Company News · March 13, 2008

Catching Up On the New Oldies

By Edison Research

It’s been a good couple of weeks for Scott Shannon’s True Oldies Channel, which launched on owner Citadel’s FMs in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. and added an AM in Providence, R.I., for good measure. And while those markets made True Oldies front and center with broadcasters for the first time in a while, the four-year-old network is, as Shannon notes, up to 50 stations (including FMs in Chicago, Knoxville, and New Orleans) and far more durable than many expected. The True Oldies Channel has certainly outlived the “Real Oldies on AM” movement that spawned it, although its creator always had loftier goals.
It seemed like a good time to go back and listen critically to the True Oldies, which was relatively easy because it has also popped up on WPLJ New York’s HD-3 multicast channel. (Until now, a New Yorker had to DX it in the car on WREF Danbury, Conn.) It was also time to take another look at WCBS-FM New York, which debuted to immediate success and immense publicity last year. Like most new gold-based stations, the ratings for WCBS-FM have stabilized–at a more-than-respectable number. Like most gold-based stations, it also faded from the headlines after its launch.
But both WCBS-FM and True Oldies have been part of a rebuilding boom for Oldies (or Classic Hits or your term of choice). At this point, there are only a few large markets that can be said to have nothing that can be called Oldies of any sort — San Diego and Baltimore in particular. And both WCBS-FM and True Oldies have been part of a paradigm shift in the way the format is done that goes beyond the obvious changes in era.
Some readers will be surprised to see the two formats viewed as similar in any way. True Oldies Channel started by super-serving the ’50s and ’60s. After a few years, it had phased out the doo-wop and the other pre-Beatles depth titles and added the handful of ’70s that had always been part of the Oldies format. While it has lent itself to local jocks (or, in D.C., and Atlanta, Imus) in some dayparts, it’s presentation is still relatively minimalist, with Shannon’s stagers as the dominant element.
WCBS-FM, on the other hand, returned to its classic template in a number of ways. The jocks were the ones who had been (or would have been) the newbies in its previous incarnation, but they were still veteran full-service talent. Musically, the station’s decision to play the ’80s has become so commonplace since last year that one doesn’t give it a second thought when, say, “Love Is a Battlefield” by Pat Benatar shows up.
The ’80s are, in fact, such a common part of the Oldies format now that it has become possible to do Oldies on FM in Canada. Newcap’s recently launched CIQX (XL103) Calgary adheres to the government rule that effectively forces stations to play 50% music recorded in 1981 or later, but it doesn’t sound much newer in execution than CBS’s just-relaunched WOCL (Sunny 105.9) Orlando, Fla. In many cases, the only thing that separates Oldies radio now from a gold-based AC like WOLL (Kool 105.5) West Palm Beach, Fla. is that while those stations were moving into the ’80s, WOLL has started playing “Get The Party Started” by Pink and a handful of other ’90s and ’00s titles.
Despite their differences in era, however, True Oldies and WCBS-FM have both helped redefine Oldies programming for the post-Bob-and-Jack-FM-era in one significant way. Both will delve strategically into songs that are not reliable testers, something that PD Brian Thomas has described as his takeaway from having programmed WCBS-FM in its Jack years. Both WCBS and True Oldies affiliate WZZN Chicago showed more than 900 separate titles on Mediabase last week. And even if a lot of those were one-time only special feature spikes, well, there weren’t a lot of those on KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles when that station became the template for the super-tight early ’90s Oldies FM.
The bulk of the depth on both stations comes from songs that most listeners (or nervous GMs) probably wouldn’t consider obscure. Both will play “Little Bit O’ Soul” by the Music Explosion – one of those late ’60s garage/bubblegum songs that used to be format staples, still sound good on the radio, but no longer do well in research.
Beyond that, WCBS-FM uses its daily and weekend “Hall of Fame” features as an excuse to spike almost anything. Themes have included Country Crossovers, Jazz Crossovers, and a lot of pre-Beatles music (although that’s more likely to be Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis than the early-’60s doo-wop that twice defined WCBS-FM, first by its presence, then by its absence). Not every hour’s song in the feature will be a song that doesn’t test, but there’s been enough to keep the station interesting past its launch. Weekender Pat St. John gets some leeway, too. I recently heard “At the Discotheque,” a mid-’60s Chubby Checker b-side. And I was glad to have discovered it.
There are now some disclaimers necessary here:
1) The spikes are still the exception, not the rule. If your only interest in Oldies radio is the “oh wow” songs, you should be streaming suburban New York’s WGHT (North Jersey 1500) or CKWW Detroit.
2) These aren’t the only stations that have broken down the notion that super-defined and tight were always right in Oldies. WKXW (New Jersey 101.5) Trenton, N.J.’s weekend Oldies programming and WDRC-FM Hartford, Conn., are among many others that deserve a mention. But both WCBS-FM and True Oldies have spread their influence among larger groups.
3) Try this at home only with extreme caution. It’s still easier to go beyond the hits when you’ve done enough music research to know what the hits are, and when you’re stretching out. And the ’80s are still an option, not a mandate (at least outside Canada).
Here’s WCBS-FM on March 10 at 11 a.m.
Pilot, “Magic”
Jefferson Airplane, “Somebody To Love”
Lee Michaels, “Do You Know What I Mean”
Diana Ross & Supremes, “Someday We’ll Be Together”
Blondie, “Heart of Glass”
Herman’s Hermits, “There’s A Kind Of Hush”
Stevie Wonder, “I Wish”
John Stewart, “Gold” (Daily Feature Song)
Percy Sledge, “When A Man Loves A Woman”
Ventures, “Walk Don’t Run” (Hall of Fame Special Feature song)
Beach Boys, “California Girls”
Elton John, “Philadelphia Freedom”
Billy Joel, “Allentown”
Heart, “Magic Man”
Bee Gees, “Stayin’ Alive”
And here’s the True Oldies Channel on March 9 at 7:45 p.m. (ET):
Johnny Rivers, “Memphis”
Hollies, “Bus Stop” (Fill)
Tom Jones, “It’s Not Unusual”
Gordon Lightfoot, “Sundown”
Buckinghams, “Hey Baby (They’re Playing Our Song)
Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Who’ll Stop The Rain”
Brenton Wood, “Gimme Little Sign”
Lee Michaels, “Do You Know What I Mean”
Turtles, “You Baby”
Eddie Holman, “Hey There Lonely Girl”
Happenings, “See You In September” (Fill)
Stevie Wonder, “For Once In My Life”
Beatles, “Rock & Roll Music”
Spinners, “Working My Way Back To You”
Jerry Lee Lewis, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (Special Weekend)
Tavares, “It Only Takes A Minute” (Fill)
Arthur Conley, “Sweet Soul Music”
Jimmy Buffett, “Come Monday”

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