna be up to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons...

Andrea

 

[neo11]

WCBS-FM, just like every other classic hits/former oldies station, is backed into a demographic music corner. Enjoy the format while it lasts, because it will be going bye bye sooner, rather than later. WCBS-FM would be better served being an 80s station with an 80s presentation rather than trying, in its feeble attempt, to combine totally dissimilar music from three decades. WCBS-FM's present format will irritate a majority of the audience. Listeners who want to hear 60s music, don't want to hear 80s music. Listeners who want to hear 80s music, don't want to hear 60s music. Cater to the audience who like 60s music and ad agencies won't buy the age of the audience. When you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to anybody. That is what CBS-FM is doing today. The handwriting is on the wall. The format is dead meat. The geeks who write on this board are not in any way representative of the average radio listener.

Is it most listeners that don't want to hear 60s music if they want to hear 80s music (and vice versa) or just a vocal minority of radio message board dwellers and oldies "purists"? Because when looking at CBS-FM's strong ratings since its return, I think it's pretty clear to me that if anyone is tuning out, it must be a very small number of listeners, regardless of demographic. I think a lot of people are letting their own personal music biases and a feeble attachment to another time prevent them from seeing the necessity of what CBS-FM is doing, and its success so far.

 

[TonySantiago]

Got to think outside the box folks. Prior to the success of JACK, for example, nobody thought a big playlist, or combining genres, would work. It went against "radio wisdom" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Yes, JACK did not work in NYC as it replaced a beloved institution (and was poorly executed to boot,) but it's a success in many other places, five years or so later.

And apparently, CBS is now proving that playing late 50s through 80s can work. In fact, as discussed elsewhere, they are currently airing a lengthy special that begins with Bill Haley and Elvis.

I'll even go as far as say that if Jack had been placed on 101.9 or 92.3 at that time it was put on CBS, the format would still be here.

 

[andreajesus]

Got to think outside the box folks. Prior to the success of JACK, for example, nobody thought a big playlist, or combining genres, would work. It went against "radio wisdom" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Yes, JACK did not work in NYC as it replaced a beloved institution (and was poorly executed to boot,) but it's a success in many other places, five years or so later.

And apparently, CBS is now proving that playing late 50s through 80s can work. In fact, as discussed elsewhere, they are currently airing a lengthy special that begins with Bill Haley and Elvis.

I'll even go as far as say that if Jack had been placed on 101.9 or 92.3 at that time it was put on CBS, the format would still be here.

i'm not so sure, Tony...but apparently, this is all starting to pull away from the original point of my thread, which was to let people know that SOME people posting in this thread APPRECIATE the music that CBSFM is playing!! and besides which, SOME listeners consider "Rapper's Delight" or "Tainted Love" an OLDIE!!

 

[neo11]

Got to think outside the box folks. Prior to the success of JACK, for example, nobody thought a big playlist, or combining genres, would work. It went against "radio wisdom" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Yes, JACK did not work in NYC as it replaced a beloved institution (and was poorly executed to boot,) but it's a success in many other places, five years or so later.

And apparently, CBS is now proving that playing late 50s through 80s can work. In fact, as discussed elsewhere, they are currently airing a lengthy special that begins with Bill Haley and Elvis.

I'll even go as far as say that if Jack had been placed on 101.9 or 92.3 at that time it was put on CBS, the format would still be here.

i'm not so sure, Tony...but apparently, this is all starting to pull away from the original point of my thread, which was to let people know that SOME people posting in this thread APPRECIATE the music that CBSFM is playing!! and besides which, SOME listeners consider "Rapper's Delight" or "Tainted Love" an OLDIE!!

I think it's great that you're open minded about the music CBS-FM plays. I think their mix sounds great too, but even putting my preferences aside, it's absolutely a necessary move for the station, as I've been saying. Too bad so many people are just stuck in a certain mold and refuse to see their "beloved" station change. It's really getting quite tiring to see all that whining and clinging to the past.

Next year, I also hope that CBS-FM won't repeat the Christmas music experiment. Remember what one of my predictions was? I predicted that CBS-FM would NOT see a bump from the Xmas tunes this year. That indeed turned out to be the case, in the latest PPM's which were released for December. In fact, they went down from a 4.8 to a 4.7. Lite FM saw their usual boost, however, and incidentally, CBS-FM's sister station, Fresh, saw a nice increase from a 2.6 to a 3.2, possibly from disenfranchised Lite FM listeners. It's just like a few years ago, when PLJ hopped on the Christmas music bandwagon and did not see a boost. It really seems that this much-advertised increase in listeners only benefits one station, at most, which is why we haven't seen PLJ do the all-Christmas lineup again, and now, possibly CBS-FM as well.

About Jack though, I agree with Tony: it's numbers were halfway decent, and may have even seen a boost in the PPM's, just like PLJ has (rising from the low 2's to the low 3's). If placed on 92.3, I think the station would still be around today and would have decent numbers. What buried Jack was the negative publicity over CBS-FM being taken off the air. If it was just about ratings, heck, we would have seen K-Rock pulled long ago, as it has even worse numbers than Jack did.

 

[davideduardo]

Prior to the success of JACK, for example, nobody thought a big playlist, or combining genres, would work. It went against "radio wisdom" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.)

Almost every country station in America plays a library about the same size as that of a Jack station.... and has for many years.

Every format has a sweet spot in the number of songs, ranging from around 100 for a CHR to the 700-800 for Country or around 825 or so for a Jack.

In fact, all formats play as many songs as the listeners indicate they want to hear.

 

[andreajesus]

Got to think outside the box folks. Prior to the success of JACK, for example, nobody thought a big playlist, or combining genres, would work. It went against "radio wisdom" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Yes, JACK did not work in NYC as it replaced a beloved institution (and was poorly executed to boot,) but it's a success in many other places, five years or so later.

And apparently, CBS is now proving that playing late 50s through 80s can work. In fact, as discussed elsewhere, they are currently airing a lengthy special that begins with Bill Haley and Elvis.

I'll even go as far as say that if Jack had been placed on 101.9 or 92.3 at that time it was put on CBS, the format would still be here.

i'm not so sure, Tony...but apparently, this is all starting to pull away from the original point of my thread, which was to let people know that SOME people posting in this thread APPRECIATE the music that CBSFM is playing!! and besides which, SOME listeners consider "Rapper's Delight" or "Tainted Love" an OLDIE!!

I think it's great that you're open minded about the music CBS-FM plays.

Well, I'll tell you like this, Neo...I'm an old-time CBSFM listener (started listening in August 1984) - when the oldies returned to 101 on 7/12/07 in a DIFFERENT way than i was used to; oh, man, i carried on and was crazy about it and was VERY VERY upset about it and cried that it should be as it was...but i got to a point (with some help) where for me it was like i had to move forward and accept CBSFM as it IS - and the way IT IS TODAY is NOT a bad thing, it's REALLY not...i mean, i'm listening to this "History of Rock and Roll" thing and i'm loving it...and you know what? i would like to think that my openness and acceptance of this station IN 2008 INTO 2009 has garnered me some acceptance and R-E-S-P-E-C-T from BOTH the air personalities and station management as a whole....

Andrea

 

[icybluelake]

WCBS-FM, just like every other classic hits/former oldies station, is backed into a demographic music corner. Enjoy the format while it lasts, because it will be going bye bye sooner, rather than later. WCBS-FM would be better served being an 80s station with an 80s presentation rather than trying, in its feeble attempt, to combine totally dissimilar music from three decades. WCBS-FM's present format will irritate a majority of the audience. Listeners who want to hear 60s music, don't want to hear 80s music. Listeners who want to hear 80s music, don't want to hear 60s music. Cater to the audience who like 60s music and ad agencies won't buy the age of the audience. When you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to anybody. That is what CBS-FM is doing today. The handwriting is on the wall. The format is dead meat. The geeks who write on this board are not in any way representative of the average radio listener.

No argument with the last point, but everyone still wants to play armchair PD. No problem there.

But don't all formats have to evolve? I'm not here to defend CBS-FM, I'm not even a listener. But it seems to me that what you've said about that station applies to others. I wouldn't expect KTU or Kiss 98.7 to be doing what they do now forever. Unless you mean that CBS-FM doesn't really have room to evolve. But it would seem to me at least that they can phase out 60s hits and play more 80s hits, and even 90s hits will eventually become oldies. If that makes them an adult hits station, that's just a question of how they're classified, format-wise, no? Anyway, enjoyed your post.