Sunday, July 08, 2007

Hey Cousin Brucie!

I'm getting caught up with the news, but I had to put this up first. Two years ago, I bemoaned the fact that legendary oldies radio station WCBS had switched format to something called "Jack." Now it looks like everything old is new again. From NY Times: "WCBS-FM reconsiders, deciding oldies are goodies again"

WCBS had a reliable audience as an oldies station, hovering near the bottom of the Top 10 ranked stations in the New York metropolitan region before the 2005 switch. The Jack format was introduced to attract the younger listeners more prized by advertisers, but WCBS's ratings dropped precipitously after the format change. It lost more than half its audience share, and its ranking fell as low as 22, according to Arbitron. Recently its ratings have improved slightly, but have remained far behind its pre-Jack level.

The station's advertising revenues also dropped. Revenue fell almost 30 percent, to $16.1 million for 2006, from 2005, according to estimates by BIA Financial Network.

Though WCBS is to return to oldies, it will probably be a new variation on the format, with more music from the 1970s and '80s and less from the '50s and '60s, radio analysts said. It is also likely that some personalities from the old station could return.
Well, every "oldies" radio station has pretty much ditched the songs from the Fifties. Even if you're not an oldies fan, why would you ditch a tried-and-true format to crowd the radio waves with yet another Top 40 incarnation? Dumb.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sir: I post to let you know that I read you and value your perspective. I am one of those many "page views" you may wonder about. I find you thoughtful and refreshing. All the best, EWJ

Eric said...

So you're the one. Haw-haw.

Brian said...

And I'm the other....

Anonymous said...

Eeee-YEEEE-EEEEE! Don't forget me, Cousin!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm

Stories about Newark, The return of the Oldies on WCBS, bashing the New York Times... one might suspect you were The New Jersey Viking. Should we expect to see you out at Giants stadium chanting J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets! ??

Of course, I am just kidding. Keep up the good work. Thank you for not blogging about that stupid Pirate show. I gave it a try, hoping it would relieve the void left by the end of the TAR season. Instead it has nearly ruined TV for me. I honestly cannot understand how a network like CBS stays in business making such hideously bad decisions. The cancellation of "Jericho" being another of those... but it too is being kinda sorta resurrected. But that is a rant for another day.

/Robbie