THE SINGERS AND STANDARDS FORMAT SHOULD BE ON WIP AM 610

[towernews]

Why not restore the Singers and Standards format on am 610. Bring back the old WIP AM 610 with Singers and standards. If Singers and Standards can make it in Long Island, N.Y. with 1100 WHLI, and can make it in Barnegat, N.J. with 91.9 WBNJ, why can't this format make it in Philadelphia. What is it going to take in order for this Singers and Standards format to make a go of it here in the Philadelphia market? WIP AM 610, OR WPEN AM 950 would be perfect for the restoration of the singers and standards format. If this format is done right, and I do mean done right, if just might make it. If anyone out there is interested in getting this format back in operation, please don't hesitate to give my friend Frank Ellis a call at [EDIT] to help you in restoreing it. If any of you would like to sponsor Frank Ellis with this format on another station, again, please give him a call. Again, why can't we get this Singers and Standards format back on here in the Philadelphia Market?



[EDIT-privacy concerns]

 

[LibertyNT]

You'd have better luck getting a 50s 60s Oldies station back.
Talk about a format where the audience is literally dead.

I haven't heard of a monetarily successful standards station in years.
There's literally no money to be made, not for a High-Powered AM with good coverage.

 

[imhomerjay]

It's gone; time to deal with it.

 

[DG02816]

The only way you'd get this back is to buy the time on a brokered station and do the format yourself. As great as the music is, the audience has literally died off. Same goes for Beautiful Music and Smooth Jazz.

 

[jhguthlac]

I am one of those who believes the day for this format is over. The audience is gone.

However, why do artists like Rod Stewart and now Sir Paul, always go back to the standards? Its because the music itself does not die. The music continues to live and find new fans.

Let's see how WDAS-AM does financially. Music is dead on AM. However, WDAS is bucking the trend as far as its audio quality is concerned. Given the combination of a quality on-air signal and a quality on-line feed, could a major station make it with a Standards/50's R&R format? I think it is possible. It would take a major player, like CBS to pull it off, however. The WHAT experiment was fun, but the poor signal and the trash programs on weekends (informercials) doomed its success. Likewise with oldies on WPEN. That format needs to be there front and center on weekends.

And please forget the Big Bands. Glen Miller died at Christmas in 1945. The music basically died with him, although the Dorsey's had top ten hits in the 50's. So throw in "So Rare" once a month. Wouldn't hurt. But no more than that, please!

 

[klutch00]

I am one of those who believes the day for this format is over. The audience is gone.

However, why do artists like Rod Stewart and now Sir Paul, always go back to the standards? Its because the music itself does not die. The music continues to live and find new fans.

Let's see how WDAS-AM does financially. Music is dead on AM. However, WDAS is bucking the trend as far as its audio quality is concerned. Given the combination of a quality on-air signal and a quality on-line feed, could a major station make it with a Standards/50's R&R format? I think it is possible. It would take a major player, like CBS to pull it off, however. The WHAT experiment was fun, but the poor signal and the trash programs on weekends (informercials) doomed its success. Likewise with oldies on WPEN. That format needs to be there front and center on weekends.

Yeah, I'm hoping WDAS can 'pull it off' as well! Now, if I was to combine standards with anything, I'd do it more with softer hits from the 60s until today with some exceptions. Some lighter jazz from today and yesterday might also do the trick. Methinks that might be a better 'marriage' than mixing standards with what I'll call 'graffiti-gold'. A few decent examples I can think of where a MOR or standards format is doing respectable include: WROW Albany NY, WHLD Niagara Falls/Buffalo NY and WJAS Pittsburgh PA.

And please forget the Big Bands. Glen Miller died at Christmas in 1945. The music basically died with him, although the Dorsey's had top ten hits in the 50's. So throw in "So Rare" once a month. Wouldn't hurt. But no more than that, please!

the big bands might be a good feature for a special program for up to a few hours one or two nights a week.

 

[jhguthlac]

Klutch, I did exactly what you describe at a radio station back in the 90's. Since that's 20 years ago, you can't really anticipate how it would do today. It was on AM, medium market. 50's and 60's standards. Selected "smooth jazz" acts. Softer AC from the 70's. Worked very well ratings wise. How would it work in 2012? Can't be really sure. This market lacks Soft AC and 50/60's Oldies. And smooth jazz was a "90's thing."

 

[Seltzer]

Generally music on AM is DOA. But with the rest of life, there are always exceptions:

Magic 590 in Albany is one who has been able to pull this off.

Their over the air signal at 590 reaches far and is very clean.

Starts with the delivery system.

 

[imhomerjay]

The reason for those infomercials was he same as the dying days of WPEN doing the standards et al format: the main format wasn't bringing in enough money. Launching it again isn't going to magically make that problem go away.

 

[Seltzer]

The reason for those infomercials was he same as the dying days of WPEN doing the standards et al format: the main format wasn't bringing in enough money. Launching it again isn't going to magically make that problem go away.

Comes back to delivering undesirsable demos to advertisers. Standards and 50s oldies have the same problem....great for radiophiles but not so great for the target audience that is dying off..literally.....

 

[doowopvault]

In response to the comments made about the Standards/50's R&R Oldies format, a person I was talking to once made a comment about the connection between the Corporate stations and the Corporate lables, which molds the listening tastes of people.

He said"if a person eats only swill, then the only judgement he can make is what kind of swill he likes. If a person only hears the music that's played on the radio, she is only exposed to that small portion of a much greater musical spectrum, and can only make judgements based on that small universe of music she hears."

The fact is, it isn't that the music doesn't sell, it does, and they sell out venues on limited airplay by independent stations and DJ's. As I said many times,it's the close connection between the Corporate Stations and Lables. It all comes down to the Lables investing and molding young "talent", recording them, then greasing the palms of the Corporate Station owners to play them. Then the Stations get advertisers who also cater to the same age range and charge them big bucks to advertise on the Station.

They are not lovers of music, it's just an investment.Some will buy a station, throw in an automation system with one button pusher, take their payouts from the Big labels, build it up some, then sell it off and make a profit. Some will go format to format, genre to genre, just to find the one that brings in the biggest bucks, build it up, and if the offer is juicy enough, sell it off.

[Large blank space removed]

 

[doowopvault]

To continue...So when they flip the station, they'll make it a "new" news talk station with the same old right wing syndicated talk shows, and all their "news" comes from API, so there is nothing new about it. You will hear the same news on the other news stations.

And as far as the music stations, all you'll hear is the same old corporate created, corporate molded, corporate pushed artist or group, being played on as many corporate owned stations.

And the more stations that are owned by a single company, the more stations that corporate created artist or group is played on. That means the bigger the slab of grease on their palms.

 

[doowopvault]

Oh boy, I knew it would happen. In responding to an e-mail through my show, no....i'm not criticizing conservative talk show hosts. All i'm doing is merely bringing up the point that there are so many fresh political opinions that are not being heard, along with so many new, talented artists.Combine this with the listeners who would love to hear the standards,Doo Wop and various oldies and what you have is a huge untapped market.

To wrap this up, all i'm saying is...with the lack of radio personalities, lack of variety of genres, lack of variety of political opinions. All you do have is the same old bland dish being served up, disguised with a little more salt and pepper, i.e different call letters.No creativity.

Thank God for internet radio stations, Podcasts and the independent terrestrial stations.

 

[ixnay]

doowopvault, did you accidentally (or otherwise) hold down the enter key to create that large blank space?

ixnay

 

[doowopvault]

It isn't showinhg up on this end. But if there is one, sorry.

 

[John1]

The long successful period for WIP came at a time when the full-service MOR format was popular nationwide. It was not just the music, it was their amazing stable of live & local personalities who became 'family' to the audience, and a full time news staff with live local newscasts around the clock. And keeping up with the cash call jackpot was a ritual thousands of people followed. No one could afford to put this format on anymore, especially on AM. WHAT tried with some of the WPEN staff but couldn't make it. The old WIP people are gone or retired. So a WIP voicetracked or satellite-fed with standards would pick up listeners, but not enough to justify its existance on 610 and could never in that low-budget way recreate WIP. I do think the simulcast is also a waste - they could change the format and still bump play by play there when necessary.

Having said all that for commercial radio, I am surprised that WRDV Hatboro can continue to raise enough money during their Fall fundrive to keep a big band & swing & classic standards format on the air every weekday. I would think that the audience who would like that - well over 75+ - would not be able to give enough to keep it going, I keep expecting the weekend doo-wop/r&b oldies format to some day take over weekdays even though its not exactly a money demo, either! More power to them!

 

[doowopvault]

I'll tell you John, going to the Bohemian coffee houses, and listen to the music being played on their sound system, they love 40's swing, they love 50's r&b and they love 50's rock and rockabilly. So do many of College students. There is this myth that the new sounds of the old sounds are relegated to people that were around when this music was popular. Good music transcends all ages.

Right now, a student who runs a high school radio station contacted me, asking to play my show on the schools station. It is an FM station with a signal of 35 miles in West Virginia. The fact is, Doo Wop, 1950's vocal group r&b is more popular than people think, not only in North America, but around the world and I have the stats to prove it.

The Difference is, stations like WVLT, WRDV and others, with them, and their DJ's, it's a labor of love. With the corporate station owners, it's an investment.

 

[Radio Wreck]

Glen Miller died at Christmas in 1945. The music basically died with him

Let's figure this out systematically. Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" was completed in 1808.

That means that if you were born in 1903 and started collecting Edison cylinders in 1915 at 12 years of age, and have played your "Symphony No. 5" cylinder an average of once a month since then, you have heard the song 1,152 times.

However, if you prefer the Sweet Sounds of The Big Bands and your first phonograph record was Glenn Miller's 1940 Smash Hit called "In The Mood," and you have played the record an average of once a month since then, you have only heard the song 852 times.

1,152 spins versus only 852 spins. Seems to me that it is actually Classical Music that is dead and has been over-played and that there is still plenty of time left for a big band and standards format to catch up.

This logic can not be disputed.

 

[imhomerjay]

Bohemian coffee houses? Hardly indicative of something that works on a wide scale as a money-making business unto itself.

 

[joshzz]

An Adult Standards on the AM dial can do well. Remember WDUV, TAMPA is and has been the #1 station in that market for sometime. Admittedly it is an FM station but I believe if programmed right, a station onthe AM dial doing the same thing, can do ok. It won't lead the market but it should garner a 3.0. WIP sports on the AM will eventually drop below 1.0 when all their listeners realize "Hey It's on the FM!"

If WIP flips and picks up WDUV'S playlist, I will certainly give them a listen.

joshzz