Give me the beach boys, and free my soul...
Recently, KISN FM (97.1) in Portland, changed it's format. It was an oldies station. There was no warning as per usual, either. Infact, there was no hints. The only reason I did know that there were changes afoot, was because a friend of mine is somewhat in the radio business.
KKSN (it's official name) has been in Portland in two seperate eras. It's original era, in the 60's and 70's (I believe). It was on 910 AM, and a pretty powerful station. Then, several years later, it returned to 97.1 FM. It's almost always been a decent ratings winner, and in some books, the best station in Portland. I grew up listening to KISN, and I much prefer oldies music to 90's+ music. There are, of course, some good songs from the current era.
On April 21st, all that changed. I'm driving around town listening to KISN. Recently they expanded their format to include songs from the 80's, so it wasn't a surprise to me that a Peter Gabriel song was being played ("Big time"). But the more I listened, the more I noticed that there was no "voice" to the show. No local DJ's, and all automated. I figured that they just expanded their playlist, and when I heard a 70's song (by Chicago) I thought I could handle the occasional 90's crap fest.
But, the next song I heard was from that Abba wanna be group, Ace of Base. "I saw the sign".
Now, I don't know about you but if I'm used to hearing "Wouldn't it be nice" or "Good day sunshien" or hundred other "oldies", I don't want to hear "I saw the sign". The juxtposition of those songs isn't right. There has to be a flow with the songs (which is why you seem to hear a lot of Beach Boy songs, then Beatles songs, then Monkee songs, all in a row). Changing eras quickly isn't my thing.
Then it hit me. "Welcome to Charlie FM".
Charlie FM? What in the hell is that crap?
They totally changed the format on KISN to "Charlie FM", to like "Your Ipod, cept free!"
Total and absolute garbage.
They moved KKSN to it's old AM location, 910 AM. The only problem is, it's reception is crappy, and unless you have a stereo AM radio, it's sound is crappy. And they're changing it to HD, which as I understand it, only comes in good IF you have an HD radio.
So they've basically tried to compartmentalize us into believing we want to hear that wide of a variety. There's already enough stations like that in Portland, but there's no "oldies" station on the FM dial anymore.
I'm not complaining that because I'm some blue hair (I'm only in my late 20's), but because it's foolish thinking by the people who own the station (a rather large corporation) because they want to simplify things, and make things uniform.
All your base are belong to us!
KKSN (it's official name) has been in Portland in two seperate eras. It's original era, in the 60's and 70's (I believe). It was on 910 AM, and a pretty powerful station. Then, several years later, it returned to 97.1 FM. It's almost always been a decent ratings winner, and in some books, the best station in Portland. I grew up listening to KISN, and I much prefer oldies music to 90's+ music. There are, of course, some good songs from the current era.
On April 21st, all that changed. I'm driving around town listening to KISN. Recently they expanded their format to include songs from the 80's, so it wasn't a surprise to me that a Peter Gabriel song was being played ("Big time"). But the more I listened, the more I noticed that there was no "voice" to the show. No local DJ's, and all automated. I figured that they just expanded their playlist, and when I heard a 70's song (by Chicago) I thought I could handle the occasional 90's crap fest.
But, the next song I heard was from that Abba wanna be group, Ace of Base. "I saw the sign".
Now, I don't know about you but if I'm used to hearing "Wouldn't it be nice" or "Good day sunshien" or hundred other "oldies", I don't want to hear "I saw the sign". The juxtposition of those songs isn't right. There has to be a flow with the songs (which is why you seem to hear a lot of Beach Boy songs, then Beatles songs, then Monkee songs, all in a row). Changing eras quickly isn't my thing.
Then it hit me. "Welcome to Charlie FM".
Charlie FM? What in the hell is that crap?
They totally changed the format on KISN to "Charlie FM", to like "Your Ipod, cept free!"
Total and absolute garbage.
They moved KKSN to it's old AM location, 910 AM. The only problem is, it's reception is crappy, and unless you have a stereo AM radio, it's sound is crappy. And they're changing it to HD, which as I understand it, only comes in good IF you have an HD radio.
So they've basically tried to compartmentalize us into believing we want to hear that wide of a variety. There's already enough stations like that in Portland, but there's no "oldies" station on the FM dial anymore.
I'm not complaining that because I'm some blue hair (I'm only in my late 20's), but because it's foolish thinking by the people who own the station (a rather large corporation) because they want to simplify things, and make things uniform.
All your base are belong to us!
posted by Hap (Dan) at 8:58 AM
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