WCBS-FM (New York City)...how do you feel about the station going back to oldies!
Question:
WCBS-FM (New York City)...how do you feel about the station going back to oldies?
Today (Thursday, July 12th) is the official day that WCBS-FM, which was a heritage oldies station for 23 years before it flipped to "Jack", went back to the oldies format.
For those in NYC, how do you feel about the change? Is it what you've expected? Better? Worse?
Answers:
I'm extremely happy because I'm coming back to the East Coast soon for a visit and will be able to listen to a decent station while I drive. (I listened to WFUV while driving around last time I was home and, despite the presence of some former WNEW-FM jocks, it sounded like play-it-safe alt-music for yuppies who forgot how to rock when they grew up. I didn't want to have to listen t just WCBS-AM and WFAN again.)
I was heartbroken -- more like furious -- when I heard CBS unceremoniously dumped oldies from 101.1 in favor of Jack Sh*t. They dumped the nation's pioneer oldies format, one with over 30 years of history and good ratings and legendary deejays, for a snarky, faux Gen-X, faux non-format format. (Coincidentally, I was visiting a friend in Los Angeles that weekend and saw a billboard for L.A.'s Jack radio while on the freeway. She turned it on. It was Phil Collins. That experiment lasted four seconds.) Basically, it was a purely greed-driven decision: You make a lot more money if you don't have to pay Jack for personalities.
I'm glad the suits saw the egregious error of their ways. I'm glad CBS-FM is back and I'm glad it's updating the playlist. Hopefully, it'll be a wide and far-reaching playlist and not, as The Four Tops sang, the same old song. I do wish they'd throw the '50s fans a little bone, though. Don K. Reed's Doo-Wop Shop was a staple on Sunday nights for a long time, and if there was a music form (aside from early punk and hip-hop) that screamed New York, it was doo-wop. There should be some room for '50s material besides Elvis. (If they want to skew younger in the books, how about a rockabilly show?)