Re: 1988 is an oldie!?!

["Dan Billings" <dib9@gwi.net>]

I work at Oldies 100.9 (WYNZ) in Portland.  Our playlist is mostly
1962-1972, with a few older songs and a few big pop hits from 1973 and 1974.
Also in the regular rotation, is Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock-n-Roll" from
1978 and the Four Seasons hit from the late 70's.  Even during the key
period of the format, their are lots of big hits and well known songs that
are not included in the format.  The sound is mostly 60's and early 70's pop
so pop hits that are more hard rock or folk are not played regularly.  I
have nothing to do with the playlist, but I think the philosophy is more
consistency of sound and the market that is being sold than simply the
timetable.

We do a "Top 10 from Then" feature evry night at 6:00 PM.  We count down the
top 10 oldies from that date in a year from 1962-1972.  We play the actual
chart hits from that period so everything gets played.  The Top Tens are
often a weird mix and lots of stuff gets played that wouldn't fir in the
regular rotation.

I think any oldies station has to pick a timetable and a type of music to
put together a format that people would listen to on a regular basis.

I do find it interesting that most oldies stations have moved away from 50's
music into the 60's and early 70's, but there has been little movement
beyond that, on most oldies stations.  I think a lot of oldies stations at
one time followed a 15 or 20 year rule, like Chuck mentioned, but for Oldies
100.9 that's now a 27 year rule.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine