WCBS-FM At 50 … And 15

Radio is dominated by heritage brands, which means a lot of stations celebrating major anniversaries every year. (Any station that went or returned to CHR in 1997, for instance, is 25 years old.) WCBS-FM New York is celebrating two this month. It first went Oldies on July 7, 1972. It returned to the format now known as “Classic Hits” on July 12, 2007, after two years as Adult Hits “Jack-FM.”

WOGL Philadelphia’s success in the first PPM measurement market was a turning-point moment for Oldies, which needed some major-market good news. But the prominence of CBS-FM furthered the momentum and helped create the template for a newer Classic Hits format that acknowledged the ’80s. (Even though it was a nod to The Sopranos’ abrupt finish, it’s still interesting to note that “Don’t Stop Believin’” was Jack-FM’s final song. And even with its new late-’00s prominence, that Journey song still belonged to Adult Hits at the time.)

The twin CBS-FM anniversaries offer a chance to look at CBS-FM then and now, as well as Throwback Listens to the station shortly after its 1972 launch and at several other points over the years. Some of these monitors come from my listening/articles, others are from airchecks available online.

Here’s WCBS-FM on July 10, 1972, in its first days as an Oldies station, still playing a lot of recent music and what was sometimes then positioned as “future gold.”

Eric Burdon & War, “Spill the Wine” (1970)
Danny & Juniors, “Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay” (1957)
McCoys, “Hang on Sloopy” (1965)
Steve Lawrence, “Portrait of My Love” (1961)
Bread, “If” (1971)
Charts, “Deserie” (1957)
Fifth Dimension, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” (1969)
Flamingos, “I Only Have Eyes for You” (1959)
Dovells, “Bristol Stomp” (1961)
Smokey Robinson & Miracles, “Tears of a Clown” (1971)

This is from an aircheck of CBS-FM during the height of the Oldies format explosion on August 3, 1992. There’s a little more ’70s here than on some comparable stations — something that caused other PDs at the time to suggest to me that WCBS might be vulnerable to a tighter, more conventionally programmed station. But this is at the time of CBS-FM’s ascent (and Top 40’s decline), and we never found out what a competitor would do.

Spiral Starecase, “More Today Than Yesterday” (1969)
Four Tops, “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got) (1973)
Neil Sedaka, “Calendar Girl” (1961)
Tommy James & Shondells, “Crystal Blue Persuasion” (1969)
Frankie Valli, “Swearin’ to God” (1975)
Johnnie & Joe, “Over the Mountain, Across the Sea” (1957)
Dave Clark Five, “Glad All Over” (1964)
Tokens, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (1961)
Beatles, “Here Comes the Sun” (1969)
Eddie Holman, “Hey There Lonely Girl” (1970)
Nino Tempo & April Stevens, “Deep Purple” (1963)
Marcels, “Blue Moon” (1961)
Bee Gees, “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)” (1976)
Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965)
Platters, “My Prayer” (1956)

The station’s much-covered first hour on July 12, 2007 had a lot of “statement songs,” but I remember it as not that different from when the regular format settled in. As with the format overall, the ’60s titles were the ones that had some sort of cultural footprints (movies, syncs, etc.) in later years. It was then a big deal that the ’80s were mentioned in the positioner — they were often by holdover artists or songs with some throwback element. Here’s the relaunch:

Beach Boys, “Do It Again” (1968)
Four Seasons, “December 1963 (Oh What a Night)” (1976)
Aretha Franklin, “Respect” (1967)
Bruce Springsteen, “Glory Days” (1985)
Fleetwood Mac, “Don’t Stop” (1977)
Lovin’ Spoonful, “Summer in the City” (1966) — part of an hourly “Hall of Fame” feature on summer songs
Maxine Nightingale, “Right Back Where We Started From” (1976)
Rolling Stones, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (1965)
Billy Joel, “Only the Good Die Young” (1978)
Contours, “Do You Love Me” (1962/1988)
John Mellencamp, “Jack and Diane” (1982)
Beatles, “Twist and Shout” (1964/1986)
Bee Gees, “You Should Be Dancing” (1976)
Roy Orbison, “Oh, Pretty Woman” (1964)
Tommy James & Shondells, “Mony Mony” (1968)
Donna Summer, “Last Dance” (1978)

When I wrote about CBS-FM in September, 2015, it was with a focus on the ’70s/early-’80s soft rock that found a home on the station following the success of SiriusXM’s Yacht Rock Radio. At that time, it made the station a little older and more AC-leaning than the more ’80s-based format that was starting to take hold elsewhere. Here’s WCBS-FM at 11 a.m. on Sept. 23:

Thin Lizzy, “The Boys Are Back in Town” (1976)
Michael Jackson, “Man in the Mirror” (1988)
Orleans, “Dance With Me” (1975)
Chicago, “Saturday in the Park” (1972)
Rick Springfield, “Don’t Talk to Strangers” (1982)
Pat Benatar, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” (1980)
Soft Cell, “Tainted Love” (1982)
Beatles, “Help!” (1965)
Boston, “More Than a Feeling” (1976)
John Parr, “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” (1985)
O’Jays, “Use ta Be My Girl” (1978)
Elton John & Kiki Dee, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (1976)
Naked Eyes, “Always Something There to Remind Me” (1983)

A year later, I wrote about CBS-FM again as part of a look at how the ’90s were starting to work their way into the Classic Hits format. There was no music monitor in that story, but the impetus was hearing “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan on “Oh Wow Wednesday.”

Here’s a Fresh Listen to WCBS-FM on June 13, shortly after the station was No. 1 in the market for the May PPM. Of the 16 songs in the 2007 relaunch hour, six of them were still on the station last week — “December 1963,” “Glory Days,” “Don’t Stop,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Jack and Diane” and, thanks to a single play, “Twist & Shout” (which was also the only Beatles song for the week). There are also three songs that are older or as old as the station still in rotation–“Imagine,” “Your Song,” and “Tiny Dancer.”

Here’s the station just before 3 p.m.:

Huey Lewis & News, “The Power of Love” (1985)
Peter Cetera, “Glory of Love” (1986)
Bangles, “Walk Like an Egyptian” (1986)
Genesis, “Invisible Touch” (1986)
Whitney Houston, “How Will I Know” (1986)
Rupert Holmes, “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” (1979)
Bon Jovi, “You Give Love a Bad Name” (1986)
Steve Perry, “Oh Sherrie” (1984)
Rockwell, “Somebody’s Watching Me” (1984)
Men at Work, “Who Can It Be Now” (1982)
Alanis Morissette, “Ironic” (1996)
Frankie Goes to Hollywood, “Relax” (1984)
Earth, Wind & Fire, “September” (1978)
Peter Gabriel, “In Your Eyes” (1986)
Tiffany, “I Think We’re Alone Now” (1987)
Eric Carmen, “Hungry Eyes” (1988)

Listeners willing to display any amount of enterprise now have options for hearing a station that sounds more like the CBS-FM of 15 (or 25) years ago. Morning host Scott Shannon’s True Oldies Channel is on WCBS-HD-3. The Tri-State area is also ringed by any of a half-dozen older-leaning stations, including WHLI Long Island, which was up 3.2-3.4 in June with a format more comparable to what CBS-FM left behind in 2005 than what it returned to in 2007.

Here’s WHLI just before 8 a.m. on July 13:

Paul Simon, “Slip Sliding Away” (1977)
McCoys, “Hang on Sloopy” (1965)
Johnny Lee, “Looking for Love” (1980)
Jim Croce, “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” (1974)
Aretha Franklin, “Think” (1968)
John Lennon, “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” (1974)
Monkees, “Daydream Believer” (1967)
Roy Orbison, “Only the Lonely” (1960)
Spinners & Dionne Warwicke, “Then Came You” (1974)
Doors, “Love Me Two Times” (1968)
KC & Sunshine Band, “Get Down Tonight” (1975)
Supremes, “My World is Empty Without You” (1966)

UPDATE: After this article was published, one reader commented on the irony of longtime CBS-FM host Don K. Reed’s recent passing. David Hinckley, dean of New York radio writers, wrote a great obit of Reed, which also has some keen observations on the evolution of the station.