WOGL Playing More 70s now than they have the past 2 Years

[oldies76]

You are not even in the market, you are not in the SoCal lifestyle and the station could not care less about what you think

Yeah, but I was in the market for many years.....1978 through 2005, enough to know the OC lifestyle. It's still a beach (and traffic) scene last I checked.......just this past Labor Day.

 

[davideduardo]

Yeah, but I was in the market for many years.....1978 through 2005, enough to know the OC lifestyle. It's still a beach (and traffic) scene last I checked.......just this past Labor Day.

A decade and a half ago is an eternity in radio. iPods were still new, and smartphones were still three years or so away.

And the OC is less than a quarter of the LA market population, and it's more about Harbor and 1st Street in Santa Ana than about people in the multi-million dollar beachfront properties.

 

[semoochie]

Classic hits stations leaving out 70's music is a disaster waiting to happen. Some things should be just left alone and when it comes to seventies music, honestly, what's a station without those? Kudos to WOGL for adding more, but I'm afraid the damage has already been done. But yes, if a station is going to play 70's, focus more in-depth on the 1974-1979 period. What's a classic hits station without the music that made them that way to begin with??

K-Earth, lost cause. WOGL, still some hope.

14 years ago, you said the same thing about the 60s and didn't have much kind to say about the 70s. Time marches on.

 

[Miguelito]

Presumably, by then, someone will have figured out how to deal with the great rock/rhythmic rift of the '90s, including the grunge, emo and Lilith Fair musical fads and mainstreaming of hip-hop.

I was listening yesterday to a little California station that recently flipped to '90s Pop as "Rewind 98.1." The station sounds as small as it is but the music seemed to be a straight-up combo of all the genres that made up popular music in the decade. Even though some times there was no imaging between Rock and Rhythmic tracks, it really didn't provide any sort of audible jolt. When the time comes that Classic Hits reaches the '90s, it's still gonna be only the songs that test well...and I think it's possible that we've all been overthinking the flow of things. Chumbawamba into Guns 'N' Roses? Fine. LOL.

 

[CTListener]

Chumbawamba into Guns 'N' Roses? Fine. LOL.

I was thinking more of Nirvana into Jewel into MC Hammer.

 

[atthestars]

I was thinking more of Nirvana into Jewel into MC Hammer.

I think my favorite description of 90s Alternative at one point was "From Jewel to Tool". Throw in a little pop and you've got a 90s throwback station! lol

 

[Miguelito]

I was thinking more of Nirvana into Jewel into MC Hammer.

It does look bad on the screen, doesn't it? But I think on the air, it won't sound as bad as we think. (Also... is the MC Hammer song gonna hold up as well as literally everything by Nirvana and Jewel? LOL. I wouldn't be surprised if "Can't Touch This" never even makes it to Classic Hits. It already feels a little bit like a goofy novelty record. Not quite on the level of "Macarena," but still.)

 

[TheBigA]

I think it's possible that we've all been overthinking the flow of things.

Once again, in the real world of radio, there are other elements besides music, including imaging, jingles, and the DJ. Those three things are used to assist in flow.

It's a bit more jarring when you just hear those songs on a streaming service. And when we look at streaming charts, we see that people typically don't think about flow when they're the ones picking the music.

 

[Miguelito]

Once again, in the real world of radio, there are other elements besides music, including imaging, jingles, and the DJ. Those three things are used to assist in flow.

It's a bit more jarring when you just hear those songs on a streaming service. And when we look at streaming charts, we see that people typically don't think about flow when they're the ones picking the music.

Exactly. As has always been the case, imaging will be used to avoid the oft-mentioned "trainwreck." I definitely think a lot of the fractured '90s Pop genres will be able to live together on a Classic Hits station when the time comes.

Good thread.

 

[CTListener]

The real question, though, is when the time comes for years of grunge, rap and Lilith Fair-style female folk-pop to take a place of prominence in classic hits playlists, will the target demographic -- the people who were listening to CHR during those years, when the format splintered into rhythmic-heavy and rock/pop-heavy -- be willing to hear all that music on the same station? Especially since the rap haters or pop haters might have had the option back then of completely ignoring the rap or pop hits while still listening to a contemporary music station?

 

[TheBigA]

be willing to hear all that music on the same station?

Who says it has to be the same station? As I've been saying, no reason for these traditional formats that we've known for years to remain once the boomers go away.

But yes, the thing that really killed MTV was when the rappers faced the boy bands on the same channel.

 

[Miguelito]

The real question, though, is when the time comes for years of grunge, rap and Lilith Fair-style female folk-pop to take a place of prominence in classic hits playlists, will the target demographic -- the people who were listening to CHR during those years, when the format splintered into rhythmic-heavy and rock/pop-heavy -- be willing to hear all that music on the same station? Especially since the rap haters or pop haters might have had the option back then of completely ignoring the rap or pop hits while still listening to a contemporary music station?

When the time comes, I feel like some markets will support a general Classic Hits station that plays hits from all the genres. It's not really that different from what's happening currently: If you listen to WOGL, you're hearing a lot of songs that were not all being played on WCAU-FM back in '82. Some were but, but others were at Rock, Urban, or what-have-you. Some of the stuff probably won't fit in everywhere and that's where it'll have to live on the Classic Rock, Classic R&B, etc. outlets in those markets. Again, really not that different from the current landscape.

 

[rags516]

Doesn't BEN already kind of do something similar ? They run Nirvana, Whitney Houston, Rob Base, Guns N Rose's, Alanis, they might not touch hardcore rap of the 90s but they do hit almost all the buckets of popular 90s music along with their 80s mix

 

[Miguelito]

Doesn't BEN already kind of do something similar ? They run Nirvana, Whitney Houston, Rob Base, Guns N Rose's, Alanis, they might not touch hardcore rap of the 90s but they do hit almost all the buckets of popular 90s music along with their 80s mix

Good point. BEN's a great example of now sonically (is that a word?), these genres can live comfortably in the same neighborhood.

 

[Groove1670]

The real question, though, is when the time comes for years of grunge, rap and Lilith Fair-style female folk-pop to take a place of prominence in classic hits playlists, will the target demographic -- the people who were listening to CHR during those years, when the format splintered into rhythmic-heavy and rock/pop-heavy -- be willing to hear all that music on the same station? Especially since the rap haters or pop haters might have had the option back then of completely ignoring the rap or pop hits while still listening to a contemporary music station?

Grunge, rap and Lilith Fair-style female folk-pop will filter to stations with a heavy lean of that genre. You won't hear them in great numbers on a classic hits stations. The 90's was probably one of the most fragmented decades of music (some not so good). Stations will use research to play selected cuts. The 90's just didn't have the hit power, and mass appeal like the 70's and 80's did. Even the 00's look more promising when those songs start fitting into the classic hits demo someday.

 

[mjb1124]

I'm not convinced '90s rap can't co-exist with '90s rock. I grew up in that era and lots of people listened to both, including myself. They also both coexisted on MTV. And for better or worse, I think that the popularity of both genres among the male demo is what eventually led to the nu-metal fad in the late '90s/early '00s.

As for WOGL, I'm wondering if the re-addition of '70s could be a pre-emptive strike against The Breeze (if it really happens), and/or an attempt to distinguish themselves more from 101.1.

 

[Miguelito]

I'm not convinced '90s rap can't co-exist with '90s rock. I grew up in that era and lots of people listened to both, including myself. They also both coexisted on MTV. And for better or worse, I think that the popularity of both genres among the male demo is what eventually led to the nu-metal fad in the late '90s/early '00s.

As for WOGL, I'm wondering if the re-addition of '70s could be a pre-emptive strike against The Breeze (if it really happens), and/or an attempt to distinguish themselves more from 101.1.

We're speculating on an unknown. When the time comes, songs will be tested with a audience who isn't yet in the target and who will naturally feel differently about some songs than they do now. If done correctly, it could certainly work but only time will tell.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm not convinced '90s rap can't co-exist with '90s rock.

Exactly. That was the point of Run DMC's version of Walk This Way. However, there are some who don't like it. So I'd expect to see some stations that would play it, and some that wouldn't.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

I'm not convinced '90s rap can't co-exist with '90s rock. I grew up in that era and lots of people listened to both, including myself. They also both coexisted on MTV. And for better or worse, I think that the popularity of both genres among the male demo is what eventually led to the nu-metal fad in the late '90s/early '00s.

As for WOGL, I'm wondering if the re-addition of '70s could be a pre-emptive strike against The Breeze (if it really happens), and/or an attempt to distinguish themselves more from 101.1.

“More” from 101. ��

They are pretty well distinct in style from Mo...er, B. Like 96.5, I certainly get they share a subset of songs, but they don’t feel similar when taken as a whole.

It would be interesting to see where a Breeze would land here. If it’s similar to their San Fran counterpart, it seems like they’d have a heavy 80s presence, but more on the soft side. The Peabo Bryson, Sergio Mendes, Miami Sound Machine piece that doesn’t seem as heavily represented on 98 or 101. Sunny, in at least one phase of its second incarnation, seemed to enjoy the disco type 70s pop songs, but I’m not sure that fits where soft AC would be working best today. In that regard, I think where 98 has added a bit of 70s, my money would be on testing data...and would have happened with or without this rumored change at 106.

 

[wfilwibg]

It's about time. With everything in their library why play the same 200 tracks?

A radio consultant in NY or LA shouldn't tell what people in Philly want to here.