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When is a station an Oldies Station vs. a Classic Hits Station

R

Retro

I suppose technically that all oldies stations are classic hits stations now, but I can think of a couple that still might fit the "oldies" is any station that plays songs before the 1980's. Somehow I think of WBOQ "North Shore 104.9" being more of an oldies station than classic hits, but anyway.

The only other Oldies format that I can think of is Scott Shannon's true oldies channel.

Now before slamming me about how I am all wrong, have no clue to radio, etc. Just think of the above for the moment and then tell me if you agree or disagree without getting into all the "technicalities" of what is an Oldies station and what is a classic hits station.

Remember, up until fairly recently, there was in face a difference between the 2: WROR and Oldies 103.3.
 
I think things started to change in 1996 when the new WROR 105.7 began and played '60s '70s '80s. WODS 103.3 was still playing '50s '60s '70s. Now they are trying to play "new" oldies and sound more like WROR but I think they have lost themselves in the process. In my humble opinion, WBOQ 104.9 would qualify to the term "oldies" station. Although I would like to hear more '50s and not have them start to play '80s. So, if that helps, WBOQ is the only "oldies station.
 
They just hired ex-RKO prod., ex-TKK PD Paula O'Connor which leads me to believe cons. talk will stay on for at least awhile longer. They have been doing it for just under a year. If they stay with conserv. talk for as
long as they did libtalk (2 yrs and 2 months) that means Rush Radio would be on till at least early summer
of next year. They want to clear shows and ads from Clear Chnl's Premiere division. If anything they may stick with it till the end of the '12 elections. If it still doesn't work out, then maybe they'd ask RKO or TKK if they'd like to carry Rush, or run Beck or Hannity on delay, etc., and 1200 would be free to do something else, like:
a) Fox Sports Radio--another Premiere product, currently overnight on 98.5
b) true oldies
c) ethnic or religion etc

The signal is improved--works for me at least; admittedly it doesn't penetrate well into workplaces
but it must do OK into people's cars so I'd think they could get at least some listeners (I know,
so far, not many) in drivetime, and we'll see if the bloom is off the rose for Rush...but the
signing of O'Connor leads me to believe Rush Radio isn't going away soon

(as for the poss. of a swing to the left as a talker, back to the former Air America-type shows, CC would
prefer to clear their own shows. Other than I think Randi Rhodes, most of their stuff is right-
oriented, and it seems to work at least in terms of ad dollars. They'd prefer to get what they're getting now in ratings vs. attempting libtalk again. Many on the left might prefer NPR anyway and Boston has two powerful NPR news outlets. WWZN did finally break out of asterisk status and showed up
however marginally, though...)
 
I always thought the difference was that Classic Hits were newer oldies. There's an oxymoron for you.
 
Again the o-word may be offputting; in yrs gone by we were hear how "Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me Of You" but for many the o-word may just remind us we're...old! Yes ODS added the 80s (so they say though they've had em for awhile now) and the still reach back to 60s for Beatles etc but maybe a day will come and they'll be 70s thru 90s and 60s will be discarded just as 50s were. Now, you could look at them and say "but Beach Boys and Supremes are part of our growing up" but as we age out of the desirable demo they too will someday fall.
So classic hits may be seen as the new word for oldies --or "greatest hits". Time marches on and the
60s get further away...think of how in 1994, for example, a 65 hit was from 29 yrs ago. Now it's been
46 years since '65. If you were 15 in 65, you're 61 now (I was 3 in 65, 49 now) It was inevitable that ODS
would start to add more of the 80s than the few token tunes they had.

Classic Hits was WZLX's nickname awhile back though maybe they had a harder edge--it was 60s, 70s rock and some pop. No Jackson 5ive though!

Wikipedia WZLX entry: "...hired Gary Guthrie to design and implement a format aimed at people who experienced adolescence in either the 1960s and 1970s and enjoyed the music of those eras, but did not care for the then current heavy metal or top 40 'hot hits' of the 1980s. These were people whose mindset was getting too old for AOR and top 40 radio formats, but were too young for or not interested in the oldies radio format."

Here they were talking more classic rock...but wasn't it using the classic hits name orig.?

The Wiki. entry for classic hits:"Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes rock and pop music from 1964 to 1989. The term is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for the adult hits format, but is more accurately characterized as a contemporary style of the oldies format. Most stations focus on the 1970s, with a lean toward classic rock. The term "classic hits" is believed to have its birth at WZLX Boston when the station converted from "adult contemporary" to a format composed of the hipper tracks from the oldies format and album tracks from popular classic rock albums. The goal was to attract and magnetize two groups of baby boomers: those who didn't want the doo-wop and pop they found on the oldies stations, and those who didn't like the more heavy metal side of AOR stations."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_hits

Yes but ODS--album tracks??
 
Oldies = 60's based (with some Pre Beatles & early 70's) pop/rock/soul
Classic Hits = 70's based (64-67 & 80's as the outliers) pop/rock/soul

Easiest way to describe it. Of course, the term "classic hits" was used a decade ago to describe 70's based AOR stations that didn't play harder classic rock cuts (WODE in Allentown PA is a good example).
 
raccoonradio said:
Here they were talking more classic rock...but wasn't it using the classic hits name orig.?
Click to expand...

WZLX did use the slogan "Classic Hits 100.7" for a couple of years after it came on with the format in 1985. Bear in mind that at the time, there was no other full-power all-retro formatted FM station in the market. WZLX came on, at first, trying to appeal to both fans of the more popular '60s/'70s AOR tracks, and some of the "hipper" Top 40 of the era. I recall WZLX playing some Motown hits in their mix when they first came on in '85, which were soon dropped when they transitioned from Classic Hits to strictly Classic Rock.

The original WROR at 98.5 which had been oldies in the '70s was, by the mid-'80s, a "gold-heavy AC", adult contemporary with some softer popular oldies mixed in, no longer a fully retro format. WCGY 93.7 (now WMKK) was oldies in the very early '80s, but had flipped to a sort of "soft AOR" format in 1983. The only other all-retro formatted station was "oldies" on what was then 1150 AM WMEX, a directional 5000 watt signal that didn't come in well in some areas of greater Boston at night, and appealed to an older demographic that listened to the original 1510 WMEX with a sound emulating that dated retro AM format (wacky jingles, heavy reverb, etc...). There was an opening in Boston for a full-time full-power FM "Classic Hits" format with a more contemporary presentation, and WZLX went for it.

WZLX soon moved toward purely Classic Rock, dropping the Motown and other poppier music that was in their initial playlist. When 103.3 WMRQ became WODS (then "Oldies 103") in 1987, that solidified WZLX's format as AOR-based Classic Rock, as WODS was now the full-power FM that covered the Motown and the more pop oldies.
 
The original WROR at 98.5 which had been oldies in the '70s



The original WROR 98.5 was in the early '70s an oldies station in the truest sense. They played 1954-1963 no Beatles.
It was very successful at the time then WCOP 100.7 played oldies calling it "Classic Rock & Roll" 1954 or 1955-1969.
They went head to head for a while. Then WROR started mixing new songs with oldies and WCOP FM turned Country.
 
When I worked at Bldg 19 in Lynn, around 81-85, they used to pipe WCGY over the sound system. It was called Blue Suede Radio --oldies--and I think the daughter of the owner, one Cheryl Ann Gowdy, was a DJ and/or prog. dir. Then they indeed went AOR
 
The only place where you can hear real oldies is 91.7 fm WMWM Saturday nights Uncle Henry's Basement 6:00-9:00pm and following that show 9:00- Mid.
I Just requested "Angel Baby" by Rosie and the Originals (1960) and they played it. Try that with WODS.
 
Jimmy128 said:
The only place where you can hear real oldies is 91.7 fm WMWM Saturday nights Uncle Henry's Basement 6:00-9:00pm and following that show 9:00- Mid.
I Just requested "Angel Baby" by Rosie and the Originals (1960) and they played it. Try that with WODS.
Click to expand...

A great station to catch "real oldies" is WATD 95.9 fm Marshfield, and listen on line at www.959watd.com
Ron Dwyer Sat noon - 6 pm. Yesterday's Memories , Ed Bowen and Bill Clark, 6pm - Midnight on Sat. Bill Clarks' Music Heaven sunday nights 10 p- 2 a They have the goods......
 
Someone mentioned Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel as an example of "Oldies." However, the True Oldies Channel plays 80s songs. I would definitely classify the True Oldies Channel as Classic Hits, whereas the definition of Oldies would include songs from the early 1950s through the mid-1970s.
 
Classic Hits stations want to avoid the "O word." Generally speaking they target Gen X'ers rather than Baby Boomers and the playlists reflect that. If you are targeting the 25 to 49 you want music that was popular when they were 12 to 24, which means people (and music) keep entering and leaving your target. Oldies is now the post-money demo format, the spot previously held by Standards or Nostalgia format stations.
 
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