WLYNgm said:
Yea, but if you were an 8 year old, transistor radio pressed to
your ear, listening to the Beatles invasion (as I was!) as current music,
"oldies" then were, indeed, 50's greaser music... ;D
As a little lad of 6 (in 1966), I was the first on my block to listen to FM. WRKO-FM (98.5) was the place with
ARKO-matic (
"The Shy But Friendly Robot")! At the time it was a 50/50 mix of currents and oldies. When I speak of oldies, it was the 1954-1965 range. At that time, I loved the older material. When 98.5 when to all oldies in 1973, their focus was 1954-1970. A
lot of young people my age loved and listened to WROR (
"The Golden Great 98!"). At that time, FM was only getting its' wings.
Today, I am 48 years old and I still love the music of Rock's first 25 years (1954-1979). Sure, wall-to-wall segues of pre-1964 music will not cut it. But there are still of a lot of people under 55, with lots of spending power (aka- $$$$$$$), who would love to hear one or two upbeat early rock cuts an hour. People still love to hear Chuck Berry, Elvis, Dion DiMucci, Leslie Gore and more. And I know many college students and post-grads who really appreciate the music that made it all possible for the Beatles to flourish in the States. My fellow co-worker who is only 24 has the
"Sirius Gold", "60's Vibrations" and
"Totally 70's" as presets on his receiver. And he worked at the Stonehill College radio station (WSHL-FM/91.3) for his entire college career. He loves the new music but really
digs the oldies and so do I. His favorite oldie?
"Donna, The Prima Donna" by Dion from 1962 in all its' glorious Stereo glory.
WODS's sister station
WCBS-FM in New York admitted to the entire world that what they did three years ago was nothing short of
stupid when they dumped the oldies. When they returned, they retooled the original 'CBS-FM format to include the 80's. But more than that, they never forgot the original sound of rock's first 10 years. It's doing quite well with a classic hit or two from the pre-Beatle era every hour. I know many people, not just radio geeks, under the age of 30 were happy as a clam to hear 'CBS-FM came back and they love it. I love the new 'CBS-FM/101.1 and listen to it quite often and also have WLS-FM 94.7 as a preset as well.
No doubt, Oldies 103.3 had to include the 80's to satisfy the younger demographics. But even with the younger demos, guaranteed they would not have any turn-offs if they threw in an upbeat pre-Beatles tune twice an hour, like what 'CBS-FM and the new WLS-FM are doing NOW. No "Teen Angel" stuff, no sad songs, just some
really upbeat tunes that happen to be from the pre-Beatle era. You'd find that a lot of people with a lot of spending power would come back to WODS. I say, make it special and who knows, some of us Sirius listeners might venture back to FM and 103.3.
