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.
Change is good. 70's music is good.
Very upsetting. Tried to find it on my dial this morning before I heard the news and it was weird not being able to.
Now New York City has neither an oldies nor a country and western station. And my cable system doesn't offer the country music channels, either.
I like Jet. Buddy Holly-no way.
I'll be resetting my car radio FM a few ticks down the dial, to the New Jersey oldies station. But I will miss Cousin Brucie!
Grown men wept.
As did 94.9 Zeta in Miami when they went from rock to spanish in the blink of an eye. I will never forget 103.5 WSHE changing overnight from AOR Rock to All Alternative. Beyond pissed. Same with 97 GTR in Miami from the 80s and 90s...became Adult Contemp.
All 3 ruled big time back in the day...XM and Sirrius is where it is at now,or just plain cd's. Commercial radio sucks beyond anything the Democratic Party can do...and that is really sucking.
Come to think of it..103 SHE in Ft.Laud/Miami went from AOR Rock to Alternative to Pop to Dance to Disco to now Rap. All in 10 years.
People in their fifties like music from the 70's - 90's.
The stations have to go where the money is in order to survive. If there was a lot of money in oldies, they'd still be playing them.
"Cool 100.3 in Orlando switched from oldies to Rumba 100.3 (en Espanol) a few months ago. "
Lol. Now that's quite a change
They claimed that their audience was aging out, and as I look in the mirror there is some truth in that. But there are many kids like my 19 year old daughter who grew up in households all over the tri state area listening to CBS FM and Cousin Brucie and Harry Harrison. Go to any sweet sixteen party and listen to how many 50s and 60s songs are played and danced to. There's a long ago episode of WKRP that this is reminiscent of, only thing now is, it's not funny.
Even took a call from a disgruntled listener and played one of the dj's sound bite(?), or whatever they're called.
Their listeners were stuned?
"Grown men wept."
I don't blame them. I myself feel like crying over this. I'd be listening to CBS right now if this hadn't happened.
Someone who knows WSHE.!!!!
I used to have a shirt that said "She's only rock and roll....." I loved that station. WCKO (102.7 FM, IIRC), too.
We have had Jack here for a couple of months (Los Angeles), and it's working out OK. At first they did play all the listeners' complaint calls on the air. Kind of funny. But the station they replaced had about 5 records (I think they WERE records!) and three of them were Led Zeppelin.
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You're right. What's the alternative? Compelling stations to play oldies? Good grief.
What about the new terrestrial HD Radio? Many broadcast stations across the country are now broadcasting a seperate digital signal along with their analog broadcast. So soon, FM radio stations will not only be digital, but will offer multiple channels of audio. So Sirius and XM may be where it is at now... but eventually they will have local competition.
One station in the Seattle area played nothing but 70's music. That included disco, rock, beginnings of punk, what country they had back then....an incredible mix. You could listen for a week and never hear the same song twice. Great stuff.
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