07.08.07
Jack’d Off : WCBS Returns To The Neglected ‘Music For The Decrepit’ Format
From the New York Times’ Ben Sisaro :
To Bruce Morrow (above), the longtime New York City disc jockey better known as Cousin Brucie, the news that his former station, WCBS-FM, is returning to an oldies format is a victory for older listeners. œI™m thrilled that this music is getting a chance again, he said yesterday in a telephone interview from his home. œThis music has been treated terribly, and people in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s are still a very viable product in this society.
Mr. Morrow was dismissed in June 2005 along with Dan Ingram, Harry Harrison and other WCBS personalities when the station, owned by CBS Radio, switched to the Jack format, which plays a broad mix of music from the 1980s and ™90s and uses recorded sound bites instead of D.J.™s.
Radio analysts predicted that some former WCBS D.J.™s will return to the station. Mr. Morrow, though, has a little less than a year left on a three-year exclusive contract with Sirius Satellite Radio, which he signed shortly after he left WCBS.
œI™m very happy at Sirius, he said, œbut I™ll consider every option. In one year a lot of things can happen.
Full credit to Cousin Brucie, who accurately predicted œNew York is a very different market ” it ain™t Dallas or St. Louis, back in June of ’05.
Of course, Morrow also said œI think my audience is going to go out of their minds, and he was right about that, too.
Shame on you for the headline*.
I work weekends on Richmond, Virginia’s oldies station, Oldies 107.3, and I can tell you that Oldies is not “music for the decrepit”.
I get calls every weekend from every age group – teens to grandparents – because the music of the 60′s and 70′s is still very enjoyable today.
Let’s put it this way – more than 40 years after Beatlemania, there’s still an audience for Beatles music (and it’s not just the people who lived through Beatlemania). There isn’t a lot of music being made today that will still have an audience in 2047.
*OK, I know you were just being as sarcastic as usual, but you touched a nerve.
If they bring back Phil “Good morning, Harry” Pepe to do the morning sports update for Harry Harrison Francesa…I will go back to sticking mint-flavored toothpicks through my pet Gouramis, just for funzies.
my sincere apologies, Rob, to you and your
decrepitlisteners.