Last revised January 18, 2014 10:53 AM

Breakin' all the rules...

I have long maintained that oldies radio has for the most part not lived up to its potential. Most stations I have heard both over-the-air and via the web have a playlist typically consisting of some 500 items. Do you not notice something severely "missing" when you listen to most oldies stations? Numerous songs you fondly remember growing up with just don't seem to get onto the air anymore. Many that were sizable hits. Simply put, certain artists and musical styles are now considered taboo because those absurdly small groups of listeners which constitute "research" say so. In many cases, the taboo list appears to include: novelty records, many of the rock and non-rock instrumental hits, hits which are deemed too sexually oriented, country crossover hits, anything labeled "bubble gum" or "disco", artists deemed too easy-listening oriented (e.g. Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams), anything deemed as excessively "hard" rock (Janis Joplin, Rick Derringer, Cream, Deep Purple). Up until a couple of years ago I would have also said anything before about 1962 or after 1970.  Now it is rare to hear anything before 1965 (or perhaps even later than that) on some so-called "oldies" stations. Not a very pretty picture... Guess certain of us "Boomers" have no longer been deemed to be the "darlings" of advertisers anymore. We greatly appreciate being pigeonholed, almighty consultants.

The charts from when we were growing up covered so much wider a range of musical styles and artists than we are treated to today in the presentation of music from that era. In Top 40's heyday, you'd hear everything from Frank Sinatra, to the Rascals, to Aretha Franklin, to Bobbie Gentry, to Cream, all on the same station. Nowadays its all "research"-driven, run by guru-like consultants. Hence the ridiculously tight playlists. Classic songs, if they are overplayed (such as the Beach Boys "Barbara Ann" for example) rapidly can become tired and lose their significance. On the other hand, if you hear a true "blast from your past", one of those songs you haven't heard in a very long time, you can actually remember what you were doing at the time it came out and for a very brief, fleeting moment, hearken back to a time when life was just a little simpler.

While I truly loved radio in Top 40's heyday (in this area we got our fix from CKLG and CFUN in Vancouver, CKDA in Victoria, KPUG in Bellingham and KJR, KOL and KING in Seattle, not to mention nighttime reception of others like KGW and KYTE in Portland, KFI Los Angeles,  CFRN and CHED from Edmonton and CFCN and CKXL from Calgary), one less than fond memory I carry from radio of that time is the gross processing of the audio practiced by many stations to make them sound "punchy". Such practices taken to the extreme would cause me to develop severe listening fatigue; I would have little choice but to tune out after a relatively short time. How about you? Unfortunately, based on extensive listening to both over-the-air and over the-air-via-web oldies stations, it appears that this practice is still most prevalent with many stations of the genre. CISL in Vancouver was a prime example. Their programming was far better than most (though still not quite ideal, IMHO), but the gross audio processing made my hand reach for the tuning control after only a very few minutes. 

Alas, CISL is no more. With the CRTC's policy encouraging AM stations to switch to FM (which in many ways is great except the CRTC's asinine rules don't allow certain formats to operate there, thus denying certain musical formats to us listeners - oldies being one of them) AM 600 the Bridge has now switched to 100.5 FM with an adult album alternative format. They dropped totally their former format of adult standards which has now been picked up by CISL.

Where I live I have lost my format no less than three times because of this asinine rule. As I recall, oldies CJVI in Victoria switched to FM 103.9 and a CRTC-sanctioned top 40 format. Our local AM station at the time CKEG was running Good Time Oldies and switched to 106.9 FM album rock the Wolf. Yet again oldies bit the dust. In the original license applications for both of these stations, oldies was mentioned as the proposed format. Obviously management realized that the format would not be workable within the context of CRTC rules. Indirectly, CISL is gone for the same reason.

The CRTC has recently rescinded a rule that you cannot program more than 51% pre-1981 hits in your overall music mix on FM. This was supposedly concocted to protect established AM stations running an oldies format. Most of those established AM oldies operations have switched to FM and the format has vacated the market with the switch. A prime example is  CHUM 1050 in Toronto, an absolute legend during the heyday of Top 40. They literally pioneered rock & roll in Toronto.  They haven't actually switched to FM (their CHUM-FM operation still pulls great numbers as an adult contemporary outlet) but under new owner CTVglobemedia  they program all news under the moniker "CP (City Pulse) 24". They do nothing but rebroadcast the cable channel of the same name. All in the name of cost cutting. Yech!!!

Is there hope with the CRTC rescinding that asinine 51% rule? I held out high hopes for Rogers Broadcasting's 104.9 FM. Originally billing themselves as "Vancouver's Greatest Hits", they unfortunately, instead of taking the opportunity and running with the ball, even further tightened their playlist and time period covered. This station became so boring it made me reach for my Sirius radio every time. I really can't believe their PD could even stand listening to the constant repetition. This station has since totally dropped the format and become "Sonic 104.9", playing curent top 40 music.

A dandy tidbit to make classic top 40 fans absolutely want to puke. The almighty Rogers has had use of the call letters of both of the former Vancouver top 40 giants. Back when, it was always a battle between 73 CKLG and 14 CFUN. Rogers is using the "CFUN" call letters on the 104.9 FM outlet mentioned above. Rogers also owns the "Jack-FM" outlet in Vancouver; three guesses as to which set of classic top 40 call letters now resides there (the first two guesses don't count). Yep. Jack FM now calls itself "CKLG" with scarcely a mention of the classic calls on air. Very sad indeed.

I have long felt that has been a gaping hole on the conventional radio dial as far as fans of classic top 40 are concerned. Note to advertisers. Maybe you consider us to be outside the age group that you consider "desirable" but we oldies fans ain't dead yet and we do have disposable income. And we do need and buy products. Not everybody who likes music from the 50's and 60's is "old", either. Treat your tunnel vision, folks!!!

Many of us have in our own music collections a plethora of those hits that garden variety oldies radio won't touch. We do listen to and fondly remember these, do we not? When we listened to top 40 radio back when, we fondly remember vastly more than songs that made the top 10.  I simply do not understand why "they" deem that we will run immediately for the tuning dial if so much as one song outside of the realm of their ultra-homogenized and re-pasteurized, consultant-derived playlist makes it to the air. Even more puzzling to me is why, in a major market such as New York or Los Angeles with upwards of 50 radio signals available, just one total variety oldies station cannot make a living. Most sadly, any station I've run into in any market which calls itself "oldies" seldom plays anything before 1965, if the playlist even goes back that far. There is a great deal of 70's and even 80's in almost every oldies on-air playlist I've encountered lately. Not that I dislike music from that era, but I would like to hear music from top 40's heyday when I'm so inclined.

New York City went even one worse. For an extended time there was no oldies formatted station in the largest radio market in the US!!! The longtime FM oldies station, WCBS-FM 101.1 after over 25 years switched to the ubiquitous "Jack" format in the hopes of attracting somewhat younger listeners. It looks like the management there has at least somewhat come to its senses. The station now bills itself  on air as "New York's Greatest Hits" and is playing something resembling oldies again, albeit with a great deal of 1970's songs in the mix and only later sixties songs. They have relegated the "Jack" format to the second HD radio channel they have.  Lucille Ball said it best at a media conference: "You don't f*** with success".

In a market with 50+ signals available, somebody has to be #1; conversely somebody has to occupy the number 50 slot. No magical switching of formats is going to change that. Is it not logical that a wider variety of music will actually encourage people to tune in longer? Aren't listeners who tune in longer far more valuable to advertisers? How many of your commercials are people hearing if they have tuned out because they are tired of the same old thing day after day? 

Is there a major flaw in my logic here? I'm more than willing to listen to anybody who would care to try to straighten me out. 

What about local identity, big broadcasters? As a prime example, the Pacific Northwest has a supremely rich rock 'n roll heritage, with the likes of the Sonics, the Bards. Don & the Goodtimes, the Kingsmen, etc. The oldies ratings kingpin in Seattle, KBSG (which is no more after almost 20 years in the format, is now talk radio with the call letters KIRO-FM, simulcasting much of the AM operation - how creative can we be!!!), did not play one single song from these artists, save for "Louie Louie" which made #2 nationally in the US.

 As "they" appear unwilling to fill in the niche, I took the initiative myself and hopefully will so so again. In 2001 ultragold.fm (going light years beyond regular oldies radio) and total70s.fm (specializing strictly in ALL the hits of the 1970's, an era long neglected by conventional radio) were both going strong over the Internet.  My philosophy regarding the stations is quite simple - play all the hits you remember and several that you'd almost forgotten (all that made the top 40 charts on Billboard and even further down the hot 100). Thousands of possible songs instead of about 500 or so. And play them without grossly manipulating the sound. As the Alka-Seltzer man said, "Try it, You'll Like it!!!" And all those bitchin' Canadian tunes as well... I was not necessarily out to be "number 1", but was here to offer a viable web alternative for true oldies aficionados. With the stations, I was striving to present all of the hit music from rock 'n roll's golden era, from approximately 1955 to 1975 (and a bit beyond). I would certainly like to think that we oldies fans are in many cases far more discriminating and intelligent than the mass programmers would give us credit for. Let's show 'em, shall we, gang?

I simply love to discuss radio, especially oldies radio. Any comments on this? Please e-mail me.