• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Should WABC Go to Oldies on the Weekends ?

Kemosabe said:
What happened to WLS? Also, had it not been for its original long wire, wouldn't WOR have been a I-A clear?
Click to expand...

Right you are about WLS - KNBR shouldn't have been in my list (it was a I-B, albeit nondirectional), and WLS/WENR should have been.

As for WOR, the 710 frequency was duplicated by class II stations out west, I think even before its original DA went up in Carteret in 1935.
 
lawman said:
I would have to say WIBG (WIBBAGE) the 55-66 years, although they were 50kw-d, 10kw-n highly directional, it was said they had over 30 percent of the whole listening audience which is unheard of in this day and age. It was reported that stations, KHJ was one, all over the country would send their PDs to Philly just to listen and copy their whole presentation for their stations. That's how good they were, I can attest to that.
Click to expand...

WIBG was my all time favorite Top 40 station! Favorite DJs Hy Lit and Joe Niagra; listened 1961-1967
 
Last edited:
BruceNYC said:
Internet radio is your best bet if you want oldies. Pop Gold Radio and Rewound Radio are two excellent stations with deep playlists and specialty programs. There are other internet stations as well. There are several oldies stations on SiriusXM if you have a subscription to that service.
Click to expand...

I prefer WDJO Cincinnati which I listen to through Tune In Radio on a semi-regular basis.
 
CTListener said:
WHCN Hartford, a classic rock/classic hits hybrid, generally plays one or two '90s tracks an hour, most recently Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away" and Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Nickelback's 2002 "Someday" has gotten a spin today as well, so maybe it's time for the new millennium's first hits to become "classics." Otherwise, the playlist is late '70s/'80s-dominated -- but good old "Brown Eyed Girl" rocks on at the ripe old age of 52!
Click to expand...

Yes I can see early 2000's music under consideration for classic hits in the next 5 years though. I knew No Doubt's Its My life(2003 edition) and Talk Talks edition of that song from 1980's was played on KRTH 101 in Los Angeles a few years ago when they were trying to shift more of their playlists to the 80's and 90's music though.

In the case of WABC as Oldies umm we wish though. But I don't know what play list would that be though given that the music from the 1960's-1970's are starting to fade from the airwaves due to median money demos idea of classic hits would have to be from the 1990's and early 2000's though. WPLJ's HD-2 or HD-3 might carry that though not WABC radio though.
 
Now as for the question (also the title of this thread), my answer is no - I don't believe that the demographics are there to support the "format". Besides which, Mark Simone tried it right after the CBSFM debacle of 2005....and it stopped working ABOUT six months AFTER CBSFM #2 (that's what I call it) came aboard.....

#TheGolden101 (1984-2014)
 
I still have the feeling WABC will flip to Oldies...

andreajesus said:
Now as for the question (also the title of this thread), my answer is no - I don't believe that the demographics are there to support the "format". Besides which, Mark Simone tried it right after the CBSFM debacle of 2005....and it stopped working ABOUT six months AFTER CBSFM #2 (that's what I call it) came aboard.....

#TheGolden101 (1984-2014)
Click to expand...
 
MusicRadioUSA said:
I still have the feeling WABC will flip to Oldies...
Click to expand...

Here is the revenue reality check:

New York is the largest market.

Radio depends principally on agency accounts for revenue.

Agencies seldom buy audiences over 55.

"Oldies" appeals principally to an audience well over 55, with a median age over 65.

There is no revenue to be had in the market for an AM station with a very senior demo playing music.
 
Dude, the demos just are NOT there - David E knows it, I know it....sad to admit, but 'ABC is making more money with their "infomercials" than they would on a small group of 50-plus fans (of which I am one of them)...

#TheGolden101 (1984-2014)
 
TheBigA said:
Based on what?
Click to expand...

Dude, the demos just are NOT there - David E knows it, I know it....sad to admit, but 'ABC is making more money with their "infomercials" than they would on a small group of 50-plus fans (of which I am one of them)...

#TheGolden101 (1984-2014)
 
DavidEduardo said:


WABC is one of the 25 original 1-A clear channel stations and in the 60's and 70's was the most listened to station in the country, showing up in ratings as far away as Pittsburgh and Portland, ME.
Click to expand...
A famous recording has Dan Ingrahm telling his listeners that the ratings had just come out and that they were #13 (pregnant pause) in Pittsburgh, PA.

Weren't they downgraded to a 1-B, and the commission attempted to force them to construct some querque directional antenna away from (K)KOB?
 
ai4i said:
A famous recording has Dan Ingrahm telling his listeners that the ratings had just come out and that they were #13 (pregnant pause) in Pittsburgh, PA.

Weren't they downgraded to a 1-B, and the commission attempted to force them to construct some querque directional antenna away from (K)KOB?
Click to expand...

WABC is non-directional.
 
IF WABC [and it's a big IF] went back to "oldies" at best it would be a one or two day "WOW!" phenomenon. There's probably still enough people around that remember the glory days of WABC that may tune in but they are out of the coveted demos by now and after a couple of days they would go back to whatever they are currently listening to be it SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify or wife/husband bitching about the "good, old days."
 
Yabadabado1 said:
IF WABC [and it's a big IF] went back to "oldies" at best it would be a one or two day "WOW!" phenomenon.
Click to expand...

But those people would complain if it wasn't hosted by someone they know (which would be hard given they're mostly all dead).

Then then they'd complain about the music not being deep enough and the commercials being annoying.
 
TheBigA said:
But those people would complain if it wasn't hosted by someone they know (which would be hard given they're mostly all dead).

Then then they'd complain about the music not being deep enough and the commercials being annoying.
Click to expand...

I think I covered that with the "wife/husband bitching about the "good, old days."
 
Yabadabado1 said:
IF WABC [and it's a big IF] went back to "oldies" at best it would be a one or two day "WOW!" phenomenon.
Click to expand...
TheBigA said:
But those people would complain if it wasn't hosted by someone they know (which would be hard given they're mostly all dead).
Click to expand...

It would probably have to be a singular "WABC Rewound" event, say, during the Memorial Day weekend, hosted by Dick Ullrich. (That concept seems vaguely familiar somehow.)
 
SuperRadioFan said:
WIBG was my all time favorite Top 40 station! Favorite DJs Hy Lit and Joe Niagra; listened 1961-1967
Click to expand...

WIBBAGE was the best, Jerry Stevens, Bill Wright, the Rocking Bird, Hyski, Frank X Feller, Ray Gilmore and Dean Tyler. They were unique, older jocks with tons of personality playing the hits, and former hits. Fun to listen to, I could not wait to get home from school to put the bird on, in fact I would sneak my motorola 6 transistor radio in to hear what they were doing. Then WFIL was born and ruined everything (
 
@ Lawman ....

A radio-broadcast and DXer buddy of mine who is now in California was working at WQDR Raleigh (back when it was a Lee Abrams Superstars station). He and his wife, a lovely gal beyond description and also a DXer, drove to the Outer Banks of NC for a lark. Roger said he caught both WBZ Boston and The Big Ape Jacksonville midday on his portable. I still have his notes here from then.
His comment on WIBG : 'So THAT's where it all goes!'

Back in the JFK Airport DX days, WIBG was 10,000 watts, and faint but steady every afternoon. I have to wonder why their 990 signal was so weak there. WFIL used to be QUITE present daytimes, and louder, virtually shoehorned up against WMCA 570. So I doubt WIBG's signal needed to protect 1010 WINS all that much, reciprocally.

Niagara, of course, went on to a lot of fame as the afternoon DJ at WPEN. I had heard Jerry Stevens off WGLI Long Island, and was once almost hired by Dean Tyler to be his PD!

Thanks for the names and memories, Lawman!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom