Milwaukee’s Three-Way Oldies Battle

Over the last decade, some large markets have found room for a station that plays the ’60s/’70s-based version of Oldies that many of their Classic Hits counterparts have evolved away from. Depending on where you are in Milwaukee, you can hear three.

In 2018, Milwaukee Radio Alliance’s WZTI segued from the True Oldies Channel to Fonz-FM. In 2021, it was joined by Saga’s WRXS (Pure Oldies 106.9), one of a dozen Saga stations doing that format. Five months ago, WRJN Racine, Wis., dropped the Progressive Talk format that owner Civic Media runs elsewhere in the state to return to the station’s full-service roots, also playing ’60s/’70s oldies.

WRJN is differentiated from the other two stations by its news and personality content. Pure Oldies has a slightly higher ’50s quotient. Fonz has a higher concentration of ’70s titles. But all three span from pre-Beatles to ’70s. Both Fonz and Pure Oldies go back to “Rock Around the Clock.”

Pure Oldies, a Class-A signal, had a 2.2 6-plus in the August PPM, but has been as high as a 3.6 in the last six months. WZTI, heard on an AM and two translators, has an 0.4. WRJN can be heard in downtown Milwaukee on its AM; two translators cover Racine and Kenosha. All compete with mainstream Classic Hits powerhouse WRIT, which now comes into the early ’00s musically, but goes back to “Brown Eyed Girl” and still has some early-’70s titles.

Pure Oldies 106.9 is unhosted, but heavily produced. (There are also vintage commercials that play at the beginning of the station’s brief stopsets.) Fonz-FM’s middays feature some breaks from sister AC WLDB (B93) morning host “Joe.” (There was enough content that Fonz passed my “did I learn anything about the market?” test. Steve Miller is coming to town. Open Door Milwaukee, with its 150 open houses, is this weekend.)

WRJN bills itself as “local news and timeless hits.” There’s CBS and local news at :00, Civic Media regional and local news at :30, as well as liners emphasizing the station’s 97-year news heritage. Afternoon host Curt Vollman interviewed the head of a local theater company about an upcoming production of Murder on the Orient Express (and warned listeners not to buy scalped tickets) and talked about visiting a local record store. He was also joined by his son Teddy, a NASA engineer, to discuss the Space-X rescue mission.

Here’s WRJN at 2:15 p.m., Sept. 24:

• Mamas & Papas, “Monday, Monday”’
• Grand Funk, “The Locomotion”
• Chubby Checker, “Let’s Twist Again”
• Manfred Mann, “The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)”
• Beach Boys, “Help Me, Rhonda”
• Captain & Tennille, “Love Will Keep Us Together”
• Cowsills, “The Rain, the Park & Other Things”
• Simon & Garfunkel, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
• Four Tops, “I Can’t Help Myself”
• Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Bad Moon Rising”
• Buckinghams, “Hey Baby (They’re Playing Our Song)”
• Beatles, “Yesterday”
• Classics IV, “Spooky”
• Byrds, “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)”

Pure Oldies is the only one of the three stations monitored by Mediabase. It has more than 750 titles getting two or more spins a week. Here’s Pure Oldies 105.9 at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 24:

• Gary Lewis & Playboys, “She’s Just My Style”
• Jimmy Ruffin, “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted”
• Danny & Juniors, “At the Hop”
• Aretha Franklin, “Baby I Love You”
• Bobby Vee, “Rubber Ball”
• John Denver, “Annie’s Song”
• Jackie Wilson, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”
• Peter & Gordon, “I Go to Pieces”
• Surfaris, “Wipe Out”
• Mamas & Papas, “Words of Love”
• Mungo Jerry, “In the Summertime”
• Beatles, “We Can Work It Out”
• Diamonds, “Little Darlin’”
• Marvin Gaye, “Pride and Joy”
• Gary Puckett & Union Gap, “Woman, Woman”
• Herman’s Hermits, “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”

Here’s Fonz-FM at Noon, Sept. 24:

• Beatles, “Day Tripper”
• Four Tops, “I Can’t Help Myself”
• Alive and Kicking, “Tighter, Tighter”
• Billy Preston, “Nothing From Nothing”
• Little Anthony & Imperials, “Hurt So Bad”
• Bill Haley & Comets, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock”
• Maxine Nightingale, “Right Back Where We Started From”
• Petula Clark, “I Know a Place”
• Sonny & Cher, “I Got You Babe”
• Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, “Treat Her Like a Lady”
• Bobby Rydell, “Forget Him”
• Steve Miller Band, “The Joker”
• Jose Feliciano, “Light My Fire”
• Earth, Wind & Fire, “September”
• Beatles, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”
• Temptations, “I Can’t Get Next to You”
• Gerry Rafferty, “Baker Street”
• Beach Boys, “Fun, Fun, Fun”
• Chicago, “25 or 6 to 4”

Thanks to Throwback Nation’s Tony Lorino for the story idea.