Though I have been a D.J. in numerous different musical formats over 53 years, as a Program Director, I have basically done gold based formats.
In 1998, I got involved with a hairbrained scheme (or so it seemed at the time) to take the “oldies” format and push it forward 20 years. Basically from about 1975 to 1992.
I was programming WXST-FM in Columbus, Ohio with a tower about 10 miles north of the north outerbelt in the city of Delaware. We called it “Star 107.9” (the “X” was a nod to the late CHR station known as “92X” which fought a valiant battle with WNCI during the decade of the 1980’s).
The music on the station was 1975 to 1992.
In case that rings a bell, it was the same stack of music brought back by stations such as WOGL-FM in Philadelphia and WCBS-FM in New York City (once they retooled).
When the two stations started to return in the early 2000’s, I bet people on the Radio-Info boards that it would work. They told me I was nuts. I knew better.
Why?
Because despite the lousy signal on Star 107.9 (You could barely hear it South of town. It was a Class A FM and under previous formats had found it tough to get anything over a 2 except when it was the only “Beautiful Music” station in the market), the New “Star” rocketed out of the first book playing 5,000 songs in a row and posted a 3.1 total audience. And was number 5 in the primary demo (which we targeted as 18-49).
What we basically did was copy WNCI’s “Friday Night 80’s” feature which was doing about a 13 share on Friday nights there.
Getting the music right was the tough part. I was given an option of promotional money or a music test.
Knowing we needed promotion, I picked the former and figured we’d get the music right as we went along.
The stalwarts in the radio business laughed at us.
“It’ll never work”, they said.
“It’s just a fad”, they said.
Did they say that about CBS-FM?
Nope.
In fact, I said I thought CBS-FM would be number one in New York City in 6 months.
And I was right.
Star 107.9 made it about three years.
We took around 3.2 million dollars in advertising revenue out of the Columbus, Ohio market with a lousy signal in three years, and a staff of about 15 people total. It paid the bills and we were turning a profit, until the very end.
What happened?
A local attorney bought us making big promises which, unfortunately for him, his checkbook couldn’t cash.
He kept undermining us wanting to make us the #6 Urban station in the market. I mean, how was this guy who gave us paychecks that didn’t cash think he could take on Radio One?
He couldn’t and didn’t.
But that’s how I knew WOGL and CBS-FM would work and quickly. Because it worked for us. And we were clearly ahead of the game.
The negative effect that these successes had was to literally kill the oldies format which I programmed next at WKIO-FM in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
The station sounded good. The jocks were really good for the market size and we took it from #6 to #1 in 6 months.
Still, in the 2 and a half years I programmed it, we lost 50 cents on a dollar.
Why?
The agencies and advertisers in that Big 10 town said the music was “too old”.
And for the past 25 or so years, that’s been the case.
Classic Rock really didn’t change.
But “Fun – Good Times and Great Oldies” stations, vanished like dust in the wind.
I think somebody wrote a song like that. I think I played it in the 70’s.Thank you, Kansas.
“Too old. Only attracts people in their 60’s and 70’s”.
But yet, that music was showing up in movies, national commercials.
What the heck?
Still too old for radio.
One stalwart resisted the trend to change…much. Just modified the music a little bit and included a taste of the 80’s.
103.5/WAKY-FM in Louisville, Kentucky. Fun Lovin’ WAKY.
In the 60 and 70’s, it was 790 and HUGE!
Johnny Randolph, Bill Bailey, Gary Burbank, and others made it the hippest station in the city…and it was constantly battling with 1080/WKLO.
I know.
I was in a rock band when I first got into radio and would drive to Louisville and other places to play at fairs and such and listened to the battle.
These days the FM version of WAKY is top 3 in town. Proving, there’s still money in those Beatles records. And Neil Diamond. And the Bee Gees and the Monkees, and Donna Summer and Michael Jackson, and so forth.
WDJO in Cincinnati has been playing that music for years.
And now there’s WKRP-FM in the Queen City.
All playing music virtually left for dead around 2004.
So, why would such a thing work in 2026?
Remember the title of this article?
I would suggest that this music has been largely (though not completely) OFF the radio for so long that now not only we older folks, but new generations beneath us just now are beginning to discover it.
Some have suggested, and there IS reason to do so that some early 2000’s music (with some exceptions) put the CHR format in the toilet. And it’s been a rather long “doldrums” phase with momentary bright spots, “Uptown Funk”, Bruno Mars, and a few others being one of the brighter spots (Yes, I’m also thinking of you Tay-Tay).
It also helps that Broadway took notice with the success of the Tony Award winning musical, “Jersey Boys”, tracing the history of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. If you haven’t experienced this show, I recommend you go. Even my twenty something nephew at the time loved it.
He’s now in his 30’s. Yeah he likes a lot of today’s alternative rock stuff, but he will crank up the radio if “Live and Let Die” comes on.
After all, his uncles took him to his first rock concert.
Paul McCartney.
He loved the pyrotechnics at that show.
And this opens the door for some struggling radio stations on which to capitalize.
I say – stop listening to the agencies. How many favors have they ever done you? Get what you can from them and sell a lot of local direct.
Make it bright. Tight (I mean decent sized library with the hits rotated correctly). Fun, contests (any market can do them), up, friendly, but not screaming, jocks.
If you want a little light reverb on the air chain, go for it.
Local news mornings and afternoons.(Don’t forget the Drake News Open. It’s iconic.
Politics now has MAGA, and MAHA.
I have MRGA – Make Radio Great Again.
And…
I have MRFA – Make Radio Fun Again.
Give your DJ’s a little leash to be creative.
Stay in the now but play the music that has now apparently become timeless.
You never know what ratings and revenue and audience you might get.
Ratings and revenue we sorely need.
But it starts with entertaining the people who listen.
Everything else follows from there.
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