In your opinion. 50s and 60s are strictly oldies.
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Philly 80s Battle is On
- Thread starter AM/FMRAINMAN
- Start date
In your opinion. 50s and 60s are strictly oldies.
Oldies: 60's core, sometimes with late 50's and earlier 70's.
Classic Hits: 80's core with some later 70's and even a few early 90's.
These are industry standard definitions.
Although I have a feeling most listeners think of all that music as "oldies," regardless of industry lingo, especially if their local classic hits station doesn't use either term. Listeners to urban formats specializing in older music might prefer the term "throwbacks." Again, I'd imagine that term would cover songs by LL Cool J, Luther Vandross, Barry White or the Four Tops.
That's true. Each generation and lifestyle group has its own term for the music they grew up on, but the industry has to have some way of telling formats apart, mostly to show advertisers what they program.
I kinda doubt average radio listeners know or care about whether their favorite stations plays "Classic Hits" or "Oldies;" they probably just know which station plays the music they like.
But image does matter in attracting demographics.
That's why WOGL hasn't used the "Oldies 98" moniker since about 2003. And that's why B101 rebranded even though they were #1... because trying to attract younger listeners as B101, people thought they still played Michael Bolton and Celiene Dion, so the name change refreshed their image.
Granted if a station is calling itself "Oldies," they're not likely to get a whole lotta 18-34 year olds. But I think the meaning of the monikers is waning. I don't think people are paying that much attention to it anymore. To wit, 101.1 may have wanted over the past few decades to reference Soft Rock or whatever but instead they went by B101 and More-FM, names which really don't mean anything to anyone. Certainly, no one knew or cared that they are "Adult Contemporary."
Adult contemporary stations have never used that phrase on air. It has been an insiders term from day one. "More" provides subconscious reinforcement of the illusion the station is trying ot create of variety and depth in the station's playlist -- not to mention that it's playing "more" newer/livelier/hipper music than tired old "B-101" was.
Again, those names like Adult Contemporary, Regional Mexican, Adult Hits, etc., are designed to identify formats for time buyers, not listeners. While some may be similar to station positioning on the air, most aren't and there is no reason for them to be.
Keep in mind that much agency business is placed from outside a station's market, and time buyers need some kind of label to know what each station does as they probably have never listened to 99% of the stations they buy or consider for buys.
haha. We maaaaaaaaaaaay be taking my words a bit too literally. We all know that "official" format names aren't for listeners. I mentioned "Adult Contemporary" only in the last sentence of an entire post! My point is that listeners are less and less concerned with whether a station calls itself "Lite Rock 105" or "Oldies 96." Increasingly, such monikers mean as much as "104.7 The Lizard" or "Q105," which mean literally nothing at all. (And BTW, I doubt many listeners are getting all the previously-mentioned subtext regarding the name More-FM, though kudos to any average listener who actually is thinking about it that deeply.) My main point: We're moving away from people being influenced by the station's name (unless it's blatant like "Oldies 95" or "Polka 103") as people seem to be going by whether the station plays what they want to hear. I won't belabor the point any further as I think we've beaten it to death. Feel free to carry on though.
MORe would have been a perfect name for an MOR station back in the day. 610 WIP...MORe AM.
I kid....I kid....
I kid....I kid....
WOGL would like to make money, so they won't go back to being an "Oldies" format.
Ben FM plays very little of "Today." They are centered heavily in the 80s with an occasional 90s tune tossed in (and a very rare early 00's). WOGL is 80s centered with a splash of older music in the mix. Prime for the demographic they're targeting
Hahahaha you're funny! 🙂
WOGL can create an HD-2 feed on thier website that plays all the hits from 1954-1989. No harm there. WOGL FM will continue to update the playlist to stay profitable and keep the advertisers happy. The Internet, HD-2 feeds, or Satellite is the place to go for the old school stuff. Unless your local area has a low powered FM that plays anything and everything, PPM markets aren't going to do that. Too risky!
WOGL can create an HD-2 feed on thier website that plays all the hits from 1954-1989. No harm there. WOGL FM will continue to update the playlist to stay profitable and keep the advertisers happy. The Internet, HD-2 feeds, or Satellite is the place to go for the old school stuff. Unless your local area has a low powered FM that plays anything and everything, PPM markets aren't going to do that. Too risky!
The harm is the HD signal takes some power away from the main signal, and costs some time & money to program.
WMGK-HD2, does a good job playing oldies, although not as good as wfat, wmid, kfxm, wkce and other classic oldies stations, but its better than nothing for T radio in this area. I still get surprised by them sneaking in Linda Scott, Them, PPand M, Glen Campbell, Santo and Johnny, Walter Wanderley and others. They are 10% 50's, 10% 70's and 80% 60's, I wish they would throw in more 50's and doo wop. They are in-house programmed by Tony Harris and they do not stream, no HD radio your out of luck.
It saves them lots of money, plus saves them a potential lawsuit for streaming pre-1972 music.
On FM, the HD signal does not subtract power from the analog signal. In fact, a number of HD-enabled stations use entirely separate transmitters and even separate antenna systems.
Most HD signals, though, are generated by a separate HD module in the Analog transmitter box. This is simply for convenience as the combiner networks are built in.
KLUV 98.7 has an HD-2 feed that plays Oldies from 1954-1975. It doesn't bother them. At least they treat their format well unlike KRTH who destroyed thier HD-2 stream with Radio Disney!
FM stations usually treat HD-2 streams like internet stations, so there is more flexibility.
Do any FM stations back there in New York or Pennylvania feature a weekend specialty program called "Sundays with Sinatra?"
FM stations usually treat HD-2 streams like internet stations, so there is more flexibility.
Do any FM stations back there in New York or Pennylvania feature a weekend specialty program called "Sundays with Sinatra?"
Not on FM. WPHT-AM runs Sid Mark's Sounds of Sinatra show.
Actually just noticed that WPHT is an HD-3 of WOGL-FM. So in that way it's on FM.
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