Ben Saved WOGL From Flipping to Variety Hits

[radiolover78]

If Greater Media didn't flip 95.7 to the variety hits format, WOGL would have flipped. Ben saved WOGL. Does anyone think WOGL will flip to some other format in the near future? Or are they doing ok for now?<P ID="signature">______________
Kevin</P>

 

[John1]

> If Greater Media didn't flip 95.7 to the variety hits
> format, WOGL would have flipped. Ben saved WOGL. Does anyone
> think WOGL will flip to some other format in the near
> future? Or are they doing ok for now?>>

If you scroll down a little there's a thread on this same question! I think most people seem to think OGL is OK for the short term.

 

[radiolover78]

> > If Greater Media didn't flip 95.7 to the variety hits
> > format, WOGL would have flipped. Ben saved WOGL. Does
> anyone
> > think WOGL will flip to some other format in the near
> > future? Or are they doing ok for now?>>
>
> If you scroll down a little there's a thread on this same
> question!
>

I am such an idiot! lol Sorry! I should have scrolled down further.<P ID="signature">______________
Kevin</P>

 

[fennessy]

Being 2 hours outside Philly, the only ratings I see for Philadelphia and WOGL in particular are 12+ numbers. If WOGL is not achieving what Infinity wants in terms of "saleble" numbers in the target cells they want to win big in....WOGL is as vulnerable to a format change as 'CBS-FM was. In spite of 95.7. Infinity is probably singing a variation on that old chestnut, " Anything you can do I can do Better", or, " Anything Greater Media can do, we can do better...we can do anything better than them". Infinity has rights to ( or is willing to pay for them)the name " Jack", and when you put their track record before ad buyers compared to Greater Media...most people will put their money on Infinity prevailing and Greater Media buckling and turning tail.

What's more...no matter what they sound like, Infinity won't have the negative outcry if they blow up WOGL...in that WPEN is already in the format. As much as flipping CBS-FM was a suprise, don't be surprised if Infinity flips Philadelphia, Dallas and Phoenix, as they have already done in New York and Chicago.

What they attempted to do in New York evolving WCBS-FM didnt work to their satisfaction. They decided that revolution was better than evolution. if they're not where they want to be 18-34 0r 25-34 or 25-49 with WOGL ( I dont have a clue...havent seen those numbers) don't act surprised. These are the same people who fired everybody at WCAU when they had just beaten WWDB at talk.

 

[Jim_Hicks]

I realize you and I are both posting without access to the number break downs. But I have noticed something about the oldies format, having been involved with it in some form since the late 60's (WHYL was running that format in 1969) and early 70's.

The early plan of oldies programmers was to evolve a year at a time. You would start playing music from 1957 through 1969. Then a year or two later, you would revise your playlist to 1958 through 1970. Then 1959 through 1971. And so on.

The music we now refer to as classic hits or classic rock and on the other side of the coin, disco, put a major bump in the road of following that plan. The music just did not blend well. Music did not progress in a way that allowed just moving up a year. By now, you would be playing years from the 70's and 80's and maybe the early 90's. But it just didn't work, as WCBS-FM found out. The traditional oldies fan just did not like the music from the mid-70's on.

As Imus pointed out the other day while talking about the WCBS-FM blow-up, "You can't keep playing 'In The Still of The Night' forever." As much as I love the oldies format, I don't expect it to remain viable on commercial radio any more than was the standards format. For the majority of music radio listeners today, "oldies" are songs from the late 70's, the 80's and early 90's. That is what the "Jack's" and "Ben's" of today are attempting. Ben needs to make a lot of tweaks in the playlist, but that is the approach that is going to replace the oldies stations as we have known them. Again, as much as I love oldies radio, I know it's over.


> Being 2 hours outside Philly, the only ratings I see for
> Philadelphia and WOGL in particular are 12+ numbers. If WOGL
> is not achieving what Infinity wants in terms of "saleble"
> numbers in the target cells they want to win big in....WOGL
> is as vulnerable to a format change as 'CBS-FM was. In spite
> of 95.7. Infinity is probably singing a variation on that
> old chestnut, " Anything you can do I can do Better", or, "
> Anything Greater Media can do, we can do better...we can do
> anything better than them". Infinity has rights to ( or is
> willing to pay for them)the name " Jack", and when you put
> their track record before ad buyers compared to Greater
> Media...most people will put their money on Infinity
> prevailing and Greater Media buckling and turning tail.
>
> What's more...no matter what they sound like, Infinity won't
> have the negative outcry if they blow up WOGL...in that WPEN
> is already in the format. As much as flipping CBS-FM was a
> suprise, don't be surprised if Infinity flips Philadelphia,
> Dallas and Phoenix, as they have already done in New York
> and Chicago.
>
> What they attempted to do in New York evolving WCBS-FM didnt
> work to their satisfaction. They decided that revolution was
> better than evolution. if they're not where they want to be
> 18-34 0r 25-34 or 25-49 with WOGL ( I dont have a
> clue...havent seen those numbers) don't act surprised. These
> are the same people who fired everybody at WCAU when they
> had just beaten WWDB at talk.
>

 

[BlueHen]

Something happened along the way... I got older, too

> The early plan of oldies programmers was to evolve a year at
> a time. You would start playing music from 1957 through
> 1969. Then a year or two later, you would revise your
> playlist to 1958 through 1970. Then 1959 through 1971. And
> so on.
>
> The music we now refer to as classic hits or classic rock
> and on the other side of the coin, disco, put a major bump
> in the road of following that plan. The music just did not
> blend well. Music did not progress in a way that allowed
> just moving up a year. By now, you would be playing years
> from the 70's and 80's and maybe the early 90's. But it
> just didn't work, as WCBS-FM found out. The traditional
> oldies fan just did not like the music from the mid-70's on.
>
> As Imus pointed out the other day while talking about the
> WCBS-FM blow-up, "You can't keep playing 'In The Still of
> The Night' forever." As much as I love the oldies format, I
> don't expect it to remain viable on commercial radio any
> more than was the standards format. For the majority of
> music radio listeners today, "oldies" are songs from the
> late 70's, the 80's and early 90's. That is what the
> "Jack's" and "Ben's" of today are attempting. Ben needs to
> make a lot of tweaks in the playlist, but that is the
> approach that is going to replace the oldies stations as we
> have known them. Again, as much as I love oldies radio, I
> know it's over.

This evolution of oldies is an interesting concept. I can think back to when I first developed an interest in pop music. Probably around 1968. Both WFIL and WIBG came out with their listings of the top oldies of all time (like WFIL's Boss 560 survey, which I still have someplace). The top songs were "Cherish" (Association), "What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted" (Jimmy Ruffin), "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me" (Mel Carter), "Light My Fire" (Doors), and I think "Everlasting Love" (Robert Knight) and "Soldier Boy" (Shirelles) were also up there.

The oldest songs were things like "In The Still Of The Night" and "Rock Around The Clock." Nothing before 1955. So it's all relative. In the heyday of Top 40 radio, the span of golden oldies only covered a 12 or 13-year period; yet, even then, those older songs had a different tone to them. It's hard for someone my age to think of a song from 1990 as an oldie, but I guess that's the reality. A disco song from the 70's or techno sound from the early 80's (A Flock Of Seagulls; Human League) might sound just as different to a teenager today as "The Twist" or "Bristol Stomp" did to me when I first heard them.

But Top 40 radio was quite a while ago and, as Jim pointed out, the progression of music over the years has allowed the concept of oldies radio to diversify into the classic rock and variety hits formats of today. I might even include Sunny as another adaptation of this trend. Who knows... maybe Sunny is today's equivalent of what used to be called the "nostalgia" format.