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Americas Best Music dropping all DJs

Listening to it live over the air it did not come off to me, at least, as cynical or self-centered. But I must admit I'm very disappointed he's leaving. He mentioned several times this morning during different breaks how much he had appreciated listeners and all the great music through the years – but he was oblique about this being his last show until the very end segment. His tone, which doesn't carry through in simple text, was warm enough. He's always gregarious over the air.

Carl Hampton, in his goodbye Friday, was very warm and effusive about his time with the "station," also characterizing his final show as a "so long" rather than "goodbye."

I thought they were handled well enough, but casual listeners who don't know what is going on with WW1 probably were baffled to some extent.
 
Gee, I didn't find anything objectionable about Rollins' comments. He didn't say anything negative about "the station." I commend Westwood One for giving these guys a chance to say goodbye rather than telling them to make no remarks about their leaving. And I also think the DJs statements were well thought out.

I still don't know why Cumulus didn't simply get a few AC, Oldies or Country DJs already on staff at one of its stations to record a few breaks an hour? Maybe even repeat them a few times during the week. No need for new employees or health plans or other benefits. That's what I assume they're doing with their other satellite-delivered formats. The DJs in Tuscon or Boise gets a few more bucks in their weekly paychecks (but nothing compared to paying Rollins, Hampton and the others full pay and benefits), America's Best continues to have some DJ personality and everyone is happy.
 
Gregg. said:
Gee, I didn't find anything objectionable about Rollins' comments.
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I didn't say it was "objectionable," but that it was self-serving. Big difference. Not unusual in radio to have an overactive ego. In fact it's fairly common.
 
publisher said:
I thought they were handled well enough, but casual listeners who don't know what is going on with WW1 probably were baffled to some extent.
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I'm glad I don't have to answer phones at an affiliate station on Monday, because (it just occurred to me) the listeners' perception is that the station fired all their favorite air personalities at once.
 
Just to verify, there are no jocks this morning. Jeff's voice is still used in the liners, but, otherwise, it's just music and commercials.
 
publisher said:
Just to verify, there are no jocks this morning. Jeff's voice is still used in the liners, but, otherwise, it's just music and commercials.
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Not in my liners. This a nice female voice that says things like "The most finely crafted music on the planet." They still say "America's Best Music" and someone still gives song titles occasionally. But it's just not the same.

Other than that, most of where I hear "America's Best Music" is the singers who sing those words between songs. Otherwise, they are still using the "Unforgettable Favorites" station IDs left over from the format that ended in 2006.
 
publisher said:
I am interested to see if this is a DJ-less format come Monday or if there is some kind of automated attempt to keep a human voice in the mix. I listen to WGMA FM out of Ocala, Fla for anyone looking for a good quality America's Best Music stream online.
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Thanks for the station tip! It's sad that Jeff and the others were let go...although we know it happens. WGMA seems to be a good one to stream too. I like that they don't cover ALL the breaks. Also, as of this morning, they're still running liners for Jeff and Carl.

We have a regional affiliate here...and although reception is pretty good at home, it's very sketchy in the car, and impossible where I work.
 
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So far, they are not doing anything I would find satisfactory. If anything, they should just dump the local station IDs at the time when the nice female voice speaks. She's not contributing anything worthwhile that would be any better than those station IDs. And we've heard the guy on my local affiliate about a million times since they first aired his words--for another format!
 
I just noticed after tuning into the "Gold 99" (Ocala FL) stream for a few days...that they appear to have cut the "ABM" cord! The format is basically the same, except I was hearing stuff yesterday that made me say "whoa! they're playing this now?" This was in reaction to songs from Phil Collins & Rod Stewart that I knew ABM hadn't previously played.
 
Yep. They went local mid-week last week. Like you said, it's pretty much the same. But it veers wildly from 1945 to 1995 in an instant. I like the music, but it takes some getting used to.

I found WILE FM on Tune Genie as an alternate ABM feed. It does top hour news, so you'll miss the first two songs, but they do not block out the local option timed records at :30 and :50.
 
publisher said:
I found WILE FM on Tune Genie as an alternate ABM feed. It does top hour news, so you'll miss the first two songs, but they do not block out the local option timed records at :30 and :50.
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Thanks!!!
 
I worry that too many stations will drop this format without DJs, giving Cumulonimbus an excuse to get rid of it completely.

But it sounds so good now. Not that I wouldn't like DJs, but the music has gotten better lately.
 
I hope this wasn't as bad a move as all the changes suggest. My station appeared likely to change simply because the music on the morning show or whenever the station went local, espcially if the man who ran the station wasn't the DJ, seemed more like oldies. And now that it is oldies, but a quite different version than the station was doing locally, there are DJs. That may not be the reason.
 
If anyone has airchecks of ABM from years ago (or from Music or Your Life from years ago) and would like to swap, let me know. I recorded a lot of the last few weeks with DJs on ABM and have some from years past.
 
stevations said:
If anyone has airchecks of ABM from years ago (or from Music or Your Life from years ago) and would like to swap, let me know. I recorded a lot of the last few weeks with DJs on ABM and have some from years past.
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You may have these already, but I have the 2005 assortment of airchecks and samples that were available at the time from the Westwood One website. Includes Chick Watkins, Jeff Rollins, Ed Brand, Mark Haden and the others from the time. Also includes a sample of an interview between Chick and Al Martino, as well as an intro to the format from Chick and a sample of their contest and other promotions. You're welcome to them if interested.
 
publisher said:
You may have these already, but I have the 2005 assortment of airchecks and samples that were available at the time from the Westwood One website. Includes Chick Watkins, Jeff Rollins, Ed Brand, Mark Haden and the others from the time. Also includes a sample of an interview between Chick and Al Martino, as well as an intro to the format from Chick and a sample of their contest and other promotions. You're welcome to them if interested.
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Any chance of getting these online?

Also, does anyone have any information about how many stations were lost by this move?

I haven't seen any news coverage or asked my station why, but it doesn't make any sense that the affiliate chose a new satellite format just because it had DJs. There's too much difference bewtween the old format and the new. It's more than just losing Sinatra, Dean Martn, Tony Bennett and Michael Buble. I haven't heard The Carpenters or Connie Francis (both on a station doing oldies locally without DJs) or Barry Manilow or The Lettermen. And some of the rock on the new format is pretty loud, not at all what oldies used to be. If they weren't satisfied with standards, I never knew it but should have suspected with all the songs that were out of character when they went local. All this time I thought people really liked the station as it was. And a survey asking what the other station in town should be led to a classic country format. At least there I can hear Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray and John Denver.

But I knew their only option to have DJs unless they used college students (a college owns the station) was Music of your Life. Given the changes in that format, it might very well have worked if they weren't really looking to change to oldies.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I haven't seen any news coverage or asked my station why, but it doesn't make any sense that the affiliate chose a new satellite format just because it had DJs. There's too much difference bewtween the old format and the new. It's more than just losing Sinatra, Dean Martn, Tony Bennett and Michael Buble. I haven't heard The Carpenters or Connie Francis (both on a station doing oldies locally without DJs) or Barry Manilow or The Lettermen.
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As long as it can be marketed to the same advertisers as the old format, there was probably very little thought given to what the new format would be. Station managers were probably saying "just put something on the air".

Or, given that this mostly affects AM stations, which are going to be the weakest in any cluster of co-owned stations, they just picked whatever seemed the same, without even listening to it beforehand. There would be no press release for the news media to pick up on, and I bet calling the station would get you either a meaningless answer or something along the lines of what I just said.

At some point you will have to accept the fact that this is going to keep happening, until you are eventually left with nothing on the air that pleases you.
 
Music of Your Life has gone through its own modernization over the last 4-5 years. It used to be a super-sleepy standards format. Today it's substantially more uptempo. No Sinatra or other crooners. Lots of what I'd describe as jazz vocals.

I think I just heard Helen Reddy's cover of "Delta Dawn", up next to "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender. And lots of vocalists that I couldn't recognize.
 
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