A Message from Screamin' Scott

[lidoshuffle]

I heard Journey when I tuned in earlier this week from the car. I was gone in ten seconds.

"CSX plays "Huey Lewis & The News",
They were never on any album oriented rock stations when they were at their peak in the 80's....and now they're considered "Classic Rock"??
And I HATE Bon Jovi!!

I remember WRIF In the 80's, I never heard Huey Lewis played on their airwaves, ever....

[Mega Hertz]

I heard Journey when I tuned in earlier this week from the car. I was gone in ten seconds.

"CSX plays "Huey Lewis & The News",
They were never on any album oriented rock stations when they were at their peak in the 80's....and now they're considered "Classic Rock"??
And I HATE Bon Jovi!!

I remember WRIF In the 80's, I never heard Huey Lewis played on their airwaves, ever....

I have an air check somewhere of Doug Podell playing "Heart of Rock & Roll" on WLLZ, 1984 or so. Now I gotta do some digging.

[Mega Hertz]

Aw, shit. One air check I have is playing Missing You by John Waite

[MWmetalhead]

AOR radio stunk in the early and mid 80s.

Nearly every...single...jock spoke in a completely unenthusiastic and (often synthesized) baritone voice.

A lot of the music was on the wimpy side, too. Plenty of crappy music, too.

Thank God Z-Rock, Rock 40, and Classic Rock came along to turn boring AOR on its head.

[Mega Hertz]

I mean....Huey Lewis, Don Henley, Billy Joel, the aforementioned John Waite...

[Colonel Flagg]

As someone who was THERE during the "boring AOR" era, I suppose I need to point out that we had ratings in the double digits... that includes WIOT (you know, just another "boring AOR" station) I guarantee our TSL was far above where it is now.

For the "wet behind the ears" crowd...at one point, Detroit had FOUR "boring AOR" stations. WLLZ, WABX, WRIF, and W4.

In Orlando, when I learned that WHTQ was going from "boring AOR" to Classic Rock, I quickly developed an exit strategy. I didn't need to play "More than a Feeling" or "Radar Love" for the 32,682nd time.

But hey, I'm just an old fogie. Enjoy your Motley Crue, G'NR, and Quiet Riot on WLLZ 2.0. Cookie cutter rock stations, that aim for the lowest common denominator, room temperature IQ listener, are the way to go. It's a damned good thing we had Dickey Lew, Randy Michaels, and Fred Jacobs to show us the way.

[Mega Hertz]

As someone who was THERE during the "boring AOR" era, I suppose I need to point out that we had ratings in the double digits... that includes WIOT (you know, just another "boring AOR" station) I guarantee our TSL was far above where it is now.

For the "wet behind the ears" crowd...at one point, Detroit had FOUR "boring AOR" stations. WLLZ, WABX, WRIF, and W4.

In Orlando, when I learned that WHTQ was going from "boring AOR" to Classic Rock, I quickly developed an exit strategy. I didn't need to play "More than a Feeling" or "Radar Love" for the 32,682nd time.

But hey, I'm just an old fogie. Enjoy your Motley Crue, G'NR, and Quiet Riot on WLLZ 2.0. Cookie cutter rock stations, that aim for the lowest common denominator, room temperature IQ listener, are the way to go. It's a damned good thing we had Dickey Lew, Randy Michaels, and Fred Jacobs to show us the way.

Hey, I *like* being told what I like!

Huey Lewis is definitely "polo shirt and golf course" rock, so between them and "dude, stop using my make up" rock, I turn to YouTube. Bet I'll never hear Poison or John Waite there!

[MWmetalhead]

WLAV in Grand Rapids had an obsession with Yes, "Van Haggar," The Cars, John Cougar Mellancamp, and really shitty Led Zeppelin singles from the 80s.

[Mega Hertz]

I have an obsession with Van Hagar now.

[Colonel Flagg]

WLAV in Grand Rapids had an obsession with Yes, "Van Haggar," The Cars, John Cougar Mellancamp, and really shitty Led Zeppelin singles from the 80s.

Absolutely. Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson hadn't been invented yet.

AOR radio had a good run. Comparing it to things like "Rock 40" (maybe I should see if I can find an old music log from 92X in Columbus...the posers were many and numerous) or Z-Rock, is laughable. Z-Rock was a good concept, but at the time, only if you were looking to hit the 12-24 demo. The 18-34's were there, but not enough of them. Z-Rock was running on fumes by late 1992. Many of the Z-Rock affiliates were on AM, including the one in New York, owned at the time by Infinity.

MW, were you old enough to listen when WCXT was running the original Z-Rock? That's before Lee Abrams was hired, in an attempt to make it more mainstream.

Neither Rock 40, or Z-Rock had a very long shelf life. Both received good numbers at first. 92X spent a lot of time poking fun at WNCI. It was good while it lasted, but I'm glad I didn't move to Columbus. In Cincinnati, Z-Rock actually beat WEBN in the ratings, but the demos were not where they needed to be. Peter Cavanaugh was still pleased with the results, and gloated accordingly.

97-1 Extreme Radio, for reasons I have noted before, didn't work out either. 1.4 isn't a number to brag about.

[dial-it-in]

WLAV in Grand Rapids had an obsession with Yes, "Van Haggar," The Cars, John Cougar Mellancamp, and really shitty Led Zeppelin singles from the 80s.

Led Zeppelin officially disbanded in Dec. 1980.
Not really ever a "singles" band the last one they released was "Fool in the Rain/Hot Dog" in 1979
Their last album, Coda, was released in 1982 and it did not have any singles.

[Colonel Flagg]

WLAV in Grand Rapids had an obsession with Yes, "Van Haggar," The Cars, John Cougar Mellancamp, and really shitty Led Zeppelin singles from the 80s.

Led Zeppelin officially disbanded in Dec. 1980.
Not really ever a "singles" band the last one they released was "Fool in the Rain/Hot Dog" in 1979
Their last album, Coda, was released in 1982 and it did not have any singles.

I wonder if MW is thinking of Robert Plant's solo albums?With a few exceptions, the long stale Classic Rock format rarely touched those. They are well outside the burnt to a crisp 300-400 song "safe" list.

[MWmetalhead]

Z-Rock, is laughable.

I disagree. Active Rock was heavily influenced by Z-Rock. Z-Rock set the table for what became the successful Active Rock format of the 90s.

Funny thing is, 96.5 in Cinci is beating WEBN in the beauty pageant ratings yet again present day.

Regarding Zeppelin, I did mean the 1979 album plus the Robert Plant stuff that followed.

Extreme Radio cracked a 2 share before flipping to talk. No one liked K-Rock (which frequently earned low 1's), which liked speeding up music by absurd proportions.

[windsor]

Before the Lee Abrams version of Z Rock which was more hair band heavy playlist wise ex Detroit jock Wild Bill Scott was at the helm and his wife did some on air stints as Booby Bondage. That version was much more thrashier with bands like King Diamond , Testament , Megadeth etc on heavy rotation. Used to drive near lake erie to pick up WCZR 107.3 from Cleveland around 87'.

Wild Bill's sign offs would be ...fly low beat the radar seeya