Changes to WPLM-FM (filling the WODS void...?)?

It was mentioned in facebook that some miss WODS 103.3 when it was Boston's Greatest Hits/oldies, etc. Someone said "Easy 99.1 is hoping to fill that void;
look for noticeable changes July 4th weekend..." Hmm.

raccoonradio said:

It was mentioned in facebook that some miss WODS 103.3 when it was Boston's Greatest Hits/oldies, etc. Someone said "Easy 99.1 is hoping to fill that void;
look for noticeable changes July 4th weekend..." Hmm.

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Hey, raccooner man, exactly whose FB page are we talking here? Would you mind being more specific on some of these matters?

nowradioguy said:

Hey, raccooner man, exactly whose FB page are we talking here? Would you mind being more specific on some of these matters?

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dj Chris Porter (WXBJ-LP and WMEX's Sat Night oldies)
https://www.facebook.com/chrisradioanimal?fref=ts

>>(reply by)Scott Reiniche Easy 99.1 is taking steps to fill that void....look for noticeable changes starting July 4th weekend

Scott is "Creative Services Dir/APD/On-Air at Today's Easy 99.1"

The WODS classic hits/oldies format has been gone for some time. If the Facebook post hinting at changes is correct, IMHO, WPLM should have done this right out of the gate and they would have had a captive audience right away.

Unless there is lots of promotion (billboards, TV, etc.), how would the former WODS audience know they now have "their" music back on the FM dial?

Yes...well, some billboards (like those electronic ones, maybe cheap to rent?) may go up (even 1510 WMEX is doing that), or have people discover them as they surf the dial.

To some extent stations like WBOQ may cover the same sort of music/audience. WROR took some of the WODS music and gave it a more rock, classic-hits-rock edge.
As a result they are doing very well but some out there..even in aging demos..may still enjoy it.

raccoonradio said:

Yes...well, some billboards (like those electronic ones, maybe cheap to rent?) may go up (even 1510 WMEX is doing that), or have people discover them as they surf the dial.

To some extent stations like WBOQ may cover the same sort of music/audience. WROR took some of the WODS music and gave it a more rock, classic-hits-rock edge.
As a result they are doing very well but some out there..even in aging demos..may still enjoy it.

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WBOQ is bird feed and in summers is pre-emptied by Sox games.

WROR is hard-edged rock, not at all akin to what Oldies 103.3 was.

WPLM-FM does not have a decent signal north of Boston because of 2nd-adjacent interface from 99.5.

I wish WODS were able to do what WCBS-FM did and bring back oldies. (Here is where all the "masters" jump in and tell me I know diddly about running a radio station from a business standpoint.)

nowradioguy said:

I wish WODS were able to do what WCBS-FM did and bring back oldies.

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WCBS-FM did no such thing. They moved to classic hits, not oldies, after the ill-fated Jack debacle.

I don't understand why we don't have a Gen-X based gold format in Boston. That seems like a huge hole to me.

Scott Reiniche of WPLM-FM adds in the same
facebook thread they will be stepping up the
70s and 80s quite a bit

nowradioguy said:

WROR is hard-edged rock, not at all akin to what Oldies 103.3 was.

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WROR is classic pop/rock hits, far from all "hard-edged".

Some songs played on WROR during the past 24 hours that are not "hard-edged rock", most were played on WODS:

Billy Joel - Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Elton John - Benny and The Jets
Bonnie Raitt - Runaway
Billy Joel - It's Still Rock and Roll To Me
The Blues Brothers - Soul Man
War - Summer
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop
Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breakin' My Heart
Paul McCartney & Wings - Silly Love Songs
The Four Seasons - December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)
Billy Joel - Movin' Out
Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville
Elton John - Crocodile Rock
Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
The Doobie Brothers - Listen To The Music
Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
Billy Joel - Piano Man
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
Paul Simon - Kodachrome
Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
Carly Simon - You're So Vain
Billy Joel - Big Shot
The Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feeling
Fleetwood Mac - Hold Me
Billy Joel - My Life
Elton John - Your Song

Eli Polonsky said:

WROR is classic pop/rock hits, far from all "hard-edged".

Some songs played on WROR during the past 24 hours that are not "hard-edged rock", most were played on WODS:

Billy Joel - Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Elton John - Benny and The Jets
Bonnie Raitt - Runaway
Billy Joel - It's Still Rock and Roll To Me
The Blues Brothers - Soul Man
War - Summer
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop
Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breakin' My Heart
Paul McCartney & Wings - Silly Love Songs
The Four Seasons - December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)
Billy Joel - Movin' Out
Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville
Elton John - Crocodile Rock
Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
The Doobie Brothers - Listen To The Music
Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
Billy Joel - Piano Man
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
Paul Simon - Kodachrome
Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
Carly Simon - You're So Vain
Billy Joel - Big Shot
The Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feeling
Fleetwood Mac - Hold Me
Billy Joel - My Life
Elton John - Your Song

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Eli,

You did notice that there are an awful lot of Elton John, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac songs in your list, and only one Motown tune (Stevie Wonder, "Superstition"), and no British Invasion groups. I'm sorry, but that's not at all the Oldies 103.3 that I remember, when more pre-1964 tunes - and very few, if any - 80s stuff was played. And, yes, I'm aware that WCBS-FM is also no longer "Oldies 101.1", and leans very much towards the 80s. I'm also also aware that WODS HD-2 does play what was on the 103.3 main channel up until June 2012. Heck, I'd be happy to get that HD-2 subchannel back on the analog/HD-1 signal. With live DJs, of course.

No, WROR did not reach out to us former WODS listeners, not with the playlist above (BTW - you forgot to mention The Boss in your list).

When I want "real" oldies, I have to stream Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel, which, sadly, is no longer on terrestrial radio anywhere; or KRTH HD-2 via radio.com from CBS-LA. THESE ARE OLDIES! But this does most of my generation no good in a car or away from an Internet connection.

However, I'm probably going to be told that the 64+ crowd are non-persons, members of the most undesirable demographic to sponsors. Even AM talk radio is starting to poop on us (I'm looking at you, 'RKO.). Maybe we should just drag out our "hi-fi's" and listen to scratchy 78s and mono 45s.

I didn't claim that WROR is like Oldies 103.3 was (despite that it played most of those songs), it's far from it, but I was illustrating that much of what WROR plays is not "hard-edged rock".

No "hard-edged" songs among the list I posted, that were all played within one day. Those songs are all mainstream pop or soft rock (and two that could be considered soul/R&B, Stevie Wonder and War).

Eli Polonsky said:

I didn't claim that WROR is like Oldies 103.3 was (despite that it played most of those songs), it's far from it, but I was illustrating that much of what WROR plays is not "hard-edged rock".

No "hard-edged" songs among the list I posted, that were all played within one day. Those songs are all mainstream pop or soft rock (and two that could be considered soul/R&B, Stevie Wonder and War).

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Eli,

OK, I should've been more careful in my wording and written that WROR is "harder-edged" than Oldies 103.3 was.

Even before Greater Media's stations got upgraded to Cadillac, I had the impression that Magic 106.7 was aimed at gals, while WROR was aimed at guys. There was no in-between with either of these two.

While I enjoy the antics of Loren and Wally - and, unlike some on these boards, I do think Tom Doyle added quite a bit to the show - I found the rest of 'ROR's day/night/weekends not to my liking at all.

DavidEduardo said:

As a point of reference, Jack bills more than KRTH in Los Angeles. But CBS was able to have both formats, while in NYC they decided it was one or the other.

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I have heard whispers that WODS will soon flip and they may elect the JACK route rather than the WOGL/WCBS-FM format.

Now that the 4th of July weekend is over, how exactly has WPLM changed? And how does it sound more like the old WODS?

Jimmy128 said:

Now that the 4th of July weekend is over, how exactly has WPLM changed? And how does it sound more like the old WODS?

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Nothing like the former WODS.

They have added some older titles but the presentation and station liners are the same. Here is the list of songs from the 10 a.m. hour.

You Are Not Alone by Michael Jackson
Low Rider by War
I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift
Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi
Long Train Runnin' by The Doobie Brothers
Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
You Make My Dreams by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Band of Gold by Freda Payne
Cool Night by Paul Davis
Best of My Love by The Emotions
Who Can It Be Now? by Men At Work
Hollywood Nights by Bob Seger
La Isla Bonita by Madonna
A Horse with No Name by America

I've actually noticed that WPLM has made this sort of move before, but eventually moved back to mainstream AC and they would play certain songs that WMJX used to play but gave up since they leaned more towards Hot AC. So it's possible they might go back eventually, it may just be because of the time of year. Since its independently owned, they can pretty much do anything with it.

The closest you'll get to WODS's original sound is my tribute podcast called the Oldies 103 FM Boston Podcast with the original 50's 60's and 70's format. I was given some of the old jingles and decided to create this tribute to what the station sounded like in the 90's with a very deep playlist of rock n roll, doo wop, soul R&B, British invasion and pre-1964 oldies. The playlist is very deep and you won't her the same song, unless its a cover version by a different artist. The podcast is streamed on archive.org and you can also download the mp3s there as well as download the archive.org app to listen on a mobile device.

Website
https://oldies-103-fm-boston-podcast.myfreesites.net/

Player
https://archive.org/details/Oldies103FMBostonPodcast

Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/Oldies103FMBostonPodcast/