You're Never Too Old.....

.... for real Rock N Roll radio on the AM dial, so long as you're on the Jersey shore. It's true. Even in 2019. I was shocked, dismayed, & blown away yesterday while driving home after meeting up with family in Point Pleasant, NJ in Monmouth County for a few days.

Traveling west on I-195 Saturday afternoon I decided to scan the AM dial and lo and behold I found 4 oldies stations all playing real oldies at the same time. They were as follows:

1100 WHLI
1160 AM
1310 AM
Great Gold 1410

Upon further research I discovered that WHLI is out of New York (so it doesn't count I guess) but it comes in like a local for quite a few miles in that area. 1160 and 1310 are simulcasts of a channel called mybeachradio.com and I thought it was interesting that their signals overlapped for several miles. I would be curious to see a total coverage map between the 2 but I didn't catch the call letters or locations of either frequency.

I switched back and forth between the 3 stations a couple of times and then scanned the dial further and landed on Great Gold 1410 which I picked up loud and clear several miles west of Six Flags Great Adventure. They were playing the Shirelles and Supremes among others and I probably listened to that station the longest. They ID'd themselves as being out of Eatontown, NJ at the TOH.

I turned on my Grundig this afternoon and looked for a trace of 1100, 1160, and 1410 but there was nothing. 1100 is overshadowed by 1110. 1160 and 1410 are all static so it's no wonder I didn't know these stations existed a mere 70 miles away.

Now back home and the reality that even though the Jersey shore can have four real oldies stations, Philly can't even have one. (Oh no, not this tired topic again, but you knew it was coming). I guess demographics don't age at the Jersey shore at the same rate they do in Philly and the Philly burbs. Maybe they have something on us.

(Long sigh). Ok it's out of my system, now off to the pool.

Radio Wreck said:

I guess demographics don't age at the Jersey shore at the same rate they do in Philly and the Philly burbs.

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Two very different kind of markets. Philadelphia is a Top 10 PPM market, and Monmouth-Ocean is #54 diary market. Press Communications owns 1410. Local owner, not part of a big company. The simulcast of 1160 & 1310 are Townsquare stations. WOBM was once a local powerhouse in Toms River with an award-winning news department. Not any more. These are loss leaders from owners who make their money with FMs. They can't broker the stations and talk is bigger loser for them. They tried it a while back. You'll find similar stations in Wildwood.

TheBigA said:

Two very different kind of markets. Philadelphia is a Top 10 PPM market, and Monmouth-Ocean is #54 diary market. Press Communications owns 1410. Local owner, not part of a big company. The simulcast of 1160 & 1310 are Townsquare stations. WOBM was once a local powerhouse in Toms River with an award-winning news department. Not any more. These are loss leaders from owners who make their money with FMs. They can't broker the stations and talk is bigger loser for them. They tried it a while back. You'll find similar stations in Wildwood.

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This explanation make sense, but then the question becomes how much of a loss are these owners willing to take until it becomes more feasible to turn off the lights and turn in the license(s)? I guess we won't know until these frequencis go dark.

But with the knowledge that there are companies willing to operate properties at a loss, this gives me hope that Beasley may one day do something worthwhile with 610. I won't hold my breath.

Radio Wreck said:

But with the knowledge that there are companies willing to operate properties at a loss, this gives me hope that Beasley may one day do something worthwhile with 610.

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When you can buy beachfront property on Market Street.

Radio Wreck said:

But with the knowledge that there are companies willing to operate properties at a loss, this gives me hope that Beasley may one day do something worthwhile with 610. I won't hold my breath.

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It is very common for companies to run loss leaders for the purpose of exposure, traffic or tradition so long as the loss doesn't crater the prime revenue.

TheBigA said:

When you can buy beachfront property on Market Street.

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With global warming in progress it may not take all that much time. They selling options yet?

landtuna said:

With global warming in progress it may not take all that much time. They selling options yet?

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Any oceanfront property in Arizona to sell me, as George Strait sang about in the '80s?

CTListener said:

Any oceanfront property in Arizona to sell me, as George Strait sang about in the '80s?

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How about canal-front? Every once in a while a car or SUV drops in. You get to keep the proceeds.

Radio Wreck said:

Now back home and the reality that even though the Jersey shore can have four real oldies stations, Philly can't even have one.

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Can somebody define "real oldies"? (artists, jingles, etc.)

Because in my mind, there *is* such a thing as "[mid-to-late] '70s oldies" and "'80s oldies".

ixnay

1410 WHTG has a translator on 100.7 FM (W264DH). In the right terrain it can be heard farther away than their AM signal, especially at night, and is transmitting in full stereo (unusual for the FM translator of an AM mono station).

Many Oldies stations do play some '80s music that has a retro '50s/'60s sound (the Stray Cats, Honeydrippers, Dexys Midnight Runners, Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" and "The Longest Time", etc.), but conspicuously avoid playing much, if any Disco.

An exception is "Oldies 107.9" WOLD-LP in central NJ, which plays pretty much everything from the late '50s to late '80s, and often has trainwreck segues because of it.

Does WMID in Atlantic City make any money ?

And in the case of....

DavidEduardo said:

We're talking about sttrictly industry nomenclature, intended for time buyers to understand our formats.

Oldies: late 50's to early / mid 70's.
Classic Hits: Late 70's to very early 90's

In each market, the station in Classic hits may be focused a little older or younger. But they position the station as classic hits to buyers.

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New York City - the Classic Hits station is poised, I would say, 25-34 (no older) - and the range of songs is from Taylor Dayne (whom I do like) to Smash Mouth's "remake" (UGH!) of "I'm A Believer"

and don't get me even started on Philadelphia - when 'OGL "pushed" HH out a year ago(?), it had nothing in my opinion to do with his retirement. It was a demo thing, pure and simple. Street corner music (HH's specialty) sadly DOES NOT work on any Classic Hits station in ANY city these days - once 'OGL took off HH's Sunday show, it was basically him playing stuff on his weekday show that he wasn't 100% comfortable with - HH was a harmony guy, pure and simple - just like NY's own Don K. Reed

WMID has a decent signal going North and South . Hell, it can be heard down in Chincoteague Virginia, over 100 miles away, on the beach . But I learned from a source that their music is computer generated . And it’s evident . Plus , seemingly , every song played is too fast, which is so annoying I gotta turn it off . It could be so much better. Visiting the shore and tuning in , in the 70’s and 80’s on there and WOND , you could listen for hours and not get fatigued. I have tapes from from that period( yeah I had the tape deck going ) and the difference is evident.

This is correct. The software is given certain rules by whoever's job it is at the station to generate a music log. Rules like:

- no two female vocals in a row
- no two fast-tempo songs in a row
- no two songs older than "X" in a row
- no two songs longer than "X" in a row
- no song that's played before in the last "X" hours
- not to select a song that played in THIS hour in the last X number of days

Those are just examples. There are many ways to set up the software. The more expensive the software, generally the more detailed one can get.

With too many rules, the software will have difficulty using all of the songs in the library and will under-utilize some songs while emphasizing others. This requires the music programmer at the station to massage and violate the rules, hopefully as infrequently as one has to in order to maintain the station's integrity.

I always notice the shore points seem to have older demographic sounding stations.