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.
The Stones and the Beatles both got a lot from Holly. Jet is this generation's The Knack.
The Spanish language flips seem to be targeting rock stations. I guess management figures white folk can afford satellite radio. Clear Channel has done a number of such flips, and while they downplay their partial ownership of XM, it is a fact. That they claim to have sold off some of their shares (and thus have a smaller but still admitted ownership), all too often corporations "park" some stations under front organizations.
My radio brings me talk shows on 3 stations and I listen to a little commercial free radio but largely I use my CD player.
Of COURSE they know that their playlists are too limited and repeat almost every 2 days and have been stagnant for 20 years.
If a programming director actually had to do research or a DJ had to do more than just jabber, why it would take more skills.
This is "good enough" for the market. < /sarcasm >
Additionally ALL mainstream chart rock has largely sucked since Woodstock (and this is someone born in 1968 talking). Every generation produces some good/great music but not every performer is worth any attention. The industry has been pushing pre-determined corporate rock for more years than they haven't. If something "good" gets on tv/radio/charts it is a fluke. The whole history of rock post Woodstock is a lie and it took 25 years for the Ramones to get their due. And they were lucky. The Saints (Australia and then UK) and The Dictators, both who preceded them will NEVER get noted in "history".
James Taylor was not rock and roll. Were Foreigner innovators? How about Bon Jovi?
CBS AND INFINITY (and MTV) are owned by Viacom.
And here the left tells us about how rotten Clear Channel Radio is for people.
They didn't want my opinion. I've done the phone surveys in the past and got turned down when a friend told me how to go to one in person and get paid.
The station already knows what they want to play, they just want to justify it. They have expressed no interest in appealing to me as a listener.
How many of these Jack stations even use local DJs?
The new scam is streaming it by satellite to a bunch of cities making you think that it is a local show.
Why does radio target 18-35 year old women when N.A.G. is STILL bitching about how much less money women earn than men?
Older folks already have the house paid for, kids in college, and most of life's necessities paid for. They have some disposable income for some high dollar purchases.
KQUE knew this (later on AM as KBME).
Diso bad - Deep Purple good!
It is good that Les Baxter, Juan Esquivel, Martin Denny, et al lived long enough to see their comeback. Especially among the 20-35 year old set.
And somehow this is considered "old" music.
OH I know it. Clear Channel has that scam in just about every market because their regional PD's all want the same 25 songs in rotation...no matter what.
As for the satellite stream...there are shows at this link...
http://www.abcradio.com/index.cfm?bay=content.view&catid=72&cpid=100
where people do radio on huge major market stations from their home bedroom in their robe and slippers and contest callers call into a 1-800 line if they are giving anything away...all they do is hit a button with a pre-programmed city in the stream and it goes to that station. ABC Radio Networks has 4,700 affiliates...you do the math...that is some seriously LAME radio.
Who's calling The Dead Kennedys outspoken American patriots?
The Dead Kennedys weren't from the '60s and I'm not certain they were from Britain. Actually the reference was more a sarcastic quip....
The main point of course is to boycott the Marxist mouthpieces....if anybody had concerts for Kerry last year, they're not getting a dime from me now (or EVER, so much as I can help it).
Got to call it a night, BTW, it's late.
Although you might not be a fan of these bands...it is just criminal that the rock and roll hall of fame has not inducted:
Rush, Van Halen, Yes,Lynyrd Skynyrd,Pat Benatar,Genesis,Kiss,Alice Cooper,Ted Nugent,Boston,Foreigner,The Moody Blues,the Doobie Brothers, The Electric Light Orchestra,Asia,Chicago and Black Sabbath.
It just boggles the mind the crap that has trumped them.
I figured it was that format. Our country station in San Francisco suddenly went away at lunch a few days ago in favor of Max. They mix up Aerosmith (good) with Elton John and Kiki Dee (very bad). It's a screwed up format ... not the good kind of eclectic like KFAT was and KPIG is. It's pretty stupid, and I tune out from it a lot.
And the best part of SF radio ... the Spanish station on 93.3 advertises on the buses as....
LA RAZA!!!!!
Yup. Same with the Oldies station that was here until recently, except they didn't even play half the hits. I didn't realize 'Something' and 'Come Together' were Beatles songs until a few years ago, and this is after two decades of listening to this station (thanks to my parents) !
And imagine my surprise when I discovered Joe Cocker didn't write 'With A Little Help From My Friends'... :)
I often listen to Art Bell/George Noory when working late into the evening. There are times when I have an early morning conference call that makes it impossible to sit up and listen to the show live. Now I can use the MyFi recording session to set the XM channel and a start/stop time to record up to 5 hours. I could just as easily taken advantage of the "podcast" MP3 downloads, but you end up paying a significant fee to each and every radio host that you wish to patronize in the fashion. The "podcast" approach needs an alternative marketing approach to allow purchase of a selected show instead of a subscription for everything offered over a fixed subscription period.
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