WDRC-FM flips back to conventional oldies

[Howard Glazer]

After less than six months as '70s/'80s-heavy "Big Hits 102.9," WDRC-FM
Hartford kissed Huey Lewis, Lionel Richie and Blondie good-bye over the
weekend and returned to a more or less traditional oldies format. 

The station now uses "Good-time rock and roll" as its positioner, and
the jocks have to say it a lot. And they do, at least when they're not
slipping up and saying "Big hits."

The music mix is pretty much what we were used to during much of its run
as Oldies 102.9 -- standard '60s/'70s fare, with four or five "left
field" songs an hour: either songs that are idiosyncratic to DRC like
the Wildweeds' "No Good to Cry" and Jay and the Americans' "Let's Lock
the Door and Throw Away the Key," or songs that stun the listener (at
least this one) by their very presence. (Heard today: Roy Orbison's
"Mean Woman Blues," the Animals' "Don't Bring Me Down" and the Buoys'
"Timothy." )

A very strange move. I figured the phase-out of most of the '60s music
and the introduction of the '80s was intended to sell advertisers on a
younger audience. I can't believe Buckley only gave the new format -- as
bizarre as it was with its semi-"Jack" attitude of John Denver and
Blondie in the same song set -- one ratings book to prove itself. 

Can't help but wonder if "Good-time rock and roll" is just an interim
format on the way to a total blow-up of the station.

Howard, puzzled, in CT