At 3 p.m. on Nov. 3, legendary Top 40 and Rock radio jock Pat St. John began his shift on SiriusXM’s ‘60s Gold, the rebranded ‘60s on 6 in its new home on SXM channel 73. He played his new Drake-style top-of-the-hour jingle. He replayed one of his favorite gushing calls from a listener. Then he read a note from a listener that quipped, “It took a lot of effort to change to 73. I had to turn the radio on.”
A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from reader (and WRCB-TV Chattanooga, Tenn., news anchor) David Carroll commenting on the disconnect between the increased use of ‘60s and ‘70s songs in commercials. “Last night watching the MLB playoffs, I heard two spots back-to-back using ‘Sunny’ and ‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” he wrote. “If ‘60s and’70s music is such kryptonite for radio formats, why do advertisers use these songs?” he asked. I got a similar note last week when the channel realignment was announced.
As St. John’s listener comment suggests, SiriusXM for its part has been assuring listeners that car buttons set for 60s at 6 will automatically update to the new channel. In general, part of what SiriusXM has done particularly well is organize the infinite dial. My current car radio interface for SXM allows me to scroll “now-playing” info for every channel, in effect making every station a pre-set. By comparison, there’s nothing on the major audio aggregator app that really equates to car radio buttons.
Ross on Radio readers often point out that there are plenty of places to hear the ‘60s and ‘70s, just not perhaps on your existing car radio dial. When I wrote about the stream of John Sebastian’s KOAI (The Wow Factor) Phoenix being geoblocked, I heard from a number of readers about their own stations that did a ‘60s/’70s mix, including:
- Midwest Communications’ “Superhits” WIRL Peoria, Ill., doing a particularly high-energy blend of ‘60s and ‘70s, a pet project of MWC’s Jeff McCarthy;
- Programming veteran Brian Landrum’s non-comm Alaska’s Rewind Radio, heard on a series of frequencies through the state, including a new Wasilla frequency, outside Anchorage;
- Saga’s Pure Oldies 106.9 Milwaukee, part of an actual format battle with Fonz-FM (whose blend is more ‘70s-based vs. Saga’s more ‘60s.)
- SMG’s KTSO (Soft Oldies 100.9) Tulsa, Okla., also doing an older version of Soft AC than many of ’80s-based “Breeze” and similar stations.
- Broadway Media’s 105.5 Kool FM Salt Lake City, doing ’60s/’70s and actually giving away $1,000 a day today.
Last weekend, director Edgar Wright’s ‘60s-themed thriller Last Night in Soho opened, spotlighting the ‘60s as well. Here’s Wright’s Spotify playlist of ‘60s gold.
One of the challenges of programming the ‘60s today is that the listeners who grew up with them have a different frame of reference from those who learned it through syncs, streaming, and their parents’ collections. When Classic Hits still played the ‘60s, the net result was a small number of timeless songs, often the ones popularized in ‘80s movies. But as Classic Hits gave up the ‘60s, I noticed ‘60s on 6 starting to broaden, often moving into collectors’ territory in an intriguing way.
So when I tuned in to ‘60s Gold today, the first song I heard was “Three Window Coupe,” the Rip Chords’ top-30 follow-up to “Hey Little Cobra.” I’ve also noticed that a lot of what I’ve heard in recent weeks feels a little softer and more early-‘60s based (although that may be because early ‘60s are even more elusive on the radio). The rest of what I heard, starting at 1:30 with SXM’s Dave Hoeffel was:
- Janis Joplin, “Piece of My Heart”
- Shelly Fabares, “Johnny Angel”
- Bobby Goldsboro, “Little Things”
- Gerry & the Pacemakers, “Ferry Cross the Mersey”
- Mel & Tim, “Backfield in Motion”
- Beach Boys, “Surfin’ USA”
- Donovan, “Sunshine Superman” (with a sweeper that positioned Donovan as the Ed Sheeran of his time)
- Betty Everett, “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)”
- Guess Who, “Undun”
- Bobby Vinton, “Mr. Lonely”
- Elvis Presley, “It’s Now or Never”
- Jackie DeShannon, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”
- Four Seasons, “Walk Like a Man”
The realignment of the primary SXM dial led to the launch of two new offerings among SXM’s low-numbered channels and the significant retooling of another. The launches are The 10s Spot, playing 2010s pop on channel 11, and “’90s-to-now” gold-based AC Mosaic (15). Meanwhile, The Blend (16) became a softer AC, replacing Love, which now exists only as an online extra channel. (Both the ‘40s and ‘50s channels have moved higher up as well and the ‘40s channel is temporarily online only to accommodate a Christmas channel.)
That change means that there’s a different focus in the first tier of decades channels. There are now channels for the ‘70s through the 2010s. There’s nothing among the primary music channels that combines the ‘80s, late ‘70s, and early ‘90s in the way that broadcast Classic Hits does. But there is a channel that’s ‘90s and ‘00s, along with individual channels for both. But if you were 15 years old in 1997 when “Wannabe” was a hit in America, you’re turning 40 next year.
Mosaic is mostly AC in texture but makes some excursions into ‘90s and ‘00s Hip-Hop. The FM station it most parallels is WSHE Chicago. The Blend, meanwhile, is going to be a favorite station for those Ross on Radio readers who have commented in the past that many of the large-market “Soft ACs” don’t go soft enough or far back enough musically. Many Soft ACs evolve newer as soon as they can; here’s one that went the other way. (Update: Within a week of this article, there were tweaks again to make The Blend not as old/soft. I covered the changes here.)
This is the new blend of The Blend, positioned as “nice and easy pop hits” at 12:30 p.m. ET on Nov. 3:
- Oliver, “Good Morning Starshine”
- Anita Baker, “Sweet Love”
- Firefall, “Just Remember I Love You”
- Kenny Rogers & Sheena Easton, “We’ve Got Tonight”
- Bellamy Brothers, “Let Your Love Flow”
- Moody Blues, “Your Wildest Dreams”
- Olivia Newton-John, “Have You Never Been Mellow”
- Quincy Jones f/James Ingram, “One Hundred Ways”
- Peter Cetera w/Amy Grant, “Next Time I Fall”
- Yvonne Elliman, “If I Can’t Have You”
- Tierra, “Together”
- Tony Orlando & Dawn, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”
- Chris de Burgh, “The Lady in Red”
- Mouth & MacNeal, “How Do You Do?”
- Smokey Robinson, “Being With You”
- Joe Cocker, “You Are So Beautiful”
Here’s the new Mosaic, which bills itself as “a colorful mix of ‘90s and 2000s pop hits” at 10 a.m. ET on Nov. 3:
- MC Hammer, “U Can’t Touch This”
- Alannah Myles, “Black Velvet”
- John Mayer, “Daughters”
- Smashing Pumpkins, “Tonight, Tonight”
- Christina Aguilera, “What a Girl Wants”
- Backstreet Boys, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”
- 50 Cent, “Candy Shop”
- Jamiroquai, “Virtual Insanity”
- Lifehouse, “Halfway Gone”
- Lonestar, “Amazed”
- Adele, “Hometown Glory”
Finally, as an longtime fan, I had to update this on Nov. 5 to include a quick listen to the pop-up ABBA Radio, currently bumping Studio 54 (so to speak) to celebrate the return of the band with the “Voyage” album. Here is a brief stretch of the Abba channel:
- “Fernando” (in Spanish)
- “Little Things” (the Christmas song from the new album)
- “When All Is Said and Done” (from “The Visitors,” confirmed the winding down of the group’s U.S. chart power a few minutes before they decided they were done anyway; the U.K., by contrast, had one final megahit with “One of Us”)
- Hep Stars, “Isn’t it Easy to Say” (Benny’s pre-Abba band)
- “I’m A Marionette”
- “Honey Honey”
- Camera Obscura, “Super Trouper”
- “Hasta Manana”
