Well, in my newest Kindle Vella story series, The Incredible 5, the five disc jockeys who work at the radio station known as WOLD-FM (and who have magic powers, by the way) play a music genre that was very popular in the early-to-mid 1990s: the oldies, or as some people might call them, golden oldies.
For those of you who wanted to know what this genre is, Oldies happens to be a term for musical genres such as pop, rock-and-roll, doo-wop, surf music, and even love songs from the second half of the 20th century, mainly from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as a certain radio format playing that kind of music.
Now, the oldies category includes styles as diverse as doo-wop, novelty songs, early rock-and-roll, bubblegum music, folk rock, and so many others, as well as some country music. Golden Oldies, however, refers usually to music that is exclusively from the 1950s and 1960s. Typically, Oldies radio features artists such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Avalon, The Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, Sam Cooke, and Little Richard. Oldies radio played music from the folk revival as well as beautiful instrumental music.
Most traditional oldies stations limit their on-air playlists to no more than 300 songs, based on the programming strategy that the average listener and passive listeners will stay tuned provided they are familiar with the hits being played. There is one drawback to this concept, and that happens to be the constant heavy rotation and repetition of the station's program library, as well as the rejection of the format by active listeners. However, all of this can be avoided either through the use of a broader playlist or by rotating different songs from the oldies era into and out of the playlist every few weeks.
The oldies format has some kind of overlap with the two formats known as classic rock and classic hits. Classic rock focuses on album rock from the late 1960s to the 1990s, while classic hits feature pop and rock from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. As those formats have drifted in time with their target audiences, classic rock and classic hits have moved further away from pure oldies, which has largely remained a static format.
Meanwhile, how did the term "oldies" come to be, you ask? Well, the "oldies" term in the early days of the rock era and before referred to the traditional songs of previous decades; a 1953 record review in Billboard magazine describes 1925's Yes Sir, That's My Baby as an "oldie". Oldies happens to be known for the near-total and sometimes arbitrary exclusion of some acts that were very popular in their time, including acts such as The Osmonds and Barbara Streisand.
The oldies format made its very first appearance in the early 1970s; a radio station in Phoenix that goes by the name of KOOL-FM became one of the very first radio stations to play oldies music, at that time focusing on the 1950s and early 1960s.
Throughout the 1960s, very few Top 40 radio stations played anything more than a few years old. In the late 1960s, few FM stations adopted Top 40 formats that leaned towards adults who did not want to hear the same 30 songs repetitively but also did not want to hear music featured on the Middle-Of-The-Road radio stations; they mixed in oldies with their own current product and only played new music a few times an hour. Those radio stations were often referred to as the "Gold" stations.
Some AM radio stations also began to enjoy this format; there were also syndicated music format packages such as Drake-Chenault's "Solid Gold" format, frequently used on FM stations that needed separate programming from their AM sisters, due to a then-new set of rules from the FCC on simulcasting, that functioned as a hybrid of oldies and the adult-oriented softer rock hits of the day.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, most of these "Solid Gold" radio stations either evolved into other formats or just simply dropped the format altogether; most AM gold stations flipped to other formats, while some FM stations evolved into adult contemporary stations, which includes WROR in Boston as well as WFYR in Chicago. Many AC stations in the early 1980s began mixing more oldies into regular rotation and just aired oldies shows on Saturday nights.
Starting in 1982, both AM and FM stations began to gradually change to full-time oldies formats; those stations strictly played music from 1955 to 1973, focusing on the 1964-1969 era. Among those oldies stations was WCBS-FM in New York City and WOGL-FM in Philadelphia. Some stations had as few as 300 songs while stations such as WOGL had as many as 1,500 songs in regular rotation, and by 1989, most large and medium markets had at least one FM oldies station.
However, by the year 2000, the oldies stations began noticing that their demographics were getting older, as well as harder, to sell, but at the time still, only a few stations had dumped the format altogether. A few radio stations would shift to a centric disco-oriented rhythmic oldies format.
So in 2000, the stations had begun to limit selections from the 1950s and early 1960s and began playing songs from as late as 1979 to even a few songs from the 1980s. WCBS-FM would become the station to cut back slightly on the pre-1964 oldies and then slightly increase songs from the 1970s and 80s early in 2001; they would also eliminate the overnight currents at the same time along with some specialty shows. The very next year, many oldies stations began dropping pre-1964 music from their playlists since the earlier music tended to appeal to an older demographic that advertisers found undesirable. So with that, among other changes, WCBS-FM canceled the "Doo-Wop Shop" program and would begin playing one pre-1964 oldie per hour.
So many stations have since dropped the oldies format because of low ad revenue despite high ratings; some have pointed out as a sign that the oldies format is in danger, and that happened to be the same reason that the adult standards and smooth jazz formats are disappearing.
But in the later years, somehow, the oldies format is alive and well, thanks to music streaming and satellite radio; while we would love to have a good 'ol oldies radio station again, these things are the next best things to listen to the oldies.
