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Westwood One adds new 24/7 Good Time Oldies format to replace Scott Shannon's TOC

L

Lori Pollitt

Regular Participant
http://radiosyndicationtalk.com/2014...d-time-oldies/

WestwoodOne Likes Good Time Oldies
March 27, 2014 radiosyn Leave a comment

WestwoodOne has announced that it will add “Good Times Oldies” a new syndicated radio 24-hour Oldies format to its line-up of program services. “Good Times Oldies” will debut on Monday, April 28 and feature music from the golden era of pop, rock and soul-centering on hit music from the 60s and 70s -and positioned slightly older than traditional Adult Hits-formatted stations. This is the first new format since WestwoodOne and Cumulus Media Networks merged.

Good Time Oldies will feature a line-up of veteran radiopersonalities, including Jim Zippo, John Summers and Kevan Browning. Zippo is well known for his years at WDRQ Detroit, WEAM Washington DC, KQOL Las Vegas and KTKS Dallas. He’s also done mornings nationally for over 12 years. Summers marks 30 years as a PD/MD and air personality on such stations as BJ105/Orlando and WMMO/Orlando, and he currently does PM Drive on KLUV/Dallas. Browning joins from his current role on WestwoodOne’s Classic Hits format, after a long on-air and programming career with stops in Milwaukee, Memphis, Houston and Dallas.

“We are excited to bring this product to market,” said WestwoodOne President of Programming Kirk Stirland. “Good Time Oldies is a great strategic format, and our customers tell us often fills a void in their market.”

____________________

http://mediaconfidential.blogspot.co...s-channel.html

Thursday, March 27, 2014
WWOne Cancels True Oldies Channel
To the surprise of no one...Westwood One has officially served notices that it's dropping Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel.

The 90-day notice went out Wednesday to some 100 affiliates that the syndicated music format would be ending at the end of June.

WestwoodOne President of Programming Kirk Stirland indicated that current TOC affiliates would get first refusal rights on the company;'s new "Good Time Oldies" format which debuts April 28. GTO will be hosted by Jim Zippo, John Summers and Kevin Browning. Zippo previously hosted oldies shows for SMN's "Pure Gold" format. Zippo can now be heard on CBS Radio's classic hits KLUV 98.7 FM in D/FW. Summers marks 30 years as a PD/MD and air personality on such stations as BJ105/Orlando and WMMO/Orlando, and he currently does PM Drive on KLUV/Dallas. Affiliated stations will have the option to either take the channel as a nationally branded format, or adopt their own localized imaging.

Shannon departed Cumulus' WPLJ in February and is now hosting mornings at CBS Radio's WCBS 101. FM. Shannon owns the rights to TOC and says he's currently exploring his options.
 
This is just publicity hype for a format that is going to babysit small market radio stations just like ABC Pure Gold did. If this was not the case, they'd hire better djs and pay them more money.

Lori Pollitt said:
http://radiosyndicationtalk.com/2014...d-time-oldies/

WestwoodOne Likes Good Time Oldies
March 27, 2014 radiosyn Leave a comment

WestwoodOne has announced that it will add “Good Times Oldies” a new syndicated radio 24-hour Oldies format to its line-up of program services. “Good Times Oldies” will debut on Monday, April 28 and feature music from the golden era of pop, rock and soul-centering on hit music from the 60s and 70s -and positioned slightly older than traditional Adult Hits-formatted stations. This is the first new format since WestwoodOne and Cumulus Media Networks merged.

Good Time Oldies will feature a line-up of veteran radiopersonalities, including Jim Zippo, John Summers and Kevan Browning. Zippo is well known for his years at WDRQ Detroit, WEAM Washington DC, KQOL Las Vegas and KTKS Dallas. He’s also done mornings nationally for over 12 years. Summers marks 30 years as a PD/MD and air personality on such stations as BJ105/Orlando and WMMO/Orlando, and he currently does PM Drive on KLUV/Dallas. Browning joins from his current role on WestwoodOne’s Classic Hits format, after a long on-air and programming career with stops in Milwaukee, Memphis, Houston and Dallas.

“We are excited to bring this product to market,” said WestwoodOne President of Programming Kirk Stirland. “Good Time Oldies is a great strategic format, and our customers tell us often fills a void in their market.”

____________________

http://mediaconfidential.blogspot.co...s-channel.html

Thursday, March 27, 2014
WWOne Cancels True Oldies Channel
To the surprise of no one...Westwood One has officially served notices that it's dropping Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel.

The 90-day notice went out Wednesday to some 100 affiliates that the syndicated music format would be ending at the end of June.

WestwoodOne President of Programming Kirk Stirland indicated that current TOC affiliates would get first refusal rights on the company;'s new "Good Time Oldies" format which debuts April 28. GTO will be hosted by Jim Zippo, John Summers and Kevin Browning. Zippo previously hosted oldies shows for SMN's "Pure Gold" format. Zippo can now be heard on CBS Radio's classic hits KLUV 98.7 FM in D/FW. Summers marks 30 years as a PD/MD and air personality on such stations as BJ105/Orlando and WMMO/Orlando, and he currently does PM Drive on KLUV/Dallas. Affiliated stations will have the option to either take the channel as a nationally branded format, or adopt their own localized imaging.

Shannon departed Cumulus' WPLJ in February and is now hosting mornings at CBS Radio's WCBS 101. FM. Shannon owns the rights to TOC and says he's currently exploring his options.
Click to expand...
 
R. F. Burns said:
This is just publicity hype for a format that is going to babysit small market radio stations just like ABC Pure Gold did. If this was not the case, they'd hire better djs and pay them more money.
Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty good lineup for a "satellite" format and much better than many.
 
Pure Gold had approximately 250 affiliates in markets of all size, including New Orleans, Salt Lake City, El Paso, Austin, Midland/Odessa, Buffalo, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Anchorage, Little Rock, Albuquerque, Orlando...just to name a few, plus Armed Forces radio. That's a lot of combined AQH that created a lot of advertising revenue. Jim not only was am drive personality, but also the PD of Pure Gold and was in charge and oversaw all the budgets. Pure Gold was a $4.5-$5 million annual business.

Jim Zippo is a well known and respected talent, but of course I am biased. The trades such as R&R, Radio Ink, etc., commonly referred to him as "Legendary Jim Zippo." I can dig up the many trade publication PDFs we've saved, but I doubt that would impress you as you have chosen to be a "nay sayer" before this format even launches. I don't know who you are, but by your name I hope you haven't been burned by this industry. Radio has changed, everyone knows that. It doesn't pay the big bucks that it used to, but there still are a lot of talented jocks throughout the country that want to give radio their all and are producing good radio shows.

I welcome your feedback once the format launches and has had some time to get it's legs, until then why be so negative? Again, I hope it's not because you have been "burned."

Best regards, LP
 
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Avid Listener said:
Which is praise along the lines of "You don't sweat much, for a fat girl."
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No, it is saying that it is one of the few real "A" team syndicated formats... with talent whose names we are all familiar with if we have been in radio more than 5 minutes.
 
DavidEduardo said:
No, it is saying that it is one of the few real "A" team syndicated formats... with talent whose names we are all familiar with if we have been in radio more than 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

I keep forgetting. You radio insiders tend to ignore the mere peons who only listen to the radio. To those of us who only turn the radio on and hope we hear something we like, the names of DJs from distant cities are pretty meaningless. The only oldies station I ever enjoyed listening to was programmed by a PD who worked at the station, and all the DJs worked in the station's actual studio (except when doing live remotes). But, I get the distinct impression some folks in radio are more concerned with impressing other insiders than they are with what irrelevant listeners might think.
 
Avid Listener said:
I keep forgetting. You radio insiders tend to ignore the mere peons who only listen to the radio. To those of us who only turn the radio on and hope we hear something we like, the names of DJs from distant cities are pretty meaningless. The only oldies station I ever enjoyed listening to was programmed by a PD who worked at the station, and all the DJs worked in the station's actual studio (except when doing live remotes). But, I get the distinct impression some folks in radio are more concerned with impressing other insiders than they are with what irrelevant listeners might think.
Click to expand...

Pardon me.

You concluded from my prior post that I was dismissing as second-rate the new gold offering. I clarified that, to the contrary, I was saying that it appeared to be better than most offerings with well known talent.

If you are not in the business, you should listen a bit more about how things are done and why. We are not, as broadcasters, stupid. We think things out and try to provide as much value for the listener as the economics of each market permit.

In this case, we are telling you that the talents on this new product are well known and very good... major market quality.

In many markets, it is not feasible today to have the traditional model of the 50's radio station with a large staff count. In the 50's and into the 60's, we had less than a third the number of stations, and FM was not a factor. Now, the FCC has created an environment where each station takes a much smaller share of revenue. So in markets with small revenue bases, syndicated programming is the only answer.

Further, technology permits us to do things we have wanted to do for decades, like sharing talent across markets, improving fringe dayparts, etc.

The decisions are neither capricious nor arbitrary. Today, much of what is being done is intended to keep radio's content viable as it moves into a new distribution model.
 
Lori Pollitt said:
Pure Gold had approximately 250 affiliates in markets of all size, including New Orleans, Salt Lake City, El Paso, Austin, Midland/Odessa, Buffalo, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Anchorage, Little Rock, Albuquerque, Orlando...just to name a few, plus Armed Forces radio. That's a lot of combined AQH that created a lot of advertising revenue. Jim not only was am drive personality, but also the PD of Pure Gold and was in charge and oversaw all the budgets. Pure Gold was a $4.5-$5 million annual business.

Jim Zippo is a well known and respected talent, but of course I am biased. The trades such as R&R, Radio Ink, etc., commonly referred to him as "Legendary Jim Zippo." I can dig up the many trade publication PDFs we've saved, but I doubt that would impress you as you have chosen to be a "nay sayer" before this format even launches. I don't know who you are, but by your name I hope you haven't been burned by this industry. Radio has changed, everyone knows that. It doesn't pay the big bucks that it used to, but there still are a lot of talented jocks throughout the country that want to give radio their all and are producing good radio shows.

I welcome your feedback once the format launches and has had some time to get it's legs, until then why be so negative? Again, I hope it's not because you have been "burned."

Best regards, LP
Click to expand...


I, for one, am looking forward to it. Those who choose to slam GTO before it's launched won't be the folks who listen anyways. While I, as most others in/out of the biz, would prefer 24/7 "live and local", it's not economically feasible for many stations around the country. It's the dynamic we live with, here, in the early 21st century. Let's try to enjoy it. Let the product speak for itself, not the philosophy.
 
Is it true or not true that Jim Zippo got fired from ABC's Pure Gold format?

Lori Pollitt said:
Pure Gold had approximately 250 affiliates in markets of all size, including New Orleans, Salt Lake City, El Paso, Austin, Midland/Odessa, Buffalo, Sacramento, Bakersfield, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Anchorage, Little Rock, Albuquerque, Orlando...just to name a few, plus Armed Forces radio. That's a lot of combined AQH that created a lot of advertising revenue. Jim not only was am drive personality, but also the PD of Pure Gold and was in charge and oversaw all the budgets. Pure Gold was a $4.5-$5 million annual business.

Jim Zippo is a well known and respected talent, but of course I am biased. The trades such as R&R, Radio Ink, etc., commonly referred to him as "Legendary Jim Zippo." I can dig up the many trade publication PDFs we've saved, but I doubt that would impress you as you have chosen to be a "nay sayer" before this format even launches. I don't know who you are, but by your name I hope you haven't been burned by this industry. Radio has changed, everyone knows that. It doesn't pay the big bucks that it used to, but there still are a lot of talented jocks throughout the country that want to give radio their all and are producing good radio shows.

I welcome your feedback once the format launches and has had some time to get it's legs, until then why be so negative? Again, I hope it's not because you have been "burned."

Best regards, LP
Click to expand...
 
BostonRandy said:
I, for one, am looking forward to it. Those who choose to slam GTO before it's launched won't be the folks who listen anyways. While I, as most others in/out of the biz, would prefer 24/7 "live and local", it's not economically feasible for many stations around the country. It's the dynamic we live with, here, in the early 21st century. Let's try to enjoy it. Let the product speak for itself, not the philosophy.
Click to expand...

I, for one, would be looking forward to this if it promised to be something new, exciting, and possibly different from what we're accustomed to. But, if it's just another re-hash of the same tight little playlist of songs, with DJ's stamped out with the same cookie cutter, I don't think I'll get very excited.

I posted earlier about an oldies station that I really enjoyed that was "live and local". But what made it so enjoyable to listen to wasn't the fact that it was "live and local". What made it enjoyable was that it was so unexpectedly different from all the other oldies stations I've ever heard. It actually brought back the pure pleasure that used to be part of the radio listening experience.

If anyone needs to bring back old-time automated radio because they can't afford "live and local", why not just dig up the old John Rydgren tapes from the old ABC "Love" package of the late 60's/early 70's?
 
In response to RF Burns earlier question -

Totally not true. Jim was one of about 40 jocks cut when the corporate bean counters came in and did not renew contracts with anyone making any kind of significant salaries. I think Bob Leonard was the 2nd one not renewed. Ask around, when contracts came up for renewal they just weren't renewed and instead talent was replaced making about 25% of what the former jocks made. Pure Gold was highly successful at the time, so it was purely a monetary decision.

Jim had been there 12 and a half years. He was the first big name true personality jock that was brought to satellite radio. R&R did a story about it. He served also as PD and over the years, his salary just got too expensive for them. Today, those kind of salaries don't exist in radio any longer.
 
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R. F. Burns said:
Is it true or not true that Jim Zippo got fired from ABC's Pure Gold format?
Click to expand...

Whether true or not, I don't think I know anyone good in the business who hasn't been fired at some time.

It-s sort of like actors who all have an occasional box office bomb or singers who have occasional stiffs. It happens.
 
What really speaks volumes is the staying power a jock has in this industry, even with all the changes the industry has gone through. Many have come and gone, the good ones keep rockin' one way or another! :)
 
Lori Pollitt said:
What really speaks volumes is the staying power a jock has in this industry, even with all the changes the industry has gone through. Many have come and gone, the good ones keep rockin' one way or another! :)
Click to expand...

And that's the truth!
 
The corporate bean counters were right. The djs didn't talk that many times per hour to make that much difference. Their main job was to push buttons and get all the tones right. The formats did just fine with cheaper djs. If Zippo's talent had any real value to them keeping affiliates, they would have done everything to keep him, but he and everyone else who left, made no difference to any of the 24 hour formats. I will get into some of the other things that you said that were fabrications in posts in the near future.

Lori Pollitt said:
In response to RF Burns earlier question -

Totally not true. Jim was one of about 40 jocks cut when the corporate bean counters came in and did not renew contracts with anyone making any kind of significant salaries. I think Bob Leonard was the 2nd one not renewed. Ask around, when contracts came up for renewal they just weren't renewed and instead talent was replaced making about 25% of what the former jocks made. Pure Gold was highly successful at the time, so it was purely a monetary decision.

Jim had been there 12 and a half years. He was the first big name true personality jock that was brought to satellite radio. R&R did a story about it. He served also as PD and over the years, his salary just got too expensive for them. Today, those kind of salaries don't exist in radio any longer.
Click to expand...
 
RF- you really don't know what you are talking about. Go find someone else to argue with you. I can see you must have gotten burned and I was a sucker to buy into it. I won't bother to respond to any additional posts. Go pick on someone else, you're obviously just jealous.
 
Nobody cares to "impress other insiders". The "insiders" have repeatedly explained why the radio business does things the way they do, yet despite these explanations you are still here making the same arguments over and over.

Quote - "The only oldies station I ever enjoyed listening to was programmed by a PD who worked at the station, and all the DJs worked in the station's actual studio (except when doing live remotes)."

There is the entire argument in a nutshell.
 
ok walters said:
Nobody cares to "impress other insiders". The "insiders" have repeatedly explained why the radio business does things the way they do, yet despite these explanations you are still here making the same arguments over and over.

Quote - "The only oldies station I ever enjoyed listening to was programmed by a PD who worked at the station, and all the DJs worked in the station's actual studio (except when doing live remotes)."

There is the entire argument in a nutshell.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but as I said in a later post, what made that station I referred to so good was the overall sound of the station, not the fact that the DJ's worked at the station. My point was that just because the decision makers and personnel aren't a bunch of corporate suits, that doesn't mean that the station cannot sound good to the listeners. If that station's format was packaged and syndicated to other cities, it would still sound better than the tasteless, homogenized product coming out of corporate studios.

As someone who looks to radio as a source of entertainment, I keep repeating the simply truth that bland, homogenized, vanilla radio is bland and boring. Those of you who are responsible for producing bland and boring product can explain why you choose to make your product bland and boring as long as you want. That won't change the fact that bland and boring is, well, bland and boring.

Can anyone honestly say that to the ordinary listener tuned in to either of the oldies formats being discussed in this thread would be able to find a dime's worth of difference between either of them? Corporate insiders might get excited about a newer version of bland and boring vanilla programming, but do you really think that ordinary listeners would recognize any difference between them?

Of course, someone will surely point to a focus group where 53.2% of those tested gave one of the two formats a 5% higher favorability rating.
 
R. F. Burns said:
The corporate bean counters were right. The djs didn't talk that many times per hour to make that much difference. Their main job was to push buttons and get all the tones right. The formats did just fine with cheaper djs. If Zippo's talent had any real value to them keeping affiliates, they would have done everything to keep him, but he and everyone else who left, made no difference to any of the 24 hour formats. I will get into some of the other things that you said that were fabrications in posts in the near future.
Click to expand...

When all of the personality and individuality is squeezed out of the format, that does reduce the DJ's importance to almost nothing.
 
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