NY'ers mourning end of WCBS oldies station...

[Debbi801]

Cousin Brucie is going to Sirius...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/06/09/cousin.brucie.ap/index.html

<snip>
Veteran New York disc jockey Bruce Morrow, ignominiously dumped last week when WCBS-FM switched away from its oldies format, signed on Thursday with Sirius Satellite Radio. Morrow, whose radio days predate the Beatles, will host three shows: two with hits from the '50s, '60s and '70s, and his own talk show.

<snip>

[Lavender Brown]

1. I was wondering about that

It was really sudden.

[babylonsister]

2. Cousin Brucie?

:wow: I went to NYC when I was about 6 w/mom and twin to see him, and I'm closing in on 50 years! Darn, must be good genes!

[LSK]

3. Magic 104 in Chicago just ended tooo

They played oldies as well. I wonder if these incidents are related?

[Debbi801]

4. Did they go to "JACK" format?

That seems to be the new thing to do. They did that here in Baltimore to our oldies station, too.

Sometimes it is called something other than JACK, but the premise is that they play anything, all types of music, back to back.

[rsdsharp]

5. Yes, they are related.

Infinity owns both stations, and in turn is owned by Viacom. Both stations made the flip to "Jack" last Friday afternoon. Infinity implemented the "Jack" format on KCBS-FM in LA earlier this year.

Bean counters are in charge. It borders on the insane to screw with heritage stations making big money (WCBS-FM billed 34.1 million last year) especially when they own stations in the same market that are marginal (e.g. WNEW in NY). It's damn near criminal to dump legendary jocks (some of whom have been in their respective markets more than 40 years) with no warning -- to them or their fans -- to start airing an automated juke box. They are actually describing it on air as being like your ipod on shuffle. (If I've got an ipod, why do I need "Jack?")