Posted on 06/04/2005 2:42:15 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Rock shock: Nation's No. 1 oldies station changes formats
NEW YORK It's the day the music died.
W-C-B-S F-M in New York, the top oldies station in the nation for more than three decades, stunned its legion of listeners by abruptly switching formats this weekend.
Goodbye, Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys.
Hello, Duran Duran and Jet.
The station had switched to an oldies format in 1972, initially as a bastion for the doo-wop sounds of the '50s. Although the playlist changed over the years, W-C-B-S F-M always remained the outpost for classic Top 40 radio in the nation's largest radio market.
The station's new format is called "Jack," an eclectic mix of hit music from the '70s through the present. The station's owner, Infinity Broadcasting, made the same format shift Friday at its Chicago oldies station, W-J-M-K F-M, where classic Top 40 had aired for the past 21 years.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press.
we have jack-fm in indpls ... they did the same thing; took a perfectly good oldies station and threw on a jumbled mess of some good, but mostly awful 80's music
I'm Going to Miss Cousin Brucie and Randy Davis on WCBS FM....They were great!
Would that be Cousin Baa-baa-baa-Bruuuuceeee!
Tough boogers. :)
Just kidding!
Seriously, get a satellite radio.
I'm 34, and when I got completely SICK of not finding the music I like on the radio, I asked my wife to get me one for Christmas.
I would say I listen to the "old" radio no more than once or twice a week now.
Well, Jack took over FM 93.1( an old hippie station) here in Los Angeles, and quite frankly it is a pretty good mix of songs in a random matter.
Aside from this idiot making stupid remarks along the way, and thinking he is a funny guy (the so called jokes sound like close to the geek dept), the format is pretty cool.
For everyone out there, the regular radio stations faced with an increasingly competition from the Satellite Radio, have subscribed to an "novel" type of software, which I believe, IIRC was developed in Canada, were by you as a radio station will input all the songs you have the rights to, and the software pretty much will tell you what to play/take over and mix it.
Therefore the somewhat odd changeover from a soul song to a hard rock piece. It is the computer who dictates whats going on not that idiot, telling you that the new "Jack" is a station that plays what "they want".
Expect to see more like that in the upcoming future!
What nonsense. I've listened to the new Jack station in New York. It's a lot of hype to repackage the same old songs I've heard a million times.
The NYC Jack station has no DJs, and it is now running ads bragging that it's a request-free station!
I posted a random play list for five o'clock. Are you going to tell me music lovers like dj's talking over the music and taking away music time for traffic reports, weather reports, local news and contests?
In an attempt at spin, the new Jack station is interrupting the music with alleged listeners' comments about how great the Jack format is. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of what they're supposedly doing, don'tcha think?
I totally agree with you......I been listening to CBS FM since it was Doo Wop - when my family listened to it as a kid and grew up with it. All the radio stations here in NYC cater to the younger generations and it just isn't fair.
I am still confused as to what happened to the station.
Is Mickey Dolenze, Cousin Brucy, etc., all out of a job? Did they see this coming??? WOW...talk about THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!!!
Oh and P.S. - I will NOT be missing Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees as a Deejay here in NYC. He was a complete Dork on the air and not funny at all. He was very annoying.
Sounds like this is all a cost-cutting venture.
Not really. They don't talk over the music at all. I even heard the opening bars of a familiar song today and didn't recognize it because the other radio stations used to cut the beginnings off. And the endings.
I also heard a remix of a song today. It was a long version of "Relax".
I read the play list yesterday. They had 12 songs an hour. If they're playing the long versions and the album cuts. That maybe as long as four minutes for each song. Figure three minutes at twelve songs an hour doesn't leave that much time for commercials.
Enjoy your traffic and weather reports with your contests and news. I listened to four songs on my short commute. One was "Black" by Pearl Jam. I haven't heard that one in over a year.
I flipped on the Jack station today. Every single song I've heard is stuff I've heard a million times before. If the station is going to hype itself as an IPod on shuffle, how about picking songs that haven't been played to death on every other rock station for the past 20 something years? And how about more than the grand total of 1200 songs, considering all the hype?
Besides, you're missing the point with this station change. Infinity could have switched WNEW's format for the umpteenth time to the Jack format, and there would be no outcry. But instead, they switched the station with the most loyal listeners in the city. To kick their listeners in the teeth after 33 years is pretty crummy, not to mention firing the entire staff with no notice whatsoever.
Long live Don and Mike!
I'm not missing the point. The owners expect listeners to like the new format better than the old one because it will mean more business.
The same old songs from the twenty years? Why don't you post the play list for, oh, let's say, tomorrow, Thursday between 7 and 8 while I would be in my car. Then you can point out "twenty" year old songs. It should be on the web somewhere.
By the way, didn't Jack replace "music" from fifty years ago?
Actually, WCBS-FM is a perennial ratings giant. It's one of the top 10 stations in terms of advertising revenue in the whole country. The Infinity station that really needed to be fixed was WNEW. You know why? 10 years ago, Infinity decided to give the finger to the loyal rock listeners of that station, and switch formats. Sound familiar? And how many formats has that station had since? And guess where that station is in the ratings? Last place. Of course, you probably thought that format switch was a great idea as well.
The same old songs from the twenty years? Why don't you post the play list for, oh, let's say, tomorrow, Thursday between 7 and 8 while I would be in my car.
I'm not your lackey, dude. Get over yourself.
Listen u son of a bitch my dad got fired by this whole incident and its bullshit
If that were true, you would have mentioned it your first post. I noticed you signed onto FR just to violate the rules on personal insults.
Mods, TROLL ALERT!
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