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Where are WDUV and Easy 93.1 now?

I heard "Sunglasses at Night" again yesterday so they haven't figured out it is completely out of character. WEZV is telling people they have been around since September 2000 and still "relaxing" and "refreshing" and trying to word their description of themselves on the air to suggest they haven't changed! Given that America's Best Music compares themselves to Rembrandt and Van Gogh, I could say that applied to WEZV of 2000. I would say WEZV of 2018 is like Velvet Elvis except they don't play Elvis. Maybe dogs playing poker.

But this is amazing. It hasn't happened before now, as far as I can remember, but I've had America's Best Music and WEZV going at the same time on my computer (the default volume level is much lower for WEZV than fro WNAM) a lot of the time when I have been online since last Fall. Both stations were playing "Lost in Love" by Air Supply at the same time. Not precisely the same time since the DJ was talking on WEZV as the song continued on WNAM.

And just to clarify, I like this song. Air Supply actually sounds out of place on the current WEZV.
 
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It's soft AC to a generation increasingly hard-wired for uptempo music. I'd put Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" in the same category.
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Why would "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" being heard on soft AC stations be considered that unusual? Soft AC stations thirty years ago were already playing that track, along with The Eurythmics other hit, "Here Comes the Rain Again".
 
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passtheword said:
Why would "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" being heard on soft AC stations be considered that unusual? Soft AC stations thirty years ago were already playing that track, along with The Eurythmics other hit, "Here Comes the Rain Again".
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It depends on how you define soft AC. WEZV is trying to convince people they haven't changed, although how do you attract new listeners if you don't make clear that you have? They still try to keep the music "lite" but if you were a former listener, you know a lot of songs are missing, including anything by Sinatra or Michael Buble. And you often have these outrageous tunes, some of which weren't on soft rock radio even back then.

"Soft rock" did include the song in the 80s, but there were former beautiful music stations that were truly soft. These days, stations that are really soft are standards if they have some standards, or they are like WMNI Columbus (which does) or KJUL Las Vegas (which does not seem to), and they call themselves soft AC. KJUL, as far as I know, doesn't have the harder stuff, and on Facebook, a bunch of people who were complaining about the loss of WEZV seem to like it. WEZV called its format soft AC too but it was like WMNI, except WMNI doesn't seem to have the new recordings by Michael Buble and others. The difference, even though it doesn't change the terminology, is the same as if there were three different categories represented by three names.
 
So here's where WEZV stands now. I'm not sure how this compares to WDUV and WFEZ because based on the few timers I saw "last song played" they both seem to be about the same as WEZV was a year ago, which would be slightly more uptempo. But WEZV has been doing more newer songs, so maybe the other stations would lean toward the older tunes.

WEZV is more "Easy" now than when it first changed. The worst songs that were on a year ago seem to be gone or at least aren't being played as much. John Mellencamp seems to have disappeared. A lot of good songs are still there. Olivia Newton-John, Neil Diamond, Air Supply and The Captain and Tennille never left. I turned on the station on the way to the beach and heard three good songs. it was like it never changed. This can happen. And more "easy" songs seem to be played now that weren't a year ago. One song each by The Carpenters, Barbra Streisand, B.J. Thomas and even Nat and Natalie have showed up in recent weeks. Also the duet between Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle. I even heard an instrumental, something that was rare even on the old WEZV. No, a version of a hit song. They quit doing that over a decade ago. Smooth jazz still isn't there except as background when Diane at Six (now middays) is talking. On the other hand, a lot more songs from the last two or three decades seem to have been added recently, by such artists and groups as Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, Leona Lewis, P!nk and Rob Thomas. This station is obsessed with Mariah Carey and Ed Sheeran.
 
A couple of more details about WEZV. I never heard Kenny Rogers or Dolly Parton but they sang their "Islands in the Stream" today. Also, the morning DJ who replaced Jim Morgan was let go, since she was too slow returning after Florence. At least that's what I heard.

And I should have gone ahead and checked the web sites of WDUV and WFEZ. I did this and found a long list of last songs played and I could have copied more of them. Since I manually typed all this, I didn't bother with artists. If anyone wants these I might still be able to provide some of them.

I'm not familiar with a lot of these songs but it appears WFEZ is moving more toward the present after starting out with mostly older songs. It's also less conservative than WDUV but neither station is truly "easy". WEZV is a little more conservative these days than both.

WFEZ: Through the Fire, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, Sacrifice, Paradise, We Belong, If Ever You're in My Arms Again, Easy Lover, Say You Won't Let Go, I Can Love You Like That, Heaven Is a Place on Earth, On Broadway, Take My Breath Away, Apologize, Caribbean Queen, Careless Whisper, Human, Baby I Love Your Way, Here Comes the Rain Again, You're Beautiful, That's What Love Is All About, Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel, In the Air Tonight, What About Us, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, I'm Your Baby Tonight, Waiting for a Girl Like You, Hungry Eyes, She's So High, My Love, Rude

WDUV: When Doves Cry, Sailing, I Wish, Piano Man, Kiss on My List, Sister Golden Hair, Careless Whisper, Tainted Love, Always and Forever, Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, Leather and Lace, Rock with You, Will You Still love Me, Brick House, Rocket Man, Escape, Never knew love Like This Before, Movin' Out, My Love, Let's Get It On, Heaven, He's So Shy, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Lean on Me, Too Much Heaven, In the Air Tonight, Kiss on My List, Can't Get Enough of Your Love, I Can Dream about You, Into the Groove
 
WFEZ seems to be leaning to a Lite 80s format, like the 181.fm channel of that name.

WDUV seems to have a slightly broader timeframe. There's a very good Easy station in Reno, NV you might like.
 
umfan said:
WFEZ seems to be leaning to a Lite 80s format, like the 181.fm channel of that name.

WDUV seems to have a slightly broader timeframe. There's a very good Easy station in Reno, NV you might like.
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For now WNAM Oshkosh, WI sounds good.

Unless I'm in the car near there without the Internet, I just listen to WEZV to hear how outrageous it is, and that means listening just long enough to know what each song is. If they'd provide "last songs played' I wouldn't even have to do that.

But it's not as bad as it was.
 
I haven't checked out WDUV lately.

Billy Idol's "Mony Mony"? Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue"? Where will it end?

"She Drives Me Crazy" ... maybe.

"Take Me Home Tonight" ... a lot of stations have played Eddie Money in recent weeks, I'm sure.

A lot of the songs ARE still soft, or at least close to it.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Ummmm....sure.
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"Boogie Wonderland," "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Hungry Like The Wolf," too. Were the baby boomers -- or maybe the baby boomers' parents -- the last generation to see their musical preferences trend softer as they age? That stations billing themselves as "Lite" play '70s and '80s titles like the ones mentioned here and by vchimp shows that to most listeners under 55, relaxing music doesn't have to be soft or slow. Whether they start seeking out songs that fit the traditional definition of "soft" in their later years is irrelevant, as radio targeted to an audience that old has little chance of being profitable.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
And?
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Yeah ... And? I think we've all established that WDUV has adjusted its sound to accommodate the generational reality that people who listened to CHR in the '80s and '90s haven't "grown into" softer music with age the way some boomers and most boomers' parents did when they moved into their 40s and 50s. In fact, the 20-year-old of 1982 who loved the Whitesnake song most likely still loves it today as a 59-year-old and would cringe at a watered-down "beautiful music" rendition, if one were available. The sad fact is that vchimp is an extreme outlier among today's middle-aged radio listeners.
 
Just for documentation purposes:

"Another One Bites the Dust", "Beat It", "Let's Go Crazy".

I'm sensing a theme here.

In Miami things aren't nearly as bad. Or good if these songs are your taste.
 
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vchimpanzee said:
Just for documentation purposes:

"Another One Bites the Dust", "Beat It", "Let's Go Crazy".

I'm sensing a theme here.

In Miami things aren't nearly as bad. Or good if these songs are your taste.
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Nothing wrong with documenting songs. Personally, I hate all those songs mentioned but formats evolve, whether it be good or bad. btw, glad to see you've joined us on the Facebook BIV page. Did you join the (new) BIV group on Facebook as well? Enjoyed chatting with you via post on there the last couple of days. I thought that was you... :)
 
passtheword said:
Nothing wrong with documenting songs. Personally, I hate all those songs mentioned but formats evolve, whether it be good or bad. btw, glad to see you've joined us on the Facebook BIV page. Did you join the (new) BIV group on Facebook as well? Enjoyed chatting with you via post on there the last couple of days. I thought that was you... :)
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I don't want to post with my real name. Maybe if I can use a fake name.
 
More from WDUV: "Call Me", "1999", "Sunglasses at Night", and from the Jacksons, "Black Or White" by just Michael (I can't remember whether that's an unusual choice) and "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground" (I don't know that one but it doesn't sound like it would be "lite" by the traditional definition).
 
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