92.9 The Grand FM

Not sure if anyone actually reads this anymore, as regular posts have long ceased, but just in case I wanted to mention that both Ted Yates and Ray Michaels are now back on the air! The Caledonia-based FM station 92.9 The Grand is playing hits of the 1960s, '70s and early '80s.

While a lot of the former Oldies 1150 listeners may not like the fact that Elvis, Buddy Holly and The Platters will likely not be heard here (and may not appreciate the likes of Honeymoon Suite and Bryan Adams in heavy rotation), it still is a comfort to have these familiar voices back on the airwaves. I just hope they don't make the same mistake as all the other stations and keep a very shallow playlist that burns out rather quickly. Dig deep, boys and keep these interesting!

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!!!

Are Certain Oldies TOO Old for 1150?

This past week CKOC presented the 50th (!) edition of their formerly-annual-but-now-semi-annual Big 500 countdown. This go-round instead of having listeners submit their three favorite oldies via email, we were given a choice of all the former #1s and asked which one we'd like to see at #1 this year.

About a month ago, CKOC web subscribers were sent a lengthy Rate the Music survey containing 500 songs in which we rated them from "Dislike a lot" to "Like a lot" and the results would be used to determine the rankings of the Big 500 Fall 2013 Edition. Perusing and rating the songs made my heart sink since all of them seemed pulled from the playlist of the short-lived-now-defunct Vinyl 95.3 (2010-2013).

The list eschewed any 1950s classics or any pre-Beatles, Kennedy-era goodies by everyone from Dion to Ricky Nelson to the entire Phil Spector catalogue. Needless to say, I was less than excited about this fall's countdown when some of my beloved oldies would be now replaced with the likes of The Travelling Wilburys, Bryan Adams and even songs from the Footloose soundtrack!

When the countdown got underway Tuesday morning, I felt a little better when the opening strings of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" laid claim to the #496 spot. So no, those malt-shop oldies hadn't ALL disappeared from the countdown, but by the final day, it was obvious from the 110 casualties from last spring's edition that CKOC is now moving forward and trying less to appeal to Baby Boomers and more to the late boomers/Gen X listeners who had been Vinyl's prime audience back in 2010. And talk about criminal---of those 110 songs that are gone ten of them were Elvis hits! Even more curious is the fact that certain songs from the Doo-Wop era such as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" or "All I Have To Do Is Dream" survived the axe yet slightly less-old oldies like "Sealed With a Kiss", "The Shoop Shoop Song" and even "This Diamond Ring" did not.

It's true---time marches on and while I would gladly say good riddance to "Soldier Boy", "Chapel of Love" or anything by Bobby Curtola, I missed hearing "It's My Party", "Tossin' and Turnin'" or "Johnny Angel" on this fall's Big 500. Even though they are close to (or more than) 30 years old now, I still can't accept "Dancing in the Dark" or "Billie Jean" or even "Dancing Queen" as Golden Oldies. Sorry 1150.

VINTAGE CKOC SOUND BYTES UNEARTHED

Hear some vintage sound bytes of Bob Sherwin and Pete Daly from April 1985.

Oldies 1150 Big 500 Oct 16-19

Oldies 1150 will air the 48th Edition of the Big 500 from Tuesday October 16-Friday October 19, 2012. Email them with your 3 favorites at www.oldies1150.com.

CKOC/OLDIES 1150 BIG 500 POSTERS WANTED

For those who may be referred to this blog from a web search, etc, I am still seeking four CKOC Big 500 pop posters to complete my collection. These are not the small charts that were free in record stores but larger posters (some are 11x17, others are about 20x30--see photo above).

I am looking for the 1971 edition, 1972 edition, 1987 edition as well as an Oldies 1150 edition that is probably undated but came out in 1996 and has #500 as Gladys Knight's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", #499 is The Animals "It's My Life", etc.

WILL PAY UP TO $50 EACH DEPENDING ON CONDITION.

If you have any of the above, contact me please!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Well, it has taken me nearly a year to upload all the CKOC ALL HIT 40 charts that were not available as "take-home" charts from the record stores. They were transcribed from my notebooks and I had the same experience presenting them in this blog as I did listening to them back in the '80s and early '90s. The experience became less fun and more of a chore as the years wore on. This is probably due to the fact that the music that CKOC was playing near the end (1990-91) was for the most part terrible.

Contrast some of the junk that was charting during CKOC's final years to some of the songs that didn't even crack the Top 20 ten years earlier in 1980-81. Songs like "Things Gotta Change" by Cruiser, "Somebody's Knockin'" by Terri Gibbs or "Try Walkin' Away" by Murray McLaughlan may not be well-remembered by the average listener today, but even though they never became as big as "Rock Lobster" or "Physical", they were still well-written songs you could sing along with. Not so with tripe from the early '90s such as "Temptation" by Corina or "Power Windows" by Billy Falcon.

I'd like to end with my Top Ten most underrated songs from the period this blog spanned, August 1985-February 1992. None of these songs cracked the Top 30 on CKOC yet deserve another listen all these years later. Most of the videos for them can be found in previous posts. Note that half of my list are from 1989.

#1. TANGO by Dalbello, #34 in April 1989
#2. I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE by The Moody Blues, #33 in August 1988
#3. I DROVE ALL NIGHT by Cyndi Lauper, #31 in July 1989
#4. HANGIN' ON A HEART ATTACK by Device, #35 in August 1986
#5. TELL IT TO MY HEART by Taylor Dayne, #35 in January 1988
#6. AMERICA IS SEXY by Paul Hyde, #32 in November 1989
#7. I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE by Martika, #31 in October 1989
#8. CUDDLY TOY (FEEL FOR ME) by Roachford, #37 in June 1989
#9. HERE I AM (COME AND TAKE ME) by UB40, #34 in July 1991
#10. SENZA UNA DONNA by Zucchero & Paul Young, #34 in January 1992