The epitome of mediocrity

[qtpieislit]

It is just a truly amazing broadcast demonstration. By any advanced standard measure, the return of the greatest hit of all time, song for song, segue for segue, is consistently and so eloquently representative of the epitome of mediocrity. And that, simply, is just truly amazing. Good luck terrestrial radio. See ya on the other side of the digital divide.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

Sam, with all due respect, this ain't the WIBBAGE Sunday Night Hall of Fame show, but I think they're gonna make more money than JACK. I for one, while living and growing up in New Brunswick (Central Jersey), preferred listening to HySki and Joe Niagra, and the Rebel, and Frank X Feller, and the rest of the gang... preferred them and WIBG wayyyy over WABC in its heyday, but I am the vast exception. I remember being very grateful to access WIBG-FM after sunset ... I missed very few Sunday nights 7-mid on WIBG.

BTW the CRB may yet overpower you and that indeed would be a terrible shame.

See ya... and I'll be listening as I do to .. just about everything!

 

[oaktree]

As a regular listener to your stream, voice tracking, out-of-place irrelevant jingle montages over and over and, I admit, a definite Philly music appeal which I like, what makes your station so special and different? Spots? No...live day parts? No. Legendary jocks? (One, your well-loved Dad,) rotation? No (Though I love "That's How Heartaches Are Made" -- both great versions, play them more than they are now...) promotion? Nope.

Oh, I know. "It's Philly, baby!" Right. And I'm from Philly and heard your Dad from WIBG to WAMS and back ... and your station, though a preset on my Internet radio, is as bright as terrestrial radio at times...

"It's New York, baby!" Let it go, Sam. It's not the 60s again. But it is CBS-FM.

And I still regularly listen to your stream, but it needs a boost, too... I haven't heard a perfect one yet.

 

[mikerock]

It is just a truly amazing broadcast demonstration. By any advanced standard measure, the return of the greatest hit of all time, song for song, segue for segue, is consistently and so eloquently representative of the epitome of mediocrity. And that, simply, is just truly amazing. Good luck terrestrial radio. See ya on the other side of the digital divide.

Exactly.

 

[KevinFodor]

Sorry...you guys are dead wrong.

I won't predict CBS-FM will be a $60 million a year station like it once was. But it will get good ratings,
and make big bucks...a lot more than Jack.

Yeah...it's not a 50's station anymore. But, as I've told you both: the 50's generation (unfortunately) doesn't drive the radio bus anymore. But...why don't you guys give it a few days and wait to see what the weekend might hold?

 

[oaktree]

Kevin, I'm not the one disagreeing with you. I'm just a village idiot.

 

[tk]

What??????????

You guys don't know a great thing when you hear it!

WCBS sounds BIG!!!

 

[chuckydoll]

WCBS sounds BIG!!!

As in "Big on Promise, Small on Results".

The Notorious B.I.G. referred to such matters as "Hype and B.S."

 

[Barry45RPM]

Lets see... its less than 24 hours old and its not absolutely perfect? How about we give it as much time to mellow & become a fine product as we gave Jack?

 

[qtpieislit]

jingle montages and, I admit, a definite Philly music appeal which I like, what makes your station so special and different? Oh, I know. "It's Philly, baby!"

It’s the 'Music', and, 'The Greatest Jingles of All Time'.

 

[jlehmann]

I'm very surprised to see that so much of the reaction to the return of CBS-FM has been negative here on radio-info. I just had to put my opinion out here that the station sounds GREAT!

 

[wmgcbs]

I agree that the station sounds great -- it seemed to be about 30 hours before a lot of songs started to repeat. So, say fifteen songs an hour times 30 hours would give 450 songs in rotation, give or take. I'm sure it's more, as I'm also hearing songs playing for ths first time as well. It's certainly better than the 284 songs that CBS-FM had in rotation before the flip to JACK.

I'd really like to see this station succeed, and for those who are complaining, you've got to understand - it's the first two DAYS of the station being on-air. Nothing is written in stone yet. Tweaks will be made, and things will change. The 80's songs seem to fit in - "Higher Love," "She Works Hard For the Money," "We Didn't Start the Fire..." are all good songs. Hearing Van Halen's "Jump" on the station was a bit jarring though. ;D

It's been a great week for NYC. Everyone certainly has the right to his or her own opinion, but I'm extremely glad CBS-FM is back, and my radio hasn't been on this long for, well... two years.

 

[wgliradio]

The station really sounds awesome. I think they've done a great job.

Usually you can't go back, it looks like this may be the exception.

 

[oaktree]

Sam, need better jingles. You're are getting worn. More "Philly" jingles, Wilmington, Atlantic City, Baltimore, Washington. More Miami, LA, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas,Chicago, New York...or, better yet, just the Philly stuff. 'CAU-FM, WIFI, WFIL, WIBG, etc. and the surrounding markets. Fits better with the music. You're a Philly station.

Same montages over and over getting old.

Other than that ... a fan of HyLitRadio.com

Need more jingles? Let me know...

 

[Element9]

CBS-FM sounds fine. Is it the perfect "Greatest Hits" radio station? No. Does it play everything I want to hear? No. But that's why I have CD's and an MP3, XM and even a cassette deck in my car.

Keyboard critics and fifties-fanatics who whine about CBS-FM need to get a clue. It's 2007. Two thousand SEVEN, peope. Fifty years have passed since "Chances Are" and "Jailhouse Rock." Still wearing your Flagg Brothers Cuban heels and chinos? Bubble skirts and spinners on your nosed and decked 57 Merc? Your sweetie still prancing around the house in her Poodle skirt?

And the CBS-FM jocks? OK. I'm not overwhelmed by Rhymin'-Good Timin' Say-hey Broad-way Bill Lee in PM drive, but the dude brings energy and enthusiasm to work and sounds like he's alive and having fun. Same thing for all the other guys who are working at CBS-FM. These guys have the gig, you don't. They're getting paid, you're not. You're listening to them while you're hacking out your piddled-off posts about not hearing enough fifties songs and how much the music rotations and eighties suck. Where's YOUR 50 kW FM in Market #1. Oh, right... you don't have one.

And Sam... your old man was a legend. Where the hell would YOU be if you didn't ride his coattails? Where'd you be if your last name was Spatuzzi or Liebowitz? Yeah... keep ragging on about how lousy CBS-FM is.

You whiners are pathetic... Loaded up on Skittles and store brand cola, pounding away on your keyboards at all hours of the day and night and stomping your feet... like the comic book guy on the Simpsons. It's never good enough or hip enough for you. I hear "Summertime Blues" and a token 50's song every once in a while (notice I used "Token" and "Once In a While"... yeah, I'm hip to the 50's stuff) and that's fine. CBS-FM is playing some cool 60's and 70's tunes, and the 80's cuts they're playing, for the most part, fit in fine.

Don't like it? Push the button. Get Sirius or XM. Buy the superb Rhino or Art Laboe CD packages. Whip up your 50's playlist on your iPod. I'm happy that CBS-FM is back, Jack is out and there's another choice on the FM band for listeners in NY.

-9-

 

[lalumia]

8) GREAT POST!

 

[hipporadio]

CBS-FM sounds fine...

Keyboard critics and fifties-fanatics who whine about CBS-FM need to get a clue. It's 2007. Two thousand SEVEN, people. Fifty years have passed since "Chances Are" and "Jailhouse Rock."...

Don't like it? Push the button. Get Sirius or XM. Buy the superb Rhino or Art Laboe CD packages... I'm happy that CBS-FM is back, Jack is out...

-9-

This is the first time I have followed – much less posted to a topic on the New York board. -9-, across nearly a dozen threads and hundreds of posts – YOURS, strikes the root fact most squarely and is the most sensible – BY FAR!

CBS-FM is now into day-three – I continue to listen [online] – and take nothing back that I earlier posted in the “New CBS-FM [thumbs-down]” thread. I continue to enjoy the music [especially the 70s and select 80s]; the live [and lively] PERSONALITIES; and the overall “energy” on a reborn brand that was, mere days-ago—lifeless – and epitomized [or need I say] was the true “epitome” of major-market mediocrity. It’s somewhat surprising to me that a company of CBS’s genre would even consider admitting such a blatant prior miscarriage – much less repent the sin by fully-resurrecting the victim of such. I also understand this is an encore repentance [K-Rock]... WOW... TWICE in one summer! Dan Mason appears to be “brass of a different luster” – VERY REFREASHING given his fraternity of typical corporate contemporaries. BRAVO – for “guts” - and hopefully for glory!

BTW... I own EVERY Art Laboe CD, Rhino, and T-L 50s/60s collection - which I enjoy a lot... I also own all 25 volumes of Rhino’s “Have a Nice Day” and 20 volumes of “Didn’t it Blow your Mind?” PLUS the 70s [HaND] AND 80s [“Oh-Mi-God”] pop-culture boxes... ‘Guess which I enjoy more-often just weeks away from turning 50? You’re correct if you chose the latter, which the new CBS-FM is now-given to carefully select titles from. -9- is correct... It’s “star-date 2007” - but at least “The Enterprise” is cruising space again.

And Sam [Lit]... Your old man was a legend...

And Sam... With MUCH due respect... My father grew-up with your father on the radio in Philly [Landsdowne/Upper Darby to be exact]... He celebrated his SEVENTY-FIFTH birthday yesterday [D.E. would have a “field-day” with such an analogy to the “Oldies listener”]. I also loved WIBG on summer visits to my Grandmother and the Jersey shore, but I discovered them as an early-teen in 1971. CCR, CSN&Y, and the Stampeders were modulating 990AM – NOT Johnny Mathes and “The Jailhouse Rock”.

 

[qtpieislit]

NOT Johnny Mathes and “The Jailhouse Rock”.

Yo, it’s not about Johnny Mathes, or The Jail House Rock. It’s about The Elgins, and The Orlons, Lloyd Price, and The Videls, The Chantells, and The Shirells. It’s about deep Smokey Robinson cuts, and Fats Domino tracks you’ve never heard. It’s the Earls, and Bobby Vee, and the Friends of Distinction, and the Duprees. It’s Jackie Wilson, and Mary Wilson, The Artistics, The Mad Lads, The Sapphires, and The Drifters, The Marcels and Tami Terrell, The Marvelettes, and The Crests. And I can go on and on. It’s the Rhythm and Blues, Rock ‘en Roll song book catalogue encompassing the roots of Rock and Roll. And if you insist on hearing what you are missing then hear a real Philadelphia radio tradition, along with the Greatest Jingles of all Time. And that’s where it’s at, in the mean time, in between time. Solid Ted, ‘nuff said.

 

[adma]

Don't like it? Push the button. Get Sirius or XM. Buy the superb Rhino or Art Laboe CD packages. Whip up your 50's playlist on your iPod. I'm happy that CBS-FM is back, Jack is out and there's another choice on the FM band for listeners in NY.

Yet the ultimate dilemma for CBS-FM might be that all those alternatives exist, and with an inherently broader "reach" than ever--and moreover, that they're perceived by users as *superior* resources. That is, while I wouldn't be so brash as to forecast CBS-FM's outright failure (as I've said, it'll more likely lumber along for a while yet w/increasingly anemic-yet-serviceable ratings), it probably will (like *all* commercial FM music formats) still end up a relative victim of the times.

A lot of our earlier perceived "magic" of oldies may have been that they served, or at least emanated from, a moment when said alternatives didn't exist or were in the then-unheard-of margins. It sounded better because our "window" was smaller.

So, you're telling them to go away; I'm reminding you of the already-went. And without said already-went, oldies feels rather inevitably "diminished".

 

[davideduardo]

Yo, it’s not about Johnny Mathes, or The Jail House Rock. It’s about The Elgins, and The Orlons, Lloyd Price, and The Videls, The Chantells, and The Shirells. It’s about deep Smokey Robinson cuts, and Fats Domino tracks you’ve never heard. It’s the Earls, and Bobby Vee, and the Friends of Distinction, and the Duprees. It’s Jackie Wilson, and Mary Wilson, The Artistics, The Mad Lads, The Sapphires, and The Drifters, The Marcels and Tami Terrell, The Marvelettes, and The Crests. And I can go on and on. It’s the Rhythm and Blues, Rock ‘en Roll song book catalogue encompassing the roots of Rock and Roll. And if you insist on hearing what you are missing then hear a real Philadelphia radio tradition, along with the Greatest Jingles of all Time. And that’s where it’s at, in the mean time, in between time. Solid Ted, ‘nuff said.

Yo, that is music for 65 to 70 year olds. You named some artists I have never even heard of, and a ton of things terrestrial radio can not play today.