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139-723: The classic hits format saw growth in the 2010s, with stations like KRTH, WCBS-FM in New York, WLS-FM in Chicago, WROR-FM in Boston and Greatest Hits Radio in the UK having successful ratings with this model. Classic hits was named "format of the summer of 2018" by Nielsen Audio 's research team emphasizing the huge popularity of the format. In addition, the Millennial generation is listening to this format in record numbers, according to

278-437: A CHR format known as " Hot Hits ". The oldies format on WCBS-FM continued to be a success. One ongoing feature was a countdown of the top 500 songs of all time, as voted by the station's listeners. The countdown always took place on Thanksgiving weekend (with a new survey taken every other year). On even years, up to 1990, the survey from the previous year was played. In the first Top 500, The Five Satins ' doo wop classic " In

417-469: A Manhattan restaurant to celebrate his 100th day at the station. However, by the end of that day, the station would be changed dramatically. In the spring of 2005, Infinity Broadcasting, which was CBS' radio division during that time, contracted with Sparknet Communications, which owns the licensing of an Adult Hits format branded as "Jack FM", a format that has seen on-air success in Canadian areas since

556-474: A Job ", " Glory Days " and " Hit the Road Jack " (the last song of which had the word "Jack" edited out, giving an advance hint to the new format), among others. Frank Sinatra 's " Summer Wind " was the last song played before the format change. At 4:30 pm, the station stunted with a 30-minute montage of lines from various movies and other sources. At 5:00 pm, a pre-recorded station identification

695-572: A Nielsen report. As of December 2019, there are now over 1,100 classic hits stations in the United States, the largest amount in format history. The term "classic hits" is believed to have its birth at WZLX in Boston , when the station hired programming consultant Gary Guthrie to convert the station from adult contemporary to a format composed of the hipper tracks from the oldies format and album tracks from popular classic rock albums. The goal

834-421: A big layoff of personnel at CBS Radio. In 2007, Jennifer Donohue (from WWFS ) was named as Jack's new general manager. Later that year, Maire Mason replaced Donohue. The "Jack" format experiment at WCBS-FM is widely regarded, inside and outside the industry, as one of the greatest failures in modern New York radio history, as the station fell to the very bottom of the ratings of full-market-coverage FM stations in

973-484: A confessional tone. Rites of Spring has been described as the first "emo" band. Former Minor Threat singer Ian MacKaye founded Dischord Records which became the center for the city's emo scene. Gothic rock developed out of late-1970s British post-punk . With a reputation as the "darkest and gloomiest form of underground rock", gothic rock uses a synthesizer-and-guitar based sound drawn from post-punk to construct "foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes", and

1112-523: A cynical response to an "authentic" rock movement. Bush , Candlebox and Collective Soul were labelled almost pejoratively as post-grunge which, according to Tim Grierson of About.com , is "suggesting that rather than being a musical movement in their own right, they were just a calculated, cynical response to a legitimate stylistic shift in rock music." Post-grunge morphed during the late 1990s and 2000s as newer bands such as Foo Fighters , Matchbox Twenty , Creed and Nickelback emerged, becoming among

1251-644: A decade-based collection, as opposed to a single style of music. There are theories about why the music of the 1980s continues to be popular, especially to younger generations such as Millennials. The advent of music in video games such as the Grand Theft Auto , Rock Band , and Guitar Hero series introduced younger audiences to 1980s songs from artists such as The Police, Queen, Duran Duran, The Cars , R.E.M. , Billy Joel , and hundreds of others . Another theory includes TV shows and movies on Netflix and other streaming video services that are set in

1390-431: A few months prior (as they became WXLO). Johnny Michaels, formerly of WMCA , played the first record, Dion 's " Runaround Sue ". The entire staff from the rock format remained at the station. At first, the station focused on rock-and-roll hits from 1955 to 1964 and mixed in some softer hits of the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as a few then-current songs. WCBS-FM also played a moderate number of adult standards from

1529-545: A flurry of British bands emerged that wished to "get rid of grunge" and "declare war on America", taking the public and native music press by storm. Dubbed " Britpop " by the media, and represented by Pulp , Blur , Suede , and Oasis , this movement was the British equivalent of the grunge explosion, in that the artists propelled alternative rock to the top of the charts in their home country. Britpop bands were influenced by and displayed reverence for British guitar music of

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1668-409: A handful of pre-1964 oldies and songs from the 1980s. Joe McCoy left the station shortly thereafter and was replaced by Dave Logan. WCBS-FM's last morning show host of this period was ex- Monkee Micky Dolenz , who had appeal to this audience segment by virtue of 1970s reruns of his band's eponymous television series and the mid-1980s Monkees revival. His last broadcast on June 3, 2005, was a remote at

1807-571: A headliner in 1998. In light of the festival's troubles that year, Spin said, "Lollapalooza is as comatose as alternative rock right now". Despite these changes in style however, alternative rock remained commercially viable into the start of the 21st century. During the latter half of the 1990s, grunge was supplanted by post-grunge . Many post-grunge bands lacked the underground roots of grunge and were largely influenced by what grunge had become, namely "a wildly popular form of inward-looking, serious-minded hard rock."; many post-grunge bands emulated

1946-643: A late night new wave show entitled "Rock and Roll Alternative". " College rock " was used in the United States to describe the music during the 1980s due to its links to the college radio circuit and the tastes of college students. In the United Kingdom, dozens of small do it yourself record labels emerged as a result of the punk subculture . According to the founder of one of these labels, Cherry Red , NME and Sounds magazines published charts based on small record stores called "Alternative Charts". The first national chart based on distribution called

2085-401: A limited playlist from 1964 through 1979. On July 12, at approximately 12:40 pm, "Jack FM" ended with " Don't Stop Believin' " by Journey , ending in the same spot where the song abruptly ended during the series finale of The Sopranos . Then, after a few seconds of dead air and a few seconds of a " Wayback Machine " audio special effect, the oldies format returned with the resumption of

2224-447: A major shift in radio programming. According to these reports, the 1970s and 1980s were the last decades that a typical top 40 radio station played all music types; by the 1990s, top 40 began splintering into various genres such as rap and alternative rock, and each station was reformatted to focus on one type of music. Millennials also grew up in an era when music radio formats featuring older music were becoming widespread, something that

2363-420: A majority of groups that were signed to indie labels drew from a variety of rock and particularly 1960s rock influences. This represented a sharp break from the futuristic, hyper-rational post-punk years. "Alternative music is music that hasn't yet achieved a mainstream audience, Alternative isn't new wave any more, it's a disposition of mind. Alternative music is any kind of music that has the potential to reach

2502-451: A moderate number of songs from the late 1970s as well as about one 1980s hit per hour. Most of the 1980s music came from core oldies artists. The station's ratings increased during the 1990s (and were sustained into the 2000s) and market research studies showed a small and growing audience in the 35-to-49-year-old demographic as a new generation's "songs they grew up with" moved into the oldies format. The station even hit number one overall in

2641-484: A move back to oldies and classic hits as sister station WOGL in Philadelphia had demonstrated ratings success in the new methodology by reaching the top five. WCBS-FM's return to classic hits has also been a success, ranking it among the top five stations in every quarter of the new ratings for Arbitron, consistently either first or second in overall audience. In 2010, the station was number one among all stations in

2780-469: A new wave of post-rock bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós emerged who further expanded the genre. In 1993, the Smashing Pumpkins' album Siamese Dream was a major commercial success. The strong influence of heavy metal and progressive rock on the album helped to legitimize alternative rock to mainstream radio programmers and close the gap between alternative rock and

2919-464: A number of genres, including Krautrock , progressive rock , and jazz . The genre subverts or rejects rock conventions, and often incorporates electronic music. While the name of the genre was coined by music journalist Simon Reynolds in 1994 referring to Hex by the London group Bark Psychosis , the style of the genre was solidified by the release of Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) by

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3058-410: A personality-driven classic hits format. The station is continually ranked one of the highest-rated stations in the New York market, as well as one of the highest-rated classic hits stations in the United States. In 1940, during the early days of FM broadcasting , what is now WCBS-FM was allocated an FM frequency and call sign , W67NY, becoming CBS 's first FM station. The original transmitter site

3197-530: A personality-oriented format featuring news and information, popular music, and sports. As rock and roll became popular, the stations played only softer songs of the genre. Each of the stations began broadcasting its own programming in 1966. The AM station retained its personality-oriented middle of the road format until August 27, 1967. WCBS-FM initially programmed a younger-leaning easy listening format known as "The Young Sound", playing soft instrumental versions of current pop music songs. This automated format

3336-546: A sailor? Fleet Week is over. It's just music." In an interview with the New York Daily News , Cousin Brucie likened the format switch to "replacing Yankee Stadium with a fruit stand". Cousin Brucie moved over to Sirius Satellite Radio 's '60s on 6 channel to continue playing oldies. Recognizing the controversy of the sudden change, on June 14, 2005, the station announced that it would be unique among those with

3475-408: A specialty 1955–1964 oldies show called Heart & Soul of Rock & Roll with Norm N. Nite (who had been with WCBS off and on since 1973). Also in that year, Harry Harrison and Dan Ingram both retired. In spring 2004, WCBS-FM narrowed the playlist even more. The station's playlist consisted of music almost entirely from 1964 to 1979, dividing about equally between the 1960s and 1970s, playing only

3614-488: A wariness of its "macho" aesthetic. While indie rock artists share the punk rock distrust of commercialism, the genre does not entirely define itself against that, as "the general assumption is that it's virtually impossible to make indie rock's varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes in the first place". Labels such as Matador Records , Merge Records , and Dischord , and indie rockers like Pavement , Superchunk , Fugazi , and Sleater-Kinney dominated

3753-568: A wider audience. It also has real strength, real quality, real excitement, and it has to be socially significant, as opposed to Whitney Houston, which is pablum." —Mark Josephson, Executive Director of the New Music Seminar speaking in 1988 Throughout the 1980s, alternative rock remained mainly an underground phenomenon. While on occasion a song would become a commercial hit, or albums would receive critical praise in mainstream publications like Rolling Stone , alternative rock in

3892-492: Is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s with the likes of the grunge subgenre in the United States, and the Britpop and shoegaze subgenres in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this period, many record labels were looking for "alternatives", as many corporate rock , hard rock , and glam metal acts from

4031-432: Is because WBEB broadcasts at 14,000 watts, although from a lower antenna height. WCBS-FM's subcarrier also airs Spanish language Catholic programming for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut from Radio Maria Hispana, a local unit of Radio Maria USA. A few hours after the change back from Jack FM, WCBS-FM's 1960s and 1970s music was brought back online on the stations website. CBS-FM's longtime music director Jeff Mazzei

4170-459: Is getting a chance again." He added, "This music has been treated terribly, and people in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s are still a very viable product in this society." Mayor Bloomberg, who had criticized the Jack FM format after its debut, also welcomed oldies back with open arms, proclaiming July 12, 2007, as "WCBS-FM Returns to New York City Day". Arbitron's switch from diary to PPM facilitated

4309-590: Is now repeated on-air every July 12. WOCL in Orlando used the same sequence (with the montage starting with 1966 and running clips for every year through 1989) the following year , dropping alternative rock for classic hits , and later WJMK in Chicago also used the same sequence (with a few Chicago-themed modifications) on March 14, 2011 when they switched from Jack FM to a classic hits format. Upon hearing of WCBS-FM's confirmation that oldies would return, Cousin Brucie commented, "I'm thrilled that this music

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4448-510: Is often difficult because of two conflicting applications of the word. Alternative can describe music that challenges the status quo and that is "fiercely iconoclastic, anticommercial, and antimainstream", and the term is also used in the music industry to denote "the choices available to consumers via record stores, radio, cable television, and the Internet." However alternative music has paradoxically become just as commercial and marketable as

4587-660: The Billboard 200 album chart. Soundgarden 's album Badmotorfinger , Alice in Chains ' Dirt and Stone Temple Pilots ' Core along with the Temple of the Dog album collaboration featuring members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, were also among the 100 top-selling albums of 1992. The popular breakthrough of these grunge bands prompted Rolling Stone to nickname Seattle "the new Liverpool ". Major record labels signed most of

4726-504: The Billboard charts. Pearl Jam also continued to perform well commercially with its second album, Vs. (1993), which topped the Billboard charts by selling a record 950,378 copies in its first week of release. In 1993, the Smashing Pumpkins released their major breakthrough album, Siamese Dream —which debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 4 million copies by 1996, receiving multi-platinum certification by

4865-531: The Indie Chart was published in January 1980; it immediately succeeded in its aim to help these labels. At the time, the term indie was used literally to describe independently distributed records. By 1985, indie had come to mean a particular genre, or group of subgenres, rather than simply distribution status. The use of the term alternative to describe rock music originated around the mid-1980s; at

5004-631: The RIAA . In 1995, the band released their double album, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness — which went on to sell 10 million copies in the US alone, certifying it as a Diamond record. With the decline of the Madchester scene and the unglamorousness of shoegazing, the tide of grunge from America dominated the British alternative scene and music press in the early 1990s. As a reaction,

5143-495: The hair metal that had dominated rock music at that time fell out of favor in the face of music that was authentic and culturally relevant. The breakthrough success of Nirvana led to the widespread popularization of alternative rock in the 1990s. It heralded a "new openness to alternative rock" among commercial radio stations, opening doors for heavier alternative bands in particular. In the wake of Nevermind , alternative rock "found itself dragged-kicking and screaming ... into

5282-561: The "grunging of America" to the mass-marketing of punk rock, disco , and hip hop in previous years. As a result of the genre's popularity, a backlash against grunge developed in Seattle. Nirvana's follow-up album In Utero (1993) was an intentionally abrasive album that Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic described as a "wild aggressive sound, a true alternative record." Nevertheless, upon its release in September 1993 In Utero topped

5421-458: The 1955–1963 time period. There was also a moderate amount of 1980s music on the survey. Joe McCoy took over as program director in 1981, and at that point WCBS-FM began to gradually shift its focus to the 1964–1969 era, but would also feature more pre-1964 oldies than most other such stations of that decade. The station continued to also feature hits of the 1970s and some hits of the 1980s while cutting future gold selections to one per hour. Also in

5560-433: The 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and some 1950s songs, and in 2004 played a Top 500 Countdown with mostly songs from 1964 to 1979 with some pre-1964 songs and 1980s songs. When the station returned to a modified oldies and classic hits format in 2007, the station compiled a new listener-voted survey and played the results Labor Day weekend. This survey featured mostly songs from the 1960s and 1970s with a moderate selection of songs from

5699-449: The 1970s and 1980s in favor of new artists and more current-based music rotations . This created a void in which gold-based music was not being played on radio in certain markets, thus creating a new opportunity for classic hits stations. WCBS-FM WCBS-FM (101.1 FM ) is a radio station owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. licensed to New York, New York , and broadcasting a classic hits format. The station's studios are in

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5838-553: The 1970s, which served as a progressive alternative to top 40 radio formats by featuring longer songs and giving DJs more freedom in song selection. According to one former DJ and promoter, "Somehow this term 'alternative' got rediscovered and heisted by college radio people during the 80s who applied it to new post-punk, indie, or underground-whatever music." At first the term referred to intentionally non-mainstream rock acts that were not influenced by "heavy metal ballads, rarefied new wave" and "high-energy dance anthems". Usage of

5977-646: The 1980s and feature music from that era. Examples include Netflix's popular series Stranger Things (whose soundtrack features songs from Cyndi Lauper and Toto ), Wet Hot American Summer , Glow , and The Goldbergs on ABC . Movies with box office success that are set in the 1980s have also been contributed to the popularity of the music of that era, including Guardians of the Galaxy , The Wedding Singer , Hot Tub Time Machine , and Ready Player One . Studies suggesting that millennials prefer older music have also been published with theories regarding

6116-479: The 1980s was primarily featured on independent record labels, fanzines and college radio stations. Alternative bands built underground followings by touring constantly and by regularly releasing low-budget albums. In the United States, new bands would form in the wake of previous bands, which created an extensive underground circuit filled with different scenes in various parts of the country. College radio formed an essential part of breaking new alternative music. In

6255-553: The 1980s were beginning to grow stale throughout the music industry . The emergence of Generation X as a cultural force in the 1990s also contributed greatly to the rise of alternative rock. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial rock or pop. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to musicians influenced by the musical style or independent, DIY ethos of late-1970s punk rock . Traditionally, alternative rock varied in terms of its sound, social context, and regional roots. Throughout

6394-816: The 1980s which have aged out of the AC format. The recent appeal to this format has introduced format flips in major markets, including the flip of WIAD , Washington D.C. from adult contemporary-formatted "Fresh-FM" to classic hits as "The Drive" in October 2018. Most of the current classic hits stations were simply slow evolutions from oldies, including WOGL in Philadelphia, WRBQ-FM in Tampa, KSPF in Dallas, and WOCL in Orlando, among many others. WOGL changed their slogan to "Nobody plays more 80s" whereas WRBQ-FM changed to "Hits of

6533-481: The 1980s, after WABC and later WNBC abandoned music in favor of talk, WCBS-FM began employing many disc jockeys who were widely known on other New York City stations (and sometimes nationally), most notably Musicradio 77 WABC alumni Ron Lundy , Dan Ingram , Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow , and Harry Harrison , as well as former WMCA "Good Guys" Dan Daniel and Jack Spector . Bob Shannon , whose only previous New York City radio experience before coming to WCBS-FM

6672-463: The 1980s, alternative bands generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth . As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although in 1989 The New York Times asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzztone and squeal in feedback." More often than in other rock styles since

6811-402: The 1980s, magazines and zines , college radio airplay , and word of mouth had increased the prominence and highlighted the diversity of alternative rock's distinct styles (and music scenes), such as noise pop , indie rock , grunge , and shoegaze . In September 1988, Billboard introduced "alternative" into their charting system to reflect the rise of the format across radio stations in

6950-440: The 1980s, such as U2 and Michael Jackson . Together, all of these variations of musical genres still have mass appeal due to the origins of radio stations that played them together when they were hits. Similar to the philosophy with oldies radio, most of the music is upbeat and edgy. While these music types can be found in other formats, what makes this format unique is the variety of genres being played together on one station as

7089-752: The 2000s with multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy , My Chemical Romance , Paramore and Panic! at the Disco . Bands such as the White Stripes and the Strokes found commercial success in the early 2000s, influencing an influx of new alternative rock bands that drew inspiration from garage rock , post-punk and new wave , establishing a revival of the genres. In the past, popular music tastes were largely dictated by music executives within large entertainment corporations. Record companies signed contracts with those entertainers who were thought to become

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7228-434: The 80s and more". Radio programmer Scott Shannon , the architect of the modern top 40 era at WHTZ (Z100) in New York during the 1980s, moved his morning show to WCBS-FM, bringing many of the 1980s-style radio formats to the station. Dallas-based JAM Creative Productions , a major producer of radio station jingles in the 1980s, created an updated jingle package for stations that moved to a classic hits presentation. Jingles in

7367-473: The American indie scene for most of the 1990s. One of the main indie rock movements of the 1990s was lo-fi . The movement, which focused on the recording and distribution of music on low-quality cassette tapes , initially emerged in the 1980s. By 1992, Pavement, Guided by Voices and Sebadoh became popular lo-fi cult acts in the United States, while subsequently artists like Beck and Liz Phair brought

7506-512: The British indie scene through the end of the decade, as various bands drew from singer Morrissey 's English-centered lyrical topics and guitarist Johnny Marr 's jangly guitar-playing style. The C86 cassette, a 1986 NME premium featuring Primal Scream , the Wedding Present and others, was a major influence on the development of indie pop and the British indie scene as a whole. Other forms of alternative rock developed in

7645-723: The British music press at the end of the decade along with the Madchester scene. Performing for the most part in the Haçienda , a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records , Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses mixed acid house dance rhythms with melodic guitar pop. The Amerindie of the early '80s became known as alternative or alt-rock, ascendant from Nirvana until 1996 or so but currently very unfashionable, never mind that

7784-494: The CBS-FM update package include cuts from the popular "Flame Thrower" and "Warp Factor" packages made famous by WHTZ in the 1980s. Today's classic hits format is a representation of the variety of music types found on the radio in the 1980s including these core artists. These were a few examples that were more commonly used on most classic hits stations. Rock: Alternative and new wave : Pop: R&B and dance: Songs from

7923-531: The Chicago group Tortoise . Post-rock was the dominant form of experimental rock music in the 1990s and bands from the genre signed to such labels as Thrill Jockey , Kranky , Drag City , and Too Pure . A related genre, math rock , peaked in the mid-1990s. In comparison to post-rock, math rock relies on more complex time signatures and intertwining phrases. By the end of the decade a backlash had emerged against post-rock due to its "dispassionate intellectuality" and its perceived increasing predictability, but

8062-562: The HD3 sub-channel flipped to The True Oldies Channel ; CBS Sports Radio would subsequently move to WNSH 's HD3 sub-channel. On May 1, 2024, WCBS-FM HD3 switched from the "True Oldies Channel" to Caribbean programming as "Roadblock Radio". ** = Audacy operates pursuant to a local marketing agreement with Martz Communications Group . Alternative rock This is an accepted version of this page Alternative rock (also known as alternative music , alt-rock or simply alternative )

8201-496: The Jack format in that it would occasionally include 1950s and early 1960s songs in its rotation as well as songs by performers like Frank Sinatra that are normally not part of the Jack format, though a later Web update retracted this, and songs from before the late 1960s were no longer played. In March 2006, Chad Brown hired Brian Thomas as program director, replacing Steve Smith. Brown was replaced by Les Hollander later that year after

8340-881: The Lollapalooza festival became the most successful tour in North America in July and August 1991. For Dave Grohl of Nirvana who attended the festival at an open-air amphitheater in Southern California , "it felt like something was happening, that was the beginning of it all". The tour helped change the mentalities in the music industry: "by that fall, radio and MTV and music had changed. I really think that if it weren't for Perry [Farrell], if it weren't for Lollapalooza , you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now". The release of Nirvana's single " Smells Like Teen Spirit " in September 1991 "marked

8479-569: The New York market. In early July 2007, various websites quoted sources as saying the station was ready to shift from its current "Jack FM" format and return to its previous format. CBS Radio , owner of the station, declined to comment on the rumors. Initial reports about the WCBS-FM format change initially surfaced on July 6, 2007, in the Radio Business Report online newsletter and at CrainsNewYorkBusiness.com . CBS Radio confirmed

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8618-412: The New York region, 25-54 and 12+ (Arbitron PPM report, May 2010). The station went to number one again in the July 2014 & August 2017 ratings periods. As of August 2009, WCBS-FM started carrying New York Giants football on occasions when sister station WFAN could not carry the game. For the 2010 season, two Giants pre-season games and two regular season games were carried on WCBS-FM including

8757-625: The Replacements upended a number of underground scene conventions; Azerrad noted that "along with R.E.M., they were one of the few underground bands that mainstream people liked." By the late 1980s, the American alternative scene was dominated by styles ranging from quirky alternative pop ( They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven ), to noise rock ( Sonic Youth , Big Black , the Jesus Lizard ) and industrial rock ( Ministry , Nine Inch Nails). These sounds were in turn followed by

8896-505: The Still of the Night " was No. 1 and " Earth Angel " by The Penguins was No. 2. "In the Still of the Night" remained at No. 1 every year after that. In 1992, WCBS-FM ran a Top 500 Countdown based on all their surveys from 1973 to 1991. They repeated 1993's Top 500 in 1994, conducting their last listener surveys in 1995 and 1996. After compiling an all-time survey based on past surveys in 1997,

9035-474: The Story) Morning Glory? (1995), went on to become the third best-selling album in the UK's history. Long synonymous with alternative rock as a whole in the U.S., indie rock became a distinct form following the popular breakthrough of Nirvana. Indie rock was formulated as a rejection of alternative rock's absorption into the mainstream by artists who could not or refused to cross over, and

9174-591: The Top 40 and spawned a number of jangle pop followers. One of the many jangle pop scenes of the early 1980s, Los Angeles' Paisley Underground revived the sounds of the 1960s, incorporating psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and the guitar interplay of folk rock as well as punk and underground influences such as the Velvet Underground . American indie record labels SST Records , Twin/Tone Records , Touch and Go Records , and Dischord Records presided over

9313-463: The UK during the 1980s. the Jesus and Mary Chain 's sound combined the Velvet Underground's "melancholy noise" with Beach Boys pop melodies and Phil Spector 's " Wall of Sound " production, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with disco and dance music . The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr. , C86 and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins , were

9452-577: The US by a more pop-oriented focus (marked by an equal emphasis on albums and singles, as well as greater openness to incorporating elements of dance and club culture) and a lyrical emphasis on specifically British concerns. As a result, few British alternative bands have achieved commercial success in the US. Since the 1980s, alternative rock has been played extensively on the radio in the UK, particularly by disc jockeys such as John Peel (who championed alternative music on BBC Radio 1 ), Richard Skinner , and Annie Nightingale . Artists with cult followings in

9591-626: The US received greater exposure through British national radio and the weekly music press, and many alternative bands had chart success there. Early American alternative bands such as the Dream Syndicate , the Bongos , 10,000 Maniacs , R.E.M. , the Feelies and Violent Femmes combined punk influences with folk music and mainstream music influences. R.E.M. was the most immediately successful; their debut album, Murmur (1983), entered

9730-521: The United States by stations like KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and WDRE-FM in New York, which were playing music from more underground , independent, and non-commercial rock artists. Initially, several alternative styles achieved minor mainstream notice and a few bands, such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction , were signed to major labels . Most alternative bands at the time, like the Smiths , one of

9869-481: The Velvet Underground , which influenced many alternative rock bands that would come after it. Eccentric and quirky figures of the 1960s, such as Syd Barrett have influence on alternative rock in general. The Dead Kennedys formed the independent record label Alternative Tentacles in 1979, releasing influential underground music such as the 1983 self-titled EP from the Butthole Surfers . By 1984,

10008-558: The advent of Boston 's Pixies and Los Angeles' Jane's Addiction. Around the same time, the grunge subgenre emerged in Seattle , Washington, initially referred to as "The Seattle Sound" until its rise to popularity in the early 1990s. Grunge featured a sludgy, murky guitar sound that syncretized heavy metal and punk rock. Promoted largely by Seattle indie label Sub Pop , grunge bands were noted for their thrift store fashion which favored flannel shirts and combat boots suited to

10147-475: The aesthetic to mainstream audiences. The period also saw alternative confessional female singer-songwriters. Besides the aforementioned Liz Phair, PJ Harvey fit into this sub group. In the mid-1990s, Sunny Day Real Estate defined the emo genre. Weezer 's album Pinkerton (1996) was also influential. Post-rock was established by Talk Talk 's Laughing Stock and Slint 's Spiderland albums, both released in 1991. Post-rock draws influence from

10286-481: The aforementioned, which paid homage to the entire decade of the 1980s, with WCBS-FM jingles interspersed between. Former Mayor Ed Koch then welcomed back the format, noting the "mistake" CBS Radio had made with the switch. Then at exactly 1:01 pm, the legally mandated station identification played, and WCBS-FM's classic hits format officially returned with " Do It Again " by the Beach Boys . This sequence

10425-539: The alternative rock community" including Henry Rollins , Butthole Surfers , Ice-T , Nine Inch Nails , Siouxsie and the Banshees (as second headliners) and Jane's Addiction (as the headlining act). Covering for MTV the opening date of Lollapalooza in Phoenix in July 1991, Dave Kendall introduced the report saying the festival presented the "most diverse lineups of alternative rock". That summer, Farrell had coined

10564-437: The alternative/independent scene and dryly tore it apart." David Lowery , then frontman of Camper Van Beethoven, later recalled: "I remember first seeing that word applied to us... The nearest I could figure is that we seemed like a punk band, but we were playing pop music, so they made up this word alternative for those of us who do that." DJs and promoters during the 1980s claim the term originates from American FM radio of

10703-523: The change of formats, among them Mayor Michael Bloomberg , who, according to the New York Post , responded to the change by declaring he would "never listen to that fucking CBS radio ever again" (the quote was censored in the Post ). "Jack" picked up on the mayor's comments, making jokes about his quip, "Hey, Mayor Bloomberg. I heard you took a shot at us in the Post . What's with all the swearin' like

10842-640: The combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in Lower Manhattan , and its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building . WCBS-FM was one of the first notable oldies stations in the country, with the format dating back to July 7, 1972. Between June 3, 2005, and July 12, 2007, the station aired the automated adult hits format " Jack FM ". The new programming was unsuccessful, and WCBS-FM switched back to

10981-467: The death of Layne Staley and the subsequent disbanding of Alice in Chains in 2002, and the disbanding of both the Cranberries and Stone Temple Pilots in 2003. Britpop also began fading after Oasis ' third album, Be Here Now (1997), was met with lackluster reviews. A signifier of alternative rock's changes was the hiatus of the Lollapalooza festival after an unsuccessful attempt to find

11120-459: The decisions were business people dealing with music as a product, and those bands who were not making the expected sales figures were then excluded from this system. Before the term alternative rock came into common usage around 1990, the sorts of music to which it refers were known by a variety of terms. In 1979, Terry Tolkin used the term Alternative Music to describe the groups he was writing about. In 1979 Dallas radio station KZEW had

11259-453: The early 2000s, when indie rock became the most common term in the US to describe modern pop and rock, the terms "indie rock" and "alternative rock" were often used interchangeably; while there are aspects which both genres have in common, "indie rock" was regarded as a British-based term, unlike the more American "alternative rock". The name "alternative rock" essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in

11398-475: The early 2000s. In return, Sparknet Communications gave Infinity Broadcasting permission to bring the "Jack FM" format to some of Infinity's radio markets in the United States. That April, Infinity flipped radio stations KCBS-FM in Los Angeles and WQSR in Baltimore to the "Jack FM" format. On Friday, June 3, 2005, Micky Dolenz , Mike Fitzgerald, and Randy Davis all signed off their shows expecting to be back

11537-437: The early part of the oldies format. WCBS-FM was never successful with their rock format, where it competed with stations such as WPLJ and WNEW-FM ; these two stations had most of the rock audience. As a result, WCBS-FM switched to oldies on July 7, 1972, becoming one of the first full-time stations in the country to use that format. The change coincided with rival WOR-FM 's decision to drop pre-1964 oldies from its playlist

11676-559: The first game at the New Meadowlands Stadium against the New York Jets on August 16. In the fall of 2014, the station dropped the pre-1964 oldies altogether and also dropped many of the songs from the 1960s, cutting the number down to one to two per hour. In addition, the station broadened their format to include select hits from the 1990s, up to about 1999. On November 19, 2016, the "Saturday Night Block Party"

11815-470: The first time, WCBS-FM would have an airstaff. Bill Brown began his long tenure with the station, and Don K. Reed began his late in 1971; both remained there until 2005. Radio personalities such as Bobby "Wizzard" Wayne, Tom Tyler, Ed Williams, Steve Clark, Roby Yonge , K.O. Bayley (Bob Elliott from WOR-FM ), Les Turpin, Bob "Bob-A-Lew" Lewis also briefly joined the WCBS-FM "freeform" format. Besides Bill Brown and Don K. Reed, Wayne and Williams also stayed into

11954-484: The following Monday. However, Bill Brown signed off at about 3:53 p.m. saying, "CBS-FM 101.1, Fontella Bass ... Do you ever feel the urge to just kinda scream, " RESCUE ME!? "... I'm beginning to get that feeling, here's Fontella Bass." The station segued to "Use Me" by Bill Withers . Then, at 4:00 pm, the station played the usual station identification , and then a mix of oldies and greatest hits referring to change, including " Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) ", " Get

12093-429: The formative influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the band members' tendency to stare at their feet and guitar effects pedals onstage rather than interact with the audience, shoegazing acts like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive created an overwhelmingly loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. Shoegazing bands dominated

12232-430: The foundation for its large cult following. The key British alternative rock band to emerge during the 1980s was Manchester 's the Smiths . Music journalist Simon Reynolds singled out the Smiths and their American contemporaries R.E.M. as "the two most important alt-rock bands of the day", commenting that they "were eighties bands only in the sense of being against the eighties". The Smiths exerted an influence over

12371-457: The instigation of the grunge music phenomenon". Helped by constant airplay of the song's music video on MTV, their album Nevermind was selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991. Its success surprised the music industry. Nevermind not only popularized grunge, but also established "the cultural and commercial viability of alternative rock in general." Michael Azerrad asserted that Nevermind symbolized "a sea-change in rock music" in which

12510-422: The key British alternative rock bands during the 1980s, remained signed to independent labels and received relatively little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, alternative rock entered the musical mainstream, and many alternative bands became successful. Emo found mainstream success in

12649-424: The last song played before the change to Jack FM, Frank Sinatra 's " Summer Wind " (starting like a phonograph record played very slowly but quickly accelerated to normal speed). This was followed by greetings from former WCBS-FM DJs Harry Harrison and Ron Lundy . Next were audio-clip montages of music, movies, television shows, and events for each year from 1964 through 1979 followed by a single montage, similar to

12788-420: The local weather. Early grunge bands Soundgarden and Mudhoney found critical acclaim in the U.S. and UK, respectively. By the end of the decade, a number of alternative bands began to sign to major labels. While early major label signings Hüsker Dü and the Replacements had little success, acts who signed with majors in their wake such as R.E.M. and Jane's Addiction achieved gold and platinum records, setting

12927-495: The mainstream rock, with record companies using the term "alternative" to market music to an audience that mainstream rock does not reach. Using a broad definition of the genre, Dave Thompson in his book Alternative Rock cites the formation of the Sex Pistols as well as the release of the albums Horses by Patti Smith and Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed as three key events that gave birth to alternative rock. Until

13066-559: The mainstream" and record companies, confused by the genre's success yet eager to capitalize on it, scrambled to sign bands. The New York Times declared in 1993, "Alternative rock doesn't seem so alternative anymore. Every major label has a handful of guitar-driven bands in shapeless shirts and threadbare jeans, bands with bad posture and good riffs who cultivate the oblique and the evasive, who conceal catchy tunes with noise and hide craftsmanship behind nonchalance." However, many alternative rock artists rejected success, for it conflicted with

13205-494: The mainstreaming of rock music, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, suicide, and environmentalism . This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s and early 1990s. Precursors to alternative rock existed in the 1960s with proto-punk . The origins of alternative rock can be traced back to The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) by

13344-586: The mid- to late 1970s which had an influence on the MTV generation from artists such as Queen , Foreigner , Elton John , and the Bee Gees are still featured on many of these stations as the oldest part of the library. Additionally, stations have started to play songs from the 1990s and 2000s that have appeal to this audience such as " Linger " by The Cranberries and Uncle Kracker 's version of " Drift Away ", along with later releases by artists that were successful in

13483-509: The mid-1980s, college station KCPR in San Luis Obispo, California , described in a DJ handbook the tension between popular and "cutting edge" songs as played on "alternative radio". Although American alternative artists of the 1980s never generated spectacular album sales, they exerted a considerable influence on later alternative musicians and laid the groundwork for their success. On September 10, 1988, an Alternative Songs chart

13622-460: The more melodic, diverse music of college rock that emerged. Azerrad wrote, "Hüsker Dü played a huge role in convincing the underground that melody and punk rock weren't antithetical." The band also set an example by being the first group from the American indie scene to sign to a major record label, which helped establish college rock as "a viable commercial enterprise". By focusing on heartfelt songwriting and wordplay instead of political concerns,

13761-448: The most popular, and therefore who could generate the most sales. These bands were able to record their songs in expensive studios, and their works were then offered for sale through record store chains that were owned by the entertainment corporations, along with eventually selling the merchandise into big box retailers . Record companies worked with radio and television companies to get the most exposure for their artists. The people making

13900-443: The music is still there. — Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s (2000) By the start of the 1990s, the music industry was enticed by alternative rock's commercial possibilities and major labels had already signed Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dinosaur Jr. In early 1991, R.E.M. went mainstream worldwide with Out of Time while becoming a blueprint for many alternative bands. The first edition of

14039-635: The official name and recognized by Nielsen Audio as a format classification. In addition, many adult contemporary (AC) stations that had featured a large library of 1980s music began to phase it out as new artists like Adele , Pink , Bruno Mars , Maroon 5 , and others became very popular, thus making these stations much more current oriented. This factor created a situation where artists like Madonna , George Michael , Michael Jackson , and Prince , who are considered major superstars, were no longer being played on AC stations. Most of these stations are now current-intensive, playing newer artists versus those from

14178-436: The old format, the station created an internet-only oldies station on its website, and soon after, simulcasted the format on 101.1-HD2. Initially, the internet-only station was DJ-less like Jack FM on the analog 101.1 and HD1 station; in between songs, the station played jingles plus pre-recorded voice overs done by their production director. In a letter on the WCBS-FM website posted on June 5, 2005, station VP Chad Brown announced

14317-449: The oldies format and needed to update the music and presentation to stay relevant in the 25-54 demographic on which advertising agencies base ad purchases. After several years of format transitions and changes, the industry needed a term that better defined the stations who were basing their libraries in the MTV era of music. Thus, the term classic hits was accepted by the radio community as

14456-525: The oldies format being temporarily moved back to the HD2 channel. In late June 2009, the HD2 channel was rebranded again as ToNY , meaning "to New York" but pronounced as "Tony". The channel continued to feature an adult hits format until December 21, 2012, when it was dropped and replaced with a simulcast of WCBS . On October 2, 2008, WCBS-FM HD3 was launched as a simulcast of WCBS. On January 2, 2013, WCBS-FM HD3 flipped to CBS Sports Radio . In February 2021,

14595-530: The other New York stations, which launched in early 2006). Air personalities did on-air auditions on the WCBS-FM HD2 oldies station on July 11, 2007, as a preview of the next day's changeover. The format then moved to the analog and HD1 channels. The HD2 station also simulcast the oldies format until 2:00 p.m. that day, at which time Jack FM moved to HD2. At 3:00 p.m. that day, Jack FM resumed streaming on their website. In February 2008, Howard Cogan

14734-569: The past, particularly movements and genres such as the British Invasion , glam rock , and punk rock . In 1995, the Britpop phenomenon culminated in a rivalry between its two chief groups, Oasis and Blur, symbolized by their release of competing singles “ Roll With It ” and “ Country House ” on the same day on 14 August 1995. Blur won " The Battle of Britpop ", but they were soon eclipsed in popularity by Oasis whose second album, (What's

14873-418: The prominent grunge bands in Seattle, while a second influx of bands moved to the city in hopes of success. At the same time, critics asserted that advertising was co-opting elements of grunge and turning it into a fad. Entertainment Weekly commented in a 1993 article, "There hasn't been this kind of exploitation of a subculture since the media discovered hippies in the '60s." The New York Times compared

15012-465: The ratings on at least several occasions during the 1990s. During this period, the station's on-air jingles were made by JAM Creative Productions in Dallas . Such was the appeal of the packages of jingles that stations around the world wanted that WCBS-FM sound for their stations, including for example the UK's Radio Victory . By 2000, as demographics for 1950s and early 1960s oldies started to eclipse

15151-427: The rebellious, DIY ethic the genre had espoused before mainstream exposure and their ideas of artistic authenticity. Other grunge bands subsequently replicated Nirvana's success. Pearl Jam had released its debut album Ten a month before Nevermind in 1991, but album sales only picked up a year later. By the second half of 1992 Ten became a breakthrough success, being certified gold and reaching number two on

15290-475: The regular playlist and moved away from pre-1964 and toward 1970–1989 songs even more. In the summer of 2002, Don K. Reed's long-running Sunday night Doo-Wop Shop program was cancelled. The station even began to de-emphasize the phrase 'oldies' in promotion of the station. The station canceled more specialty shows in 2003, such as the Top 20 Oldies Countdown . In the summer of 2003, to appease some fans, they did add

15429-862: The rights to use the brand and trademarks for WCBS-FM along with sister stations WCBS (AM) , KCBS (AM) in San Francisco and KCBS-FM in Los Angeles for a 20-year period after which Entercom (or succeeding entity) will be required to relinquish using those call-letters. WCBS-FM broadcasts at 6,700 watts. Co-owned WBEB , an adult contemporary station in Philadelphia , also broadcasts on 101.1 MHz. WBEB's signal reaches far north into New Jersey , especially along Interstate 287 south of Morristown , and in Northwestern New Jersey. In those areas WBEB interferes with WCBS-FM, and in some spots, WBEB's signal actually seems stronger. This

15568-477: The rock era. The station played two current hits per hour known as "future gold". By the late 1970s however, the station dropped most of the adult standards, with a few exceptions, and added rock hits from the late 1960s. WCBS-FM's oldies format weathered many trends and corporate moves. By 1979, three FM stations owned by CBS had begun playing disco music . In the course of 1981, all of CBS's FM stations, except for WCBS-FM and their FM station in San Francisco, adopted

15707-468: The rumors on July 9, 2007, that live announcers would indeed return to 101.1 and the HD1 channel on July 12, meaning that the "Jack" format in New York had run its course after two years, likely due to its lackluster ratings. The returning format would concentrate on music from 1964 to 1989, with selected older hits from 1955 through 1963. There would be a wider variety of hits, unlike the CBS-FM of 2005, which had

15846-399: The sale was conducted using a Reverse Morris Trust so that it would be tax-free. While CBS shareholders retained a 72% ownership stake in the combined company, Entercom was the surviving entity, separating WCBS radio (both 101.1 FM and 880 AM) from WCBS-TV. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17. As part of the agreement with CBS, Entercom was given

15985-421: The shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging. Minneapolis bands Hüsker Dü and the Replacements were indicative of this shift. Both started out as punk rock bands, but soon diversified their sounds and became more melodic. Michael Azerrad asserted that Hüsker Dü was the key link between hardcore punk and

16124-479: The sound and style of grunge, "but not necessarily the individual idiosyncracies of its original artists." Post-grunge was a more commercially viable genre that tempered the distorted guitars of grunge with polished, radio-ready production. Originally, post-grunge was a label used almost pejoratively on bands that emerged when grunge was mainstream and emulated the grunge sound. The label suggested that bands labelled as post-grunge were simply musically derivative, or

16263-514: The stage for alternative's later breakthrough. Some bands such as Pixies had massive success overseas while they were ignored domestically. In the middle of the decade, Hüsker Dü's album Zen Arcade influenced other hardcore acts by tackling personal issues. Out of Washington, D.C.'s hardcore scene what was called "emocore" or, later, " emo " emerged and was noted for its lyrics which delved into emotional, very personal subject matter (vocalists sometimes cried) and added free association poetry and

16402-418: The station abandoned listener surveys, repeating the 1997 all-time survey on subsequent Thanksgiving weekends. For New Years weekend in 1999–2000, the station compiled and played a Top 1001 countdown based on original New York radio charts, with " Mack The Knife " by Bobby Darin at number one. This survey would be repeated on Thanksgiving weekend in 2002. In 2003, the station played a Top 500 Countdown covering

16541-403: The station also no longer plays any music from the 1960s, while also starting to cut back on the amount of early 1970s music played. Gradually and subtly, WCBS-FM is increasing the frequency of 1980s and 1990s hits per day and is also adding music from the 2000s. On February 2, 2017, CBS agreed to merge CBS Radio with Entercom , currently the fourth-largest radio broadcaster in the United States;

16680-803: The station became WCBS-FM, and the frequency moved to the current 101.1. This allowed the station to reflect its corporate ownership by the Columbia Broadcasting System or CBS. The transmitter was moved to the Empire State Building in the early 1950s. For many years, WCBS-FM simulcast its programming with its AM sister station. From the 1940s until the late 1950s, both stations aired a typical network-dominated general entertainment format with comedies , dramas , news and information, sports, talk shows and some music. As these types of radio shows either moved to television or were canceled outright, WCBS and WCBS-FM evolved toward

16819-513: The subgenre's lyrics often address literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and supernatural mysticism. Bands of this subgenre took inspiration from two British post-punk groups, Siouxsie and the Banshees , and Joy Division . Bauhaus ' debut single " Bela Lugosi's Dead ", released in 1979, is considered to be the proper beginning of the gothic rock subgenre. The Cure 's "oppressively dispirited" albums including Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in that style and laid

16958-588: The target age groups that many advertisers covet, WCBS-FM began cutting pre-1964 songs while adding more music from the 1970s and 1980s. In January 2001, they stopped playing currents and 90's hits on the overnight, dropping them altogether. The station also had cut specialty shows such as Bobby Jay's Soul of the City on Wednesdays, Thursday Night 60's , Friday night's Heart & Soul of Rock & Roll , Monday Night 70's , and Bobby Jay's late night Saturday show Jukebox Saturday Night . Eventually, they began to shorten

17097-644: The term Alternative Nation . In December 1991, Spin magazine noted: "this year, for the first time, it became resoundingly clear that what has formerly been considered alternative rock —a college-centered marketing group with fairly lucrative, if limited, potential—has in fact moved into the mainstream." In the late 1990s, the definition again became more specific. In 1997, Neil Strauss of The New York Times defined alternative rock as "hard-edged rock distinguished by brittle, '70s-inspired guitar riffing and singers agonizing over their problems until they take on epic proportions." Defining music as alternative

17236-514: The term would broaden to include new wave , pop, punk rock , post-punk , and occasionally " college "/" indie " rock, all found on the American "commercial alternative" radio stations of the time such as Los Angeles' KROQ-FM . Journalist Jim Gerr wrote that Alternative also encompassed variants such as "rap, trash, metal and industrial". The bill of the first Lollapalooza , an itinerant festival in North America conceived by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell , reunited "disparate elements of

17375-528: The time, the common music industry terms for cutting-edge music were new music and postmodern , respectively indicating freshness and a tendency to recontextualize sounds of the past. A similar term, alternative pop , emerged around 1985. In 1987, Spin magazine categorized college rock band Camper Van Beethoven as "alternative/indie", saying that their 1985 song "Where the Hell Is Bill" (from Telephone Free Landslide Victory ) "called out

17514-488: The type of rock played on American 1970s Album Oriented Rock radio. In the early 21st century, many alternative rock bands that experienced mainstream success struggled following the suicide of Nirvana 's Kurt Cobain in April 1994, Pearl Jam 's failed lawsuit against concert venue promoter Ticketmaster , Soundgarden 's break-up in 1997, the Smashing Pumpkins losing its original members in 2000, L7 's hiatus in 2001,

17653-405: The wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s. Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture, although this could be contested since some of the major alternative artists have eventually achieved mainstream success or co-opted with the major labels from the 1990s onward (especially into the 2000s, and beyond). In

17792-504: The webstream would try to bring back most of the original shows and DJs, and that eventually the station would also be able to be heard on HD Radio . The change left WBZO as the only FM station playing any type of oldies format in the market. Its signal in the Metropolitan area was weak, however, because it operated out of Long Island , and aired an outright oldies format, unlike WCBS-FM's old "Greatest Hits" format. Many criticized

17931-584: Was as a fill-in DJ at WYNY , became well-known himself through his 19-year run as the station's afternoon disk jockey. Bill Brown (who had started with the station in 1969, during their rock days) and Don K. Reed (who started at the station 6 months before the switch to oldies) remained with the station during their entire first period as an oldies station. In 1989, WCBS-FM limited current music to late nights and overnights. While most oldies stations were playing songs from exclusively 1955 to 1973, WCBS-FM continued to play

18070-529: Was created by Billboard , listing the 40 most-played songs on alternative and modern rock radio stations in the US: the first number one was " Peek-a-Boo " by Siouxsie and the Banshees . By 1989, the genre had become popular enough that a package tour featuring New Order , Public Image Limited and the Sugarcubes toured the US arena circuit. Early on, British alternative rock was distinguished from that of

18209-407: Was discontinued after four years in favor of regular programming. On July 9, 2017, Backtrax USA , hosted by former WHTZ jock Kid Kelly, debuted on WCBS-FM on Sunday nights. Prior to 2016, WCBS-FM used JAM Creative Productions, Inc. for their jingles. However, to focus on a new and changing demographic, they now use ReelWorld for their jingles. As of 2018, WCBS-FM no longer uses any JAM jingles, and

18348-493: Was located at 500 Fifth Avenue . The allocated frequency changed several times before the station finally went on the air at 46.7 MHz on December 1, 1941. On November 1, 1943, the callsign was changed to WABC-FM for Atlantic Broadcasting Company, the former owner of CBS's AM station (no relation to the present-day WABC ). With the reallocation of the FM band, WABC-FM's new frequency became 96.9 MHz; finally, in September 1947

18487-439: Was not necessarily true for Generation X; much of the classic hits library was included in adult-contemporary stations of the era, while classic rock was only beginning to split from more modern rock stations in the late 1980s, around the same time oldies emerged as a standalone format. During the late 2010s, many stations in the adult contemporary, adult R&B , and alternative formats either reduced or eliminated songs from

18626-502: Was played followed by a short introduction of the new adult hits format by new station voiceover Howard Cogan, and the announcement of the new station name: "Welcome to the NEW "101.1 Jack FM ", Playing What We Want." The first song aired was Beastie Boys ' " Fight for Your Right ". The format featured nearly 2,000 unique songs in the playlist. With this move, WCBS-FM had left the oldies format after 33 years. In an attempt to cater to fans of

18765-433: Was replaced by Pat St. John as the pre-recorded voice of the Jack character on WCBS-FM HD2 and ilikejack.com. On May 7, 2008, the Jack branding was dropped from WCBS-FM HD2 and was just called 101.1 HD2 or WCBS-FM HD2 due to the end of a licensing agreement with the owner of the Jack name and slogan, Sparknet Communications. During the holiday season in 2008, WCBS-FM's HD1 and analog signal played Christmas music, resulting in

18904-483: Was retained as program director of the wcbsfm.com oldies stream. Over the next couple of weeks, the station started playing pre-1964 oldies again. Additionally, the 1960s and 1970s oldies became broader and 1980s and early 1990s oldies were also mixed in, and the format got much deeper. However, it was commercial-free and had no airstaff. WCBS-FM HD2 also began broadcasting in HD Radio on December 12, 2005 (before most of

19043-484: Was syndicated to CBS stations across the country and to AFN ( American Forces Network ). On August 27, 1967, the AM station had to launch its news format (which was not full-time until 1972) on WCBS-FM because a small airplane had crashed into the AM radio tower a few hours earlier. In 1969, WCBS-FM launched a freeform rock format, which was becoming increasingly popular, and all other CBS-owned FM stations followed suit. For

19182-400: Was to attract and magnetize people who experienced adolescence in the 1960s or 1970s and enjoyed the music of those eras, but did not favor the then-current heavy metal or top 40 music of the 1980s. These were people whose mindset was aging beyond album-oriented rock and top 40, yet were still either too young for or uninterested in oldies . Until the mid-2000s, the term "classic hits"

19321-535: Was used by stations that played the softer or more hit-oriented side of classic rock . Today, there are a few stations that identify as classic hits, such as WROR-FM in Boston and WJJK in Indianapolis, but whose playlists have more in common with classic rock. The classic hits format as it is known today began to take shape in the mid 2000s when oldies radio stations started having audience and ratings issues. They believed that they could not be successful with

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