Posted by Craig on July 18, 2004 at 13:11:43:
In Reply to: Joe McCoy: Another Opinion posted by Allan Sniffen on July 18, 2004 at 08:49:04:
McCoy does deserve much credit for the station that entertained us and became such a good friend to us throughout the years, till higher-ups took his power away.
If it were a no-brainer to hire the great top 40 DJs of the 60s and 70s, why didn't other oldies stations in other cities do the same? Most oldies stations around the country felt it was sufficient to have one or two legedary jocks on staff, surrounded by a staff of no-name DJs in their 30s (earning smaller salaries than the vets). K-Earth had a few big LA jocks, same with WCAU-FM/WOGL Philly. As far as I know, other oldies stations worked the same way... WODS Boston, WBIG Washington, KFRC San Francisco, WJMK Chicago. One or two big names were enough.
WCBS-FM was unique to have so many veteran DJs (let's include Bobby Jay and Steve O'Brien on this list as well as Harrison, Morrow, Ingram, Lundy, Daniel and Baer...that's 8!). McCoy, I'm sure, had to deal with their egos (I'm sure he could tell some stories) and justify their salaries to his bosses. Being vets, they either worked two days a week (Brucie and Ingram) or three hours five days a week. I'm sure CBS-FM carried one of the highest DJ payrolls in the U.S.
I also thought McCoy created a radio station that had excitement and sizzle. Was it because the DJ's were so good? Perhaps. But I'm sure he gave them direction. Brucie sounds better today than during his last years at WABC when I often got the feeling he was more wrapped up in conversations with his board op than with what was happening on the air. Harry, Lundy, Danial, these guys sounded as good in their last days on the air as I ever remembered them on WABC or WMCA. I suppose they all had board ops, again an expense that management could have cut by employing younger people. But I never heard any engineering mistakes despite their advancing age.
As playlists around the country got tighter and tighter, WCBS-FM had the biggest playlist of any major oldies station. (By the way, how many oldies stations were still playing Tighter and Tighter? CBS-FM had it in rotation.) McCoy kept MOR oldies in the format such as The Carpenters, The Platters, Manilow, Sinatra... even an Andy Williams or Steve Lawrence once in a while. But there were also plenty of R&B songs I doubt would be heard on other oldies stations... "Just One Look" by Doris Troy or some great Jackie Wilson hit. How much fun was it to hear Bobby Jay play Sam Cooke's "My Baby Loves to Cha-Cha-Cha"? Was there another radio station on the planet that had THAT in rotation?
True, CBS-FM had no competition for most of its history. That's true of almost all oldies stations. For a short time there was an oldies battle in Detroit and one in L.A. But they were short-lived. It may have made McCoy's life a little easier. But how many oldies stations around the U.S. were consistantly in the Top 5? McCoy's job was to make the station so much fun, you didn't want to stray to other formats for long. And he made sure he kept the music moving during midday. Few oldies stations had or have CBS-FM's great at-work listening. I believe Alan has told us that CBS-FM is second to Lite-Fm in middays among mainstream stations. That again is a function of the wide playlist, where you can leave the radio on from when you get to work till the time you go home, and not hear Rag Doll a million times as you would on other oldies stations.
I also credit McCoy with the biggest commitment to news of any major market FM station in the country. Local newscasts all day, even on weekends and CBS Network News overnight. CBS owns numerous oldies stations in big markets, LA, Boston, Philly, Detroit, Houston, Dallas... yet none has as much commitment to news as CBS-FM (or runs CBS Network overnight).
And my last tip of the hat to McCoy (which most of you will likely disagree)... I thought the introduction of 80s hits to the CBS-FM playlist was a good idea. I thought McCoy chose the right 80s music that was compatible with the 60s and 70s hits. I felt that adding Every Breath You Take by the Police, Maneater by Hall & Oates and Little Red Corvette by Prince sounded fine amidst the Supremes and Beatles and Turtles and Beach Boys songs. Maybe 1980 was a dividing line for some of us, when we left college for a real job or got married. Maybe our interest in music ended as the 70s ended. But younger listeners who might also enjoy CBS-FM didn't have such a major life event. To them, the 80s is an oldies decade too. And the songs they danced to at their high school proms deserve to be on New York's oldies station too, if it's compatible with the 60s and 70s material.
Craig
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