Goodbye Old Friend

Well, it’s been nearly two years since I last posted here (not that anyone probably even reads this thing) when ‘OC made their Classic Hits format change. I sort of knew then it was the nail in the coffin and wondered just how long it would be before they pulled the plug. I am surprised it actually took this long. They really shot themselves in the foot by adopting this format. I think they could have continued the Oldies format had they made some long-overdue changes regarding content. By that I mean expanding the playlist beyond the same tired chestnuts such as “California Dreamin’”, “Stand By Me”, “Brown-Eyed Girl”, etc. But then, that’s a problem every radio station seems to have these days, whether it’s classic rock on Q107 or even K-Lite. None of the programmers seem to want to dig deep into the vaults for fear of alienating their lowest-common denominator listeners. Boom 97.3 is equally guilty of trying to rewrite history and ignoring the more mellow offerings of the ‘80s, no matter how huge they were (“Woman In Love”, “Sailing”, “Islands in the Stream”, etc.) in order to not offend their demographic. They’d rather play “Tainted Love” or “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” twenty times per week.

 Another HUGE mistake was made by letting go first Ted Yates and then Ray Michaels. These two diverse and distinct personalities gave the station an identity and cohesiveness it sort of lost in the ‘90s and early 2000s when a parade of jocks came and went and came back again.

As of October 2013, I stopped listening regularly with the exception if the Big 500 of the ‘70s the following April and it was only by accident I came across the news of the final Big 500 while reading The Spec online. Having never missed a countdown since 1980, this was for me appointment listening. In the days leading up, I was curious what approach they would take; would it go back to all Oldies or would the countdown adopt the Classic Hits format). Turns out they decided to encompass a 35-year span from 1955-1990. It was a bittersweet experience. I have to admit I almost got emotional when they started playing the vintage bumpers and sound bytes the first few times (“CKOC…Ontario’s Music Leader”….and the a capella notes of “Delta Dawn” began). It was also great to have former personalities such as Dave Smith back on-air and others given air time via telephone.

 I was quite annoyed to hear that there were not one but two errors in the listing. Both “Runaway” and “The Letter” appeared twice (the former a mere 19 songs apart) and it’s not as though the announcer screwed up, because neither mistake was acknowledged on-air. I guess that’s what happens when you have a novice (Paul Morris) doing the compiling. It was written in The Spec that Ted Yates and Nevin Grant were co-compiling the final 500 but on Thursday afternoon Morris spoke on-air about how he came to pick songs that had “special meaning” for CKOC listeners over the decades and then kept tweaking the list. I think he must have googled  a “Rolling Stone” best-of since there were several tunes played that I’ve never heard on 1150 in thirty-five years of tuning in: “River Deep, Mountain High” (#402), “Foxy Lady” (#269), “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” (#143).  Also, FOUR Whitney Houston tunes was a little much considering there was nothing from The Crystals or Shirelles and “The Voice” did not receive much air-time on ‘OC since her original mid-to-late ‘80s heyday.

It won’t be the same now that it’s over but I can’t believe I listened and documented this thing for THIRTY-FIVE years!!!