CBS-FM to Return to 60s, 70s & 80s Music


NEW YORK -- CBS-FM's legendary sound will return to the airwaves in New York City on Thursday, July 12 at 1:01 p.m.

According to a CBS Radio press release dated July 9, the format change from Jack FM to CBS-FM will start with songs from the Beatles, Motown and the Beach Boys and feature artists like Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Frankie Valli and many more.

"Above all else, it is an honor to bring CBS-FM back to New York," said Jennifer Donohue, Vice President and General Manager, WCBS-FM. "Having been a long time employee and personal fan of the station I truly understand what an emotional moment it was when New Yorkers had to say goodbye to their favorite radio station. We acknowledge and appreciate the loyal fan base who’ve never stopped asking for the format’s return, and now we’re thrilled to be back - better than before - with updated features, incredible on-air production, the best combination of legendary New York personalities, and of course hundreds of ‘The Greatest Hits Of All Time.’"


"CBS-FM will be a station that celebrates its past with an updated sound appealing to a whole new generation of listeners on many levels," said Brian Thomas, Program Director of CBS-FM. "The role we play in the community and the responsibility we have to our listeners will be treated with respect as we reintroduce the station back into the fabric of the City."

Additionally, Dan Taylor has been named as the station’s new morning show host, along with contributors Mr. G and Al Meredith. Bob Shannon also marks his return to the station as host of middays, and is joined on-air by market staple Broadway Bill Lee who will host afternoon drive.

Isn't it funny that EVERYONE who was not involved in that decision to drop the oldies knew it was a lunkhead move?

I'm just amused and/or horrified that 80s music now counts as "oldies." Although I did hear Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, the Stray Cats (isn't that ironic?), and even Bananarama before the switch. And WCBS had stopped playing 50s-vintage songs in rotation..

from nytimes.com--

WCBS-FM Reconsiders, Deciding Oldies Are Goodies Again

By BEN SISARIO
Published: July 7, 2007

Two years after an unceremonious dismissal that drew street protests and appeals from figures like Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Senator Charles E. Schumer, the oldies radio format is returning to WCBS-FM.

The New York City station, owned by CBS Radio, is expected to switch back to oldies next week from the Jack format, a broad mix from the 1980s and ’90s, with irreverent, prerecorded sound bites instead of live disc jockeys, according to a person who was briefed on the situation but who was not authorized to speak publicly. A report on the switch was posted this week on Radio Business Report’s online newsletter.

WCBS, which first switched to an oldies format 35 years ago today, changed to the Jack format on June 3, 2005. At that time, the station dismissed longtime D.J.’s who had been familiar to New York listeners since the early days of rock ’n’ roll, like Cousin Brucie (a k a Bruce Morrow), Dan Ingram and Harry Harrison.

“There was a lot of resentment when they fired Cousin Brucie,” said Paul Heine of Billboard Radio Monitor. “And they replaced it with something where the appeal is that it essentially doesn’t have a personality. It’s a jukebox with some attitude between the songs.”

The Jack format began five years ago in Canada as a looser, younger variation on the traditional oldies format, with a much wider playlist than is usual in commercial radio. Aiming to recreate the experience of an iPod set to shuffle, the creators of Jack cultivated the sometimes jarring juxtapositions long derided in the radio industry as “train wrecks” — Bon Jovi following Whitney Houston, for example, or Pearl Jam abutting Ricky Martin.

The format spread quickly throughout North America and has been successful in many markets; besides WCBS, CBS Radio has eight Jack stations. But Jack failed to attract much listener attention or advertising revenue in New York.

WCBS had a reliable audience as an oldies station, hovering near the bottom of the Top 10 ranked stations in the New York metropolitan region before the 2005 switch. The Jack format was introduced to attract the younger listeners more prized by advertisers, but WCBS’s ratings dropped precipitously after the format change. It lost more than half its audience share, and its ranking fell as low as 22, according to Arbitron. Recently its ratings have improved slightly, but have remained far behind its pre-Jack level.

The station’s advertising revenues also dropped. Revenue fell almost 30 percent, to $16.1 million for 2006, from 2005, according to estimates by BIA Financial Network.

Though WCBS is to return to oldies, it will probably be a new variation on the format, with more music from the 1970s and ’80s and less from the ’50s and ’60s, radio analysts said. It is also likely that some personalities from the old station could return.

Mr. Morrow was hired by Sirius Satellite Radio shortly after the switch; phone messages left at his home were not returned yesterday.

Figures like Mr. Morrow were missed by listeners, who protested loudly in the wake of the format switch two years ago. Jack uses a professional voice-over artist in Canada to supply prerecorded quips and slogans with only the slightest connection to a local market.

The personal touch was also missed by advertisers, some analysts said.

“With the oldies format, you’ve got more revenue opportunities,” said Tom Taylor, the news editor of Radio-Info.com, a trade Web site.

Advertising spots read by disc jockeys generate more money, he said.

“It’s a result of the general halo that people feel when listening to well-loved personalities on the radio,” he said. “Jack doesn’t read spots. Jack is pretty much jack in the box.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/nyreg ... ref=slogin

I guess that explains why I'm one of the seeming few who actually liked the "Jack" format. My M.P.3 player is always set on shuffle, and I'm cool with the prospect of Frank Sinatra being followed by the dulcet tones of GG Allin .

Nevertheless, I'm glad the original WCBS-FM will be coming back.

But, JACK in NYC was absolutely not like an mp3 player on shuffle...unless all you had on your iPod was Classic Rock, 80's Rock, and a few new tunes.

Frank Sinatra followed by GG Allin would actually be cool...but on JACK-FM in NYC you would be likely to hear Mellencamp followed by the Eagles followed by the new Bon Jovi followed by "Turning Japanese".

Which would have been fine with me.

I'm hard-pressed to think of a lot of "artists like Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, [and] Frankie Valli". For better or worse these guys are unique. Besides, I'd rather listen to Rod Stewart than somebody who was merely "like Rod Stewart".

Although I generally welcome the return of WCBS "Oldies", I have to admit that (despite early misgivings) the "Jack" format was actually pretty decent. All in all, they played a pretty good variety of music (which was actually adventurous by commercial radio standards). My sole complaint about "Jack" was their refusal to announce the names of songs (or artists) played on-air. It was as if they had a smug attitude, which basically said: "If you're not hip enough to know what was just played, you shouldn't be listening anyway!"

While I'm thrilled with the return of WCBS-FM (Cousin Brucie's analogy of waking up one morning and finding Yankee Stadium had been replaced with a fruit stand was apt, as was Little Steven's of finding the Statue of Liberty replaced with a blow-up doll!), I still think JACK would have had a better chance in NYC if two things hadn't happened -- one, it hadn't replaced a 30+ year beloved station, one of the highest-rated and most well-known in the country; and two, if the station hadn't leaned so heavily on 1980s rock. NY already has one station (WPLJ) with a heavy 80s slant, and the Lite-FM and even classic rock stations had started playing much more 1980s music. JACK did "play what we want" as their slogan said, but it never played what the audience wanted -- the real variety of music from the 1960s through the present day I imagined when I first heard of the format: the Beatles to Abba to John Mayer to Bon Jovi to Frank Sinatra.

NY's failed JACK could have used the slogan "Where 80s Rock* Lives!" (*and a few other modern songs we like) and it would have been apt; it was in reality just an oldies station for the generation that thinks 25 years ago is OLD. If CBS had played their cards right, there would have been a place for JACK *and* WCBS-FM, but I'd wager that the new tweaked WCBS (supposedly to play a bit more 1980s music at the expense of pre-1964) will have more variety than JACK ever did, *plus* great jocks like Bob Shannon & Dan Taylor. We shall see, NY radio listeners...

I guess I'll have to stop referring to 101.1 as "Jack Off-M" and go back to my original name for WCBS, "Doormat Radio."



I used to be friends with this performance artist who called himself "Eugene The Human Doormat," and WCBS-FM was by far and away his favorite radio station. Thus, WCBS was "Doormat Radio" to me.

That tears it! From now on, I'm boycotting ALL New York City radio stations!!!

so I guess it's Jack off.....

anyway, great news, CBS was an institution. Last week on vacation I had a rental car with sattelite radio, first time I played around with it, some very cool theme related stations, heard Bird Dog, It's Summertime (Sum Sum Summertime), & The Name Game all in a row, fantastic stuff with no commercials.

It was nice to hear those WCBS-FM call letters once again. The station sounded alive and full of energy compared to Jack.