Question about format changes.

[RJC]

I have always wondered, when a radio station changes formats, do the the CD's from the old format get tossed, or locked up in a closet somewhere? During the transition from one format to another, I have a visual of the frantic scene of station employees, throwing out all the CD's and ripping the artists posters down, in favor of another artists poster. ;D

[Mike Griffin]

I've worked at two small stations that changed formats. We put away 1 set of (can you believe it) 45's and started playing another. There were also some LPs involved. What are CD's?

[John Quincy]

These days the songs are just erased from the hard drive and replaced by others. Many times the new music comes from another station in the chain that's already playing that kind of music.

However, in years past the old music usually gets put in a storage room and is eventually tossed or given to one or more of the employees. Radio stations in general don't tend to save anything from previous formats and/or program directors. When stations move their studios, tons of stuff usually gets trashed.

There is much more good radio history in the landfills of America than in the hands of ex-employees and collectors.

[Max]

John's right. Back in '79 when I started at Quicksie in E'town, they were a beautiful music station, totally automated, except for news and liners, and operating from 4 reel decks. The original format had been Top 40. Anyway, one day during a 15 minute music sweep when I was checking the AP wire, I noticed a door and, being nosy, I pushed it open. I found hundreds of LP's and 45's from their early days! Of course, they gradually migrated back to the Top 40 format where they're at today, which obviously means playing total foobar.
(No offense to ownership- I'm referring to today's Top 40)

[RJC]

admin said:

There is much more good radio history in the landfills of America than in the hands of ex-employees and collectors.

That's really a shame. The stations should put that stuff in bins in front of the station, and let people take what they want.

[Mike Griffin]

Of course in the beginning having stations that could reach remote areas anywhere in the country was good. Maybe it still is. Some areas then may not have had local service.

[Max]

Mike, you might want to move this reply to the Clear Channel Out of Control thread. I just realized the post to which you just responded was to the wrong thread, so I moved mine. Don't think you can delete it from this thread as a guest, though.

Just thought people who are just reading it for the first time might scratch their heads a bit!

Don't worry-I just transferred it for ya!

[Max]

Okay, I have a question, and without starting a new thread, this seems like the logical place to pose it...and it's along the same lines as some discussion we've had on this site as well as 1080WKLO.com. This is something I've wondered a long, long time. And I ask this as I'm listening to Ray Charles and Diana Krall sing "You Don't Know Me Well". Why do formats like these not last when tried on radio stations? Why does one have to resort to internet radio to get this stuff? Yes, yes, I know it's ratings...what I'm wanting to know is why do not enough people listen to these formats and why is the American public satisfied with either rock or country? Or is 'public interest' actually dictated for us by advertisers and what they 'think' people are listening to? I guess I wonder this, as I have never been contacted by a pollster like Neilsen and asked what I'm listening to. I always wondered why a beautiful music format didn't last at Quicksie back around the turn of the 80's. E'town certainly had numerous doctors offices as well as professional offices back then and even more now. Especially on a rainy day like today beautiful music or smooth jazz is extremely relaxing to listen to.

Seems to me with the chaotic worlld we live in today we would be grasping for something...ANYTHING to calm us.

Just wondering...

[Young Daniel King]

basixdj said:

Okay, I have a question, and without starting a new thread, this seems like the logical place to pose it...and it's along the same lines as some discussion we've had on this site as well as 1080WKLO.com. This is something I've wondered a long, long time. And I ask this as I'm listening to Ray Charles and Diana Krall sing "You Don't Know Me Well". Why do formats like these not last when tried on radio stations? Why does one have to resort to internet radio to get this stuff? Yes, yes, I know it's ratings...what I'm wanting to know is why do not enough people listen to these formats and why is the American public satisfied with either rock or country? Or is 'public interest' actually dictated for us by advertisers and what they 'think' people are listening to? I guess I wonder this, as I have never been contacted by a pollster like Neilsen and asked what I'm listening to. I always wondered why a beautiful music format didn't last at Quicksie back around the turn of the 80's. E'town certainly had numerous doctors offices as well as professional offices back then and even more now. Especially on a rainy day like today beautiful music or smooth jazz is extremely relaxing to listen to.

Seems to me with the chaotic worlld we live in today we would be grasping for something...ANYTHING to calm us.

Just wondering...

Max: First ..thanks for the prompt mailing of the shirts. Those puppies are GREAT. There are three...count them 1..2..3.. people at the school where I teach that MIGHT know WAKY and 'KLO. Can't wait to wear it on Friday.

Regarding formats and changes and all the "why don't these stations work comments", there have been many references to the variety of music that Randolph programmed on WAKY and a couple about what Moon and I programmed when we were each programming WINN...so... to me it really is pretty simple (then again, I've been called 'simple' many times in my life). If people will pay to hear this SAME music on satellite, then WHY wouldn't they listen to the same music on commercial radio. I keep hearing that advertisers don't want my age group (58+) because we don't spend. I'm NOT wealthy but my wife (55) and I have more disposable income now in our lives than ever before and we do buy and spend.

At WINN...about the same time WAKY was throwing in some 'country', I was programming some ''rock". Crosby, Stills and Nash:Teach your children, Brewer & Shipley's "One toke over the line" and a whole lot more. I even had Don Harper(I think) the then WINN Sales Manager call on "CHESS KING" which was a men's "hippy" clothing store. They listened to WINN and bought a schedule. We had moved from the package : Countrypolitan WINN to an AMERICAN MUSIC package which Bob Hood (WHOO) in Orlando thought better fit the format. Here's a quick story on my playing Brewer & Shipley on WINN: Tom Moore, the GM, came into the control room and asked what the hell I was playing..He said that's a drug song..right? I said...NO TOM, they're not talking about taking a'toke' of anything.... it's a reference to a 'token' on the bus line or trolley line. He bought my explanation and convinced the powers that be at Bluegrass Broadcasting and we kept playing the song. Within a week WHOO in Orlando (OUR 50,000 country watter) started playing the song as well. When I was at WINN I was willing to let WTMT have the...and I say this with respect...HILLBILLY fan. I didn't feel that at the time there were enough people who were ONLY into country music to give us a chance to build an audience if we had to split it with WTMT.

As Bob Schulman always said...it's one man's opinion

[Max]

Since this thread deals with format changes, it seems like the proper place to place this headline from today's Radio Daily News:

Radio's desertion of older listeners continues. KFRC, the oldies station, has shifted from '50s and '60s hits and moved into the '70s and '80s. The reason for the move, made on the Labor Day weekend, is obvious. The moldier oldies were drawing primarily listeners 50 and older, and the ad agencies just don't care about them.

This is appreciated by some of us who have thought for too long that, although it was fine rock and roll, the only era considered by radio to be 'oldies' was the 50's and 60's, although I could watch endless "Happy Days" and "Andy Griffith" reruns. At the same time, this dares to step on the toes of older rock music fans like Young Daniel King and his bride and in that regard I see it as a dismissal of that particular generation. I suppose my generation will be next. While I wholeheartedly welcome the newer oldies, I feel it is wrong to 'diss' the lovers of original rock and roll just because they don't make the cash registers go 'ching, ching'. Of course this has all been said before at one time or another on both of these sites, so I'll try not to repeat it.

As the 'times they are a'changing', there have been several contributors of late who have pointed out that radio 'must' change, even oldies formats, seem to evolve and are going through perpetual change. But who knows, maybe one day before we all die, it will all come full circle.

Wouldn't THAT be cool??

[Ben Pflederer]

I love those "Moldier Oldies". What is wrong with trying to draw listeners 50+? There are businesses that serves us folks from that generation of "Real Rock & Roll" of the 50's & 60's! I agree with you Max and also feel it is wrong do 'diss' us as you say. Who says us folks do not ring cash registers? Times might be a changin' , but I still dig Rock-N-Roll Music! The Oldies, moldy or not, is from when history and memories were made. Yes, there are still a lot of memories from those times from the Kentucky Home Life Building at the corner of 5th & Jeff ;D. The Moldier Oldies, the WAKY & WKLO Web sites, bring those memories back to life

[Young Daniel King]

basixdj said:

Since this thread deals with format changes, it seems like the proper place to place this headline from today's Radio Daily News:

Radio's desertion of older listeners continues. KFRC, the oldies station, has shifted from '50s and '60s hits and moved into the '70s and '80s. The reason for the move, made on the Labor Day weekend, is obvious. The moldier oldies were drawing primarily listeners 50 and older, and the ad agencies just don't care about them.

This is appreciated by some of us who have thought for too long that, although it was fine rock and roll, the only era considered by radio to be 'oldies' was the 50's and 60's, although I could watch endless "Happy Days" and "Andy Griffith" reruns. At the same time, this dares to step on the toes of older rock music fans like Young Daniel King and his bride and in that regard I see it as a dismissal of that particular generation. I suppose my generation will be next. While I wholeheartedly welcome the newer oldies, I feel it is wrong to 'diss' the lovers of original rock and roll just because they don't make the cash registers go 'ching, ching'. Of course this has all been said before at one time or another on both of these sites, so I'll try not to repeat it.

As the 'times they are a'changing', there have been several contributors of late who have pointed out that radio 'must' change, even oldies formats, seem to evolve and are going through perpetual change. But who knows, maybe one day before we all die, it will all come full circle.

Wouldn't THAT be cool??

Excellent comments Max... reminded me of a story about the 50 plus year old business owner who got out of bed...started his MELIOUZE coffee maker with High mountain COLUMBIAN coffee...went to the bathroom... took off his LL BEAN pajamas... Got into the shower with the new MOEN shower massager head..washed with dove soap. He got out of the shower and dried off with his SUPIMA COTTON towel and put on POLO cologne, brushed his teeth with CRESTand used DEGREE deodorant. He went to the bedroom...put on a LAND'S END PINPOINT COTTON SHIRT, a GARCIA tie, a HART, SCHAFTNER & MARX suit
and his ALLEN EDMONDS shoes. He goes downstairs...drinks his coffee, picks up his TAYLOR TRUNK FULL LEATHER briefcase, walks to the garage, gets in his MERCEDES, drives to the office for a meeting where he tells the radio station sales rep that advertising to 5O YEAR OLD PEOPLE doesn't pay. They don't buy things!!

Love you guys...Young Daniel

[Max]

Young Daniel & Ben, I was thinking on the way home tonight about what we've been discussing and we've decided to add a few more tunes to WAKYOnline from the 60's in the interest of fans of that era. I will tell you we tried to pick songs that don't already get overkill on our oldies 'stalwarts'.

[Ben Pflederer]

Thanks Max for thinking about us old timers, and the generation of those times when radio was Radio. ;D The 60's were real fun and produced a lot of memories. You have started a good remembering site as John has done with the WAKY & Radio WKLO sites. I have to thank both of you for keeping those memories alive. Keep it up. Thank you again.

[Chad]

I have quite a few obscure 1960's songs that got alot of airplay on WAKY and WKLO. I have recorded them onto the pc in mp3 format. Who should I contact if I wanted to send a copy of them so they might get played on WAKYOnline?

Thanks,
Chad

[Max]

Cool, Chad! Just send them to the e-mail address in my profile. How obscure is obscure? And from what format were they copied? In any case, I would be thrilled to receive them and work some or all of them into our rotation, depending on what is meant by 'several'. With the storage limits, I might have to save some of them to my hard drive and changeout rotation periodically, which would be no problem. I do that anyway...every other day I take some songs that get heavy rotation off the playlist to prevent overkill and preserve more of a balance.

Some songs are waiting in our library and I'm not sure what to do with them. They are still from the 70's, but are more like 'classic rock' and therefore I'm not sure how much airplay they got on the Super 79. Ashamedly, by the time these were hits I'd switched to FM. That being said, I'd have to study some WAKY charts a little more to see whether or not I'd be doing WAKY justice by adding them.

On a similar note, I'd added some songs I thought were good older songs, only to realize these were hits before WAKY came into existence, so I took them out in hopes of playing music that actually eminated from 790 AM.

Final question to the older listeners, were any of these songs ever actually played on WAKY?

• "See You Later, Alligator"
  
• "Peggy Sue"
  
• "Hound Dog"
  

Lastly, thanks to listeners of all ages who, in doing so, have pushed WAKYOnline's Live365 rankings in four weeks from #87 in our genre to #29 and from #8187 to #2958 overall. We really appreciate your helping to make this work. Like I've said before, it might not be the original, it might not be through an actual radio (a soap box issue of mine) and it might not be as beneficial to those with dial-up, but we're trying our darndest to get as close as possible. I just wish the several airchecks I have uploaded would show up more in the shuffle. There are even links on the station page to this and WKLO's site!

But thanks again for listening and I'll be looking forward to receiving those tunes, Chad!!

[bruiser]

Those songs were played as oldies. A blast from the past. It's magic memory time.

[Ben Pflederer]

They were aired as "Silver Dollar Souvenirs", and as requested on Rudy's All Night Show. Even in the mid 60's, the night shift in Big Lou metro requested the older songs among the mix.

;D Friday and Saturday nights were most active with the earlier records. Rudy was advised of he "submarine races" on the Ohio River. It was work getting to the souvenir "Instant Request", but was fun.

[Max]

Speaking of format changes, yet another music station is leaving the AM airwaves. Hodgenville's Classic Country WXAM-1430 has been bought by Commonwealth Broadcasting and will become ESPN 1430. In fact, she is right behind me as I speak, in the same studio as WIEL/ESPN 1400.

At this point in the game, with AM it has become a matter of survival. Personally I found the classic country format they sported refreshing and an alternative to what is deemed 'country' today, but unless listeners respond to advertisers and buy their product, it becomes a waste of time and resources. One can see this beats the alternative of going off the air.

[Chad]

I listen to WXVW (or whatever it's call letters are now) 1450 AM as they play some older coutry. Sadly I think they must drop to about 1 watt at night as they can't be heard after 6:00pm away from Jeffersonville or New Albany. This sucks as they carry IU games and I am an IU fan.

[David Stockhoff]

chad said:

I listen to WXVW (or whatever it's call letters are now) 1450 AM as they play some older coutry. Sadly I think they must drop to about 1 watt at night as they can't be heard after 6:00pm away from Jeffersonville or New Albany. This sucks as they carry IU games and I am an IU fan.

You might be thinking of WAVG 1450. Not a bad little station if you like IU sports (which is all they have to offer, I am affraid). I am just not a fan of a station that only has two live DJ! Sorry! I know that is the ways of the world now but Dan Robinson (morning drive) and Chris Fox (afternoon drive) and a bunch of piped in announcers make "WAVE Fourteen-Fifty" a bore.

David :0)

[bruiser]

Yep, WXVW has been WAVG for a few years.

[Travis]

WXVW has been WAVG for years? Wow! I've been out of state longer than I realized.

One cool thing about the old WXVW was the call letters. It had to be one of the few stations that could display their letters on the actual transmitter tower (vertically) and the letters would always read as WXVW no matter what side of the tower you were looking at them from.

W

X

V

W