Whenever the "glory days" of WCFL come up for discussion, there's always loads of comments of what a great station it was....especially in the days when it mounted a strong challenge to entrenched top 40 leader WLS.
For the most part, I don't disagree. But looking back, IMHO there were a few flaws in the 'CFL approach...
First, no one talks much about the "Mini-Spins" A two minute (or so) bundle of portions of (usually) top ten tunes oddly and often awkwardly cobbled together. I hated those, and usually found myself tuning down the dial to WLS (or WOKY).
My other gripe with the 'CFL presentation was how they handled oldies....or "encores" as they were designated. Most stations maintained a wide selection of oldies and insert them more or less equally once or twice an hour. But 'CFL would bring out a half dozen or so oldies at a time and add them to the playlist in regular rotation for a week. Then the next week those would be gone and they'd insert another batch. The result was instead of hearing a given oldie once or twice a month and a wide selection over the course of several weeks, on 'CFL you'd hear a given oldie a dozen or so times in a week and then maybe not hear it again for six months.
Eventually, they abandoned both the "mini-spins" and their approach to "encores".
Don't get me wrong. Overall, I think 'CFL in its best days was one of the best top 40 powerhouses ever built, and well-deserving of it's rightful place as a 60s icon. Arguably, Ken Draper and company at one point assembled a stronger talent lineup than the formidable group they were up against at WLS. (And don't forget the likes of Dick Orkin doing production, Carole Simpson in the newsroom, and Red Mottlow handling sports etc.).
Of course, one of the effects of the emergence of WCFL in the mid-to-late '60s was that it got WLS to shake off some of the cobwebs and become even better. As alluded to elsewhere, WLS sort of backed into their position as format leader because they filled a huge void by becoming the first round-the-clock top 40 station in the market. Sure, they had a great talent lineup, but in the early years, they were also encumbered by a lot of ABC network fare, etc. that blew more than a few holes into the broadcast day with stuff that just didn't fit. Once 'CFL came on the scene, all that was ditched, and the "Big '89" had to work to earn its stature.
