The general decline in standards today

[AtomicEraTom]

The local FM station, WOLX, is the only station I can get in at work, so I listen to it all day. When I was a kid, Dad would listen to it because they played 50's and 60's, and in later years, a little 70's, stuff he grew up with. I listen to it now, and it's no longer 'Oldies', it's 'Classic Hits' and they play mostly 70's and 80's with the occasional 60's hit, usually a Supremes, or Four Tops, or other Motown Classic.

If I wanna hear oldies, I gotta go to AM1550 WHIT, they play some great oldies, mostly 50's stuff. I stream AM920 WOKY at home which is also losing its way. They used to play these great old 50's and 60's radio commercials. My favorite was Lawrence Welk for Miller High Life, now they stopped that, and pepper in top 40 Country stuff with the classic hits. Even my favorite station, AM900 WDLS has went to peppering in stuff from the past 10 years. When will it stop?!

We have one oldies station here and although they advertise as 40s and 50s, they throw in a lot of hippie dippie 60s and 70s type stuff

I don't think I've *ever* heard a 40s song on our "oldies" channel. I remember growing up, they played quite a bit of 50s and 60s. Lately, it is more 80s than anything and when I heard REM, I had to turn it off.

There is an AM station here that plays a good of oldies, including some 30s and 40s music.

 

[Nobert]

I got lucky, there's a station out of Yarmouth that plays exclusively first-half-of-the-twentieth-century music, from the dawn of recording up to about the mid fifties. I had to get turned on the that by friends, for I'd otherwise stopped listening to radio entirely some time ago.

 

[scottyrocks]

There are definitely alternatives, and outlets, for non-offensive material. The problem is the 'one-bad-apple' syndrome. A few of thease shows, often on only two or three channels, makes it all look bad.

 

[scottyrocks]

I don't expect it ever to change, really. It's only going to get worse -- the march of the marching morons will just keep on marching onward. But I'll be damned if I'll fall in step with them.

Wow, Lizzie, you must really be fed up. You used the same descriptor three times. In one sentence, no less.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Well, not sure what anyone else get's on the radio during Christmas, but around here they play some nice things yet, they toss into the works some fairly goofy stuff, you know, "Grandma got run over by a raindeer" and the barking dogs singing Christmas songs...it gets dull fast.

I normally pull out the tapes or CD's of what I like to hear and get them going. That way I have some sanity control!

The two most overplayed holiday songs here are Jingle Bell Rock and Feliz Navidad.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I don't expect it ever to change, really. It's only going to get worse -- the march of the marching morons will just keep on marching onward. But I'll be damned if I'll fall in step with them.

Ehh, I don't know. There's this thing called a pendulum, and it always swings back ... eventually.

 

[rue]

The two most overplayed holiday songs here are Jingle Bell Rock and Feliz Navidad.

Oh I love Feliz Navidad! Reminds me of the boat parade in Newport Beach on my uncle's boat. I drive everyone I know crazy with it

 

[rue]

Ehh, I don't know. There's this thing called a pendulum, and it always swings back ... eventually.

I'd like to see that happen in my lifetime......

 

[Feraud]

I'd like to see that happen in my lifetime......

That is what our children represent.

 

[rue]

That is what our children represent.

Yes, but I only had two of them.... darn it!

 

[Pompidou]

I don't get it..... advertise for what you play I have yet to hear a 40s song on there.

This is the problem with selling oneself as an oldies channel. 30 years ago, oldies were 40s, 50s and 60s. 20 years ago they added 70s. 10 years ago they dropped the 40s. Now they added 80s. "Oldies" will naturally expand and expand to the point of uselessness if the same "oldies=x years from present" rule applies. I think those radio stations should've stuck to decades. 20s, 30s and 40s; 50s, 60s and 70s; 80s; 90s, 00s, 10s. Our local oldies station did the same thing everyone else's did - kept adding decades, and dropping old ones. Now it's 60s, 70s and 80s. They dropped 50s. I suppose in a sense, keeping a certain 30 year stretch could work, but the change does alienate listeners.

 

[rue]

This is the problem with selling oneself as an oldies channel. 30 years ago, oldies were 40s, 50s and 60s. 20 years ago they added 70s. 10 years ago they dropped the 40s. Now they added 80s. "Oldies" will naturally expand and expand to the point of uselessness if the same "oldies=x years from present" rule applies. I think those radio stations should've stuck to decades. 20s, 30s and 40s; 50s, 60s and 70s; 80s; 90s, 00s, 10s. Our local oldies station did the same thing everyone else's did - kept adding decades, and dropping old ones. Now it's 60s, 70s and 80s. They dropped 50s. I suppose in a sense, keeping a certain 30 year stretch could work, but the change does alienate listeners.

I agree.
I could understand it if they called it retro radio or something, but when they advertise it as 40s and 50s, but they don't play that, it's irritating.

 

[C-dot]

This is the problem with selling oneself as an oldies channel. 30 years ago, oldies were 40s, 50s and 60s. 20 years ago they added 70s. 10 years ago they dropped the 40s. Now they added 80s. "Oldies" will naturally expand and expand to the point of uselessness if the same "oldies=x years from present" rule applies. I think those radio stations should've stuck to decades. 20s, 30s and 40s; 50s, 60s and 70s; 80s; 90s, 00s, 10s. Our local oldies station did the same thing everyone else's did - kept adding decades, and dropping old ones. Now it's 60s, 70s and 80s. They dropped 50s. I suppose in a sense, keeping a certain 30 year stretch could work, but the change does alienate listeners.

SIRIUS radio - Canada's satellite radio, for those who can afford it - has an all Elvis, all the time station, as well as The 40s on 4, The 50s on 5, the 60s on 6, etc. The 900 channels on Bell TV satellite service are all music channels, and one of them is Jukebox Oldies. They sometimes play classic rock tunes, but it's still good.

My favourite radio station here is 91.1 Jazz FM. I tune in every Sunday at 6pm for the Big Band hour, when they play the real stuff

 

[fortworthgal]

I had Sirius XM in my last vehicle, loved it. We have it on our TV here and although it appears they did away with the 1940s channel here, still some very good stations.

 

[ButteMT61]

I have Spotify premium now and it has a lot of options for music - that plus the Sonos, and I literally have every decade, genre I could want. It's fantastic. Tried XM once, but not enough of what I wanted in comparison.

 

[scottyrocks]

Back in the 70s and 80s, when I started listening to WCBS-FM in NYC, oldies was '50s rock-n-roll. The music was 20 years old or so. Today, 20 year old music is from the 1980s and 90s. So now that's 'oldies.'

Oldies had become defined, on CBS, as fifties music. Not always so, anymore.

 

[Pompidou]

My biggest problem is more that, of any particular genre, I only like a handful of songs from it. For example, in terms of music that would fly here, I like a couple of songs from the Beatles, mostly Yesterday and Let it Be, and I like a few songs from the 30s, like Duke Ellington's Caravan. Same goes for any genre - there's really nothing I like entirely enough to make listening to the radio worth it. I almost always listen to purchased music.

 

[John in Covina]

There was a reference to schooling. Here in the US they keep adding rules and rules and rules for the teachers so that they get bogged down.

In California the CA university system has become very expensive where some 30 plus years ago it was free to students. One study that came out was along these lines- I don't have the actual numbers but its about like this: 30 years ago they had about 12000 professors, now they have about 12500 professors. 30 years ago there was about 3000 administrators now there is about 9000 administrators. The cost for the system is tipping away from education and more towards beaurocracy (spelling).

 

[sheeplady]

I doubt the content of shows in general is going to change much in the way of being more clean cut cause generally that's just not the way life is. People go for realism vs. Leave It To Beaver cause no family is like that.

If TV families today are more "realistic" then I really feel sorry for today's children. And please don't try to tell me that "reality shows" are realistic, I've known people who worked on them. I don't think today's television is based anymore on reality than "Leave it to Beaver." (And why is "Leave it to Beaver" the gold standard of comparision? I can think of plenty of other good sitcoms and shows, that are far more realistic than "Leave it to Beaver.")

Also, I think there is a big difference between broadcast and cable TV. I would like more choice of "family friendly" and "educational" programming on broadcast. All we have now in the US is PBS.

My problem isn't the dirty words, it's the quality. Reality TV and moron husbands are not something I want to watch [huh]

Exactly. I don't want to see adults treat each other like verbal punching bags or watch a bunch of women vying for some guy with money (or a bunch of men cying for a woman with cash).

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Complaining changes what?

Write a pilot for a t.v. show and shop it around for a while. You never know, but who's willing to do it?

Humm...I got an idea for a t.v. show....."hang all politicians" !!!! hahahahahaahah!!!!!!