Legendary oldies radio station WCBS-FM, New York yanked for 'Jack'

I know that ultimately this is a New York City story and many of you may not relate to it, but it merits a post here. This past Friday, June 3 at 5pm will probably go down as one of the stupidest and most shocking events in the modern history of New York radio. That was the moment when the 'good people' at Infinity Broadcasting decided to yank the oldies format at 101.1 WCBS-FM and replaced it with a new format that is apparently sweeping the country called 'Jack'. The format itself is as anonymous and disturbing as the name.

Some may think that oldies is a worn out format. I can't argue with that, but here in Gotham, WCBS-FM was a 33 year old institution that was quintessentially New York to the bone and had a unique and personal connection with it's listeners. In fact it was currently holding a top-ten position in the ratings books!! It was also home to many legendary New York DJs like 'Cousin Brucie' Morrow, Don K. Reed, and Bill Brown. Over the last few years CBS was grapling with the new technological changes in listening to music via iPods, Sattelite, etc., thus playing it real safe with their playlists. Granted it had it's problems, but it was in no way a lost cause, not even close. Currently, Infinity owns two other stations in this market that are in extremely bad shape. Why they didn't choose to install the 'Jack' format there is beyond me. It's all very backward. So out of nowhere on Friday they yank the format, fire the staff, and install this 'Jack' format which in the short description is supposed to be 'an iPod for your radio'. No DJs, no weather, just some snotty faceless pre-recorded voice over IDs. One says 'We put the B-S in CBS'. Gee...that's nice. What's up with these corporate a-holes??? Credible sources are reporting that the air-staff, etc. didn't even have prior knowledge of this until an HOUR before the change took place!!

There is total outrage over this right now and the listeners that had kept this station in top ten including me, are taking this real personally. Even people in the business are wondering what the hell is going on. It was a station that was not just about oldies, because yeah...I do get sick of hearing 'Happy Together' by The Turtles over and over again. This station was built on it's personalities from the school of when radio was your supposed to be your friend.

On a more general level, this is disturbing because it seems to be the direction are culture is headed. Generic, faceless, and expendable. Just really dissapointing and scary.

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2005-06-05 21:14 ]

When will some corporate wank finally realise that there are millions of people who would kill for a good radio station?

Why do they think radio is dying? Yes technology is passing them by, but radio could remain viable if they hadn't snuffed the vitality right out of it.

Indie 103 here in L.A. is the only radio station left that has any originality or soul. I know you can get it on the web. If they could get Rob Zombie to shut up and play a litle more music, it'd be closer to perfect. If they gave Rodney Bingenheimer A choice slot everyweek night, they'd be unstoppable.

"Accountancy killed the radio star!"

Detroit just received a gift in the form of "Doug FM- We play everything"

As far as I can tell, "Everything" just means Lite FM rock with the occasional disco hit. It sounds like Jack & Doug are brothers.

-Z

Accountancy killed the radio star indeed. Well put. these corporate wanks will never learn. As we hear over & over, 'It's all about money & power'. The guys that pulled the plug on CBS-FM made a big mistake, an 'economical error' as one radio insider put it. This is not, and I say this confidently, this is not going to make them more money than if they had left CBS-FM alone. CBS-FM was number 8 in the last ratings book. That's pretty damn good for a station that was just slaughtered like a friggin black angus at a steak farm. The way this was uncerimoniously handled says volumes about the money people in charge. They LIKE, no I'm sorry...they LOVE slaughtering things, especially if it's something they perceive as 'music for old farts'. This wasn't just about changing formats, this was about a room full of yuppies and old suits flexing their undeserved financial muscle, and letting everybody know that 'the lord giveth and the lord taketh away". And as far as demographics go I'm 38, I'm not exactly young, but I'm not 'old' either. And from what I've read on blogs, CBS-FM also had a good chunk of 20 something listeners. Oldies...music from the 50s,60s,70s...is a huge part of the fabric of American culture. Why do they always use it in commercials (not that I like that). Some 'oldies' you may not like, but guarranteed there is something for everybody in that format. ALOT of people like Elvis...ALOT of people like The Beatles...ALOT of people like Little Richard....ALOT of people like Motown...I HATE Frankie Vallie & the Four Seasons, but you can't win 'em all. So this continues to boggle the mind. On a positive note, I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of this format in NYC, and Cousin Brucie will most likely pop up on the radio somewhere. We'll see.

We just got a station like this here in SF at 95.7 (owned by Infinity, I believe). It replaced a country station. Few listen to country in this area, so there hasn't been any kind of outcry. :roll:

On 2005-06-05 22:42, TikiGardener wrote:
When will some corporate wank finally realise that there are millions of people who would kill for a good radio station?

Why do they think radio is dying? Yes technology is passing them by, but radio could remain viable if they hadn't snuffed the vitality right out of it.

Indie 103 here in L.A. is the only radio station left that has any originality or soul. I know you can get it on the web. If they could get Rob Zombie to shut up and play a litle more music, it'd be closer to perfect. If they gave Rodney Bingenheimer A choice slot everyweek night, they'd be unstoppable.

"Accountancy killed the radio star!"

Agreed. I listen to "Jonesy's Juxebox" everyday at noon (PST) via the internet.

http://www.indie1031.fm/listenlive.html

It's hosted by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, he has amazing guests and they often sing and play live on his show. He is brutally honest and candid and pulls out some great "blast from the past" songs.

It's shows and stations like this one that make me understand why most of my friends have switched to sattelite radio. There are so few stations with live DJs and all are owned by corporations who are tied to MTV's payola playlists that there is no more variety, just 25 songs in rotation with the others being the same crap they've overplayed for the past two years.

I have personal problems with the "music business" as I've always felt that music should be entertainment and not a commodity/investment. But the world doesn't work that way, unfortunately.

WHAAAAAAT! Killed WCBS? That's insane! It's the sign of the imminent arrival of the "End Times"!

I also listen to "Jonesy’s Juke Box". Despite that fact that he talks too much it's the best show on the station. However, before and after his 2 hour stint "Indie 103.1" sucks! It's as bad as any other corporate radio station.

It seems every time I tune in they are playing the same, whinny friggin' song. Truthfully, it seems to be playing every other song. And the other song is another , whinny corporate "indie" song. What's the industry term: "heavy rotation"?

I remember back in the late eighties, there was a San Diego Am radio station The Mighty 690 that played oldies. At some point they changed over to a cart machine system. Which was the precursor to whats happening today. It was a big machine with hundreds of "carts", Which basically look exactly like 8-track cassettes. So you could have the songs, the dj banter and commericals all set to go. The problem was that after about 8 hours, the programming grew really stale. Mighty 690 is long gone. Its now the Lounge, which has taken a horrid turn by playing modern interpretations of lounge classics. Compared to the originals, "sucks" is not a strong enough description. I bet the lounge goes bye bye within a year or so.

If there are any really original radio staion programmers out there who really want to "shake things up", I'm available.

It looks like all of the Jack-FM stations are Infinity, except for the one in San Diego. The station that has gone over to the Jack Side here is the former STAR-FM (owned by Midwest Television, Inc., of Chicago), one of the top performing stations in the market & considered one of the top 3 moneymaking Hot-AC format stations in the country, which changed it's format because the PD thought the Jack-FM format would erode it's fan base. :Huh?: You take one of the top performing stations, with a style based on on-air personallities, fire all the DJs (except for the geriatric Morning Show, who are rumored to want to leave anyway) and add some Rock & Pop from the '70s & '80s to your previous playlist of Kelly Clarkson & Matchbox 20? Their "Hook" is that they sound like your I-Pod, but they don't sound like what I'd put on an I-Pod, or what my wife would put on an I-Pod, or what my friends would put on an I-Pod... And when I turn on the radio I want to listen to the radio, not some pathetic Canadian's I-Pod (All apologies to the non-pathetic Canadians here, but the format was created & is handled by one of your countrymen).

Here's the last 20 songs from Jack-FM, San Diego:

"Like A Virgin" - Madonna
"Evil Ways" - Santana
"Born In The USA" - Bruce Springsteen
"Tonight Tonight" - Smashing Pumpkins
"What I Like About You" - The Romantics
"Rock N' Roll Fantasy" - Bad Company
"Please Forgive Me" - Bryan Adams
"Tell Me Something Good" - Rufus
"Down Under" - Men At Work
"Der Komissar" - After the Fire
"Semi Charmed Life" - Third Eye Blind
"Big Shot" - Billy Joel
"Once In A Lifetime" - The Talking Heads
"Animal" - Def Leppard
"Follow Me" - Uncle Kracker
"Dream On" - Aerosmith
"On The Dark Side" - John Cafferty
"Lies" - The Thompson Twins
"Here We Go" - C+C Music Factory
"Go Your Own Way" - Fleetwood Mac

Not much there I'd tune in for, except maybe the Uncle Cracker track, & I haven't heard that song from Rufus in years, everything else I was sick of years ago.

I expect this to go the way of the "Love Songs, nothing but Love Songs" & New Age Instrumentals formats that previously tried to fire all of their DJs. I remember what happened to the Mighty 690 in San Diego when they tried to go to a computerized Cart system: They went under in a year & a half. I expect the same to start happening here.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance on 2005-06-07 07:20 ]

Let's face it, broadcast radio is about as interesting as broadcast TV. The wave of the future is definitely satellite.

I tried listening to Jack FM here in San Diego. Garbage. Personally, I like the Mighty 690. I'm a sucker for the Great American Songbook. It's not all "modern" interpretations. Plenty of Sinatra, plenty of Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, etc. I love it.

My all-time fave radio show was "American Roots," sadly no longer available here in SD.

I really like WLUW in Chicago. I haven't listened to it in a few years, so maybe it's not there anymore. But much of the music I listen to today I got from that station.

Milwaukee is a music radio wasteland. Nothing good at all. Nothing. All I listen to now is talk radio because everything else drives me nuts.

Good to hear people in other parts of the country who feel the same way.

Freddie...yeah, these dumb-ass General Managers (or whoever's in charge) are so scared that 'Jack' is gonna get on another station and kill theirs. It's ALL a bad knee-jerk reaction, and they are going to see how bad in a year or less. What they need to do is very simple: the biggest complaint of all us radio listeners is that we hear the same songs over and over. Granted WCBS-FM for example had it's problems with that; they would play "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye, "Sister Golden Hair" by America, and "Respect" by Aretha Franklin CONSTANTLY. By the same token alot of these stations like CBS had the personalities that kept you listening despite this. Still not a reason to yank the format. What all these programmers have to do is EXPAND the playlists within their formats. There's 40+ years of Pop hits out there to choose from. That's gotta be more than 300 songs. 'Jack' they say is the answer to this. In theory, yes. But not when you replace a successful station with a strong listener base.

seattle's K-Rock 96.5 FM abruptly went to JACK format on April 22, with no notice to its DJs or staff.

infinity owns at least 4 stations here in seattle..taking over and homoginizing our music and news.

Ah, so that's what this is. Arrow 93.1 in Los Angeles has switched from "Classic" rock to "Jack." This biggest difference that I have noticed so far is the lack of DJs and that I no longer hear Styx 8 out of 10 times that I flip over to 93FM. These days I pretty much listen to the public supported Jazz station exclusively, and only switch ever to another station when they are doing a pledge break or overloading me with Latin jazz. It's weird. I must be getting old. It seems old music is all I want to listen to anymore. I think everybody else in my age group must be switching to AM conservative talk radio.

i have my husband's car today, and listened to JACK for a few minutes. sadly, their self advertisement admonished listeners to NOT call in requests because "We play what we want".

certainly im not going to set a button to that!

The whole backward logic of all of these broadcast conglomorates is that they don't give a rat's ass about listeners. They only care about what their advertisers think will be worth their money on a particular station, as they should. But if their radio station is nothing but a vehicle for advertising, maybe they should just play back-to-back commercials all hour and small blocks of music, it seems like they're close to doing that already.

I can't wait until the Infinitys & Clear Channels of the world find themselves in trouble once they have realized that they have chased their audiences away to satellite & non-commercial radio.

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2005-06-07 18:03 ]

I just found out today that the oldies station 1510 AM here in the Bay Area was just bought by a California media conglomerate. This station has been on less than a year but it's the best oldies station I've heard in years. They only play 50s and 60s music, way more than the top 100 most played oldies format of most oldies stations, and I've heard some tunes I've never heard before.

Soon they are going to replace it with a station for aging hippies that plays the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, etc.

OK, why can't these media corporations get it? They are leaving out a huge demographic! They readily cater to people over 50 (classic rock and top-100 oldies), and people under 30 (rap, hip hop, urban contemporary, "alternative rock"), but not us folks.

Here's the forgotten demographic:

Age: 30-50. We like a wide range of music: exotica, classic lounge, punk, soul, garage, rockabilly, etc. We know our music history, so we don't want to hear the same songs all the time. We have money. Some of us have kids and they get exposed to a wider range of music through us then the radio exposes them to. My friend Ed's kids are in their early teens and they love stuff like old Bowie, Iggy, and others that they never would hear on the radio.

I hear ya! I read something somebody said on another blog about how all of the pop music from the 50-70s (Beatles, Elvis, etc.) was going to go the way of Al Jolson and the like. I'm not so sure about that. Al Jolson was popular in the 20s (?) and was made for a different audience, Vaudeville to be exact. That stuff could definitely defined as 'Pop' but I don't think you could call it 'radio ready'. Here we are nearly 50 years after Elvis surfaced, and over 40 years since The Beatles appeared and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for either, and maybe there never will be. I know alot of kids who like the Beatles. That stuff, as is alot of stuff from the 60s has no generational discrmination. Where do you think alot of these indie bands get there inspiration for songwriting?? The Beatles!!!! How many times do we hear, "so-and-so band or so-and-so artist has (almost) broken the pop chart record of the Beatles". They were talking about it last month when 50 Cent had a ton of hits in the top ten. The point is is that it probably won't happen the same way again, but the industry and the press always use The Beatles as the yardstick.

Meanwhile I have been listening to a great internet radio station called 3WK Classic Underground Radio. Great, great stuff. If you like Humble Pie, Stooges, MC5, Blue Cheer,Ten Years After, Grand Funk Railroad, etc. check it out http://www.3wk.com/. It's like what FM radio sounded like when it first blew up in the mid/late 60s. Great underground rock with some bands I've never even heard of. You can get it on iTunes as well. Put it on with the Vizualizer on your iBook and trip out!!!!!!

It was also home to many legendary New York DJs like 'Cousin Brucie' Morrow, Don K. Reed, and Bill Brown.

When signing into Siruis this morning to listen at work I saw this...Thought you might like to know...

One of NYC’s most legendary—and beloved—radio personalities is coming to SIRIUS.

Bruce Morrow, aka “Cousin Brucie,” will debut on SIRIUS during the July 4th weekend with a special broadcast from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

The Brooklyn-born Morrow has been a NYC radio institution for more than 40 years, and has remained one of its most popular personalities. He’s spun the hits on NYC radio stations WINS, WABC-AM and, until June 3, WCBS-FM. Morrow has been inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters’ Radio Hall of Fame, the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, the Radio Hall of Fame (Chicago) and was honored for his on-air work by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

“This is one of the most exciting events of my career,” said Morrow. “I feel like I’m riding a rocket ship—or should I say ‘satellite’? I now have the opportunity with SIRIUS to reach the national audience I’ve always wanted to communicate with. Here comes the music!”

Following the July 4th event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Morrow will host three regularly scheduled programs each week and numerous daily features from SIRIUS’ NYC national broadcast studios.

Sirius, please hire me.

Oldies 104.3 here in Chicago went Jack this month too. Grrr....

Cool Manchu-

Thanks for the update. I heard about this yesterday via the NYRMB (New York Radio Message Board). It's a blog that is used heavily by industry people and some radio fans as well. It's been up since 1997 and this whole CBS-FM debacle has given the board the most hits (over 100,000 in a week) that it's ever had! They had to make a special auxilary blog just for the CBS issue. If your interested you can check it out at

http://musicradio.computer.net/anotherboard/wwwboard/

Chicago! We feel your pain and we're aware of the rug being pulled from beneath you as well. There has been talk of this on the NYRMB as you will see if you check it out.

As far as this Sirius Satellite Radio issue is concerned I can see myself becoming a subscriber in the near future. I'm not thrilled by the initial $250-300 investment. That's a little steep for frickin radio, but I am a radio fan, and I would like to hear Cousin Brucie and some of the other programing they have, so I guess I'll have to splurge. At this point, terrestrial radio is all but dead. Right now I am listening to the Classic Rock station here in New York Q-104.3. I was never a huge fan of this station. The jocks kinda suck, alot of them sound like Coors Light swilling frat guys. I've seen pictures of some of them and one still has a mullet!! Um excuse me...you're playing music that originated in the counter-culture of yore. Remember? Back when the word 'cool' actually had some meaning. Why Q-104.3 wants jocks that sound like they just got off the golf course is beyond me. With the exception of Scott Muni, who died this past year, I really didn't listen to them THAT much. Case in point: they just played Aerosmith 'Dream On' for the ka-billionth time!!!! AAAARRGGGGGHHHH!! Hello!!! There is 35 years of 'Classic Rock' out there! Open up the playlists!!! Play a different song....Play a different Aerosmith song! 'Toys In the Attic'!! That's a great song!! NEVER hear it on the radio. They'd rather play 'Dude Looks Like A Lady' OR 'Dream On'....again!!
I know it's a lost cause, but I'll say it anyway.....Bring back WCBS-FM! I listen to my 'Classic Rock' (I hate that term) on my own.

If I can site some lyrics by Queen here:

All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio blah blah
Radio what's new ?
Radio, someone still loves you

Aloha DonHoNYC,

Well if you are considering buying a satellite radio, let me give you my candid opinion:

1. You will need to buy a radio as you noted. But I hear you can pick one up for around 50 bucks (including the 50 dollar mail-in rebate)

2. It costs around 9 to 11 dollars a month (Sirius is 11, XM is 9) I chose Sirius because XM is Clear Channel. You can buy a lifetime subscription for around 500 bucks from Sirius, I don't know if XM offers this.

3. I bought a package deal from Costco, it included the in car kit and a boom box. However, if I knew that the boom box wouldn't work in my house, I would have never bought the whole package and stuck with the car kit.

4. The car kit has an FM transponder, but I found that I constantly had to change the stations because of interference from local stations. I ended up buying one of the cassette adapter kits and it took care of the problem, but it was $23 more of an investment.

5. You can listen to Sirius through your computer. It's not the greatest quaility, but 'taint bad neither.

6. I always have something to listen to. I love the selections. Sirius has tons of rock stations and 80s stations. I wish that they had a better selection of lounge music.

7. They have Mojo Nixon, Joan Jett and many others as DJs. I really dig Mojo's show. :)

8. Since the FCC doesn't have the ability to regulate satellite radio, you can hear the full length versions of songs unedited. They don't play commericials on most of the music stations. Also, a couple of weeks ago, they played the entire side one of Rush's 2112. When do you hear that on the radio? And while I hear Dude Looks like a Lady much too frequently, they do play many other songs you don't hear often on regular radio. Sticking with Aerosmith, I have heard Uncle Salty, Mama Kin, Toys in the Attic, Adam's Apple, Kings and Queens and so on....so they do have diversity. However, they seem to have a rotation that they stick with for a week or two before they change it, so you will hear Golden Earring - Radar Love almost every day if you are in the car, or Hocus Pocus by Focus....

9. The satellite drops out momentarily if you are driving in the city due to tall buildings and it also drops out if you are driving through heavily wooded areas (this pisses me off).

10. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't buy the boombox, but I definately would still buy the satellite radio.

[ Edited by: Cool Manchu on 2005-06-10 15:14 ]

Cool Manchu-

Thanks for the info dude. Yeah I think I'm gonna get serious about Sirius (bwahaha). I don't own a car (city dweller) so I don't have to worry about that. I would hook the satellite receiver up to one of my home stereos. What I'm wondering is, I have a medium size Westinghouse transistor radio, like a 'take it to the beach radio'. Do these satellite receivers have the capability of swaping units (sounds obscene) like if I wanted to hook the Sat receiver up to my stereo could I take and stick it on my transistor radio to-go if I wanted?

Whatever the case, your info was real helpful. So you're telling me I can get one of these Sat. receivers retail and I don't have to order it through Sirius? I was under the impression that I had to get the thing directly from them. I'll do some further invetigatin' when I'm ready for the plunge. But I can tell you this, I will definitely be doing it. Sounds very cool. Big fan of Joan Jett, I'm sure her show is pretty cool. If anybody from the 80s still has rock n roll credibility it's defnitely her. Always dug her music and respected what she did.

Mojo Nixon!! Holy shite! Haven't heard from him in eons. Does he ever play "Stuffin' Martha's Muffin" on his show? That song is HIGH-larious!!

Cheers mate! :drink:

Hey Don, Next time I'm in NYC, I'm setting aside an evening so yous and me can drink our collective sorrows away. And bitch to high heaven, and give the one fingered salute to anyone who disagrees with us. I'll bring the Bill Hicks cd's, and Action Time and Vision on continous loop. You bring whatever the hell you want.

Is it a date?

Don't forget to bring some George Carlin too. What's 'Action Time and Vision'?

Hello DonHoNYC,

With the FM Transponder, you can do all the swappin' you want, as long as the radio picks up FM stations and you have a place to plug in the satellite receiver. Even the boom box doesn't take batteries, so I am assuming it soaks up a lot of juice...

Just make sure that you can put the antenna outside of the house somehow with a direct line to the sky. Unless they make something that I am not aware of for in house use (which is quite possible, because I am not an expert on the hardware).

There are a ton of companies that make units for both Sirius and XM, so you do not have to buy one directly from them.

Lastly, the only Mojo Nixon song I have heard him play was Elvis is Everywhere. And I have to agree, Michael J. Fox has no Elvis in him. :)

[ Edited by: Cool Manchu on 2005-06-11 07:56 ]

I listen to XM satellite radio, and it is very tough to go back and listen to a regular radio broadcast in somebody else's car, especially with all the constant advertising. I think I'm sold on Satellite radio for life.

XM recently had a week where their 1960's channel played, in chronological order, their entire 60's set list - that is over 2700 songs, with no song repeated (and no commercials), over a one week period. That was pretty cool, to see how the musical styles slowly changed over that decade.

I am unfamiliar with the programming of Sirius radio - my impression is that there are probably more similarities than differences between the two providers. XM and Sirius are working to develop a receiver that would be capable of receiving both services, but there is so much musical and programming variety contained with one service, that subscribing to both would be overkill.

Many people will likely choose their service based on the car they bought (XM has an exclusive deal with General Motors, Sirius with Ford) or the store where they bought the service (Sirius has a deal with Radio Shack) Others will choose their satellite provider based on unique programming (XM has every major league baseball game, Sirius has the NFL, and soon Howard Stern, etc, etc.) XM appears to be in a more stable financial position and has many more subscribers, but it is still an industry that is still generally in its infancy.

Most users will spend 90% of their time listening to 5 or 10 of their favorite stations, and mostly ignore what is happening on the other channels. I myself like to rotate, one by one, through all the different channels, and discover new artists and songs. Just like regular radio programming, Sirius and XM both have the right to alter programming and add or eliminate program channels whenever they wish, which means you will still have to get used to your favorite obscure station suddenly not being there one day.

I will correct a few statements that foolmanchu made

• XM now costs $13/month. They offer discounted plans if you purchase anywhere from 1 year to 5 years of programming.

• XM and Sirius are both regulated by the FCC, but most of this attention is involved with the licensing of the satellites and allotment of the frequency channels, and the use of ground transmitters that repeat the signal in the crowded urban corridors. The FCC could also in the future insist that public service channels be allocated. But foolmanchu is correct that generally, the FCC keeps its hands off in areas of programming - but I wouldn't expect any 'Let's Overthrow the Government' channels anytime soon.

• As for home reception, not only do you need direct access to the open sky for your antenna, that access has to be oriented to the south, which is the direction that the satellites are positioned. I can place my antenna in my south facing window and receive great reception, but it is very difficult if I place the antenna in a north facing window. This direct line-of-sight is the reason why you can lose transmission while in heavily wooded areas, or while standing under a bridge, or driving along the side of a steep hill or mountain.

It is hard, for a music lover, to describe the thrill of satellite radio. With regular radio, there might be two cool channels that you flipped between. With satellite radio, there are dozens of good channels, and the challenge is that you can only listen to one of those stations at a time.

Vern

Did anyone catch Jonesy's Jukebox yesterday? He had Paul Anka on the show. True to Jonesy's form they played a couple of songs impromptu. It was cool and crazy at the same time. He sang "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" "Wonderwall" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Seriously, Anka has a new rock ablum of rock covers he's promoting. He was trying so hard to be cool, Steve Jones was so excited to have him there he kept asking him about the rat pack, Tom Jones and such. One of the best shows I've heard in a long time. The said in Entertainment Weekly that Jonesy's Jukebox may go syndicated and there's talk of him putting his show on satellte radio too. I hope he stays in LA though...

Little Steven Van Zant vs. "The Fucking Pussies":

Little Steven's keynote address at the Radio and Records 2005 Convention.

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2005
Place: Renaissance Hotel, Cleveland, Ohio
Audience: 250 Program Directors

Fred Jacobs introduces a four-minute video bio. At its conclusion, the Dovells' You Can't Sit Down explodes from the speakers as five Go-Go girls come out of the wings surrounding Fred, much to his discomfort. Little Steven enters to thunderous applause. He cuts off the music with a wave of his hand, leans into the microphone and says "Ladies and Gentlemen, Fred Jacobs."

The music returns as the girls exit. A stunned audience applauds wildly as Fred, very uncharacteristically, dances off with them.

Little Steven: Well that was worth the price of admission alone. (more applause and laughter... Steven paces with the hand held mic for a minute, and then. . . )

"I Love Radio! (applause once again erupts) And I feel nothing but love in this room because as I look around, I see only two kinds of people. Our beloved affiliates . . . and future affiliates. (laughter) So no matter what happens in this next half hour, remember what I just said. It's just family talking. And without any further disclaimers let me ask the only important question that is on my mind, and I'm sure you've been thinking about it also, especially lately.

(pause)

When Did The Fucking Pussies Take Over?

(applause and laughter)

When? Don't you look forward to the day when your grandson is on your knee and he looks up and says, "Grampa weren't you in radio once?"

"Yes, Grandson," you'll reply.

"Could I ask you something," he'll say.

"Of course, my love, anything," you'll say.

"Grampa where were you When The Fucking Pussies Took Over?" (more laughter)

Where were we? What happened? Things are out of line and we're not leaving here today until we straighten it out.

(applause and laughter)

Now I was going to wait for this but we might as well get right to it since it is all everybody's talking about. I have come to praise JACK not to bury him. (laughter - uncertain applause) The guys at Infinity are friends of ours, as is everybody else, we got nothing but friends you all know that. And I've gotta say I'm proud of these guys for having the balls to shake things up. Things needed shaking up. And history will remember them in a very positive way when looking back at this world changing moment. Having
said that . . .

Replacing 33 year old New York oldies institution CBS-FM with JACK is like replacing the Statue of Liberty with a blow-up doll.

(eruptions of laughter and applause)

But again, change is good. And necessary. With a little bit of luck JACK will last 10 or 12 months because it is obvious people want something different, they are hungry for something, anything. So it could be 6 months before anybody actually listens to JACK. Once they do it is doomed for 3 obvious reasons. At the moment it is replacing oldies formats but it is not an oldies format in the true sense of the word. It's mostly 80's, some 70's, some 90's. Now it must be said that the oldies format is vulnerable because over the last 5-10 years it has, in a word, sucked. It has sucked for a very simple reason, somebody had the brilliant idea to eliminate the 50's and replace it with the 70's. This was done by somebody uniquely stupid and deaf and ignorant and a bad businessman on top of it all. So naturally, everybody copied it and the 50's disappeared virtually overnight.

Now let's digress and examine this oldies thing for a minute. Assuming you accept the fact that those overseeing the oldies format these last 5 years - 10 years - are, in fact, stupid, deaf, ignorant, and bad businessmen, let's deal with it. As far as stupid, deaf, and ignorant, when it comes to decades that matter, that matter historically, in terms of influence, importance, and never-to-be-heard-again-quality - that is the 50's and 60's. Everything we do, everything we are comes from those two decades.

You're gonna throw one away? You're gonna replace Elvis, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Burnette, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Lloyd Price, and Fats Domino with, all due respect, Donna Summer and the Bee Gees? You're gonna replace primal, vital, timeless, forever cool rock and roll pioneers with disco? Disco?

You wanna know what disco is good for? Disco is for when you're drunk at a wedding with your old lady and you want to act like an idiot and be John Travolta for an hour or two. That's where it belongs. Not on radio.

And to the issue of oldies being bad business - all you hear - I'm assuming from sales people - is we must lower our demo's. The oldies demographic are getting too old - that's the rationale for replacing the 50's with the 70's.

Now if all there was to sell in the world were Fruit Loops, Play Stations, and sneakers - they might have a point. But I got a little secret to share. You know that age group - 35 to 65 - that nobody in sales seems to care about?

That's Where All The Fucking Money Is!

(laughter, applause)

I mean ALL the fucking money.

35 to 65.

Memo to sales team - Sell Them Something!

And, by the way, if you want younger people listening, you can get that done. And I mean kids, if you want them.

Who is cooler? Early Elvis or Elton John?

What appeals more to kids, Gene Vincent's black leather attitude, Eddie Cochran's teenage frustration, Little Richard's cry of liberation, and Dion's total Soprano's coolness - or the Eagles?

You want wild? Put together the Sex Pistols, Audioslave, and the Wu-Tang Clan - they aren't as wild as Jerry Lee Lewis in his prime.

But you have to explain that. Show it, illustrate, educate, sell it.

Alright - digression over - so JACK isn't oldies so it must be some kind of classic rock/pop hybrid. But JACK doesn't address the two biggest problems of classic rock. 15 years ago I said we're chasing all the personality out of rock radio and into talk and sports. And the ratings went with it.

We need more personality, not less, and JACK has none. No DJ's means no personal relationship with the audience. Eventual apathy is inevitable.

The other big issue classic rock must consider is it must start playing new music again.

I've suggested it to my own affiliates and I'll keep saying it every change I get. We've got a big problem.

Look around. Pearl Jam does some business. Dave Matthews - if he's rock at all - does well. Maybe Oasis breaks this year in the U.S. Maybe Coldplay - if they're considered rock.

But in a real sense, the last big band through the door was U2. That's 25 years ago."