Rhythmic oldies

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Rhythmic oldies is a

disco, or dance genres of music. Playlists can span from the 1960s through the 2000s and, depending on market conditions, may be designed for African-American or Hispanic audiences. It is also referred to as "Jammin' Oldies" or "Music From Back in the Day" by various radio stations. Since the late 2000s, much of the library in the "rhythmic oldies" format has been adopted by the classic hits format. A variation on the format is urban oldies
.

History

On November 19, 1997, the

Chancellor Media
, later to be called AMFM, developed the format with the intention of using it on other stations.
urban versus churban" competition, R & B oldies radio was dividing into two camps—the straight urban oldies stations targeting African Americans, and the "Jammin' Oldies" stations with a wider audience that included both blacks and whites. On Jammin' Oldies radio, DJs were often mostly white or a variety of racial groups. Many of the songs played had crossed over to top 40 radio, while R&B stations continued to play more hits, including ballads, not familiar to top 40 fans, especially if those songs were not singles. Some of the rhythmic stations played songs completely unrelated to R & B; "Mony Mony" by Tommy James on the now defunct WFJO in Tampa was one example, though this station dropped such songs eventually.[3]

Another version of the format was "Groovin' Oldies", as in the case of

adult contemporary in June 2001. The last song was "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men.[4]

In April 1999,

urban contemporary and other types of oldies stations. Most of the music came from the 70s, but there were also 60s and 80s hits. Unlike most radio formats, Jammin' Oldies did not target one specific ethnic or gender group. Black and white artists were included, and a slight majority of listeners were female.[5] WJMO "Jammin' Oldies 99.5" succeeded at first,[6] but two years later fell victim to a declining economy.[7] Another problem for "Jammin' Oldies" was that it was the "hot new format" in 1998, but there were other "hot new formats" in 2000.[8]

In Chicago, it was rocker

Clear Channel bought AMFM, and in 2001 WUBT became top 40 WKSC-FM.[11]

In New York City, Chancellor Media decided to convert a station it had been having trouble formatting for some time. As 1998 began, the company had just bought

Urban Contemporary.[12]

Early success stories included

Louisiana, WRBO in Memphis, XHRM-FM in San Diego and KTXQ in Dallas, as well as KFMK in Austin, KISQ in San Francisco, and KNRX in Kansas City. Contrary to what one might expect, competition from oldies and urban adult contemporary
had little effect on ratings.

The format proved to be little more than a "passing fad", one that stations got excited about but listeners did not—or when they did, not for very long.[13]

In November 2000,

KDJM in Denver, WMOJ in Cincinnati and KMGV in Fresno all went up in the Summer 2000 ratings (in fact, KMGV was no. 1 with listeners in the 25–54 group). Joining the format in October 2000 was KMBX in Seattle
.

Some in radio believed that Jammin' Oldies tried to target too many types of listeners. R & B oldies stations specifically targeting African American listeners were doing better than Jammin' Oldies--WWSO in Norfolk, KMEZ, and WRBO.[8] Other stations of this type included WNPL in Nashville and WPLZ in Richmond.[3] Former KCMG program director Don Parker said a mass-appeal format would not do as well as one that targeted a specific ethnic group (his station went after Hispanics despite requests to add more disco). Consultant Barry Mayo also said targeting blacks was a good strategy.

By 2000, Jammin' Oldies stations had different approaches, with some playing only 60s and 70s music, and others focusing more on the 80s, with still others such as WMOJ playing early

WWSW) added songs from the 80s and 90s and de-emphasized Motown. WUBT program director Jay Beau Jones
said stations that ventured into the 90s probably should not be considered oldies.

WEJM in Philadelphia was one of the stations with older music dominant. Still, some radio program directors did not like using the term "oldies" even for these stations.[8]

Other stations emphasizing older music were WJMO and WZJM in Cleveland. By contrast, WFJO played nothing from the 1960s, and WZMX in Hartford played few songs from before 1970.[13]

In some markets, Jammin' Oldies should never have been tried, in the opinion of

Infinity Broadcasting senior vice president John Gehron
. Former AMFM Chief Programming Officer Steve Rivers said the format was tried when conventional oldies was not succeeding, but this turned out to be a mistake. Rivers also said that with the format's phenomenal success, expectations might have been too high, but some stations experienced success like they had not in the past.

Smaller-market stations such as KHZZ found it hard to achieve the numbers found in the big cities. KHZZ experienced competition from former oldies station

Urban AC
, branded at "V101.1". [3]

By 2002, numerous stations were changing to R&B and

WJMR in Milwaukee and KMJK in Kansas City, Missouri. Greg Love, the program director in charge of switching KMJK to Jammin' Oldies, said the format began to lose its appeal because people got excited to hear the songs, and then they were no longer special. Wayne Mayo said hits were chosen from too narrow a time period. WJMR program director Lauri Jones
said people listened to several stations, and that when she worked in Minneapolis, she observed that her station was no longer the primary choice of many listeners.

KHHT program director Michelle Santosousso said many R&B stations were focusing on rap, and the more adult hits were hard to find. This led to a change not only in musical style but also target audience. Jones said Jammin' Oldies stations went from 70% white and 30% black, to 70% black and 30% white. Love and Mayo both said there were black listeners, and now the stations had to focus on that audience. Santosousso, on the other hand, said the number of ethnic groups in Los Angeles required a different approach. Jones said the term "old school" replaced "classic soul", while Love said "old school" had to go. Love also said The Isley Brothers, Barry White and The Temptations were recording new music, and an oldies station could not play those. But listeners wanted to hear them.[12]

In late 2012,

Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
with its playlist shifting towards 1990's, 2000's and current material.

On February 6, 2015,

urban contemporary, returning that format to the 92.3 FM dial position for the first time since 2000. Legendary Los Angeles radio personality Art Laboe, whose show was carried at nights on KHHT, later moved to KDAY. Since the demise of KHHT, a few stations in the suburban areas in and around Los Angeles have flipped to the format, including KQIE in the Inland Empire, KOCP in Ventura, and KQAV in the Antelope Valley
.

List of radio stations airing the rhythmic/urban oldies format

List of radio stations formerly airing the format

References

  1. ^ Doug Reece, "L.A. Outlet's Launch Boosted by Name That Station Contest", Billboard, 02/07/98, p. 81.
  2. ^ "KCMG-FM, Los Angeles - AMFM". radiomagonline.com. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Sean Ross, "R&B Oldies Format On The Rise", Billboard, 03/06/99, p. 28.
  4. ^ "WMGC-FM 105.1 Detroit". www.michiguide.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  5. ^ Frank Ahrens, "Jammin' Oldies: Nostalgia to Beat the Band", Washington Post, April 20, 1999.
  6. ^ Frank Ahrens, "'Jam'n' Is Sweet To the Former WGAY", Washington Post, July 22, 1999.
  7. ^ Frank Ahrens, "WJMO's Last Jam: Oldies Dropped", Washington Post, March 30, 2001
  8. ^ a b c Sean Ross, "Will Beat Go On For 'Jammin' Oldies'?", Billboard, 12/09/2000, p. 91.
  9. ^ Jim Kirk, "Ratings Respond to Oldies, Pop Mix", Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1999.
  10. ^ Jim Kirk, "Radio Consolidation Changes Tune for Competing Stations", Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1999.
  11. ^ Robert Feder, "`Eighties Channel,' `The Beat' Are History", Chicago Sun-Times, January 9, 2001.
  12. ^ a b Dana Hall, "Jammin' Oldies Stations Switch to More Current R&B", Billboard, 2/16/2002, p. 80.
  13. ^ a b Warren Kurtzman with Grant Johnson, "Rhythmic Oldies Insights: A Look at the Health of One of Radio's Newest Formats", http://www.colemaninsights.com/onlines/Coleman%20Rhythmic%20Oldies%20Insights.pdf, Retrieved on 2007/12/04.
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