Elvis Has Been Kicked Out of the Building

The familiar oldies radio format, corporate style, is withering. It's been a broadcast mainstay for more than 30 years, but as CSM reports, there's "a long list of stations from coast to coast that have abandoned '60s and '70s 'feel-good' music over the past six months." In Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla., and Austin, Texas, sez the paper, there are no traditional oldies stations at all.

The core oldies audience of aging boomers is no longer desirable from an ad-sales point of view, and many corporate decision-makers at the big radio chains (read: Clear Channel) are younger than the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Motown songs that have long made up the heart of the stations' playlists. Many of these stations are switching to the Jack format, and "compare their zany musical blends -- bouncing from Abba to Motley Crue to Coldplay in a manner of minutes -- to the randomness of the 'shuffle' feature on the ubiquitous iPod music player."

On the other hand, corporate oldies playlists were narrow, repetitive, and lifeless, so in many cities there's not much to mourn. There's still oldies on satellite, of course, and no doubt some independent stations will pick up an oldies feed, so the format will be around one way or the other for a while.

Even so, the corporate abandonment of the format appears to represent a turning point of sorts for music that -- as a radio format, in movie soundtracks, as ad jingles, etc., -- was once used to sell just about everything.

Comments

[the regulator]

Well after listening to the college station on Sirius (26?), who needs oldies stations? All the new music sounds like 70s and 80s music, rehashed to be slightly snootier.

[Shem]

On the other hand, corporate oldies playlists were narrow, repetitive, and lifeless

As opposed to the Jack format, which is...uh...slightly less narrow, but still repetitive and lifeless. We have a couple in Seattle, and it's obvious that they didn't go to any sort of trouble to expand their playlists when they made the switch. It's just the same old stuff, only there's no DJs anymore. It never ceses to amaze that with all the music that's out there, radio stations can still get away with playing the same thousand songs over and over again. I definately think radio is due for a correction any time now, just like the rest of the music industry. Too much time in power with too little attention paid to their customers and the market. They can't legislate their cartel into safety forever.

[smacky]

In Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla., and Austin, Texas, sez the paper, there are no traditional oldies stations at all.

Well, Austin, TX for one does not have anybody over the age of 35 living there, from what I've experienced. So it makes sense that there would be no oldies station there.

Yesterday I was listening to the local "Oldies" station, and I heard George Harrison's "I Got My Mind Set On You". That song was on Cloud Nine, an album released in 1987. Repeat: 1987. That ain't no oldie. I was rocking out to that song in the second grade. I am no moldy oldy. I just shared this to illustrate that, even in markets that do still have oldies stations, they are no longer really oldies stations, but generic blends of radio-friendly pop like every other commercial station.

[linguist]

Damnit! Chicago's oldies station just changed format but I hadn't realized it was an epidemic. Am I the only under-30 who really loves '50s and '60s pop? V. sad.

[Warren]

Sorry smacky, but 87 was over fifteen years ago, thus making anything recorded in that year official Oldies material. The fact that you 'rocked out' to it when it was new, also makes you a certified Oldie. Welcome to the club. Hey, it happens to everyone (if they're lucky).

[Jesse Walker]

As opposed to the Jack format, which is...uh...slightly less narrow, but still repetitive and lifeless. We have a couple in Seattle, and it's obvious that they didn't go to any sort of trouble to expand their playlists when they made the switch.

Jack stations tend to have larger and more varied playlists than other commercial outlets -- but not nearly as large or varied as a half-decent college outfit.

I was initially excited when a station switched to the format here in Baltimore, but every time I tune in they're playing something dull.

[Peachy]

Nope... but has WDRV changed? I haven't listened in a while...

[Mo]

smacky,
On the local radio station out here in LA, KLOS, I head some early 90s Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana songs in the playlist. I felt REALLY old after hearing that.

[Mo]

Oh and Michael Jackson is innocent on all counts.

[SR]

Shoot, Mo beat me to it.

[thoreau]

A rich, famous white guy acquitted? I'm shocked! Shocked!

[smacky]

As a public service to you all, I'd like you all to know that good oldies radio is not dead. In fact, it's available to one and all of you via the Magickal, Mystical Interweb:

1.) Dig, Baby, Dig!!! Also see here.
2.) Retro Radio
3.) Kick Out the Jams (psych, acid rock, garage punk, prog)

In my opinion, John E. Midnight is one of the most entertaining DJs I've ever heard. His show, Dig, Baby, Dig, is well worth a listen.

[smacky]

Dammit! That first link was broken. Let me try again:

http://www.digbabydig.com

Just go there if you want good oldies.

[Kris]

KFRC, the oldies station out of San Francisco plays awfull techno style re-mixed beatles medlies. Ugh

[Serafina]

Public radio in St. Paul has a great new music station that shows just how bad commercial radio stations suck these days.

[Evan Williams]

Good riddance. Oldeez are just horrible...I'm sorry, but, there's just SO much music out there---why would you consciously choose to listen to that krunk?

[McClain]

The python has begun to shit out the pig!

Radio, an analog medium from the early 20th century, was long clogged with music by 'baby boomers' (from the mid-20th century) using electric instruments and recording devices of early-to-mid-20th-century vintage.
Now that we're finally moving into the twenty-FIRST century, could I please, just once, turn on my car radio without risking exposure to your cock-sucking, godforsaken, wack-ass-punk-bitch Eric motherfucking Clapton? Please? Just once?
Or that dated, sepia-toned minstrel show known as "Motown?"
Thank you.
Thank you very much....

[dead_elvis]

Rock is dead. Long live rock.

[NoStar]

I thought oldies were big band stuff from the forties.

My 14 year old daughter asked me about when you know you are getting old. I told her about the time when I was about 25 and I realized that the DJ wasn't talking to me and didn't care if I was listening or not. I don't think she grasped the implications of what I said, but it will happen to her one day too.

[Muggs]

The "oldies" station around me, WDRC in Hartford, CT, switched from a 50's, 60's and some 70's format to a 60's, mostly 70's, and a few unidentified 80's(Kokomo, Billy Joel's Uptown Girl and Longest Time) songs. I like their stuff, but it's too much the same stuff over and over again. You can almost tell when they're going to play a certain song.

I await the Jack format in my area, though I suspect we're too small a market for it.

[Jim Walsh]

Speaking as a broadcaster (and former Oldies DJ) I can tell you that the Oldies format has been on the ropes for at least ten years - and I don't believe the aging of the target demographic is as much of a factor as the fact that the format has lost focus in the last decade or so. Too many of these stations have strayed from the core sounds (i.e. the stuff we associate with the golden years of AM Top 40) that made them so much fun to listen to; when I tune into an "Oldies" station and hear, say, Tony Orlando's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon," I know that the programming department (or, more likely in this day and age, the suits upstairs who, armed with their "market research," are really calling the shots) haven't a bleeping clue.
And you can get away, I suppose with a two-hundred song playlist, but they damn well better be the right two-hundred songs...

[kevrob]

Old? I'll give you old. I was a WCBS-FM listener before they went oldies.

In 1970, WCBS-FM replaced "The Young Sound" with a hybrid Top 40/Album Rock format. DJ's of this era included Bob "Bobaloo" Lewis, Bill Brown, and Bobby Wayne. In June 1972, WCBS-FM evolved into an oldies format... - Radio-History.com .

I was getting into the roots of rock at the time, so I didn't much mind the change, and the songs seemed brand new to me. Besides, WPLJ-FM (WABC-FM) and WNEW-FM had the free-form, album cut rock territory covered.

Someone will no doubt post that they listened to Marconi transmit the letter S from Cornwall on their crystal set. 🙂

Kevin

[Christopher W.]

If we're throwing in plugs... http://www.radiopardise.com.Truly eclectic.

[cdunlea]

Jack/Mike/Bob/whatever sucks, from what I've heard on the local Mike station. Yeah, the playlist is expanded, but so what? Any decent DJ will tell you it's not just the playlist that grabs you, but the segues--they make or break you. I mean, how can you follow Aerosmith's "Walk this Way" with, say, "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls? Or "Karn Evil 9" by ELP with Salt N' Pepa?? Total disjoint IMO.

The reason I think Sirius/XM is the next step in aerial evolution is that the playlist on any given channel isn't wide, but deep. While Jack widens the playlist to the point where you can run Abba and Motorhead back to back, satelite will stick with genre, so that when you want to listen girl-pop from the late 70's you'll hear Abba and Donna Summer and Olivia N-J; when you want to bang your head you switch to the metal channel. People want to hear the genre they like when they like it, not everything ever recorded for their demographic.

[matt]

Evan:

It's true. Lots of "oldies" are bad. But then again, so is a lot of mainstream stuff on the radio today. There is plenty of good music that oldies stations could play, if they chose to. But like most new music stations, they don't.

I don't want to limit myself to good music from just one era. Good music is timeless.

[Scooter Rules]

I'm a 45 year old who discovered industrial and techno rave from wandering around the web. NOT RADIO. Such genres are unknown in my neck of the woods (Ioway).

So I don't need radio to find new music, and with my Rio, I don't need radio to establish playlists. The only use radio still has as a local talk show, and local blogs are overtaking this.

SAYONARA RADIO!!!

[Rich Ard]

As long as we're throwing plugs out - AccuRadio.

[kevrob]

One of our local AM talk hosts, whose show follows Limbaugh on a Clear Channel-owned station, takes a perhaps inordinate pride in selecting and/or vetoing his bumper music. He's a fortyish kinda guy who, like me, grew up listening to great personality-jocks on stations that still played new music. On more than one occasion he's come out of his break, started to comment on the bumper, then ranted at his producer/engineer when that miserable peon started to pot down the track, only to be told to keep playing the tune. Then he tells you about the band, plays some more of the song, and abuses the DJs on the "music stations", especially one owned by the local newspaper monopoly, for never playing anything new. Hearing someone morph between Limbaugh-ite and a Bizarro version of Cousin Bruce Morrow is a stitch, except when the song he's pushing sucks.

Actually, Rush emphasized the "coolness" of his bump tunes, too, at least until he fried his ears gobbling pills....uhhh....that virus took most of his hearing.

Once people find out about a new cut they like - whether from a movie soundtrack, TV commercial, TV soundtrack, video game soundtrack or a live appearance on a TV show, they can once again buy the single. That they will do it via iTunes, Rhapsody or Napster is a bit of a change, I'll grant.

Kevin
(listening to a radio program I would have missed this morning, except my `puter converted it to an mp3 file for me.)

[Mark]

I'm with Scooter. Jack is a joke, a weak imitation of what radio could have been. My iPod shuffles along just fine for me, it's a wide ranging eclectic mix - from early ska & Sinatra to the latest from the Decemberists. No lame ass DJ patter stepping on song intros, no blowhard and his morning zoo crew and best of all, no commercials shouting at me. No cycle stores, no diamond retailers, no tattoo parlors, car dealers or Axe perfume for men. None. Somehow I'm getting along just fine without any of them.

About the only time I bother with radio any more is to catch a lot less NPR, and if they start in rambling on about Israel and Palastine, they're gone too. New music I get from friends, blog recommendations or a bit of college radio now and then.

I personally can't wait for the entire bloated radio / indie promoter / label cabal to choke on it's own ooze.

Next up, please let it be the local TV news broadcast.

[AP]

I dunno, do Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane count as oldies? I think there's quite a bit of good music from before the 80s. See the difference between then and now is that then the mainstream music was good, now it's the unpopular stuff that's good, the mainstream that's contrived sorry-ass shit.

[Orangettecoleman]

What are you guys talking about? There is tons of innovation in radio playlists! Just today, I was listening to the local oldies station on my drive home and I heard DOZENS of commercials i had never heard before, and they were only occasionally interrupted by longer jingles, the featured product of which I could not discern. I think I remember one of them being by some group called the Rolling Rocks or something like that. I guess it was a beer commercial, because they kept singing about "satisfaction" and how they couldn't get any of it. Apparently you can't get Rolling Rock beer in their town. But anyway, without commercial radio how would I find out that Larry King wants me to drink orange juice, or which car dealership is offering 0% financing? This is invaluable information, and you guys should really think twice before insulting commercial radio formats...

[kevrob]

O.C., when you are offered a premium from your local non-commercial broadcaster, do you choose the CD, Best Of WBEG's On Air Pledge Drives?

Kevin

[Will]

People here seem to have a pretty dim view of the oldies. 50's and 60's pop is really some of the best music recorded; it was the age when what drove a song was melody, what's wrong with a great melody?

Where I live, in Los Angeles, the oldies station on the FM dial, 101.1, is pretty pedestrian, but there is a new station on the AM dial at 1260 that is spectacular. (In San Diego you can pick it up at 540).

The station is a great mix of classic oldies like Buddy Holly and Elvis, and they also throw in a lot of stuff that I've never heard before, from surf instrumentals to obscure soul and girl group pop.

The 50's and 60's were the peak of pop music, and to lose that on the radio would be tragic, I think.

To anyone in So Cal who likes the oldies, I suggest tuning into to 1260/540. Listen before the format changes, which it may soon. They likely don't have much of an audience, and they rarely play ads.

[Jeff]

Did Smacky say he "rocked out" to Harrison's "I've Got My Mind Set On You?"

And I agree with Scooter. I'm going on six radio-free years and I am a happy person.

[John M. Joy]

Smacky said:

Yesterday I was listening to the local "Oldies" station, and I heard George Harrison's "I Got My Mind Set On You". That song was on Cloud Nine, an album released in 1987. Repeat: 1987. That ain't no oldie.

My crotchety ol' codger tale:

My high school graduation was May 31, 1987. A couple weeks back, on the last day of May, I noted that it had been eighteen years since I graduated. The next day, I had to confront the fact that people were reaching the age of majority who weren't even born while I was in high school.

But my first "geez I'm getting old" experience was back while I was still an undergrad. I was teaching a summer session computer class at the local grammar school. We were talking about history and evolution of computing, and the subject of vacuum tubes came up. Those kids had absolutely no idea what a vacuum tube was. I still remember the TV repairman coming to the house to fix the big ol' console set, and bringing in his leather case filled with various and sundry tubes.

I guess the moral of the story (if there is one) is... if you can remember vacuum tubes, then whatever music you enjoyed in your youth is an oldie.

JMJ

P.S. Kevrob: FWIW, the pledge drives of WPKN in Bridgeport can actually be pretty damn funny.

[Russ D]

Jack sounded likea good idea, but it's basically boring. The problem with it, as I see it, is that they are targeting th 35-54 demo with a wide-but-not-deep playlist but the 35-54 demo corresponds to the people who switched off top 40 radio for genre-specific FM stations. What I don't get it just because people listened to crap like Loverboy in the 80's, those people wised up and don't want to hear it again just because they did 20 years ago. Maybe as a novelty cut, but not on regular rotation.

I still think the problem with radio is CD's. Before CD's, LP's had 35 minutes of music and your typical radio music director could go thru an album quickly and pick out the tracks (with a little promo help from the label of course) he liked. If the album stiffed, the band would have another out in 8 months and try again. Now CD's are 70 minutes long and there's at best 35 minutes of decent music on it so the MD still has to sit thru 35 minutes of crap so they just forget it and wait for the label to tell them what to play. The bands aren't forced to leave the bad tracks off, and they don't get another release for 2 or 3 years. Sure makes for boring music radio when the people picking the music aren't even interested in it.

[Oscar the Grouch]

Many of these stations are switching to the Jack format, and "compare their zany musical blends -- bouncing from Abba to Motley Crue to Coldplay in a manner of minutes -- to the randomness of the 'shuffle' feature on the ubiquitous iPod music player."

I'm sick of people insinuating that the iPod somehow originated or has been responsible for the 'shuffle' feature.

[Fred]

Frankly, it seems to me this is yet another example of baby boomers whining that they're not as relevant in the real world as they are in their own minds. 60s music is only "obviously superior" to more recent music if you are a child of the 60s. To me, some of it is timeless and a lot of it is crap. I suspect that when my almost six year old develops strong opinions about popular music the scenario will play out again. That's why choice is great. If the oldies format attracts listeners and advertisers, it will survive. If it doesn't, then it should die. Personally, I like the AAA format found on a number of public radio stations, including one here in Louisville. If those don't float your boat, there are other over-the-air choices, two satellite networks, iPods and CDs. But why whine when your preferred format goes away, other than an inflated sense of self?

[Cgee]

I'm with Oscar. Really, noobs, why not think about *what* exactly is being shuffled? That might give you a clue. Hint - they were made of vinyl.

[dhex]

cousin brucie got smoked. what's he going to do now?

"I'm sick of people insinuating that the iPod somehow originated or has been responsible for the 'shuffle' feature."

didja catch that times feature in the circuits section (now defunct, i hope?) about how the "shuffle" feature was creating these wacky playlists at parties...sort of like...i dunno...SOMEONE TOOK A BUNCH OF MUSIC TRACKS AND SHUFFLED THEM!!!!!! HOLY CRAP!

like, jesus, how stupid is your audience. even if they have never used a cd in their entire life, surely they've handled a deck of cards at one point?

[smacky]

Good riddance. Oldeez are just horrible...I'm sorry, but, there's just SO much music out there---why would you consciously choose to listen to that krunk?

Evan (and others),

I think you are confusing the crap they pass off on commerical radio as oldies with all the rest of the good music lumped under the catch-all phrase "Oldies". Is it krunk just because it was made pre-1990's? I think not. All three of those college radio shows play mostly super-obscure music that you will probably frankly never hear in your lifetime unless you take up rare record collecting as a hobby. Don't get me wrong, I love new music; but don't write off "old" music simply because it isn't "new". Haven't you ever experienced the phenomenon called "rediscovery"? Meaning: finding that you love a musician's record(s) that were released years ago but that you are just finally realizing you dig? That happens to me all the time. Also consider the fact that much if not most of the music being made today "NEW" music, is really just a parody or lukewarm rehashing of stuff that's already been done before. I say that as a person under 30, too, so I'm not biased by age. It's your deal if you want to write off anything made before 2000 as unlistenable, but I think you're probably making a big mistake.

-- Your Musical Conscience.

[kevrob]

smacky -

When I used to come home from college to the Nawth Shaw of Lawn Island, I used to listen to `PKN all the time! They were still affiliated with the U of Bridgeport at the time, and were sometimes maddening to listen to. On the good side, they would back-announce the records. On the bad side they would sometimes play 10 tracks in a row, so placing a title with a tune was often a challenge. Even more irritating for me, who had dabbled in DJing at my school's carrier-current AM coffeepot, was that they were incredibly loose about IDing the station, something that, pre-de-regulation, was mandatory at least on the half hour - maybe every 15 minutes. I swear that when I first tuned into them that I had found a "pirate." But, boy, would they play some good stuff. I remember that I first heard The Cars' Best Friend's Girl on WPKN, well before any NYC station was playing the Boston band. Wicked Cool! I much preferred them to WUSB, which, at the time, didn't have a proper tower, and could barely be heard off the SUNY-Stony Brook campus.

I see that `PKN has since cut the apron strings:

WPKN turns 42 in 2005. We've been 100% listener-supported since 1989 and a completely independent entity since 1992. We preserve our freedom to be different by pointedly refusing corporate or commercial underwriting, government money, and donations that are in any way restricted.

Now that's independent radio!

dhex:

Don't worry about Cousin Brucie. He's landed on his feet, inking a deal with Sirius. Alan Freed's old station (and Bruce's) has the details.

[kevrob]

Whoops, JMJ, that `PKN stuff was mostly for your benefit.

Now that I think of it, does anyone know of a directory of non-governmental, non-commercial broadcasters. Having access to something like that, along with corresponding web-streams, would be cool.

Kevin

[Muggs]

I sometimes listen to 'PKN. They're the only station around that will play Zappa that isn't the 5 or 6 radio friendly Zappa songs.

Otherwise it's WCBS-880, or the FAN, or NPR. Too much of the same music over and over on the radio stations in Connecticut.

And no offense, Smacky, but 1987, that is oldies now a days. I mean, by VH-1's standards, if it happened prior to the millenium, it's nostalgia. But that's a whole other thread.

[dhex]

good to know the spruce bruce will be up and flying somewhere.

a phone call, though. that's a shitty way to tell someone "your three and a half decades of work mean sooooo much to us."

(yes, i know, getting fired by kerry would be worse, but still...)

[Jeff O's Retro Music]

I live in Philadelphia Pa. and have a station here that has been playing the same list of oldies for the last 30 years. I'm the biggest oldies rock and roll fanatic in the world and make my living as a musician performing 40's and 50's music, but I won't listen to the oldies station on the radio because I'm sick of hearing the same old songs. They are still great songs, but anybody that hears the same songs over and over again for thirty years is going to become sensitized to them. The problem with the oldies format is that there aren't any new oldies songs played, new bands promoted etc... I mean oldies songs that are brand new compositions. If there were, I have no doubt that the oldies format would Rock And Roll big time and we wouldn't have to deal with this so called Jack Radio. There definitely is a big market and fan base for this new oldies sound and I'm trying my best to contribute to this needed Renaissance by writing my own New Original 50's Songs You Never heard!

Rock And Roll Will Never Die!

Jeff O's Retro Music
50's Songs You Never Heard!
New Original Doo Wop, 50's Rock & Rockabilly songs.
http://www.jeffosretromusic.com