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WDAS AM Playing Soul Today

So, I've been listening to WDAS quite a bit over the past few days. As far as the focus goes, it is a really good station. Similar to other Clear Channel AMs like WGVN in Lexington, KY (another jockless urban oldies station) or WDIA in Memphis (sans chatty jocks).

However, whoever programmed the automation for WDAS really needs to go in and fine tune it. Some needless repetition, the same artists being played too much (two songs each from Marvin Gaye and James Brown were played within a two hour period the other day). This is pretty simple stuff for an automation system.

On a positive note, I do like the emphasis on 60s-70s. Straight-up soul -- no Bee Gees, no KC and the Sunshine Band, no 80s technofunk. Very well focused. I also like the deep cuts and the long-forgotten artists. And the surprises like the Righteous Brothers. The stream, as with most CC streams, sounds fantastic!

A little tweaking, and this could really be a great station.
 
I've been listening to the WDAS-AM stream for a couple weeks and have been quite pleased... but today I'm noticing some tweaks, namely suddenly going beyond that mid-'70s cutoff, musically. in the last half-hour I've heard Gene Chandler's disco comeback "Get Down" (1979) and Richard "Dimples" Fields' "Jazzy Lady" which is, what, mid-'80s? Dunno about this...
 
Please get an HD radio. WDAS-AM can be found on MIX 106.1 HD 2 (WISX-FM). I have my three boys being introduce to some great music. WDAS-AM sounds great on HD radio.
 
I have really been enjoying the mix on DAS. Early on, they were including 1 or 2 Gospel songs per hour. That seems to be out of the mix now, although it didn't bother me one bit. I enjoyed it. The newer songs, like Jazzy Lady and the Gene Chandler song also work for me.

They are also going waaaay back, with "60 Minute Man" from 1951 and "Earth Angel" from '54. And somehow, it is all fitting together well.
 
spm1036,

WDAS is heavily directional to the the south-southwest during the day, and to the south-southeast at night; it protects 1490 Levittown and the 1480 in New York during the day. It also has to protect the 1480 in Canton OH at night, dropping power to 1 kW from 5 kW daytime.
 
FightingIrish said:
On a positive note, I do like the emphasis on 60s-70s. Straight-up soul -- no Bee Gees, no KC and the Sunshine Band,
Click to expand...

They played a hit LP cut by KC and the Sunshine Band called "I Get Lifted", so that's one down....

On a side note, they cut short the Whatnauts version of Messase From A Black Man. Why, when they've been playing extended versions of other songs? Is it on the CLEAR CHANNEL list of banned songs?

P.S.

They should have played the version by The Temptations, which is WAY better.
 
The last station I heard which went what amounted to Solid Gold Soul for any length of time was WRXB St. Petersburg, an AM station at the end of the dial. Grand listening ; great fun. That was in the Eigties. I always wondered why more stations -- especially on FM -- didn't try out the concept.

And now .... now, with that demo having aged past all marketing reason ..... now they give it a shot on a major-market regional? Not meaning to peer too far into the gift nag's mouth, but what's the thinking behind putting music on AM in 2012, and behind taking so flippin long to do *this* music?

* * * * *

Btw: @ Youngest Oldie : I once took WBCB 1490 all the way from Levittown to Chester one afternoon -- with WDAS on the air. WBCB's signal was readable all the way except for this stretch of maybe a mile on I-95. That's where WDAS's big lobe went. And, like I said, on the OTHER side of that signal, there was WBCB again.
 
I don't think CC is thinking of this as putting music on AM in 2012. Notice that each mention puts the AM frequenty and ".com" together. As AM radio moves to FM, it is also moving to the internet. That and apps is where the future is.
 
All well and good, jhg. Doubtless you're right as to their approach.

At that, I remain unconvinced, that in this situation the concept of a migration will have any effect whatsoever. 55-plus does not use the new gadgets (and the music is more like 60-plus).

Big radio companies have been shooing AARPers away from the social banquet for decades -- and for good. Moreover, those with the grey hair have been shown the exit from the *FM* dial. All of a sudden, this same once-betrayed audience is expected not just to populate a renaissance of music on the radio .... and not just on a barren medium wave dial .... but are envisioned as fund-raisers who will gladly help pack the moving van to another venue?

Clear Channel has an archaic regional signal, with which they have been clueless to do anything. So now they experiment, turning it into a proposed Traveller's Information billboard? I suppose you're right. What ELSE is there to do with it?

I guess that's all that the 1480ers in the country are fated to become. Matchbook-advertisements with too many towers to support otherwise. Up in these parts, CC bought WISL-FM 95.3. They also agreed -- grudgingly, I'm sure -- to take WISL AM. That's as in WISL 1480 AM. The FM went its way, switching to Country. The AM they turned off, for good, almost before the ink dried on the settlement.

Shamokin is one matter. But no way CC or anyone else is going to just turn in the license to a 1480 in *Philadelphia*.

As I said, jhg : I agree with your reasoning. Owning the property for use as a speed bump is better than not owning the property. I just don't accept their reasoning. Not now, Not in 2012. Not on AM or FM. Not with an audience that age.
 
I agree that the music on WDAS AM is for those of us who are over 60 and I know that the FM dial has written us off, but there are some of us around in my age group that are up with the latest technology and we embrace it. I got to admit I have worked in electronics for close to 40 years and love to listen to a variety of music new and old. Although because of my age I guess although I consume products and services every day the thinking is I don't puchase anything and too old and set in my ways to change. I totally disagree with this type of thinking. I guess after 50 we curl up and die.
 
No one says that folks over 60 don't try different and new types of products. But due to their life experiences, older folks might be more apt to research said products themselves instead of relying on advertising to tell them which new products best suit their needs.
 
Very good point! I do tend to do more research via consumers reports or internet posts. I don't pay much attention to commercials yikes, answered my own question!
 
Not to get off topic, but I will. I got an Internet radio as a birthday gift and am unable to play the WDAS AM stream on it. The weird part is the display shows what is being played but there is no audio. Is this an issue with other Clear Channel stations. Just wondering.
 
kenneykop said:
Not to get off topic, but I will. I got an Internet radio as a birthday gift and am unable to play the WDAS AM stream on it. The weird part is the display shows what is being played but there is no audio. Is this an issue with other Clear Channel stations. Just wondering.
Click to expand...
I just downloaded clear channel's "iheartradio" app for my android. Same thing as you mentioned. Shows the song being played, but absolutely no audio from any station I try.
 
I think it's the broadcast. I can only hear it as a mono station on my over-the-air radio. Stereo gives me dead air. Even when i tape them, it plays back as mono.
 
I installed "I Heart Radio" on my Kindle Fire and listened to WDAS-AM and it sounded fine.
I just downloaded and installed in on my Motorola DroidX2 (Verizon) and it sounds fine too.

Did you guys figure it out?

... tom
 
Fakeem said:
I think it's the broadcast. I can only hear it as a mono station on my over-the-air radio. Stereo gives me dead air. Even when i tape them, it plays back as mono.
Click to expand...

My mstake. It's WOGL-FM that i receive in mono. Why is that?
 
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