Young Rascals , Buckinghams. Strangely enough still hear Gary Puckett on occasion -- would have thought "Young Girl" would be a no-no.
Think of it this way: they're not hearing "the same songs", they're finding an increased chance of their favorite songs occurring during their limited listening timespan. It's a numbers game, not a quality game. Think of how ChatGPT works: the most results of searching that seems to satisfy the highest criteria, leads to the simplest answers. The algorithm doesn't discriminate for quality, only the highest hits. Consider a listener, with an average of a 22-minute commute, during which time will require satisfaction, or at least a tacet assurance the media they wanted could have played just before or just after their drive. That's what keeps them coming back, the assumption they might have been more completely satisfied of they'd listened longer. My favorite consultant has always been able to prove to me by numbers, that TSL (time spent listening) actually goes up, when you trim the playlist to the barest bones, and rotate the songs to repeat quicker. Or at least, the TSL will surpass that of the competing station. Pop radio relies on listener usage according to demonstrated consistency in repeated usage, not quality of product. And the more dissatisfied people this method send away looking for something else...the more percentage of the total pie they retain. A frustrating reality of "mass media".
Boom Radio U.K. You'll hear most if not all of the artists and songs ignored by other stations. Since discovering it earlier this year, I never listen to any other. Let me add, it's way better than "Greatest Hits Radio" who just play, you guessed it, greatest hits.
WCBS changed I think around 2005 or 6. Yes they were the best oldies station with legendary DJs and specialty shows like the Doo-Wop shop and others. . Reason for the change was the aging audience and their sponsors didnt like that. I cant even listen to that station anymore because the music they play, well I don't even know some of it. Thankfully there is Sirius XM for their many music channels and of course my CDs.
Never hear the song "Signs" which was a hit for the 5 Man Electrical Band -- funny how a song whose subject was how "long haired freaky people " were being discriminated against in the Sixties and early Seventies is considered "quaint" and irrelevant, while every modern recording of a group complaining about discrimination is a modern masterpiece. Maybe ( hopefully) in 10 or 20 years those records will be considered quaint as well.
Well, Sirius XM has an awesome 70’s channel that plays everything. I subscribe just for that channel, so perhaps that’s the way to go for the artists you mentioned.
With the exception of maybe "Cherish", any wimpy soft -rock from 1965-1975 has left terrestrial oldies radio. Have they been "cancelled" by programmers who think playing soul and disco is better (nothing against those genres--- the history of pop music is so much more)
Oldies Radio have continually played the greatest hits of all artists featured. This has become so repetitive and mind numbing for many listeners. Playing deep cuts must be out of the question. This is what puts me off of Oldies Radio!
The good thing about Boom Radio is they acknowledge people want to hear more than just the hits (like Greatest Hits Radio for instance). I discovered this station a year ago and it's reignited my love of listening to the radio. A highlight is the sixties show My Generation with Roger Day, 8.oo am - 10.am Saturday. Nicky Horne, 4.00 - 6.oo pm weekdays is more rock orientated. Obviously you won't like everything you hear but for me (and my wife) this station beats all others hands down. (I hope my cheque is in the post!).
Apart from the annual holiday affair, you’ll rarely hear Nat King Cole, Perry Como, or Bing Crosby. Even though they all had a gazillion other hits.
That's because the target listening demographic doesn't want to hear a gazillion hits that they think are keeping them from hearing "Sugar Sugar" one more time. An Oldies radio station is not a museum, and there are plenty of places to source just about everything you want these days. But you're not going to find a station that plays everything you want to hear, if that means it's not what everybody else wants to hear.
Well, to be fair, Perry Como had only three Top 40 hits (one Top 10) after 1963. In fact, "It's Impossible" was his only Top 20 hit after 1958. Same with Nat Cole. Only four Top 20 hits after 1958, two of them Top 10. Bing Crosby's last non-Christmas Top 40 record was in 1957. Only two Top 40 after 1954. That's only three Top 10 records among them during the peak period of Top 40 radio. So what would you expect? If you could find an Adult Contemporary/Easy Listening oldies station, you might do better, but do any of those exist today?
This is not the radio but a reflection on hearing old music and relating it to the past. It was not many years ago that I was sitting in a bar and a Santana song came on. I was the oldest person in this bar and I thought when this Santana song came out and if they were playing music that old what might I have heard back in those days. I came up with Al Jolson...
Recently elsewhere in this forum, someone put down Bing and Dean and Frank. These artists were held in esteem by my father and even the 1st generation of RnR critics. But now my children’s generation have little appreciation of these artists work. So we shouldn’t be surprised our musicians will disappear . It’s happening to Elvis as we speak
I don’t think I ever remember hearing certain artists on oldies radio, even in the 1980’s or 90’s. These include Tommy Sands, Ronnie Dove, Joe Simon, Pat Boone, maybe Joe Tex, and probably others. Many others had only the same 1-2 songs played out of their impressive repertoire: Connie Francis, B.J. Thomas, 1960’s Neil Sedaka, etc. Nowadays I rarely hear any of the 50’s artists. And if I hear a song by Elvis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, or Buddy Holly, it’s the same song they always play. Also missing are many of the hits from 1960-63 and 1980-81. And songs that peaked between #11-40, unless they were popular due to being in a commercial or movie. Or maybe I’m just in a bad market for oldies radio.
Most terrestrial "oldies" radio in my markets (SoCal) don't go back past the 70s anywhere. It has to be specialty internet feeds for the kind of oldies radio I want....luckily I spend more time at laptop/desk than in car. Tho Palm Springs hurts because it had until last year an AMAZING instrumental slush/whitebread pop/great american songbook oldies station that was sold and turned into a jumbled mess with lots of jackfm level oldies.
yes for a while you heard Patsy Cline's hits played on oldies radio due to modern artists mentioning her as an influence, and maybe a car commercial?, but not recently.
Yeah the whole market is bad for oldies radio unless you have Sirius. Thats really the only place you will hear the artists you mentioned.
