Musical Beginnings

I got a bit of a shock while I was listening to the radio this morning. Speaking about the upcoming guests on the Brian Lehrer show today, Satirius Johnson said something along the lines of, “New York has joined one of several US markets without an oldies station. In with Brian Lehrer today to speak about the format shift at WCBS is DJ Cousin Brucie…” Surprised, I switched to 101.1 FM. I heard Big Me.

Big Me?

I know this is totally irrational and nonsensical, but as much as I like Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl and I are in a major fight right now.

Between songs, Radio Announcer Guy intoned, “Legally speaking, we’re WCBS 101.1. Musically speaking, we’re JACK FM!!!1”

It’s silly to feel loss over a format shift. It happens every day, and it’s not like I didn’t give up on commercial radio a long time ago. But a major reason (perhaps the biggest reason) that I know about and like so much music from before I was born is that Mom used to drive around with the radio permanently tuned to WCBS-FM, 101.1. Twisted as it is for someone born in 1982, I grew up listening to The Beatles, Buddy Holly, The Temptations, and countless others that made awesome music 40 years ago.

Apparently, WCBS the oldies station is still alive online. And they’re planning on broadcasting it once more when HD FM is more widely available. So it’s not the end of an era, and it probably doesn’t make much of a difference to more than a few people, but I am still sad that it’s not out there for other parents to introduce to their kids on the way to preschool and kindergarten.

June 07, 2005 - 08:47 AM