70 and 80, is getting pretty old now. How many people listening to 50’s music today? Hard to sell adds when your market is small.

Your right about the shrinking demographics. I just come to the realization I’m old. Nirvana, all apologies is on now. I was in middle school when that came out.

I remember the first time I heard music I listened to in high school on the classic rock station. It hits you hard.

Not sure of your age (I am 40), but I cringed when I heard a podcast say that 311 accepted their place as classic rock and a nostalgia act. Time stops for no one.

We have to face the fact that the songs of our youth are now oldies.

Last spring, it moved to hits from the 80s and 90s. I remember reading an article with the CEO saying something about people who want 50s and 60s still being able to use the parent company's app. He just doesn't see that music as having an audience anymore.

I miss the Sunday morning Elvis show!!

I heard Nirvana and pearl jam on 102.9 classic rock station.

You know you are old when music made by Johnnie Rotten plays on Classic Rock.

311’s new music is great though, IMO.

Agreed. I think it was because of them moving into their Grateful Dead/Phish phase as a mega-touring band and feeling like their most popular hits are in the past.

Dude, GenX here, those are oldies.

We're getting old my friend

My understanding is that is called “classic rock” and not oldies. And classic rock means truly CLASSIC. As in iconic songs of an era. So, yes, it pains me to hear my music called “classic”, once I herd the actual industry definition, I felt a wee bit better!

When the "no sellout" bands music is used in car and insurance commercials 😢

They didn't. You just got older and forgot the old songs. Kidding.. I noticed it, too. I think it was gradual.

The place were I work has it on periodically. I remember hearing Cream,followed by bon Jovi and thought it strange. This was about 3 months ago

I remember 20+ years ago hearing Led Zepp on 98.1 and assumed from that day forward, "oldies" is a sliding scale and not perpetually 50s/60s as i once believed

I've been making the joke for a few years now about how we'll soon hear Bring Me to Life on classic rock stations

That song turns 20 this year 🙃

The cut off period for something to be considered vintage is 25 years, so 1998

Baby One More Time is now vintage

But serious talk: is the concept of "oldies" going to change as time goes on? Or will the concept just go away altogether?

I'm under 45 so I don't listen to the radio (plus they all suck where I live), but a lot of music seems to be organized by decade, whether by its own station or by programming blocks/specials. Do you need an oldies section when each decade gets its own space? And if we keep it, that brings us back to the question of what's considered "oldies."

Will my local oldies station play some doo wop or grunge for me today lol. I of course support such such a varied roster!

1973 was 50 years ago, to make everyone feel old

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Do you mean when did they switch from contemporary to oldies music?

I’m 45. WOGL used to be Hot Hits WCAU FM when I was a young child in the early 80s. It was my favorite station. I can still hear the jingle with their old call letters in my head!

My mom was an ER nurse at PCOM across the street from the station then and once took care of DJ Bill O’Brien. Back then they played current Top 40, not oldies.

I think the format change happened in 1985ish? Because then I remember switching to Eagle 106, and then Q102.

here is a link to the music 98.1 was playing in 1985. According to a comment in this link, the format changed from Top 40 to oldies in Nov 1987.

They actually did. They were contemporary top 40 until 1987 when they switched to oldies.

1985 when the station was WCAU Hot Hits.

Not sure how they missed the golden opportunity to re-brand as Hot Hits and play all the songs they used to play from that time. They were playing most of them anyway, why not bring back the Hot Hits format for the sake of nostalgia? They could've even hired some of the old DJs, at least for a short time. I believe Barsky worked there and Terry Young was still on the air in Florida as of 2017.

I agree!

I vaguely remember the day the switch happened. I was about 11 and turned on tbe car stereo and heard a Four Tops song and was like WTFF??? It felt like a cruel trick.

Wow I never knew they shared the same call letters as channel 10. I guess that’s legal because there’s a KYW news radio and KYW CBS 3 TV. Were they owned and operated by the same broadcaster than? Fun fact, back then channel 10 was CBS and channel 3 was NBC. They swapped sometime in the 90s.

They are playing some of those 80’s songs now. Maybe not as energetic/ enthusiastic as they were when it was considered top hits. There’s a good mix 70s-90s.

I remember the absolute confusion when CBS and NBC switched. 😂😂 I sometimes still have trouble remembering which is which now.

There have been a lot of format changes in the Philly radio market.

104.5 has changed formats so many times that I can’t keep up. It used to be Sunny 104.5 when I was a younger kid, then it was Star 104.5 (I listened to the nightly Between The Sheets program with Christopher Knight religiously as a teenager). Then it changed back to Sunny easy listening. Now it’s something else. I think an alternative rock station?

100.3 used to be KISS, playing basically elevator music, before it became Y100.

Similarly, 101.1 used to be Eazy 101. Now it’s B101, much more upbeat stuff.

105.3 has been Smooth Jazz/adult R&B for as long as I can recall. And 102.9 has been classic rock for as long as I remember too.

That's a bigger annoyance to me. Oldies 98 did a full format change, which is fine if that's what they want to do. But to start sliding music genres around like 102.9 does is just crap.

If it helps at all WRDV is a small radio station that plays OLD Oldies. Like we are talking 30’s and 40’s during the weekday and some more recent stuff for the kids in the evening and weekends (50’s and 60’s). It’s an awesome station. I listen to it all day long. Real DJ’s and not a lot of commercials.

We are just getting old!! and the older generations are passing on…

This reminds me of the Futurama episode when Fry (?) played the song ‘Baby Got Back’ and Bender says “why are you listening to CLASSICAL music” (or something along those lines)

That is oldies now, sorry. We were just talking about this

In the 90's the oldies stations were playing stuff from the 60's. 30 year gap. 30 years later we should start to hear Foo Fighters on oldies stations.

Wasn't it also Alice 104.5

Changed format back in December. Now we have four stations playing the same format. No wonder fm radio is dying.

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Sadly, it's because that music is now considered "oldies". All the Classic rock stations in my area play 70's, 80's, 90's now.

I mean, I like those decades but it's the way I guess.

I know one day I will be hearing 2000's on the oldies station.

They started playing 80's and 90's at least a year ago. They're going head-to-head with 102.9.