America's Best Music adds to playlist

ABM has infused its playlist with quite a few additions from the 1980s and 1990s in the past few weeks, plus sprinkled in a few true Oldies from the 60s. To me, it moves the on air sounds closer to what Timeless was like before it was discontinued. I should note that they do not appear to have cut back on true standards either; Sinatra, Mathis, Martin and the regulars are apparently all still there and seem to be played as frequently as the past.

Still, I'm kind of surprised the list received any kind of overhaul given the discard of the on air talent last year. For whatever reason I figured they'd just leave the list alone.

Here's a sample of what's been added (I wince at all of the Michael Bolton; I have never been a fan):
Michael Bolton – How Am I Supposed To Live Without You; When a Man Loves a Woman; Said I Love You But I Lied; Soul Provider
Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
Mariah Carey – Love Takes Time
Gloria Estefan – Coming Out of the Dark
James Ingram – I Don't Have the Heart
Sheena Easton – You Could Have Been With Me
The Hollies – On a Carousel
Classics IV – Everyday With You Girl
The Toys – Lover's Concerto
Roy Orbison – Blue Bayou
Juice Newton – Angel of the Morning
Kim Carnes – More Love
Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker
Leon Russell – Tightrope
Bonnie Tyler – It's a Heartache
Grass Roots – Two Divided by Love
Celine Dion – If You Asked Me To
Phil Collins – Against All Odds; One More Night
Billy Ocean – There'll Be Sad Songs
Ambrosia – Holding On To Yesterday
Taylor Dayne – I'll Always Love You
Paul Young – Oh Girl
Billy Joel – An Innocent Man
Poco – Crazy Love
Chicago – Hard for Me to Say I'm Sorry
Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald – On My Own
Adele - Hello
Dusty Springfield – I Only Want to Be With You

You can see the ABM playlist here at the (terrible) stream for KKOV in Portland. http://kkovam.tunegenie.com/#listenlive

A lot of these I thought were already there, but maybe they were on Timeless Classics. It has been ten years since that format ended.

I don't like the idea of Michael Bolton either. I'm glad to hear that they aren't cutting back on the standards.

Meanwhile, I'm surprised at how truly bad my former America's Best Music affiliate sounds outside of the morning show (which rarely has any actual standards other than "May Each Day" by Andy Williams which ends the morning show each day that the manager is the DJ). A good way to describe what happened is that it went from Frank Sinatra to Frankenstein. That's a song title.

How bad can it be? Andy Williams right before 9:00 in the morning followed by "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith. That actually happened.

Oh, wow! I tried that link and it worked. And KKOV was playing an actual standard by Frank when I started it. I don't know whether my new computer has software that the old one didn't. I'll have to keep this link around. I'm hearing Neil Diamond now.

The singers still do the "America's Best Music" song.

I wondered how commercials would work. They were right in the middle of "Both Sides Now", but they weren't advertisers so much as public service spots. There was a female voice saying how to stream the station. I don't know whether this all goes out over the air.

"When Sunny Gets Blue".

Sounds good to me.

Wait, now there are regular commercials with regular advertisers.

Considering I'm used to AM with some static, this sounds really good. Advertisers are plentiful, and not just the national ones. They don't play music during the optional breaks.

And the music leans heavily toward the "good stuff". I haven't heard anything on the list above yet.

Several of these you won't hear on the KKOV stream. They are top hour optional timed songs. Another link with a higher quality stream (that does play many of the local option cuts) you may want to try: http://tunein.com/radio/WILE-FM-977-s29578/

Also, I noticed that a commercial was running during the time the list said a certain song my Steve Tyrell was being played. My affiliate didn't run that many commercials, but it was still a success. The owner (currently a college) bought two stations that were in trouble, so you know they were doing something right.

"My Maria" was the first song I heard today, which was unfortunate. It doesn't fit. But then the next two songs were good. In fact, one was really, really good because it was one of those Nat King Cole songs I can't believe any commercial station will still play in this day and age.

publisher said:

Several of these you won't hear on the KKOV stream. They are top hour optional timed songs. Another link with a higher quality stream (that does play many of the local option cuts) you may want to try: http://tunein.com/radio/WILE-FM-977-s29578/

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I tried it but it said no playable streams. Could be my slow Internet. Then I started hearing something, but it was like digital TV with an antenna. Furthermore, there was a different song playing from the one on KKOV, so I don't know if they were just local at the time.

KKOV didn't stop working during the 30 minutes or so I tried last week, but it does stop frequently today.

Wait. The song was playing on KKOV a few minutes later.

vchimpanzee said:

Also, I noticed that a commercial was running during the time the list said a certain song my Steve Tyrell was being played. My affiliate didn't run that many commercials, but it was still a success. The owner (currently a college) bought two stations that were in trouble, so you know they were doing something right.

"My Maria" was the first song I heard today, which was unfortunate. It doesn't fit. But then the next two songs were good. In fact, one was really, really good because it was one of those Nat King Cole songs I can't believe any commercial station will still play in this day and age.

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OK, I'll bite. What's wrong with "My Maria"? It seems like pretty basic 70s pop to me.

semoochie said:

OK, I'll bite. What's wrong with "My Maria"? It seems like pretty basic 70s pop to me.

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It sounded like the Brooks and Dunn version. It was pretty loud.

I haven't lost the signal in quite a while (okay, I lost it briefly before I finished with this, but I was doing a search for something), but the news at the top of the hour was a few minutes behind. That must be my slow Internet, and it would explain why KKOV was two songs behind WILE. I didn't try WILE again because I don't know if it would ever work, even though the sound quality is good.

"On a Carousel" by The Hollies is new and really sounds out of place. Again, it's just very loud.

"Somewhere" by Barbra Streisand has never sounded like this. It's one thing to start with the aliens, but this was just plain scary, like Halloween. That first part of the introduction should be kept off a station like this. Ideally, they wouldn't start it until the point where she starts singing.

I hate losing the sound in the middle of a good song. Twice.

Everything else sounds so good!

publisher said:

Here's a sample of what's been added :

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Add to that "Things we Said Today" by The Beatles and "On a Carousel" by The Hollies.

That first one was very frequently played by a local station when it still had oldies in the morning, before the owner sold it. I listened to that station for local news and weather long before I discovered the America's Best Music affiliate, which back then was oldies in the morning followed by big band and easy listening at lunchtime and sports in the afternoon.

I have been listening to KKOV for several hours on the days when I have used the Internet at home, which is three days a week. I think it sounds like America's Best Music has sounded for several years, and not like Timeless Favorites in its final years. Some of the added songs sound out of place in my opinion, but many more songs that seem new sound just as good as what is already there. The hopelessly outdated Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Jack Jones tunes are still there (some would argue songs like this must go to keep the format relevant), and that's just the way I like it. These songs make it easy for me to accept songs that seem more like they would fit oldies or AC. My biggest complaint was public service announcements in the middle of songs, but as of today, after I complained using KKOV's web site, this seems to have been fixed. No songs during commercials, but that's good because it means they are selling more commercials than my former affiliate. Though I keep hearing about how big a success my former affiliate was.

I heard Michael Bolton once. He's terrible. "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", in my opinion, should be the Laura Branigan version. She's good. I heard "I Don't Have the Heart", which according to the web site was performed by James Ingram. I thought it was Bolton screaming again and I hated it. Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" is worse than I remember, since he too screams at times, but not that much, and because of drums that aren't usually that bad in this format.

But it mostly sounds so good and I haven't heard so many of the songs in months. The bad stuff on my former affiliate is Aerosmith, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Rolling Stones.

vchimpanzee said:

I have been listening to KKOV for several hours on the days when I have used the Internet at home, which is three days a week. I think it sounds like America's Best Music has sounded for several years, and not like Timeless Favorites in its final years. Some of the added songs sound out of place in my opinion, but many more songs that seem new sound just as good as what is already there. The hopelessly outdated Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Jack Jones tunes are still there (some would argue songs like this must go to keep the format relevant), and that's just the way I like it. These songs make it easy for me to accept songs that seem more like they would fit oldies or AC. My biggest complaint was public service announcements in the middle of songs, but as of today, after I complained using KKOV's web site, this seems to have been fixed. No songs during commercials, but that's good because it means they are selling more commercials than my former affiliate. Though I keep hearing about how big a success my former affiliate was.

I heard Michael Bolton once. He's terrible. "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", in my opinion, should be the Laura Branigan version. She's good. I heard "I Don't Have the Heart", which according to the web site was performed by James Ingram. I thought it was Bolton screaming again and I hated it. Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" is worse than I remember, since he too screams at times, but not that much, and because of drums that aren't usually that bad in this format.

But it mostly sounds so good and I haven't heard so many of the songs in months. The bad stuff on my former affiliate is Aerosmith, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Rolling Stones.

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I think you'll find most ads on KKOV to be "bonus spots" for their sister News/Talk station.

semoochie said:

I think you'll find most ads on KKOV to be "bonus spots" for their sister News/Talk station.

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I don't know how I'd find this out, exactly, but as long as they can keep the music playing, I'm content.

WW1 has added no fewer than six Bolton songs from the 90s, including "Soul Provider," "Georgia on My Mind," "When a Man Loves a Woman," "Said I Loved You But i Lied." I was not a fan when his music was popular, so I guess these songs stand out to me when played.

I don't listen to the KKOV stream any longer (prefer WILE FM out of Ohio), but as best I can recall, they've always availed themselves of all commercial spots, playing on average of 12-13 songs per hour. Top hour news and both local option sets are used each hour. WILE typically stays with music during the local options and only programs news during peak daytime hours.

publisher said:

WW1 has added no fewer than six Bolton songs from the 90s, including "Soul Provider," "Georgia on My Mind," "When a Man Loves a Woman," "Said I Loved You But i Lied." I was not a fan when his music was popular, so I guess these songs stand out to me when played.

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I thought Bolton's music hadn't aged well, hence his quick fade from mainstream AC radio after his peak years ended. Is Bolton now doing well in tests?

Bolton's version of "Georgia on My Mind" played recently. It was painful and lasted over five minutes. The only music of his that never really bothered me was his own ("Said I Love You...," "Time Love and Tenderness"); his performance of the standards and gold songs is loud and overwrought.

On the flip side, WW1 added a couple of Sinatra tunes that I have not heard in a long time, including "Watch What Happens." It was a nice surprise.

publisher said:

Bolton's version of "Georgia on My Mind" played recently. It was painful and lasted over five minutes. The only music of his that never really bothered me was his own ("Said I Love You...," "Time Love and Tenderness"); his performance of the standards and gold songs is loud and overwrought.

On the flip side, WW1 added a couple of Sinatra tunes that I have not heard in a long time, including "Watch What Happens." It was a nice surprise.

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I'm sticking with KKOV because it works. Whether my problems with WILE would have cleared up, I don't know, but better sound quality doesn't mean much if slow Internet keeps it from working the way digital TV does.

I heard "Hush a Bye" for the first time in years. That one reminded me of a commercial for a record with the greatest hits of the 50s which was sold on TV in the 70s.

As for Bolton, no one should play any version of "Georgia on My Mind" except Ray Charles. "Said I Love You" isn't too bad but it isn't too good. "Time Love and Tenderness" was on my standards station back in 1997 and there was this loud, annoying beat at one point in the song, sort of like what is all too common even in mainstream AC, and while it was brief, it was quite a shock. This told me something was wrong. Over the next month, the mix of various musical styles that didn't fit together led me to refer to it as their chimpanzee period (especially when you consider that at night they went back to ABC Stardust, at a time when that was even more traditional than the daytime mix). The typo I made in my first email to them about this problem gave me my email address, and the name I use on several web sites.

I can't make sense out of KKOV airing commercials for Foghat and Queensryche concerts.