Soccer Dad

Another one bites the dust

When it comes to music radio, my favorite format is oldies. Probably my second favorite format it's probably classic rock; which is sort of similar to oldies but might feature music up to the 80's and doesn't usually include Motown.
Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when I discovered that I was listening to JACK-FM. One of the first songs I heard was "Another one bites the dust." I couldn't figure out what format I was listening to. Eventually it became clear, the oldies station that I listened to had become some free-format rock station. There were, at that time, no recognizable personalities just lots of music; but not all of it that I liked. ("Another One Bites the Dust" was appropriate too. In this area another station, WHFS, recently changed formats to a great uproar. But WHFS was a niche station with a loyal but limited following. WQSR was much more popular.)
Eventually I learned that it wasn't just WQSR in Baltimore even New York's venerable WCBS (another Infinity Broadcasting property) has gone to this new style.
Needless to say this switch hasn't come about without some controversy. Longtime morning host Steve Rouse sounded off to the Baltimore Sun recently. While I certainly think it's terrible the way all the air talent was summarily dismissed; it's alas not all that uncommon in radio. (I try to avoid Clear Channel stations because they've unceremoniously dumped some of my favorite DJ's.)
So without the oldies station to listen too, I'll be relying more and more on my CD's. The new format is described as "... an iPod on shuffle."
The radio listening experience I enjoy is one where the DJ loves his music and can provide me with all sorts of important trivia (yes, that's an oxymoron). That style obviously isn't very popular. But if this isn't much different from listening to a machine play music, then I'll listen to my own machine play music.
I just found a 4 Tops and a Temptations CD really cheap. Is anything on JACK-FM going to sound better than "My Girl?" I don't think so.