Where Have All The Real Adult Standards Gone (Long Time Passing)?

[FredLeonard]

Now that Westwood One's so-called "adult standards" format ("America's Best Music") has morphed into AC Oldies, are there any online radio stations or streaming terrestrial stations still playing real standards (aka "The Great American Songbook") or MOR Oldies like "AM Only," "Music of Your Life" and "ABC Stardust" did a decade or so ago?

 

[benale]

Hi Fred. Try WABY in Albany,NY or KTUC in Tucson AZ. KABL Internet out of San Francisco is another. I'm sure there are a bunch of streams playing big bands and standards.

 

[michael hagerty]

If you have SiriusXM, a combination of 40s on 4, Escape, Siriusly Sinatra and the Barbra Streisand channel works pretty well.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Just because a lot of the music on America's Best Music is AC (or what used to be AC) or oldies, that doesn't mean the standards are gone. There are still plenty of them mixed in. A lot are the newer versions. They're still doing better than Timeless Classics did before that format became Timeless Favorites.

 

[FredLeonard]

Just because a lot of the music on America's Best Music is AC (or what used to be AC) or oldies, that doesn't mean the standards are gone. There are still plenty of them mixed in. A lot are the newer versions. They're still doing better than Timeless Classics did before that format became Timeless Favorites.

Not a lot. Maybe a few. According to my ear and the chart on the WWI website. In any case, not enough for me. What they appear to be doing is throwing a few MOR and standards cuts in hoping the long-time listeners will be appeased enough to stay around. But they are clearly going for post-Baby Boomers now.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I really think they're trying hard to play the newer recordings of standards. And if they didn't want to play the old standards, that would be easy to do. You have to make a real effort with some of these really old songs.

 

[FredLeonard]

I really think they're trying hard to play the newer recordings of standards. And if they didn't want to play the old standards, that would be easy to do. You have to make a real effort with some of these really old songs.

I'm sorry, you lost me. But new recordings of standards are a small portion of what they place. It is mostly AC from the 70s and later. And I don't see how standards requires one to "make a real effort." You either like the music or you don't. Why make excuses for them? They are programming their service for somebody else - not me. So, I'm looking for someplace else that does program what I want to hear. If a restaurant changes it's menu and I don't like the new menu, I stop eating there. Same thing with a radio station.

 

[vchimpanzee]

And I don't see how standards requires one to "make a real effort."

What I'm saying is that the people making the decisions about what to play on America's Best Music could easily dump "Magic Moments" and "Wanted" by Perry Como or a lot of the old Nat King Cole songs or Tony Bennett's "Because of You" because they just sound old and tired. But they haven't, so that's good. They made a real effort to make those of us who like those songs happy. The newer standards from the late 50s and early 70s by Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Steve Lawrence, Andy Williams and Dean Martin sound a lot more "hip", and the newer versions by Michael Buble and Harry Connick Jr. even more so.

I don't know if they stream (they used to) but WAVO in Charlotte NC comes closer to what you are looking for. On that station, when they do play music (9 AM to sunset weekdays, with breaks for news, and probably all night if one lives near the transmitter, but not much music on weekends), it is The Carpenters and Neil Diamond who are treated the way you perceive real standards to be treated on America's Best Music. There are a lot more of the real standards there, and not just as a percentage of all the music. There are lots more recordings, even less familiar recordings of the songs we know, and still a lot of those big band songs that used to be a part of Stardust. I doubt they'll stream because they spent the summer raising money from listeners just to pay royalties (what few commercials they have pays for broadcasting), and that's for over-the-air. I seem to recall streaming has royalty costs of its own.

 

[Avid Listener]

Standards are being recorded. They just aren't being played on the radio. Two examples:

Fly Me To the Moon

Lilac Wine

 

[Nick Gerard]

There's a good one in my market. You can hear it at www.kwxy.com . They're a competitor of ours, but I have to say they do a fine job with standards and even some beautiful music trax. They even have live, local hosts from 6A - 6P. Don Wardell, middays, has been in this market for years and is excellent. Having worked in the music business, he is extremely knowledgeable about the standards.

There's a tendency on this board to lament the disappearance of standards and beautiful music AM and FM stations. But, my goodness, there is so much of this great music available online, that these lamentations seem misplaced. Even AOL radio has some standards channels and one really fine beautiful music channel. And then there's www.Seeburg1000.com for something really different.

Years ago, we all had one, perhaps two beautiful music stations to choose from in our hometowns. That was it. Today, we have dozens to listen to, and there's something to satisfy every nuance of taste in these formats. So let's not lament the loss of the format on AM and FM. There is much to celebrate and enjoy on our desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones!

Nick Summers

 

[Avid Listener]

There's a tendency on this board to lament the disappearance of standards and beautiful music AM and FM stations. But, my goodness, there is so much of this great music available online, that these lamentations seem misplaced.

I don't have internet in my car yet, and that's where I usually listen to the radio.

 

[michael hagerty]

Bluetooth and a smartphone can be your best friend. I don't stream in the car much (for fear of running up my data usage beyond my pre-set cap), but on weekends, I allow myself to indulge in KKJZ, Long Beach's Swing Time with Johnny Magnus. Wonderful music from 6-10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday with a great DJ, who I first heard on KMPC, Los Angeles when I was 7. And that was 51 years ago.

 

[FredLeonard]

I don't have internet in my car yet, and that's where I usually listen to the radio.

If you have a smartphone (or even a tablet) and take your smartphone with you in your car, you have Internet in your car.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I don't have internet in my car yet, and that's where I usually listen to the radio.

Me either and it's unlikely I ever will. Actually, since the radio in my kitchen comes on for Mike Huckabee at 8:30 and stays on until 10:30 I do a lot of listening on Monday and Friday and some on Wednesday.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Not a lot. Maybe a few. According to my ear and the chart on the WWI website. In any case, not enough for me. What they appear to be doing is throwing a few MOR and standards cuts in hoping the long-time listeners will be appeased enough to stay around. But they are clearly going for post-Baby Boomers now.

I heard "Moon River" followed by what sounded like a new version of "I Get a Kick Out of You" this morning. True, they also played two or three songs in a row that WEREN'T standards, which is closer to the norm. But the standards WERE there.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I don't remember the song that Paige and Walter danced to in the CBS series "Scorpion" but apparently it is here:

https://music.yahoo.com/video/scorpion-just-one-dance-002436759-cbs.html

It's a fund-raiser attended by rich people, with Paige and Walter working security, but notice how young the people are. In spite of this song and others like it, the people are not largely nursing home residents.

Regardless of what advertisers say, I say young people can like this music too.

 

[FredLeonard]

The song they danced to was "I Know Why and So Do You" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra (or a cover version using the Glenn Miller arrangement). The song was featured in the 1941 film "Sun Valley Serenade."

It's a big band number and not the kind of song that would be played on a Soft AC station.

Watch a clip from the movie here....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e2LXzNjYkw

 

[Avid Listener]

If you have a smartphone (or even a tablet) and take your smartphone with you in your car, you have Internet in your car.

No, if that's the case I have the potential to pay for internet in my car.

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't remember the song that Paige and Walter danced to in the CBS series "Scorpion" but apparently it is here:

https://music.yahoo.com/video/scorpion-just-one-dance-002436759-cbs.html

It's a fund-raiser attended by rich people, with Paige and Walter working security, but notice how young the people are. In spite of this song and others like it, the people are not largely nursing home residents.

You do realize that those are actors paid to behave a certain way in a scene, right?

Regardless of what advertisers say, I say young people can like this music too.

Yes, they can, and do. But not enough of them often enough and all at once to make for ratings in the sales demographics.

Every time someone comes up with an adult standards format aimed at people in their 40s ( Red, Martini, Fabulous 570, Star 97.5), not only does the above play out, but there's one other unavoidable side effect: The old people show up in droves. It is the only music on the radio that they can relate to, and so they think it's for them. They do what you wish the 40-year-olds would do...they listen religiously, they tell their friends. And because they can listen all day, and don't share their listening with eight other stations, the 80, 90 and 100-somethings (yes, 100-somethings) almost immediately outweigh the listeners under 55 and drive the average listening age of the station sky-high, frightening off the ad agencies.

 

[FredLeonard]

No, if that's the case I have the potential to pay for internet in my car.

Smartphones have Internet access. So do tablets. You can decide not to use Internet access but you still have Internet access. Just like you can decide not to listen to terrestrial radio (but still have a radio receiver).