Radio people were pumped last year when WQFM (92-Mix-FM) Wilkes-Barre, Pa., signed on with a Classic Hits format hosted by veteran DJs and meant to recall Top 40 radio’s ’80s excitement.
Radio people were especially excited this year when WGTZ (Z93) Dayton, Ohio, went one step further and began re-creating its own ’80s/’90s CHR sound.
Now, UK broadcaster Global is recreating, at least for a month or so, WSQK (The Squawk), the fictional ’80s station from the new series of the Netflix show Stranger Things, and it is the biggest radio story in the world.
Because WSQK premiered during our Thanksgiving week, and between issues of Ross on Radio, a number of colleagues have already taken very extensive “First Listens.”
James Cridland, long an advocate of both pop-up stations and side channels, praised Global in his Radioland newsletter for “showing how radio innovates like no other.” “Everything is perfect,” he notes, including WSQK’s ’80s-vintage Inovonics FM250 audio processing.
Phil Becker, former Executive VP of Content for Alpha Media, went even further, posting an extensive critique of WSQK on Linked In. As he would for one of his own stations, Becker had notes for improvement (more music-specific breaks, more consistent positioning, adding contesting and listener interaction), but he too is impressed, calling WSQK “a rare example of a promotional idea and a content play landing with equal force.” Becker also believes that Netflix will push further into the radio-entertainment space.
Other worldwide radio friends reached out. “A fantastic example of how to do a proper innovative creative partnership,” said UK-based consultant Nik Goodman, also one of the key players in the world’s Radiodays conferences. “More alive and full of energy than a lot of stations I hear on this side of the pond,” said Keith Berman. Richard Phelps also used the word “fantastic,” and his opinion particularly counts after two extensive re-creations of “KKHV Hill Valley,” the radio station in the Back to the Future movies for both 1955 and 1985.
The ’80s hold much sway now over radio people. One of the best-received ROR articles ever chronicles my moving from the East Coast to Los Angeles during CHR’s ’80s resurgence. Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, readers join me in saluting some real ’80s small-market CHR powerhouses that were living, breathing parts of their communities on a daily basis for years. A few are still there and are among the most successful of today’s CHR stations as well.
I’ve enjoyed the ‘80s-influenced stations, including this Canadian outlet that preceded them all. Beyond a full-scale recreation, Stranger Things offers a lot of opportunities to Classic Hits radio (including, I hope, putting “Upside Down” by Diana Ross back on the radio in a bigger way). I have my own programmers’ thoughts on WSQK, but the only real quibble is that American radio didn’t get to it first, again pointing out how the UK uses side channels and the infinite dial better than we do.
That said, it is worth noting that when I arrived in Southern California, KHJ Los Angeles had recently switched from Country to an Oldies/Top 40 hybrid, declaring “The Boss is Back,” and trying to channel its ’60s CHR dominance. I enjoyed that format, which lasted for about a year, but it was Top 40 KIIS, on its way to a 10 share, that was really the new “Boss Radio” for its era. I enjoyed WSQK, but I’m also on the record as being excited when Global’s CHR Capital does well, too.
Saluting the sound of ’80s CHR can’t recreate the ecosystem. That’s on us, and it sure is daunting on today’s long-post-deregulation radio and music landscape. There aren’t the same number of superstar artists or albums whose hit singles play out over the course of 15 months, not weeks. There isn’t the same flow of product, or labels willing to expend effort and resources in bringing it to radio. Video still influences the musical landscape, but TikTok and YouTube don’t organize it for radio in the same way MTV did, or help songs reach critical mass in as cohesive a way.
The greatness of ’80s CHR drew on both morning showmanship (the Z100 New York Morning Zoo) and format precision everywhere else. Outside of mornings, personality was measured in quality, not quantity. While we might not think a radio station can survive on music in 2025, there was, in MTV, a shinier new toy in the ’80s as well. Radio had MTV’s input, but also dozens of enterprising PD and MDs to sort it out and find hits by themselves. (As with today’s TikTok ephemera, there are a lot of power-rotation MTV songs from that era that never got to radio.)
Bringing any of those values forward to 2026 radio, as KIIS did with the KHJ legacy, begins with the determination to do so. It’s hard to look at the cornucopia of 1983-84 hit music and listen to “Die with a Smile” and “Ordinary” yet again with any enthusiasm. When I look at “Songs That Made a Difference” in a few weeks, I’ll tell you what condition (also present in 1982) does exist and makes me optimistic. Part of KIIS’ success is that it launched as a Hot AC but followed the music in a way that CHR isn’t quite doing now.
I’m also a few weeks away from saluting the “Intriguing Stations of 2025,” currently planned for the Jan. 15, 2026, issue. That list is always a little inchoate in the first week of December, but I’m happy to say that there will be “now” stations that define the year for me as well.
Finally, since neither Cridland nor Becker’s yeoman’s efforts feature one, here’s a music monitor of “The Squawk” as heard on the afternoon of Nov. 24 during “Dial a Dedication with Vance Goodman” playing “50,000 watts of tubular tunes.” (There are songs that wouldn’t have been on many American CHRs in the mid-’80s, although all have some connection to the show.)
- Madonna, “Angel”
- Scorpions, “Rock You Like a Hurricane”
- Limahl, “Never Ending Story”
- James Taylor, “Fire and Rain”
- Elton John, “I’m Still Standing”
- Pointer Sisters, “Neutron Dance”
- Whitney Houston, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”
- Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)”
- Beach Boys, “California Dreaming” — heard more here in the last few days than I heard it in the ’80s
- Billy Idol, “Rebel Yell”
- Dead or Alive, “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”
- Siouxsie & the Banshees, “Spellbound”
- Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton, “Islands in the Stream”
Hi Sean, I just learned of RadioInsight and have read it every day for the past few months, love it! I was never in radio but have been a huge fan of radio since 1964 with the first British Invasion. I subscribed to Record World from then to into the 1970s and then started with Radio and Records through the 80s. I am very interested in everything you have about the CLassic Hits format and even the Christmas programming you address so well. You mention the 80s focus of a lot of these stations. Do many of the more successful stations in this format also include 70s and even 60s (at least mid 60s on)? I never lived in large markets growing up but was generally in range of WLS. Was a huge fan of the jingles many of the Top 40 stations around the country used when we would travel. Love the stuff about the “saving” of CHR in 82/83 with the “second British Invasion” and MTV. I am a huge fan of the Kinks and loved the way they were part of each from “You Really Got Me” “All Day” and then 19 years later “Come Dancing.”Keep it up. Steve Hanson
Thanks for the kind words Steve. The major Classic Hits stations are down to a relative handful of ’70s and a few still have “Brown Eyed Girl” or “Come Together” or CCR, but little else from the ’60s. Generally, those are a separate format now, although the good news is that there are a significant number of them, mostly available on streaming.