Don't Call My Music "Oldies"

We’re more than halfway through a two-decade era that even radio stations don’t know what to call.

One Bay Area radio station refers to their music as “the best variety of the 80s, 90s and today,” another refers to theirs as from “then and now” and still another crosses several generational barriers and still calls its music “oldies.”

I suppose my kids are growing up as members of “Generation Huh?” But nobody wants to call it that. In an in-studio (off-air) conversation with Jim Hampton, program director and midday host of Pleasanton-based 101.7 KKIQ, and afternoon-drive host, Mark Davis, I told Jim that my daughters, while happy with the music, are annoyed by his station’s tag line.

“If their music is from the 80s, 90s and today,” my daughters ask, “then why do they play songs from the past 11 years?” Jim agreed that my girls have a point.

“There's a whole decade or two of people who don’t have anything to call themselves!” he said.

Even worse, however, is being a fan of classic rock-and-roll, alternative rock, and newer rock, and hearing a major Bay Area radio station call some of your favorites “oldies.” It's happening on a station that’s been experiencing an identity crisis since I moved to the Bay Area in 1997. KKSF-FM is now known as "Oldies 103.7," and the music it calls "oldies" includes many of the songs I rocked out to in high school and college.

But I refuse to let a radio station make me feel old. After all, there is some crossover, however slight, between songs played on both Oldies 103.7 and KFOG, which is among my top radio choices.

Even further, I found some music on both the new version of KKSF, and on KKIQ, which has been an East Bay staple - without identity crisis - for nearly 20 years.

KKIQ's Mark Davis confirmed that much of the rock from the 80s can be called “oldies,” and that many of the songs “test well” across formats. That’s radio shop-talk for songs that score high in focus groups of a station’s target demographic. I know this because in my past life in Chicago, I worked as a morning radio producer and promotions director for a station with the same format as KKIQ.

KKIQ’s format, Adult Contemporary, is geared broadly to women between 29 and 54 and to any passengers in their Suburban Assault Vehicles. Meanwhile, KFOG is Album-Oriented Rock, and the new iteration of KKSF, Oldies 103.7, fits the official Oldies format.

Until hearing the new Oldies 103.7, I thought “oldies” referred only to music from the dawn of rock-and-roll. Elvis, for example, would be in heavy rotation on oldies stations. But there’s no Elvis on Oldies 103.7. Or KKIQ or KFOG.

My mom, who grew up in the days of the poodle skirt, joked that she also noticed Elvis's glaring absence from the oldies format. We mused that perhaps some members of her generation aren’t listening to the radio anymore, can’t hear the radio anymore, or have upped their game to more contemporary hits.

Still, I thought I’d pose a music quiz. See how you do:

A person who thinks she understands the meaning of the lyrics to Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” is:

• A musician
• A poet and a dreamer
• Well versed in capitalism, democracies, dictatorships and lemming mentality
• Old

A woman who turns up the volume to sing with The Police’s “Every Little Thing (She Does is Magic)” or Steve Winwood's "Higher Love" is:

• A sophisticated party animal
• A good singer
• A romantic
• Old

When he hears Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville,” the guy who wishes his cup of coffee were a lemon-lime beverage containing top-shelf tequila is:

• On vacation
• At work
• From Mexico
• Old

If Neil Sadaka’s “Laughter in the Rain” or Blood Sweat & Tears’ “Spinning Wheel” throws you back to those special Saturdays hanging out with your daddy, you’re:

• Experiencing time travel
• A product of the 60s, 70s or 80s
• Lucky
• Old

If you’re thrilled The Cars just released their first album in 24 years (and gleefully noticed the new release closely mimics previous albums) you are:

• Someone who “gets” rock-and-roll
• A party animal
• Cool, hip, etc.
• Old

On KKIQ, you'll find The Police, Steve Winwood, and maybe some Doobies.  There may be an occasional Simon & Garfunkel hit. But, whatever you hear, it shouldn't make you feel old.

It's for good reason that Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime," Player’s “Baby Come Back,” or Rupert Holmes’s “Escape” are reserved for a new (or old) station.

Cameron Sullivan is the author of the blog, Candid Cameron.