Possible new variety hits format emerging...

[szorn]

This time it might begin to replace all the oldies stations that are dying off. Here in Champaign, IL we have 92-5 The Chief, WCFF. It plays a variety of hits from the 60's - 80's.

Mainly: 60's motown, 70's pop hits, disco, and 80's dance, pop and some rock hits. Great blend of stuff you haven't heard since the original Top 40 days began.

Now Indianapolis has a station very much like our Chief. It's the new 107.9 The Track. Same basic format and playlist.

It seems like Jack-FM took over as the new HOT AC format and these new stations are the new wave of an oldies format.

Thoughts? Any other stations like Track and Chief emerging out there?

 

[westlife]

Re: Possible new Classic Hits format emerging...

> Mainly: 60's motown, 70's pop hits, disco, and 80's dance,
> pop and some rock hits. Great blend of stuff you haven't
> heard since the original Top 40 days began.
{snip}
> It seems like Jack-FM took over as the new HOT AC format and
> these new stations are the new wave of an oldies format.

What you describe is not really "Variety Hits", it's "Classic Hits", a softer, more Oldies/AC-like variant of Classic Rock which has been on the air on many stations since at least the mid-'90s.

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[OldiesCat]

new format

It's neither- "classic hits" is really "classic rock lite", a slightly more
pop/less AOR version of classic rock. Successful Classic Hits stations play almost no R&B.

This cat's suggestion sounds more like the ill-fated Jammin' Oldies. Let's face it: no attempt to take the R&B/rhythmic/dancy lean to 60s/70s/80s will work as a mass-appeal successor to Oldies. Motown, 70s pop, disco, 80s, pop and dance sounds like AOR- "all over the road".

>
> What you describe is not really "Variety Hits", it's
> "Classic Hits", a softer, more Oldies/AC-like variant of
> Classic Rock which has been on the air on many stations
> since at least the mid-'90s.
>
> > Mainly: 60's motown, 70's pop hits, disco, and 80's
> dance, pop and some rock hits. Great blend of stuff you haven't
> > heard since the original Top 40 days began.
> {snip}It seems like Jack-FM took over as the new HOT AC format
> and these new stations are the new wave of an oldies format.
>

 

[szorn]

Re: new format

> It's neither- "classic hits" is really "classic rock lite",
> a slightly more
> pop/less AOR version of classic rock. Successful Classic
> Hits stations play almost no R&B.
>
> This cat's suggestion sounds more like the ill-fated Jammin'
> Oldies. Let's face it: no attempt to take the
> R&B/rhythmic/dancy lean to 60s/70s/80s will work as a
> mass-appeal successor to Oldies. Motown, 70s pop, disco,
> 80s, pop and dance sounds like AOR- "all over the road".
>

Understand that the Chief has a SLIGHT rhythmic lean if you count 60's Motown, disco, 80's pop and dance as all rhythmic but certainly is well balanced with 70's pop and 80's pop/rock or lighter rock hits. Doesn't come across as a rhythmic AC at all but well loved around here!! It's like Top 40's best years on the air.

 

[jack]

Re: new format

> > This cat's suggestion sounds more like the ill-fated
> Jammin'
> > Oldies. Let's face it: no attempt to take the
> > R&B/rhythmic/dancy lean to 60s/70s/80s will work as a
> > mass-appeal successor to Oldies. Motown, 70s pop, disco,
> > 80s, pop and dance sounds like AOR- "all over the road".

Jammin' Oldies was a great format who's original creator, Steve Rivers, left AMFM as the great gobble-up of AMFM/Jacor/Clear Channel started. Without its chief rabbi, CC felt little loyalty to the format and let it die. For an example of the next-gen, check out Famous Amos' Rhythm & Gold (www.rhythmandgold.com).

 

[westlife]

Re: new format

> Understand that the Chief has a SLIGHT rhythmic lean if you
> count 60's Motown, disco, 80's pop and dance as all rhythmic
> but certainly is well balanced with 70's pop and 80's
> pop/rock or lighter rock hits. Doesn't come across as a
> rhythmic AC at all but well loved around here!! It's like
> Top 40's best years on the air.

Sounds like 630 CFCO's "Classic Gold" format. They play everything from Frank Sinatra to Bryan Adams. Basically anything that was in the Top 40 pop music charts from 1955 to 1985 and appeals to adults gets played.

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[radiophile]

other variants

In Philadelphia, the oldies station, 98.1, promotes 60s and 70s.
Sunny 104.5 promotes Greatest Hits of the 60s 70s and 80s, and plays pop, rock and R&B/disco.
Ben 95.7 is a variety hits, mostly late 70s and 80s but with more current thrown in than many of the other variety hits stations.

Meanwhile, in Scranton, a station recently flipped to the River. The music selection sounds like variety hits (mid 70s to present with a heavy concentration on the 80s) but the management has said it purposely has not included the attitude of Jack/Bob/Ben stations. No snarky liners. And management says while it's starting without DJs, they will return at some point.

 

[OldiesCat]

Re: new format

Jammin oldies was doomed from the start. Few PDs understood the premise and made them too "urban", when the original design was supposed to make it soul hits for white listeners. Not enough music without being too disco and most didn't get that the had to include blue-eyed soul in the mix.
>
> Jammin' Oldies was a great format who's original creator,
> Steve Rivers, left AMFM as the great gobble-up of
> AMFM/Jacor/Clear Channel started. Without its chief rabbi,
> CC felt little loyalty to the format and let it die. For an
> example of the next-gen, check out Famous Amos' Rhythm &
> Gold (www.rhythmandgold.com).
>

 

[szorn]

Re: new format

> > Understand that the Chief has a SLIGHT rhythmic lean if
> you
> > count 60's Motown, disco, 80's pop and dance as all
> rhythmic
> > but certainly is well balanced with 70's pop and 80's
> > pop/rock or lighter rock hits. Doesn't come across as a
> > rhythmic AC at all but well loved around here!! It's like
>
> > Top 40's best years on the air.
>
> Sounds like 630 CFCO's "Classic Gold" format. They play
> everything from Frank Sinatra to Bryan Adams. Basically
> anything that was in the Top 40 pop music charts from 1955
> to 1985 and appeals to adults gets played.
>

Take out the 50's, sprinkle in a little of the 60's, then move on up to the 80's and you have THE CHIEF! BTW, they have DJ's up until midnight because "that's the way the Chief wants it" "It's good to be the Chief". It doesn't have as much attitude as the Jacks, just kind of fun and they are already doing money giveaways and community PR work. Becoming a big hit around here.

 

[Oldiesmike101]

Re: new format/Jammin 105

I Agree about that too. I remember Jammin' 105.1 in nyc which died out in early 2002. They were supposed to take on WCBSFM and compete with them to play more variety of Jammin Oldies especially from the 70s since cbsfm was to focused on 50s and 60s when Jammin signed on after the Buzz format. I remember at the beginning it was sounding alright the first days to first month, It was something new for oldies in nyc, then after they picked their official name for the station 1 month later, then they started becoming to disco and stuff like that plus they were being prejiduss against a lot of 70s groups like 3 dog night, tony orlando & dawn etc by sounding off on them which was wrong and calling great early 60s/late 50s hits moldy oldies that was wrong too. Jammin 105 never took on cbsfm good at all, they should have set their format from 63 or 64-89 with all the oldies and occasionally throw in some good dion songs and stuff like that, then they would have won over cbsfm which they never did, cbsfm was always ahead of them. However i did like both cbsfm and jammin and used to listen to both especially if one had songs on that i wanted to hear but then when they fired the pd of Jammin 105 who was friends with Joe Mccoy, Clear Channels biggest error and mistake was to make Frankie Blue pd of Jammin when he was pd at ktu. Frankie Blue screwed up Jammin 105 bad, he took away all the good late 60s soul hits, it became all disco and he was playing current hits and 90s songs which were not supposed to be played on Jammin 105 since it was a oldies station and they weren't supposed to play songs of today were singers rapped on good records from 70s, then Jammin really sunk in ratings and i'm thiking this is why CC pulled the plug on them for Hip Hop format in 2002.

> Jammin oldies was doomed from the start. Few PDs understood
> the premise and made them too "urban", when the original
> design was supposed to make it soul hits for white
> listeners. Not enough music without being too disco and
> most didn't get that the had to include blue-eyed soul in
> the mix.
> >
> > Jammin' Oldies was a great format who's original creator,
> > Steve Rivers, left AMFM as the great gobble-up of
> > AMFM/Jacor/Clear Channel started. Without its chief
> rabbi,
> > CC felt little loyalty to the format and let it die. For
> an
> > example of the next-gen, check out Famous Amos' Rhythm &
> > Gold (www.rhythmandgold.com).
> >
>

 

[tibbs]

Re: new format

> Jammin oldies was doomed from the start. Few PDs understood
> the premise and made them too "urban", when the original
> design was supposed to make it soul hits for white
> listeners. Not enough music without being too disco and
> most didn't get that the had to include blue-eyed soul in
> the mix.
> >
> > Jammin' Oldies was a great format who's original creator,
> > Steve Rivers, left AMFM as the great gobble-up of
> > AMFM/Jacor/Clear Channel started. Without its chief
> rabbi,
> > CC felt little loyalty to the format and let it die. For
> an
> > example of the next-gen, check out Famous Amos' Rhythm &
> > Gold (www.rhythmandgold.com).
> >
>


Lack of direction at the top caused it to tank before it ever
sailed. But, it is/was such a limited format and I think that's
where Jack is different. It would have been interesting to see
what would have happened if Steve Rivers had been able to evolve
the JO concept and backed it up with the proper music flow. Remember
that Cadillac Jack, don't jump overboard - or get dumped - I
am sure you considered and took care of that, right?

 

[peppertree]

Re: new format/Jammin 105

> I Agree about that too. I remember Jammin' 105.1 in nyc
> which died out in early 2002. They were supposed to take on
> WCBSFM and compete with them to play more variety of Jammin
> Oldies especially from the 70s since cbsfm was to focused on
> 50s and 60s when Jammin signed on after the Buzz format. I
> remember at the beginning it was sounding alright the first
> days to first month, It was something new for oldies in nyc,
> then after they picked their official name for the station 1
> month later, then they started becoming to disco and stuff
> like that plus they were being prejiduss against a lot of
> 70s groups like 3 dog night, tony orlando & dawn etc by
> sounding off on them which was wrong and calling great early
> 60s/late 50s hits moldy oldies that was wrong too. Jammin
After Jammin' 105 was established, WCBS-FM beat them by playing many more Jammin' type hits than they have played in many years. I started to hear all these Motown and Memphis soul hits that were not played on WCBS-FM since the seventies.

They succeeded in giving Jammin' listeners everything that Jammin' had and more. I have airchecks of both stations from October, 1999 and you can hear it on CBS-FM in their airchecks.

Is that when Bobby Jay started that specialty soul show once a week on CBS-FM? If so, that was a shrewd move to erode Jammin' listeners.


> 105 never took on cbsfm good at all, they should have set
> their format from 63 or 64-89 with all the oldies and
> occasionally throw in some good dion songs and stuff like
> that, then they would have won over cbsfm which they never
> did, cbsfm was always ahead of them. However i did like both
> cbsfm and jammin and used to listen to both especially if
> one had songs on that i wanted to hear but then when they
> fired the pd of Jammin 105 who was friends with Joe Mccoy,
> Clear Channels biggest error and mistake was to make Frankie
> Blue pd of Jammin when he was pd at ktu. Frankie Blue
> screwed up Jammin 105 bad, he took away all the good late
> 60s soul hits, it became all disco and he was playing
> current hits and 90s songs which were not supposed to be
> played on Jammin 105 since it was a oldies station and they
> weren't supposed to play songs of today were singers rapped
> on good records from 70s, then Jammin really sunk in ratings
> and i'm thiking this is why CC pulled the plug on them for
> Hip Hop format in 2002.
>
> > Jammin oldies <P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>

 

[dave73]

Re: new format/Jammin 105

> After Jammin' 105 was established, WCBS-FM beat them by
> playing many more Jammin' type hits than they have played in
> many years. I started to hear all these Motown and Memphis
> soul hits that were not played on WCBS-FM since the
> seventies.
>
> They succeeded in giving Jammin' listeners everything that
> Jammin' had and more. I have airchecks of both stations from
> October, 1999 and you can hear it on CBS-FM in their
> airchecks.
>
> Is that when Bobby Jay started that specialty soul show once
> a week on CBS-FM? If so, that was a shrewd move to erode
> Jammin' listeners.
>
What little I remember about Jammin Oldies in the Chicago market, Jammin Oldies replaced a rock format that was on 103.5. AMFM was interested in Jammin Oldies and flipped 103.5 to Jammin Oldies in 1999. The success of Jammin Oldies came at the expense of sister station V103 (102.7 WVAZ Oak Park, IL), the Urban AC station. AMFM cared about the format that much that they ignored the heritage station. When CC bought out AMFM, they intentionally reduced the playlist so the ratings would drop, and eventually launch Kiss FM. I do remember from my observations from people listening to Jammin Oldies, I found more black people listening to it than whites. I don't know than from my observation who it reached more.

 

[uncamark]

Re: new format/Jammin 105

> What little I remember about Jammin Oldies in the Chicago
> market, Jammin Oldies replaced a rock format that was on
> 103.5. AMFM was interested in Jammin Oldies and flipped
> 103.5 to Jammin Oldies in 1999. The success of Jammin
> Oldies came at the expense of sister station V103 (102.7
> WVAZ Oak Park, IL), the Urban AC station. AMFM cared about
> the format that much that they ignored the heritage station.
> When CC bought out AMFM, they intentionally reduced the
> playlist so the ratings would drop, and eventually launch
> Kiss FM. I do remember from my observations from people
> listening to Jammin Oldies, I found more black people
> listening to it than whites. I don't know than from my
> observation who it reached more.

The format actually originated in Chicago at Big City's WXXY/WYXX metrocast, two suburban sticks on the same frequency, as "Heart and Soul." When AMFM made the switch at 103.5, Big City tried to compete, but realized that it was futile and flipped the stations to "The 80s Channel"--which ended up getting poached by ABC for 94.7, but I assume many of you are familiar with the whole sad story of Big City as a company.