The New (oldies) 103.7

[landtuna]

Think you're in the minority with that opinion, landtuna.

Check the latest Ratings!

I can clearly remember what KOOL used to be early in their FM days and through the 80's and 90's. The bar is set so low these days in Phoenix KOOL doesn't have to be great to have great ratings. Their competition is awful.

 

[FightingIrish]

I don't understand why Clear Channel has been launching stations in markets like SFO, Seattle, Milwaukee, Portland, Columbus, St. Louis, etc. with the classic hits format using the "Oldies" branding. I thought stations quit using that years ago.

Clear Channel dumped the "Oldies" branding and approach from WRIT in Milwaukee a few years back. It became a sort of adult hits station called "My 95.7". Ratings were okay, but people still thought of it as Oldies 95.7. A few years later, after their annual two-month Christmas marathon, "Oldies 95.7" was reborn (CC no doubt saw the success 'oldies' outlets were having in PPM markets, and Milwaukee just switched over). WRIT is currently one of the top-rated stations in the market.

Their focus is 60s-70s. Very little 80s. Like it or not, "Oldies" these days typically refers to anything recorded before 1980 or so. It ain't all 50s anymore. Heck, hard to find a station that actually plays 50s tunes anymore.

 

[LKellerIII]

I don't understand why Clear Channel has been launching stations in markets like SFO, Seattle, Milwaukee, Portland, Columbus, St. Louis, etc. with the classic hits format using the "Oldies" branding. I thought stations quit using that years ago.

Clear Channel dumped the "Oldies" branding and approach from WRIT in Milwaukee a few years back. It became a sort of adult hits station called "My 95.7". Ratings were okay, but people still thought of it as Oldies 95.7. A few years later, after their annual two-month Christmas marathon, "Oldies 95.7" was reborn (CC no doubt saw the success 'oldies' outlets were having in PPM markets, and Milwaukee just switched over). WRIT is currently one of the top-rated stations in the market.

Their focus is 60s-70s. Very little 80s. Like it or not, "Oldies" these days typically refers to anything recorded before 1980 or so. It ain't all 50s anymore. Heck, hard to find a station that actually plays 50s tunes anymore.

No - nobody plays 50s tunes because they are ancient to most listeners.. I was 8 years old in 1960, so 50s songs were Oldies to me, and played on Top 40 radio in the mid and late 60s as "Goldens." I'll be 60 next year.

Even mid 60s hits from the Beatles and Rolling Stones are over 45 years old. Do you remember Top 40 radio stations in the 60s playing 30 - 40 year old Bing Crosby "golden" hits like Pennies from Heaven or Too Marvelous for Words? Didn't think so...because they didn't. Even the MOR stations of the 60s (our parents' stations) never played songs from before the 1950s.

Oldies 103.7...pardon me, The New 103.7...plays a lot of hits from the early 80s - and even those are about 30 years old at this point.

 

[landtuna]

No - nobody plays 50s tunes because they are ancient to most listeners.

Well, it's not exactly Oldies but the Christmas season always brings out a host of 50's music. Brenda Lee, Johnny Mathis, Elvis etc. I heard two 50's songs on 103.7 just today.

 

[carolinaradio]

I don't understand why Clear Channel has been launching stations in markets like SFO, Seattle, Milwaukee, Portland, Columbus, St. Louis, etc. with the classic hits format using the "Oldies" branding. I thought stations quit using that years ago.

Clear Channel dumped the "Oldies" branding and approach from WRIT in Milwaukee a few years back. It became a sort of adult hits station called "My 95.7". Ratings were okay, but people still thought of it as Oldies 95.7. A few years later, after their annual two-month Christmas marathon, "Oldies 95.7" was reborn (CC no doubt saw the success 'oldies' outlets were having in PPM markets, and Milwaukee just switched over). WRIT is currently one of the top-rated stations in the market.

Their focus is 60s-70s. Very little 80s. Like it or not, "Oldies" these days typically refers to anything recorded before 1980 or so. It ain't all 50s anymore. Heck, hard to find a station that actually plays 50s tunes anymore.

Somewhere between "Oldies 95.7" and "Milwaukee's 95.7"/"My 95.7", I believe they were known also known as just "95.7 WRIT."

WRIT does lean older than traditional classic hits stations.

 

[recto101]

I don't understand why Clear Channel has been launching stations in markets like SFO, Seattle, Milwaukee, Portland, Columbus, St. Louis, etc. with the classic hits format using the "Oldies" branding. I thought stations quit using that years ago.

Clear Channel dumped the "Oldies" branding and approach from WRIT in Milwaukee a few years back. It became a sort of adult hits station called "My 95.7". Ratings were okay, but people still thought of it as Oldies 95.7. A few years later, after their annual two-month Christmas marathon, "Oldies 95.7" was reborn (CC no doubt saw the success 'oldies' outlets were having in PPM markets, and Milwaukee just switched over). WRIT is currently one of the top-rated stations in the market.

Their focus is 60s-70s. Very little 80s. Like it or not, "Oldies" these days typically refers to anything recorded before 1980 or so. It ain't all 50s anymore. Heck, hard to find a station that actually plays 50s tunes anymore.

No - nobody plays 50s tunes because they are ancient to most listeners.. I was 8 years old in 1960, so 50s songs were Oldies to me, and played on Top 40 radio in the mid and late 60s as "Goldens." I'll be 60 next year.

Even mid 60s hits from the Beatles and Rolling Stones are over 45 years old. Do you remember Top 40 radio stations in the 60s playing 30 - 40 year old Bing Crosby "golden" hits like Pennies from Heaven or Too Marvelous for Words? Didn't think so...because they didn't. Even the MOR stations of the 60s (our parents' stations) never played songs from before the 1950s.

Oldies 103.7...pardon me, The New 103.7...plays a lot of hits from the early 80s - and even those are about 30 years old at this point.

But wait how would 103.7 separate itself from 98.1 KISQ FM. look at KISQ they play 60's to 1990's Motown songs with a mix of Top40 and CHR songs from the 1960's to 1990's. Remember the 1990's to mid-2000's KMEL and KYLD were both playing rap/Hip-Hop and they were both owned by Clear Channel. CC will have to explain this will work out in 2012 running 2 oldies stations and 2 conservative talk stations

 

[LKellerIII]

I don't understand why Clear Channel has been launching stations in markets like SFO, Seattle, Milwaukee, Portland, Columbus, St. Louis, etc. with the classic hits format using the "Oldies" branding. I thought stations quit using that years ago.

Clear Channel dumped the "Oldies" branding and approach from WRIT in Milwaukee a few years back. It became a sort of adult hits station called "My 95.7". Ratings were okay, but people still thought of it as Oldies 95.7. A few years later, after their annual two-month Christmas marathon, "Oldies 95.7" was reborn (CC no doubt saw the success 'oldies' outlets were having in PPM markets, and Milwaukee just switched over). WRIT is currently one of the top-rated stations in the market.

Their focus is 60s-70s. Very little 80s. Like it or not, "Oldies" these days typically refers to anything recorded before 1980 or so. It ain't all 50s anymore. Heck, hard to find a station that actually plays 50s tunes anymore.

No - nobody plays 50s tunes because they are ancient to most listeners.. I was 8 years old in 1960, so 50s songs were Oldies to me, and played on Top 40 radio in the mid and late 60s as "Goldens." I'll be 60 next year.

Even mid 60s hits from the Beatles and Rolling Stones are over 45 years old. Do you remember Top 40 radio stations in the 60s playing 30 - 40 year old Bing Crosby "golden" hits like Pennies from Heaven or Too Marvelous for Words? Didn't think so...because they didn't. Even the MOR stations of the 60s (our parents' stations) never played songs from before the 1950s.

Oldies 103.7...pardon me, The New 103.7...plays a lot of hits from the early 80s - and even those are about 30 years old at this point.

But wait how would 103.7 separate itself from 98.1 KISQ FM. look at KISQ they play 60's to 1990's Motown songs with a mix of Top40 and CHR songs from the 1960's to 1990's. Remember the 1990's to mid-2000's KMEL and KYLD were both playing rap/Hip-Hop and they were both owned by Clear Channel. CC will have to explain this will work out in 2012 running 2 oldies stations and 2 conservative talk stations

I don't think CC has to explain or "separate" anything. If people are listening and the ratings for their various stations are good, that's good for them, right?...no matter how similar they are. It does seem like radio stations are getting more homogenous in the PPM world.

There is a difference between KISQ and 103.7 - you said it yourself. KISQ plays primarily Motown and old school (soul) music, with some mainstream pop hits mixed in, but it's all consistent with their sound. Everything She Wants by Wham may be performed by 2 white guys, but its consistent with the Old School sound.

103.7 plays very little Motown or Soul, concentrating on mainstream hits of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

FYI: KYLD and KMEL were orignally competitors owned by different corporations, both becoming CC properties about 1997 following deregulation and consolidation. But that worked too - both statons got good ratings, and CC cornered the market on Rap and Hip Hop radio in the Bay Area for over a decade. Even in that case, there were subtle differences in their sound and play lists...I was told...I'm no expert on Rap/Hip Hop. I do recall that KMEL played more Rap, and KYLD played more pop hits - more like Top 40 with an urban lean.

 

[LKellerIII]

With all this morphing into the "New" imaging, it does occur to me to wonder if CC plans to add new music to 103.7, but keep a heavy Classic Hits focus- to try to muscle into KOIT's territory. KOIT was been very successful with their formula for many years, and it's always included a lot of "light rock oldies" along with a fair amount of new music.

A lot of the new music I keep hearing (Adele, John Mayer, Kesha, etc.) seems to fit into the 'light' category as its now defined.

 

[1069_KIFR]

Yesterday, I heard the first jab at KOIT on 103.7.

Parker Lewis mentioned he got a request for a Christmas song, "that a listener said 96.5 doesn't play".

 

[1069_KIFR]

Maybe they will be Classic 103.7, they keep on saying, "This is the home of Classic Christmas songs"

 

[RadioStarOne]

There really is nothing new under the sun in the radio business! There goes that silly dog chasing it's tail, round and round and round and round! Any one of you getting dizzy yet with all the revolutions in this crazy thing called radio today?

 

[NoMoreLurking]

Everybody's missed this one: "The New Bleu 103.7"...? maybe?

"Bleu in the morning, nothing new the rest of the day!"

 

[stewie]

There really is nothing new under the sun in the radio business! There goes that silly dog chasing it's tail, round and round and round and round! Any one of you getting dizzy yet with all the revolutions in this crazy thing called radio today?

That same dog is wondering around Sacramento as well.

 

[1069_KIFR]

I heard the promos on '103.7', that Don Bleu starts on Jan 3rd.

It was reported that he would start on Jan 2nd. But I guess since Jan 1st is on Sunday, he gets Monday the 2nd will be his Holiday day off.

 

[geek-orama]

With Don Bleu the "New Old" could be a real threat to KOIT. The new onwers have been paring down songs before 1990 for the last couple of years and fired long time staffers like Larry Ickes because of age. They should pick up Ickes and lure Tom Saunders out of retirement to go with Bleu. That might take a lot of the KOIT fan base away.

 

[LKellerIII]

With Don Bleu the "New Old" could be a real threat to KOIT. The new onwers have been paring down songs before 1990 for the last couple of years and fired long time staffers like Larry Ickes because of age. They should pick up Ickes and lure Tom Saunders out of retirement to go with Bleu. That might take a lot of the KOIT fan base away.

Well, maybe 103.7 can be a threat to KOIT, but it won't be because CC hires a couple of former KOIT liner-card readers. No knock on Ickes or Saunders- they were good jocks back in the day, but KOIT is hardly a jock's station, and 103.7 has even less DJ talk than KOIT.