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Oldies Will be Back In Buffalo

E

Element9

It will take some time, but Oldies will be back on the air on some FM in Buffalo. If the NYC board is any indication, there will be all kinds of whining and moaning about it "not being real Oldies." Because it won't be Oldies. It'll be a brew of 60's, 70's and 80's... who knows, by the time it returns, it may even have some 90's too. Call it Classic Hits for a new generation. It'll work as long as the jocks are live and live in the present (foregoing references to birthdays of stars who've been dead for ten-twenty years.) It will be heavy 50+ and very salable to clients local, direct. There's sure to be a place for this format in this aging, shrinking market. Set the timer for one year. Starting.... NOW.

-9-
 
Not So Fast

I'm not so sure. WHTT still has a sprinkling of '60s, a taste of '70s, a lot of '80s, an increasing number of '90s, and even a few tunes that are recurrent, if not current.

The Lake has lots of '60s and '70s music - although not much pop. 97-Rock also has some '60s, lots of '70s and '80s, although more AOR than pop.

WJYE has lots of soft pop - some from the '60s, some '70s, lots of '80s, lots of '90s, and the softer side of current/recurrent music.

I could see either WHTT or WJYE shifting the balance toward '70s music if there was money to be made there. As it is, I don't think that 50+ listeners are particularly underserved. Of the stations mentioned, WHTT and 97-Rock seem to have the most live-and-local personality in their line-up. I don't see 97-Rock shifting toward '60s/'70s pop real soon. WHTT could go back in that direction if their current foray into Gold-based AC tanks.
 
There's no doubt about it, "oldies" will soon be heard in Buffalo again.

The ratings for a few stations out there, combined with the current reality of demand for some version of oldies radio indicates clearly that there will indeed be either a standards aproach to the oldies format or a "modern oldies" aproach to it soon...

Hey? If I'm wrong I hope Regent and a few others know what they're doing!
 
Speaking of oldies I have always wondered why oldies stations seldom play the pop standards that were on the radio at the same time as their oldies. To find them you usually have to turn to a station with a standards format.

For example WKBW played "The Shelter of Your Arms" by Sammy Davis Jr in 1964 as well as that new group "The Beatles". There are other songs too like:

Greenfields by The Brothers Four
Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra
Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin
Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence

There are lots more but you get the idea

I must have been a crazy kid because I like these songs too!
 
In the meantime, I've been checking out 1050 CHUM, Toronto. Wow, everything KB used to be - bright, tight, PROFESSIONAL jocks, good blend of music (not the same top 10 songs over and over), great jingles. And lately, with their 50th anniversary, they've had a lot of flashback stuff - aircheck snapshots from the past, including our own Jack Armstrong.
 
Roxalot makes good points about station like WJYE and WHTT making adjustments if another station flips to Oldies, Classic Hits or Greatest Hits. I personally think the Oldies ship has sailed... then again, who the hell knows.

As to 1050 CHUM, even with the Canadian Content, it's an outstanding station and a template of how Oldies-Classic Hits should be done. Check the CHUM website, and you'll be able to see what the station has played in the last hour. I've noticed it's predominantly 60's and 70's, with an 80's cut sprinkled here and there, proof that the 80's "fit" the format as it's presented on CHUM.

The CanCon is always a neat touch because it adds some spice (and yes, I know it's required by CRTC Rules.) For anybody who had CHUM on the car radio button in the 60's and 70's, the songs are familiar. In that sense, we in WNY are fortunate to get a chance to hear "International Hit Music."

Unfortunately CHUM puts some of the rimshot Buffalo Oldies AM's in a sorry light. 1440 WJJL, for example. Is there a patron saint for hopeless AM's? St. Dan of Orchard Park, perhaps? This once-proud AM that spawned so much talent, Jeff Laurence, Joe Chille, Tony Magoo and dozens of news people. I noticed that WJJL is doing their legal using "WJJL Niagara Falls-Buffalo." No longer any West Seneca references. But there was no live morning show, at least today, and the audio has all the quality of a 5k phone line. "Technical issues?"

1330 WSPQ, Springville is billing itself as Classic Hits, playing 60's, 70's and 80's, which is noble, but misdirected. This is a station that should be doing 50's and 60's with a splash of 70's and a rare pinch of 80's and being over the top local. Forget those souped-up Kiss/Edge sounding bumpers that crop up all too frequently.

Give WSPQ credit for having a live, local morning show. But the morning guy, Fred Haier, needs to have more of a presence in AM drive and not be restricted by the nasal sounding bumpers and three in a row music sets. Sounds like the music is being run on Winamp. Gentlemen, you're giving it a good shot, but don't try competing with the FM's in Buffalo... be Springville first and foremost and serve your community of license.

That's my buck tree eighty.
 
For example WKBW played "The Shelter of Your Arms" by Sammy Davis Jr in 1964 as well as that new group "The Beatles". There are other songs too like:

Greenfields by The Brothers Four
Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra
Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin
Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence
Click to expand...

Any AM station playing Oldies would have to include this type of music. A blend of standards and Top 40 hits would get an audience. KB should have been doing this when they tried Oldies earlier this decade. But yes, WECK should do this and a live morning show would be great.

And what's the deal with WJJL - I would be embarrassed to be on their air staff - don't the owners have any self respect?
 
Seems like "All 60's, All the Time" would be a good place to start to get word of mouth advertising buzzing. After a while, you could expand to the 70's.
 
The 'beautiful' studios at Southgate Plaza

yeah, I've pondered about the current state of WJJL, ever since last year when former morning show host was let amid serious allegations about xxx material on station computers. Website hasnt been touched since then but they also drift towards 70s light rock, (eagles, Carole King, Fleetwood Mac). Hardly ever any Peppermint Twist or anything like that.

WJJL did do very good work w/Harvard Cup Football, NU Basketball, and had the bandits on radio (not sure if that's still the case). Other than that, it's all computer, all the time.
 
Mostly 60's - As in Age...

SpareChange said:
Seems like "All 60's, All the Time" would be a good place to start to get word of mouth advertising buzzing. After a while, you could expand to the 70's.
Click to expand...

Sure. You could sell it to advertisers as "All 55+, All the Time"...
 
WJJL No-no

cee said:
And what's the deal with WJJL - I would be embarrassed to be on their air staff - don't the owners have any self respect?
Click to expand...

No. They also don't have any money.
 
Re: Mostly 60's - As in Age...

SirRoxalot said:
SpareChange said:
Seems like "All 60's, All the Time" would be a good place to start to get word of mouth advertising buzzing. After a while, you could expand to the 70's.
Click to expand...

Sure. You could sell it to advertisers as "All 55+, All the Time"...
Click to expand...

I must know allot of strange kids! My daughter and her friends like '60's and '70's music in some cases more than music of their generation. My daughter has allot of my '60's music on her computer and some of it is early '60's.

Has anyone ever done a music test with 18-35's to find what oldies they like, playing more than just what someone "thinks" they will like......?
 
Yeah, my nephews ages 18 & 21 have a lot of 60's & 70's on their computers too. They don't even seem to know they are oldies.
 
Guys, I think your young nephews deserve some praise, but in all likelihood, those songs are on their hard drives and in their collections for some kind of alt-alternative listening. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's always cool when some 21 year old says "hey dad, what's the name of that song?" as you're listening to "Time Won't let Me" by the Outsiders or Sam the Sham's partee classique, "Wooly Bully."

From what I've seen, 18-24 and 18-34 demos sometimes move the needle for an Oldies/Classic Hits station, but it's nothing compared to numbers that stations like Kiss and WEDG put up.

As to WJJL... that's one sad story. It's like the black hole of AM radio. I'll bet there are a dozen jocks in Buffalo who've said, "If I owned that station, I'd......" Yeah, right. If you owned that station, you'd be throwing money down a rat hole! They should sell it to Lenny Rico and let him do "All Italian All the Time." Maybe sell it to the Seneca Nation and do "All Casino, All the Time." They could spin the wheel of formats and wager on what would come up next.

A friend tells me he'd move the antenna to Grand Island, put the studios and offices in Kenmore and target Buffalo and the Northtowns, Tonawanda and North Tonawanda. Really? Doing what? Cheesy local talk like WLVL that draws the same 27 listeners? WBEN would kill WJJL and WLVL. Entercom plays hardball. Look what they did to WHLD. They turned Cashdollar into Cashnickel.

Wanna do music? Go ahead, do standards. The minute WJJL gets some numbers, WECK will flip to Standards with a better fulltime signal that hits CheektoVegas, Amherst and the Central Burbs.

Like I said, the black hole of the AM band... WUWU-AM.

-9-
 
Eureka!

Element9 said:
Like I said, the black hole of the AM band... WUWU-AM.

-9-
Click to expand...

Hey, wait, you've come up with the answer - WLKK-AM! Of course, it's not big enough to be "The Lake". They'd have to call it "The Pond".

"All SFX, All the Time". An endless loop of the SFX that infest The Lake. It would be the audio equivalent of those "roaring fireplace" videos. The money would come from subliminal adds chirped out by the crickets in Morse code.
 
As to WJJL... that's one sad story. It's like the black hole of AM radio. I'll bet there are a dozen jocks in Buffalo who've said, "If I owned that station, I'd......" Yeah, right. If you owned that station, you'd be throwing money down a rat hole! They should sell it to Lenny Rico and let him do "All Italian All the Time." Maybe sell it to the Seneca Nation and do "All Casino, All the Time." They could spin the wheel of formats and wager on what would come up next.

A friend tells me he'd move the antenna to Grand Island, put the studios and offices in Kenmore and target Buffalo and the Northtowns, Tonawanda and North Tonawanda. Really? Doing what? Cheesy local talk like WLVL that draws the same 27 listeners? WBEN would kill WJJL and WLVL. Entercom plays hardball. Look what they did to WHLD. They turned Cashdollar into Cashnickel.
Click to expand...

Yes, I concur wholeheartedly. Radio day dreaming and reality are two different things entirely. Reality means paying the mortgage, the electric bill for the transmitter, rent for the studio, music royalties and that all important weekly payroll. And you have to do this mostly by selling commercial advertising. And that's pretty hard to do with no numbers...and getting some numbers with an AM with no history of ratings is just about impossible.

WJJL should have stayed in the Falls and superserved their area of license. If the owner liked oldies, he should have done a weekend Oldies show with some friends. Doesn't their limited night signal cover the Falls area well enough? How about high school and NU sports coverage. You can sell ads there. But maybe too late now?
 
JJL would have been an entirely different proposition if they had built out their CP for a power hike, which IIRC was for 5 kW-D, 1 kW-N, DA-2. It was going to throw big lobes over the cities of Niagara Falls and Buffalo and their nearby burbs. They could have actually reached out and served the cities they're trying to reach. And a serious stab at a format like personality gold might have been possible and economically viable.
 
I think WJJL is sounding better (segues-several tunes not playing at the same time...etc.) since Steve Mitchell is programming the computer and stroking the processing. The signal is what it is, but at least, when the music automation is in play, it moves along more listenably.

And Lenny Rico is always worth listening to as a life lesson in radio wierdness. :eek:
 
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