For Oldies programmers, the ’60s and ’70s were very much not the same era. As a lifelong listener of the format, I remember when it catered to listeners for whom the good time oldies ended with the Beatles, or at least with Sgt. Pepper. For those still there, “In-A-Gadda-Di-Vida” was the next provocation.. By the time I first worked with Classic Hits in the ’00s, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Doors were staples, but for years they were the hippie rock that Oldies didn’t play.
The first time I heard “Dancing Queen” on an Oldies station of any sort was in 1987, on a small AM that was specifically positioned as ’70s/next generation. Those songs were still absent enough from Oldies radio to be their own format in 1993-95. When those stations fizzled, it at first seemed to reinforce the notion of ’70s pop as throwaway music. The decision to let the ’70s be the center lane was still a big deal when WCBS-FM New York returned from Adult Hits by doing so in 2007.
These days, the ’60s and ’70s live together on most of the stations that offer an alternative to the ’80s-driven large-market Classic Hits FM. To some extent, it’s by necessity. Both decades have been disenfranchised and the ’60s are unlikely to get their own stations. Stations such as KDRI (The Drive) Tucson, Ariz., and KOAI (The Wow Factor) Phoenix are also the vision of programmers who grew up in the ’60s and came to radio prominence in the ’70s. They have affection for and grounding in both eras.
How the eras fit together depends a lot on the station and its goals. The iHeart Real Oldies format is built mostly on safe-list songs from the two eras, and by design sounds like a large-market Oldies FM in the mid-’00s. Here’s iHR’s WBFX (Big 101.3) Grand Rapids, Mich, around 6 a.m., February 8, with some help from Mediabase:
- Elton John & Kiki Dee, “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart”
- Beatles, “Let It Be”
- Blondie, “Heart of Glass”
- Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, “I Second That Emotion”
- Abba, “Dancing Queen”
- Chicago, “Saturday in the Park”
- Aerosmith, “Dream On”
- Martha & Vandellas, “Nowhere to Run”
- Rolling Stones, “Beast of Burden”
- Eagles, “Take It Easy”
The alchemy changes when the two eras are treated slightly differently. Some stations are built around uptempo ’60s and softer pop ’70s, with depth in both. Recently, I wrote about one station that went from McCoys, “Hang On Sloopy,” to Paul Simon, “Slip Slidin’ Away.” Yesterday, I heard a different station play the Jacksons, “Enjoy Yourself,” into the Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today.” Sometimes that feels like two very different vantage points–a lot more for programmers to finesse.
WRME (Me-TV FM) Chicago was the first station where I really noticed the “uptempo ’60s plus softer pop ’70s formula,” with an emphasis on early-’70s pop. Here’s Me-TV-FM after 9 p.m. February 8:
- Frank Sinatra, “Anytime (I’ll Be There)”
- Billy Joe Royal, “Down in the Boondocks”
- Al Green, “I’m Still in Love With You”
- Raiders, “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Indian)
- Poppy Family, “Which Way You Goin’ Billy”
- Stevie Wonder, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”
- Lesley Gore, “You Don’t Own Me”
- Kenny Loggins, “This Is It”
- Young Rascals, “How Can I Be Sure”
- Roberta Flack w/Donny Hathaway, “The Closer I Get to You”
- Chicago, “Old Days”
- Huey Lewis & News, “If This Is It”
“Classic Oldies” WMTR Morristown, N.J., is one of the format’s longer-running stations, launching in the early ’00s as mostly pre-Beatles. WMTR still plays the ’50s, despite having expanded into the early ’80s (mostly for titles with some oldies connection). It’s also capable of going a little deep in any era. Here’s WMTR around 5:15 p.m., February 7:
- Alan O’Day, “Undercover Angel”
- Cyrkle, “Red Rubber Ball”
- Raspberries, “Go All the Way”
- Freddie Cannon, “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans”
- Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, “Wooly Bully”
- Marcels, “Blue Moon”
- Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr., “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)”
- Billy Joel, “Uptown Girl”
- Lesley Gore, “You Don’t Own Me”
- Temptations, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”
- Fats Domino, “I Want to Walk You Home”
- Village People, “YMCA”
For many stations, the wide spread is the point, especially two decades after Bob- and Jack-FM made the world safe for variety in radio programming. We recently profiled KDRI. KOAI has been another favorite of Ross on Radio readers, many of whom manage to hear it despite its geo-fencing. Here’s The Wow Factor just before 11 a.m., February 6:
- Heart, “Dreamboat Annie”
- Simon & Garfunkel, “Feelin’ Groovy (The 59th St. Bridge Song)”
- Charlie Daniels Band, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”
- Chad & Jeremy, “A Summer Song”
- Men at Work, “Down Under”
- Spencer Davis Band, “Gimme Some Lovin’”
- Temptations, “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)”
- Roy Orbison, “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)”
- Doors, “Riders on the Storm”
- American Breed, “Bend Me, Shape Me”
- Stealers Wheel, “Stuck in the Middle With You”
- Elton John, “Daniel”
- Gary Puckett & Union Gap, “Young Girl”
- Eagles, “One of These Nights”
Part of The Wow Factor’s experience is in its imagery. On this listen, I heard something I hadn’t noticed before — more vintage/traditional radio liners, although often with a twist; e.g., “literally, the greatest hits of all time” or “nobody plays more music — not even close.”
With online-only Oldies, it’s often common to encounter stations that cover ’50s through ’90s, or beyond, with depth in every area. By its very nature, the Live 365-based Oh Wow: The Songs Radio Forgot goes both wide and deep, but particularly on lost ’60s titles. Here’s the station on Jan. 22:
- Earl Grant, “The End”
- Turtles, “Do You Know What I Mean”
- Beach Boys, “Getcha Back”
- Barbara Mason, “Sad Sad Girl”
- Monkees, “The Girl I Knew Somewhere”
- Jackie Ross, “Selfish One”
- Little Walter, “My Babe”
- Hollies, “Magic Woman Touch”
- Clarence Frogman Henry, “Ain’t Got No Home”
- Stylistics, “People Make the World Go Round”
- Shawn Mullins, “Everywhere I Go”
- Pointer Sisters, “Should I Do It”
- Tokens, “I Hear Trumpets Blow”
- Kinks, “Apeman”
- Elgins, “Heaven Must Have Sent You”
- Johnny Rivers, “Tunesmith” — an album cut and deeper Jim Webb cover
- Cliff Richards, “A Little in Love”
While most of the online-only stations I hear aren’t as deliberately deep as Oh Wow, they do tend to take a wider/deeper view of the history of Top 40 hit music from the ’50s to the late ’80s/early ’90s and sometimes beyond. Often, their creators grew up in the ’70s, developed in radio through the ’80s, and still want to play the ’60s songs they heard as oldies. There’s the possibility of “Popsicles and Icicles” by the Murmaids into “Slow Ride” by Foghat.
The version of the “entire rock era” format in my head is a little more cohesive, because it’s little more consistently uptempo or consistently hip, but mixes of this sort are so personal that the last criteria would never be agreed on. I often think stations could be more cohesive by being wide everywhere, but deep in only one era. (If you’re going to play the “Thunder Island” ’70s, don’t also play Connie Francis.) But especially for people programming their own passion projects, I may be fixing an issue that doesn’t exist.
