Oldies (not classic hits crap) in Columbus?

[Clinton70]

I'm 26 and when I was elementary age, I got into oldies (Elvis era till 1972) and got into the late Oldies B97.
Oldies have evolved into classic hits unfortunately and this town is already in 70s music overload.

I miss the real oldies like B97. 1230 was a treat for a while there in the early 00's but the signal is garbage.

Cincinnati has real oldies WDJO for years now. http://www.oldies1160.com/

A volunteer LPFM real oldies channel has popped up in Dayton recently, http://www.daytonoldies.com/

Are we next? Yeah, I can listen to them on ipod but there's not much satisfaction from that. The boomer population is huge and younger people like myself got into oldies. There's plenty of disposable FM's in town..
Heard this in Bozeman, MT. If they want to sat feed, they can: http://www.trueoldieschannel.com/

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

The True Oldies Channel has been pretty successful, including their affiliate in Chicago. When they started a few years back they played more 50's and early 60's, but now focus more on the 65-72 era that most oldies stations focused on for years before switching to 70's-based Classic Hits -- plus a small amount of killer songs from earlier years. I would think someone could do reasonably well with it here, especially since there aren't even any of the 70's-based Classic Hits stations here (although Rewind covers some of that territory). For those who says you can't make money with the predominant demos for True Oldies stations, I think WLS-FM Chicago and many others would have dumped the format awhile ago if that were true.

 

[Clinton70]

Yeah, I heard it there too. It's not a huge signal (like 4400 watts or something like that) but it's atop the Sears tower or Hancock bldg and a ideal spot on the radio, 94.7.

1270 had it for a couple months but the signal blew and now has joined the group of northern rimshot mexican channels, lol.

I wish someone here would try it (I prefer having more early 60s like in Cincy or Dayton but True Oldies is cool) here, instead of all these copy cat stations (lol 103.5/103.9/104.3).

 

[jakej]

Maybe you'd enjoy my show on WCRS, Clinton, "Yesterday's Top Secrets". Roughly half of its music is from the 1960's, last night was our 184th episode, and 75 of them are archived at http://wcrsfm.org/audio/user/18 for instant downloading or playing. The show airs and streams at 7pm on Thursdays and Fridays.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Yeah, I heard it there too. It's not a huge signal (like 4400 watts or something like that) but it's atop the Sears tower or Hancock bldg and a ideal spot on the radio, 94.7.

I don't understand the engineering , but I know that 4400 watts is actually typical for a full-market Chicago FM transmitting from atop one of the tallest Chicago towers -- maybe even a little better than typical. (I don't believe the newly-built and now second-tallest, the Trump tower, is going to have any FM transmitters.) Of course the Sears Tower is now actually the Willis Tower, but I'm still hesitant to call it that myself -- what a ridiculous name change!

 

[knowbetter]

Yeah, I heard it there too. It's not a huge signal (like 4400 watts or something like that) but it's atop the Sears tower or Hancock bldg and a ideal spot on the radio, 94.7.

I don't understand the engineering , but I know that 4400 watts is actually typical for a full-market Chicago FM transmitting from atop one of the tallest Chicago towers -- maybe even a little better than typical. (I don't believe the newly-built and now second-tallest, the Trump tower, is going to have any FM transmitters.) Of course the Sears Tower is now actually the Willis Tower, but I'm still hesitant to call it that myself -- what a ridiculous name change!

yep, it will at least be a class b.. i think it's at least a 10kw, but i didn't take the time to figure it out...

 

[Apollo7979]

In a nutshell without getting too technical, FM radio stations are line of sight. The taller the tower and the more power it transmits, the wider the coverage area. The FCC regulates coverage areas based on the perameters they have in place. WLS-FM, like most Chicago FMs, is a class B station (that is under normal circumstances 50,000 watts at 300 feet above average terrain). However in larger cities, most stations elect to transmit higher than 300 feet due to line of sight issues. When that's the case, they need to take a power cut to maintain the same coverage area to remain in compliance with FCC regulations. Therefore, WLS-FM transmitting off of Willis Tower at 1,535 feet at 4,400 watts is equivalent to transmitting from a 300 foot stick at 50,000 watts. If they did 50,000 watts in downtown Chicago, however, their signal wouldn't get out nearly as far with all the tall buildings getting in the way of their line of sight.

There are exceptions. In Columbus, for instance, WNCI transmits at a grandfathered 175,000 watts at 561 feet, but due to its class B status, it's coverage area is only protected like that of a typical 50,000 watt station.

 

[Clinton70]

Cool show, jake.

Town needs more oldies though for more than just an hour. One time, I thought this town couldnt survive without one. Times have changed.

According to True Oldies' website, they have an affiliate in Mt Vernon on 1300AM. One, I didn't know MV has a station. Two, I can't get it at all on the west side, at least in the house.

1250 in Washington CH uses the "Oldies Radio" (they have since changed their name) satellite, which is horrible.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

According to True Oldies' website, they have an affiliate in Mt Vernon on 1300AM. One, I didn't know MV has a station. Two, I can't get it at all on the west side, at least in the house.

1250 in Washington CH uses the "Oldies Radio" (they have since changed their name) satellite, which is horrible.

1300 is WMVO, Mount Vernon's historic AM. CC used to own it, until BAS Broadcasting went on its small town Ohio buying spree, picking up 1300 and big sister station WQIO/93.7, which you can probably get even on the west side of Columbus on a decent car radio. 93.7 even tried to target Columbus for a while. It's satellite-fed AC "Eagle 93.7" now.

Knowing WMVO's usual MO, it's probably joining the Scott Shannon fest at about 2 PM or so, after local news, swap shop and whatever.

I'm not sure what Citadel calls its "Classic Hits Radio" format now, the former "Oldies Radio" (assuming the Washington CH station is not running Dial Global's similar format). The website is "GreatestMojo.com", but the former area "Oldies Radio"/"Pure Gold" affiliate is no longer carrying it...

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

And sure enough:

http://wmvo.basohio.com/index.php?page=station-information

On-Air
4a-9a Doug Stephan Mornings
9a-10a Tradio with Ally Stevens
10a-12 Noon, AM Knox County with
Adam Taylor
12p-12:30 News, Sports, Weather, Business News & Farm News
12:30p-2p Open Debate with Dave Bevington
2p-4a True Oldies

The only thing I missed is the fact they run Doug Stephan's "Good Day" in morning drive. Doug and BAS are in business together...he now owns WTTF/1600 Tiffin, which he bought from BAS. BAS is still running WTTF in an LMA with Mr. Stephan, who will eventually donate it to alma mater Heidelberg College as a training station for students...

Re: WMVO, even their own coverage map (on that page) doesn't show it getting past Delaware County.

 

[Clinton70]

Yeah, radio-locator's coverage map is wrong. Too bad, 1300 looks like a good station. Hell, they're almost more local during the day than WTVN, lol. A morning show starting at 4am? Wow

I can pick up 93.7. It's choppy but I love the sound processing on it, they use something on it.

 

[Radioma18]

Have you tried 940 wcit am out of lima? They play oldies from the 50's to the 70's.

You can also listen to them online.
http://www.940wcit.com/

 

[kirkiefan]

WCIT is great. Only one jock who does mornings(Phil Austin, prog. dir) and a live afternoon talk show but the music is great. Mostly 60s since WCIT was originally a Top 40 daytimer in that decade but some 50s is also thrown in on occasion.

WUCO(as WQTT) switched from oldies to spanish language programming this past summer and was using the True Olides sat feed.

 

[RF Man]

WTTF Tiffin also carries this format. They have a daily schedule very close to 1300 WMVO. And they are now streaming 24 hours a day in stereo.

Yeah, radio-locator's coverage map is wrong. Too bad, 1300 looks like a good station. Hell, they're almost more local during the day than WTVN, lol. A morning show starting at 4am? Wow

I can pick up 93.7. It's choppy but I love the sound processing on it, they use something on it.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Looks like BAS turned to True Oldies Channel when Citadel killed off "Timeless".

 

[KevinFodor]

OK...pardon me for throwing a little common sense in here:

As big of an oldies fan as I am (Jason Roberts, formerly WCOL-FM from 1990-1995), I understand the reasons the original oldies format had to move forward.

Like it or not, the advertisers do not use radio to reach people over the age of 55. Therefore any format which focuses solely on 1955-1973 or so is doomed to financial failure, unless you happen to be in an older market. Columbus is not one of those.

However, the good news for oldies fans is that the Arbitron PPM actually rescued the format...By moving the target forward to 1964-to, say 1986, you can attract a good 35-54 audience base and still get ad buys.

WCBS-FM in New York proved it can work...in fact, WCBS-FM proves you can actually do the above mentioned format and sprinkle in the music pre-1964, as long as you have a legitimate reason for playing it. It's now, though the spice of the format, not the meat.

Why Columbus radio doesn't get this, I don't know. But, hey...what do I know? WCBS-FM just recently made it back to #1 in New York for the first time in 18 years not long ago. Yes, it's back to #3 now, but that's the usual ebb and flow of ratings.

Every generation has it's soundtrack. And 80's are now "oldies", like it or not. How you play them all is the important thing, though. But that's all for another time...and another post.

 

[jakej]

Every generation has it's soundtrack. And 80's are now "oldies", like it or not. How you play them all is the important thing, though. But that's all for another time...and another post.

I agree, Kevin/Jason, and that's why I always have linkages between all of the songs that I play on "Yesterday's Top Secrets". For example, right now I'm finishing up a "Five Senses of Rock" series that consisted of one episode each for the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. (A sixth show, for all of the great taste tune leftovers that didn't get eaten up during that sense's original hour, will air this Friday). I won't list all five of these shows' music, but here's the stuff from one picked at random:

The Lovin' Spoonful - Lovin' You
Sonic Youth - I Love Her All The Time
The Kinks - Ring The Bells
Squeeze - Someone Else's Bell
The Undertones - Listening In
The Hollies - Listen To Me
Tubeway Army - Listen To The Sirens
The Sands - Listen To The Sky
The Replacements - Gimme Noise
Dusty Springfield - I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore
Herman's Hermits - Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?
Colin Newman - I Can Hear Your ...
The Lovin' Spoonful - Close Your Eyes
Sonic Youth - Hot Wire My Heart
A Certain Ratio - Sounds Like Something Dirty (instrumental)

'60s, '70s, and '80s, all of them represented, and all of their music intermingled in an interesting way, with only the mandatory featured artist contributions of current stars The Lovin' Spoonful and Sonic Youth seemingly out of place (although each song pairing from those two bands interrelates as well).
The first four sense shows are now archived at www.wcrsfm.org/audio/user/18; they are YTS-187 through YTS-190. Our 200th episode is slated to air on October 29, and I haven't yet decided, but the featured artist pairing by then will be either Steppenwolf and The Stranglers, or Spanky and Our Gang and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Clinton, this whole "Secrets" concept could've easily been converted into a 24-hour format, but commercial radio didn't want to hear about it when I went knocking on doors from 2000 through 2008. If any of them want to hear about it now, they'll have to come to me; I'm through with going to them.

 

[V.Riley]

Every generation has it's soundtrack. And 80's are now "oldies", like it or not. How you play them all is the important thing, though. But that's all for another time...and another post.

LOL, I have a recording of you saying in reference to 80s music "Retro maybe, but never Oldies".

 

[Clinton70]

Yeah, I like 80s music.

But I sure as hell don't want it on or mixed with "oldies".

Hell, I would get a LPFM and plant True Oldies on it but it probably costs too much lol.

 

[jakej]

Well I guess there's two kinds of '80s music -- the radio biz's and mine.
Now come on, Clint, you posted that I had a "cool show", and I'm not gonna let you take that back! ;D