2005 Was the Worst Year in New York Radio

[musicradio77]

Here are some of my stories that made 2005, the worst year in New York Radio. First, there was CBS-FM lost it's 33-year run as New York's Oldies Station, replaced it with "Jack!" and it sounds horrible. I have Cool 92.9 up in the Hudson Valley area that plays oldies, but now the oldies where I live in Kingston, NY is still stuck in the suburbs. Scott Fybush has to say on NERW back on June 6th:

Fans of NEW YORK's WCBS-FM (101.1) have been bemoaning the station's decline for years, from the removal of pre-Beatles music from the playlist to the gradual retirement of legendary jocks like Harry Harrison, Dan Ingram and Dan Daniel to last year's ouster of longtime PD Joe McCoy.

But it didn't make them any less stunned when the station pulled the plug on oldies since June 3rd, Friday afternoon at 5 (with less than an hour's warning to most station staff, reportedly) and flipped to "Jack FM," bringing the "adult hits" format to the number-one market in much the same way it's appeared everywhere: no DJs, no newscasters, no commercials at first, just music and attitude-filled liners. (The first song, for the record: the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right (To Party)," certainly the first time that group's ever been heard at 101.1 on the dial.)

The flip means the end of Micky Dolenz' morning show, which debuted a few months ago to lukewarm reviews. PD Dave Logan, who succeeded McCoy last year, is also gone, and it appears that the rest of the jock lineup - including veterans Bob Shannon, Don K. Reed and Bill Brown - is out as well.

The oldies will continue as a Web-only stream, albeit apparently without the personalities who were so critical to making CBS-FM what it was. (Station management has been unclear on this point, and for now the stream is running jockless.)

NERW Commentary: 23 years after WABC's flip to talk, a new generation of New York City radio fans can now say they've experienced their own "Day the Music Died."

While oldies were on a decided downswing around the country already, having lost major stations in the last few months in Baltimore, Atlanta, Portland, Charlotte, Rochester and elsewhere, the loss of WCBS-FM is a body blow to the format that the station helped to create. When CBS began playing the hits of the fifties in 1972, "oldies" didn't even exist as a programming concept. Within a couple of decades, though, every market had an oldies station - and almost without exception, those stations looked to the mother ship in New York for the programming and promotional ideas that eventually became almost inescapable from one "Oldies 93" to the next.

But within that universe of oldies stations, WCBS-FM stood apart. In its heyday - and it was a long heyday - WCBS-FM was one of the most distinctively New York-sounding stations on the dial, especially when the end of music at WABC freed up Harrison, Ron Lundy and other Musicradio 77 veterans to work at 101.1, playing the same tunes that they made hits on the AM dial. (Over the years, WCBS-FM would be home to many of the jocks who made WABC famous, including Dan Ingram and Cousin Bruce Morrow.)

Even in its declining years, after the word "oldies" itself became verboten ("Motown, Soul and Great Rock'n' Roll" was one of the less-memorable replacements), WCBS-FM remained distinctive for its full-service approach, with newscasts all day and far more personality than your average FM music station. (And did we mention the reverb-verb-verb-verb?)

So while it was no surprise to hear "Jack" launch on an CBS Radio-owned New York FM after the company's high-profile adoption of the format in Los Angeles a few weeks back, there's a distinct sting to the decision to put the jockless Jack on what was arguably the most successful FM in the company's Big Apple stable, rather than on the long-broken WNEW or WXRK, which faces the impending departure of Howard Stern in a few months. (Now he's gone).

It's a moment of reckoning for those of us who believe passionately in the value of personality radio, exemplified by Vin Scelsa's "Idiot's Delight" on WFUV (90.7) Saturday night, which Scelsa turned into a passionate rant about what WCBS-FM meant to him. It's that kind of radio - intimate, creative and exciting - that no MP3 player can duplicate.

Can the same be said about Jack - even if you can overlook what died to make room for the format in New York?

*The fallout: CBS Radio's move changes the landscape in New York in several ways. First, it puts an end to the lengthy speculation about which station would take the leap into the adult-hits format. While nothing's impossible at this point, it's hard to imagine any of the other major FMs in the market challenging WCBS-FM with a knockoff "Bob" or "Max" or what have you. (That said, ABC's WPLJ was clearly testing the waters with its many "Flush the Format" weekends of late.)

Just as many questions were created by the flip, though. In no particular order:

Is this the end of oldies in New York City? With a relatively small number of full-market commercial FM signals in town, the city's big groups have been hesitant to revive formats that have struggled in the market - just look at the absence of country radio since WYNY's demise, or of standards since WNEW left the air. But if WCBS-FM's unique personalities were to be available, would Clear Channel or Emmis or ABC take the leap? (Clear Channel, in particular, has been widely rumored to be considering a format change at WKTU.)

What about the suburbs? There are already successful oldies stations on the edges of the market - Cox's WKHL in Stamford, Long Island's WBZO, WLNG at the eastern end of Long Island, and on the AM dial, WMTR/WWTR in northern and central New Jersey and WNNJ (home to former CBS-FM jock Max Kinkel) up in Sussex County. Will any of them try to captalize on the demise of WCBS-FM?

Is any CBS Radio oldies station safe? Philadelphia's WOGL (98.1) has been one of the most successful stations anywhere in the format (in no small part by paying careful attention to the WCBS-FM formula of legendary local jocks), and Boston's WODS (103.3) has revived its flagging fortunes with more 70s music. In both markets, CBS Radio was beaten to the punch with adult hits (Greater Media's "Ben" WBEN-FM in Philly, Entercom's "Mike" WMKK in Boston), so perhaps WOGL and WODS can breathe a little easier. But if it can happen at WCBS-FM...

Will IBOC multicasting save the oldies? CBS Radio's been suggesting that the remnants of WCBS-FM that survive on the web might eventually also be heard on a multicast channel of a digital WCBS-FM. Could 101.1 someday be home to Jack and oldies - if enough receivers get into the marketplace quickly enough? But Infinity's problem in New York isn't exactly a lack of available signals for viable formats so much as it is the opposite - a lack of viable formats for its available signals - which brings us to the next question:

OK - now what happens to WNEW and K-Rock? Since we now know there won't be a Jack 102.7 or Jack 92.3, what other cards does CBS Radio have up its sleeve in New York? After WNEW's many years of format struggles, Jack might have been a welcome change at 102.7; instead, the lackluster "Mix" will straggle along for at least a little while longer. And can K-Rock still be K-Rock without Howard? Is there some sort of strategic plan that's just not evident here?

So what about Jack? It won't be easy for the radio community to assess the new Jack on its own merits - there's just too much history at 101.1 to overcome in a weekend, or probably in a year. But there's no question that CBS Radio will be spending a lot of money, very soon, to try to market Jack to a new audience for which that dial position doesn't have as much baggage. CBS Radio's making a very heavy bet on Jack across the country - it's now on in Minneapolis, Seattle, Buffalo, and launched in Chicago (on WJMK 104.3, also replacing oldies) at the same moment it arrived in New York, and the New York Jack will no doubt benefit from the best programming, promotions and research talent CBS Radio can muster. But New York's not Vancouver (where Jack first tasted success three years ago) - it's a market where stations have always crossed format lines in ways that other markets don't quite match. (Look, for instance, at how smoothly the deeper Jack-style cuts have been fitting into WPLJ's nominal hot AC format.

There are interesting times ahead, and even as we mourn WCBS-FM, we're looking forward to chronicling whatever comes next. We're also interested in your thoughts - send 'em along and we'll print some of them next week. (If you don't want your name used, let us know.)

NOTE: I took the name "Infinity" off and replaced it with "CBS Radio"

In addition other casulties in New York radio in 2005:

WXRK/WFNY (92.3 New York) was still "K-Rock" - back at the end of March, it's traded in the alternative rock it's been playing since 1996 for a broader rock format that includes older artists such as Motley Crue, calling itself "K-Rock. Great Rock. Period."

The new (or perhaps "the new old") K-Rock ran jockless all last week (with the exception, of course, of Howard Stern in morning drive), but the jocks will be back this week, we hear. The modern rock lives on as a webstream called "Krock2."

And finally, the worst of New York radio in 2005:

Howard Stern has left terrestrial radio and headed to Sirius. That was where 2005, the worst year in New York radio. As I said at the top, "Jack!" is the worst station of all time and for all means, "Jack!" is going nowhere in New York City on 101.1. It is getting way out of hand!!!

[dlemond]

Originally Posted by musicradio77

Here are some of my stories that made 2005, the worst year in New York Radio. First, there was CBS-FM lost it's 33-year run as New York's Oldies Station, replaced it with "Jack!" and it sounds horrible. I have Cool 92.9 up in the Hudson Valley area that plays oldies, but now were stuck in the suburbs. Scoot Fybush has to say on NERW back on June 6th:


And finally, the worst of New York radio in 2005:

Howard Stern has left terrestrial radio and headed to Sirius. That was where 2005, the worst year in New York radio. As I said at the top, "Jack!" is the worst station of all time and for all means, "Jack!" is going nowhere in New York City on 101.1. It is getting way out of hand!!!

If you hate these two things, why did you list them in your post under the "Best of 2005" thread?

[musicradio77]

Originally Posted by dlemond

If you hate these two things, why did you list them in your post under the "Best of 2005" thread?

I know for those of you music fans in the Tri-State area who missed my favorite formats gone.

[Steve M.]

I think the message of these format changes is inescapable - white guys don't matter anymore. We're too old, too unhip, and too stodgy for our pre-Reagan-era musical tastes to have any relevance. What white-guy radio is left in New York? Oh yeah, that's right we do have white-guy radio in NYC. It's called "The Sean Hannity Show!"