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Stations still doing 'traditional' Oldies

LOL... right, I conveniently forget Sunday mornings and Bill Flynn's POLKA...

As for me, if you looked online to see my times... we have new websites coming, what is up there is way out of date... I'm on now starting at seven... Though I step aside for Cool Bobby B and Bill Grace... Just one of the seven daily shows I do now LOL...
 
how about oldies 1510 WRNJ hakettstown nj.check out doc south's front porch show weekdays and his saturday morning show.other times it's just 50's,60's,70's and tad of 80's...with no jocks.good mix of oldies.i hope they don't mind the plug!
 
Here's a challenge: can anybody name a significant station in a competitive market? These suburban AMs on the fringes of the 79th market hardly indicate ANYTHING, gentlemen.
 
Looking at yes.com, just at a glance, these seem to fit the profile I was describing...a lot of mid-late 60s, a fair helping of 70s and virtually little to no 80s (and maybe a pre-64 'smash' hit):

WOMC/Detroit

KLUV/Dallas

KXKL/Denver

WOGL/Philadelphia (there are a few 'questionable' songs in there for the format in question, but it fits the bill pretty well, same with KLTH/Portland)

WZZN/Chicago

WMXJ/Miami

KLOU/St. Louis

WODS/Boston

KOOL/Phoenix

Those are the stations off the top of my head, I tried to pick the larger markets and there are probably more.
 
"traditional oldies" means late 50s to early 70s era span, centered around 1966.

None of those you've listed have era centers earlier than 1971 these days.

Next.....
 
Oldies Cat said:
"traditional oldies" means late 50s to early 70s era span, centered around 1966.

None of those you've listed have era centers earlier than 1971 these days.

Next.....
Click to expand...

As per Ceaser, I respectfully submit that WZZN fits your description.  While I'm here, I'll also agree with Fonz.  Given that WOKY is IMHO a "legend" station, both the presentation and music mix are something of a disappointment.
 
I'll give you that single example (despite the fact they're often off the satellite- True Oldies Channel is syndicated).

Traditional Oldies-not exactly burning up the charts these days. Had the format in general been smart enough to gradually evolve over the years (starting about 15 years ago), this wouldn't be such a big deal these days.
 
As we all become our parents, the definition of oldies changes... their hits became old, and then became standards... and then Doo Wop became oldies, but that was 35+ years ago, we're now a generation plus farther along... it makes since that early oldies the doo wop and the original voices of Rock & Roll would follow hit makers before them into Standards. The fact that alot of the 80's music is now 20+ years old, some of it already pushing towards 30 just amazes me how time is flying by. Oldies are evolving with the Baby Boomers.
 
Justin Case said:
As we all become our parents, the definition of oldies changes... their hits became old, and then became standards... and then Doo Wop became oldies, but that was 35+ years ago, we're now a generation plus farther along... it makes since that early oldies the doo wop and the original voices of Rock & Roll would follow hit makers before them into Standards. The fact that alot of the 80's music is now 20+ years old, some of it already pushing towards 30 just amazes me how time is flying by. Oldies are evolving with the Baby Boomers.
Click to expand...

A lot of radio people don't like that- they'd rather stay within their comfort zone vs. evolving with their audiences.
 
Oldies Cat said:
Had the format in general been smart enough to gradually evolve over the years (starting about 15 years ago), this wouldn't be such a big deal these days.
Click to expand...

Read reply #2 to the Sean Ross story about the return of CBS-FM.
 
Oldies Cat said:
I'll give you that single example (despite the fact they're often off the satellite- True Oldies Channel is syndicated).

Traditional Oldies-not exactly burning up the charts these days. Had the format in general been smart enough to gradually evolve over the years (starting about 15 years ago), this wouldn't be such a big deal these days.
Click to expand...


I can't help but wonder if the reason traditional oldies on terrestrial radio is suffering is because of the short/repetitive playlists.

While on vacation this past two weeks, I did a lot of listening to both Upper Michigan AM/FM radio, and XM.

The thing that struck me the most was how "safe" the stations in Ohio play in contrast to XM and some of the live U.P. stations. I use the word safe only because that's what one of the cluster PDs said they had to be in order to keep listeners. (They are now #9 in the market with a 3.0, and above them are stations with double digits). I'm guessing their playlist is only 400-500 songs, same jingles as the past several years.

XM, especially, plays some rather "off the beaten path" songs that I have not heard in years. For me, it was enjoyable and I loved hearing some of the tunes.

In the case of the one of the FM oldies stations in the U.P. I heard;

  • "Going In Circles" - Friends of Distinction #123 of 1969
  • "Serpentine Fire" - Earth, Wind, & Fire #99 of 1978
  • "Harbor Lights" - Platters #76 of 1960

I can safely say that I've never heard these songs on any oldies station in lower Michigan or Ohio. They were not a tune-out to either my wife or I. In fact, she commented that she wished our stations down in Ohio sounded as fresh and live.

IMHO, part of the problem with the format is trying to be so safe that there is a whole segment of music that people miss, and the burnout factor on the balance of played songs is high. The other factor is clearly intellectual laziness with "some" stations thinking that just because they play a song, play a liner, play a song, that it's a good product. I don't think the public is as stupid as they think.
 
FredRichards said:
Oldies Cat said:
I can't help but wonder if the reason traditional oldies on terrestrial radio is suffering is because of the short/repetitive playlists.

While on vacation this past two weeks, I did a lot of listening to both Upper Michigan AM/FM radio, and XM.

The thing that struck me the most was how "safe" the stations in Ohio play in contrast to XM and some of the live U.P. stations. I use the word safe only because that's what one of the cluster PDs said they had to be in order to keep listeners. (They are now #9 in the market with a 3.0, and above them are stations with double digits). I'm guessing their playlist is only 400-500 songs, same jingles as the past several years.

XM, especially, plays some rather "off the beaten path" songs that I have not heard in years. For me, it was enjoyable and I loved hearing some of the tunes.

In the case of the one of the FM oldies stations in the U.P. I heard;

  • "Going In Circles" - Friends of Distinction #123 of 1969
  • "Serpentine Fire" - Earth, Wind, & Fire #99 of 1978
  • "Harbor Lights" - Platters #76 of 1960

I can safely say that I've never heard these songs on any oldies station in lower Michigan or Ohio. They were not a tune-out to either my wife or I. In fact, she commented that she wished our stations down in Ohio sounded as fresh and live.

IMHO, part of the problem with the format is trying to be so safe that there is a whole segment of music that people miss, and the burnout factor on the balance of played songs is high. The other factor is clearly intellectual laziness with "some" stations thinking that just because they play a song, play a liner, play a song, that it's a good product. I don't think the public is as stupid as they think.
Click to expand...

Oldies is suffering because the audience is aging out of the 25-54 demo- plain 'n simple. It has nothing to do with playlist length- if it did, every Cox owned library-based station would be out of business because they have THE shortest, tightest Oldies/Classic Rock/Classic Hits/etc. playlists in the land.

You gush about hearing 3 songs that were huge, major top 40 stiffs- that's laughable because only radio people get turned on by songs that are stone stiffs. Radio LISTENERS want to hear the hits with a decent variety. I've never been about the 200 song playlist lengths but the alternative isn't grabbing stuff that's very obscure and unfamiliar to most of your audience, either.
Click to expand...
 
I think the original spirt of the conversation involved competitive FM signals in Top 50-75 markets. Anybody can drag up some satellite-fed AMs in the middle of nowhere who, collectively, have zero influence on the format around the rest of the nation.
 
WARE does a great presentation. But the muddy quality of their stream makes for "tough listening" online.
 
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