WOGL #1...but with whom?

[CurtisNEPA]

If you travel around the country, you're likely to find quite a few small radio stations like this. I call them hobby stations, but that's probably not accurate. They are stations that play whatever the owner wants. You might call it Jack or Ben, but it's more likely "Kristin," who's now the owner. Not as catchy. They are really playing whatever they want. And yes the audience is a lot older than the normal target. But these are stations that aren't looking to appeal to advertising agencies, but rather get by with all local money. The reason stations like WOGL try to keep the demo under 55 is to get the big ad agency money. But if you're in such a small market that the agencies don't know you exist, you have to come up with other ways to pay the utility bill. That's what this station is doing. I looked at their coverage map, and couldn't come up with a familiar town. With a screaming 930 watts, they're not much of a threat to the bigger stations. But they have a repeater, so that helps.

Speaking of hobby stations, there are such streaming stations such as Tunein where there are several genres of "classic hits" stations to choose from. One example are those six stations that are dedicated to disco and classic dance music from the '70s and '80s. Almost every day I listened to one of the stations when I had nothing to do and some of the songs that played on one of their streaming channels in which many listeners like myself are not familiar with never gets played on classic hits stations such as WOGL or, locally, on the station that spawns several FM translators where I live in the Scranton area. Furthermore, the disco songs gets played in full length(roughly around seven to eight minutes) while on traditional radio the amount of airplay is limited to around four minutes in length. It would seem that Internet radio has no limits when it comes to what gets played. Heck, if a station like Jammin' Gold still exists, I would be listening to it for hours and hours on end because there would be more disco and other classic dance tunes than what WOGL currently offers!

As for Steve Green mentioning of the station calling itself "Hanna FM", I listened to them when I was in the Williamsport area and the one song that I heard was an '80s R&B song called "Nite and Day" by Al B. Sure. Other stations don't usually play it and it's probably only heard on mostly Urban stations.

 

[TheBigA]

Speaking of hobby stations, there are such streaming stations such as Tunein where there are several genres of "classic hits" stations to choose from.

Sure but none that I'm aware of are having any significant impact. They're just personal entertainment for the people who run them, and people like you who seek them out. This is an actual licensed radio station that has an audience in its market, and does business with local advertisers. I'd suggest it's a step up from streaming stations on TuneIn.

 

[semoochie]

That's interesting. I understood how "Oldies" was a bad idea for a format name--because it literally made the listeners take note of their mortality--and I always thought "Classic Hits" was a good way to solve that problem forever. But now that you mention it, Gen X-ers or Millennials may take offense to the "Classic" part of the moniker. Damn whiny kids always looking for things to complain about. haha.

In the 1950s and 60s, non-current songs were called "oldies" on the radio, so when it came time for a gold based format, it was the obvious name and actually endearing to its audience. By the 70s, that practice was discontinued, so anyone who doesn't remember it, has no such connection and just hears, "old"!

 

[nd2023]

The only time 98.1 plays any 60s music is Saturday nights with the Bob Pantano dance party. It's not all older music. After midnight they even go as far as the mid 2000s.

 

[CurtisNEPA]

The only time 98.1 plays any 60s music is Saturday nights with the Bob Pantano dance party. It's not all older music. After midnight they even go as far as the mid 2000s.

I listened to the entire show couple weeks ago and I loved it. They have a wide range of dance music from all five decades and some of the songs that I heard on the show are not normally played on any other radio stations that I usually listen to. As a matter of fact, you can hear these songs only on Internet radio platforms such as Tunein.

I heard of Bob Pantano, and all I knew that he started doing his Saturday Night show sometime in the late '70s. I think during the early days of the show, it was strictly 60's and 70's music, but as time progresses and demographics change, like you said, it includes more recent music, dating as far as the 2000's(Heck, I even hear Bruno Mars' single "Uptown Funk", which is kinda odd for WOGL to be playing given that the song is only three years old!). So, I think Mr. Pantano wants to target not only their older listeners, but the younger generation as well.

The question that remains unanswered is, what would happen to the show if Mr. Pantano decides to retire...

 

[Cordelia Chase]

Speaking of The Crash Test Dummies, "Superman's Song" was played quite a bit back in 1991 in Norfolk, VA on a long defunct Triple A station known as The Coast. I also heard it on Zoomer Radio 740 AM out of Toronto when I was DXing one night, and that station for sure skews older! But a Canadian band on Canadian station is no surprise.

 

[nd2023]

I listened to the entire show couple weeks ago and I loved it. They have a wide range of dance music from all five decades and some of the songs that I heard on the show are not normally played on any other radio stations that I usually listen to. As a matter of fact, you can hear these songs only on Internet radio platforms such as Tunein.

I heard of Bob Pantano, and all I knew that he started doing his Saturday Night show sometime in the late '70s. I think during the early days of the show, it was strictly 60's and 70's music, but as time progresses and demographics change, like you said, it includes more recent music, dating as far as the 2000's(Heck, I even hear Bruno Mars' single "Uptown Funk", which is kinda odd for WOGL to be playing given that the song is only three years old!). So, I think Mr. Pantano wants to target not only their older listeners, but the younger generation as well.

The question that remains unanswered is, what would happen to the show if Mr. Pantano decides to retire...

I don't think he's retiring until he dies. He loves what he does.
He also pays to be on WOGL. Essentially it's like a 7 hour "infomercial" on Saturday nights. And his ratings are good.
He's been on so long that there will be a backlash if they cut his show just because his music is just slightly older than what's on there now. There are people who have 98.1 on their presets mainly for his show, and they occasionally tune in during the rest of the week
He plays mainly 70s and 80s, with a little bit of the 60s. Towards the later hours, as the older people leave the club and the younger people come in, the music gets newer. There's usually a mix of freestyle and 90s dance anthems made popular by Q102.

 

[davideduardo]

The question that remains unanswered is, what would happen to the show if Mr. Pantano decides to retire...

Probably nothing. It would disappear.

Saturday night has such low radio usage that it's often said that stations could sign off at 7 PM and it would not affect the full week 6 AM to Midnight shares at all.

After all, a 5 share of nothing is still nothing.

 

[ixnay]

Where does Pantano do his show from now? In the '90s he did it from the Coral Reef (RIP IIRC) in Runnemede (next to the turnpike interchange IIRC). WOGL's site doesn't say where he does it from now.

ixnay