I’ve been in a lot of Facebook and e-mail group discussions about KQV Pittsburgh. A month after going dark, KQV has been sold and will likely return to the air, but from a new transmitter site, which will make it essentially a suburban AM in its own market. That led to a recent group discussion about how few AMs have the footprint within a sprawling market to be anything more than a rimshotter. Then we started talking about the possible demise of the aircheck site ReelRadio.com, and the unlikelihood that anybody younger than us would care about the demise of ‘60s/’70s top 40 culture. It was not a cheerful discussion.

But don’t get all existential yet. A few hours later, news broke that WZON Bangor, Maine, the liberal talk station owned by author Stephen King, had gone into one of its regularly scheduled Oldies weekends and never come out. King, who bought former heritage Top 40 WLBZ at a time when AM music was mostly petering out elsewhere in the ‘80s, had shown himself to be somebody who would do something contrarian as a labor of love. (And we’ve already had a few of those in the last year or so—KONO-AM San Antonio, WGH Norfolk, Va., WTOB Winston-Salem, N.C.

When I listened on the evening of Super Bowl Sunday, Z62 was hosted. The change was sudden enough that TuneIn thought they were still running a radio drama show called, ironically, “When Radio Was.” Musically, the station was mostly ‘60s—calling-card enough for some readers—with a handful of early ‘70s that tended more to the AC’ish side. But these were the first hours. And there aren’t a lot of broadcast radio stations where the music teaser begins with, “Coming up, we’ve got the Critters.”

Having just written about Little Steven’s Underground Garage, I’m inclined to think the greatest potential for somebody doing Oldies on AM can think beyond a local franchise. A station operated by Stephen King, with jocks, doing old-style CHR formatics that just happens to be in Bangor, Maine has potential—depending on how it evolves, and just how contrarian its owner feels. (Besides the challenges of operating any news/talk station, WZON had also just lost local rights to the Red Sox, which likely made Oldies the easier move.)

Here’s the station, which is now running its ‘80s CHR jingles again, just before 9 p.m.:

• Seals & Crofts, “Summer Breeze”
• 1910 Fruitgum Company, “Simon Says”
• Wayne Fontana & Mindbenders, “The Game of Love”
• Sam & Dave, “Hold On, I’m Coming”
• Gary Lewis & Playboys, “Sure Gonna Miss Her”
• Captain & Tennille, “Love Will Keep Us Together”
• Righteous Brothers, “Unchained Melody”
• Gary Wright, “Dream Weaver”
• Stevie Wonder, “For Once In My Life”
• Critters, “Mr. Dieingly Sad”
• Beatles, “All You Need Is Love”
• Association, “Along Comes Mary”
• Billy Joel, “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)’
• Dorothy Moore, “Misty Blue”
• Byrds, “Mr. Spaceman”
• Yardbirds, “I’m A Man”
• Herman’s Hermits, “I’m Henry VIII, I Am”
• Three Dog Night, “Out In The Country”
• Neil Diamond, “Shilo”