Should Top 40 Play The ’80s? (Some College Stations Do)

I want Top 40 radio to be more aggressive on current music. But I’ve spent a lot of time listening to the college and high-school radio stations that play some version of Top 40. Now, I have a different question. Should Top 40 radio play the ’80s?

At least a few non-comm CHRs do play the ’80s. Ahead of speaking to student broadcasters and their advisors at the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System conference in New York last weekend, I’ve been listening to some of the most prominent high-school and college stations that do Mainstream or Adult Top 40 formats.

Those stations are a relative handful, but there are usually more of them than the industry is aware of. Syracuse’s WJPZ (Z89) is the best known, both for being in a rated market and because of scores of well-known alumni. Suburban Detroit’s school-district-operated WSDP (The Park) has prominent alums as well. (Another high school, Nashville-area Green Hills High, launched a new station, The Hill, in conjunction with Super HiFi’s AI-based programming tools and Xperi last week.)

I listened to those stations as well as Nassau Community College’s WHPC Long Island, N.Y., Ohlone College’s KOHL Fremont, Calif., in the Bay Area, and East Valley Institute of Technology’s KVIT (The Pulse) Phoenix.

Recently, I’ve wondered if non-comm CHR could have a greater role to play in today’s format. Potentially, it has a lower spotload, more musical freedom, as well as a social-media savvy staff who could have a better handle on what their peers are listening to.

We already know that some of what those peers are listening to includes older music. The Park has been playing 1-2 older gold titles an hour since its launch in the early ’10s. (Back then, the station’s Bill Keith says, the impetus was songs featured on Glee.)

The older titles on Z89 were outliers. PD Ilana Epstein says the station is, in fact, in the process of becoming more current. And I also came across a sequence of new songs by Justin Timberlake, Lil Durk, MGMT, and Hunxho. But it was interesting to encounter “Footloose” at all on the station (and later see “Making Flippy Floppy” by Talking Heads on Z89’s “Recently Played”).

In general, I’m reluctant to suggest that CHR become any more gold-based than it already is. The Top 40s of years past that played older gold were the ones most vulnerable to a competitor. Going heavy on late-’90s to early-’10s flashbacks haven’t done much to help the format’s fortunes. And I don’t need another place to hear “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

But are Classic Hits a place where radio could meet 19-year-olds where they live? Not every younger listener who likes oldies goes deep enough for Classic Hits or Classic Rock radio or wants to live there. Those songs, unlike the TikTok hits and other streaming phenomena that radio grapples with, also come with a built-in mother/daughter coalition.

Ross on Radio readers were able to name a dozen or so non-comm stations doing Mainstream or Adult Top 40 formats. My sense is there are probably considerably more, most of them little known to each other or the college-radio community. Not all have the oldies component. Here’s a sampling:

WJPZ (Z89), March 1, 10:45 a.m.:

• Metro Boomin’ w/the Weeknd & 21 Savage, “Creepin’”
• Drake, “The Motto”
• Kenny Loggins, “Footloose”
• Taylor Swift, “Is It Over Now?”
• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Refugee”
• Jack Harlow, “Lovin’ on Me”
• Miley Cyrus, “Flowers”
• Olivia Rodrigo, “Get Him Back”
• Cranberries, “Linger”

And here’s another listen on the evening of March 4:

• Doja Cat, “Vegas”
• Dua Lipa, “Training Season”
• Teddy Swims, “Lose Control”
• Lauv, “I Like Me Better”
• Sophie Ellis-Bextor, “Murder on the Dance Floor”
• Harry Styles, “As It Was”
• SZA, “Saturn”
• Tate McRae, “Greedy”
• Olivia Rodrigo, “Get Him Back”
• The Weeknd, “Popular”
• Billy Joel, “Turn the Lights Back On”
• Taylor Swift, “Is It Over Now?”
• Train, “Hey! Soul Sister”

WSDP (The Park), March 1, 1:15 p.m.:

• Miley Cyrus, “Used to Be Young”
• Go-Go’s, “We Got the Beat”
• Lewis Capaldi, “Someone You Loved”
• Taylor Swift, “Is It Over Now?”
• DJ Snake f/Justin Bieber, “Let Me Love You”
• Coldplay, “Clocks”
• Phillip Phillips, “Love Like That”
• Tate McRae, “Greedy”
• Sam Smith, “Diamonds”
• Rick Springfield, “Jessie’s Girl”
• Alica Keys, Lifeline”

WHPC, March 1, just before 10 a.m.:

• Lil Nas X, “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)”
• Kacey Musgraves, “A Deeper Well”
• Noah Kahan, “Stick Season”
• Tyla, “Water”
• The Weeknd w/Jennie & Lily-Rose Depp, “One of the Girls”
• Jonas Brothers & Bailey Zimmerman, “Strong Enough”
• The 1975, “Somebody Else”
• Jelly Roll & Lainey Wilson, “Save Me”
• Harry Styles, “Music for a Sushi Restaurant”
• Disclosure f/Sam Smith, “Latch”
• Victoria Monet, “On My Mama”
• Foster the People, “Sit Next to Me”

KOHL, March 4, just before Noon:

• Sia, “Unstoppable”
• Ariana Grande, “Yes, And?”
• Pharrell Williams, “Airplane Tickets”
• Jennifer Lopez, “Can’t Get Enough”
• Lizzo, “Special”
• Sophie Ellis-Bextor, “Murder on the Dance Floor”
• Tate McRae, “Exes”
• Lady Gaga, “Bloody Mary”
• The Anxiety, “Meet Me at Our Spot”
• Harry Styles, “Late Night Talking”
• The Weeknd w/Jennie & Lily-Rose Depp, “One of the Girls”

KVIT (88.7 the Pulse), March 1, Noon:

• Zach Bryan & Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything”
• The Weeknd, “Starboy”
• Sara Bareilles, “Love Song”
• Taylor Swift, “Is It Over Now?”
• O.A.R., “Shattered (Turn the Car Around)”
• Juice WRLD, “Lucid Dreams”
• Victoria Monet, “On My Mama”
• MGK w/Blackbear, “My Ex’s Best Friend”
• Future, “Mask Off”