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Oldies but Goldies Music

Welcome to our Oldies but Goldies Music Page

ABOUT Oldies but Goldies Music

This broad category includes styles as diverse as

doo-wop, early rock and roll, novelty songs, bubblegum music, folk rock, psychedelic rock, baroque pop, surf music, soul music, rhythm and blues, classic rock, some blues, and some country music.

Golden Oldies usually refers to music exclusively from the 1950s and 1960s.Oldies radio typically features artists such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beach Boys, Frankie Avalon, The Four Seasons, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Little Richard and Sam Cooke; as well as such musical movements and genres as early rock and roll, rockabilly, doo-wop, soul music, Motown, British Invasion, early girl groups, surf music, teen idol singers, teenage tragedy songs, and bubblegum pop. One notable omission from most oldies playlists is the music of the folk revival of the early 1960s.

Most traditional oldies stations limit their on-air playlists to no more than 300 songs, based on the programming strategy that average listeners and passive listeners will stay tuned provided they are familiar with the hits being played. A drawback to this concept is the constant heavy rotation and repetition of the station's program library, as well as rejection of the format by active listeners. 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 an inherent advantage over current-music formats in that it can draw popular songs from a broad period of over a decade and is not bound to devote the majority of its air-time to a single top 40 playlist as current stations are.

Oldies has some overlap with the classic hits and classic rock formats. Classic hits features pop and rock hits from the mid-1970s to early 1990s, while classic rock focuses on album rock from the late 1960s to 1990s (sometimes playing newer material made in the same style as the older songs). As formats have drifted in time with their target audiences, classic hits and classic rock have moved further away from pure oldies, which has largely remained a static format.

The term "oldies" in the early days of the rock era and before referred to the traditional pop music songs of previous decades; a 1953 record review in Billboard describes 1925's "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" as an "oldie."

Oldies is known for the near-total and sometimes arbitrary exclusion of some acts that were very popular in their time, including The Osmonds and Barbra Streisand.

The oldies format began to appear in the early 1970s. KOOL-FM in Phoenix became one of the first radio stations to play oldies music, at that time focusing on the 1950s and early 1960s.

In the 1960s, very few top 40 radio stations played anything more than a few years old. In the late 1960s, a 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 easy listening music featured on Middle of the road radio stations. They mixed in oldies with their current product and only played new music a few times an hour. These radio stations were often referred to as "gold" stations. Some AM radio stations also began to employ 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 then-new FCC rules on simulcasting), that functioned as a hybrid of oldies and the adult-oriented softer rock hits of the day. The popularity of the movie American Graffiti is often credited with helping to spur the 1950s nostalgia movement of the early 1970s. It is this movement that gave rise to a number of gold-based stations, such as WHND/WHNE (Honey Radio) in Detroit, WCBS-FM in New York, WQSR in Baltimore, and WROR in Boston, that were classified as oldies stations and not adult top 40. These stations, did play current product sparingly (one or two per hour) throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s; WCBS-FM, for example, played current hits under the moniker "Future Gold" through the late 1980s, and WLNG on nearby Long Island featured a roughly 50/50 mix of current hits and oldies from the early 1960s until about 1999.

Most of these "Solid Gold" stations began to either evolve into other formats or abruptly drop the format altogether in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most AM gold stations simply flipped to other formats. Some FM stations evolved into adult contemporary stations, including WROR in Boston and WFYR in Chicago. In the early 1980s many AC stations began mixing in more oldies into regular rotation and aired oldies shows on Saturday nights.

Gradually, beginning in 1982, both AM and FM stations began changing to full-time oldies formats. These stations played strictly music from 1955 to 1973, focusing on the 1964–1969 era. Among these oldies stations were WNBC in New York City before 1988, WDRC-FM in Hartford, WODS in Boston, WOGL in Philadelphia, KLUV in Dallas, WWSW in Pittsburgh, WJMK in Chicago, and CHUM in Toronto. Some had as few as 300 songs while stations like WODS and WOGL had as many as 1,500 songs in regular rotation. By 1989, most large and medium markets had at least one, usually FM, oldies station.

This period also saw the rise of syndicated radio shows specifically aimed at an oldies format. They included Soundtrack of the '60s with Murray the K, Dick Clark's Rock, Roll & Remember, Live from the '60s with The Real Don Steele, Cruisin' America with Cousin Brucie, and Rock & Roll's Greatest Hits with Dick Bartley. Most of these shows were three hours long and featured much of the same music from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s that was in rotation at affiliate stations. All but a few of these shows had ended their run by the mid-1990s, though Bartley's ran into the late 2000s (and eventually returned in the late 2010s) while Clark's show continued until his 2004 stroke and in reruns until 2020.

From 1986 to 1990 several solid gold stations evolved into full-time oldies stations by eliminating current and recent product while also gradually eliminating 1980s songs and limiting 1970s songs substantially. KRTH and WQSR both did this in the late 1980s into the early 1990s. WCBS-FM however continued playing current product in regular rotation until 1988. After that, they played it once an hour between 11 pm and 5:30 am, until 2001. WCBS-FM also played several 1990s songs per shift during these overnight hours. They also continued to play between one 1980s song every couple of hours to as many as two per hour day and night. WCBS-FM also played from three to five songs per hour from the 1970s. They indeed played more 1970s music than any other notable oldies station. At the same time, WCBS-FM featured slightly more pre 1964 songs than the average station playing as many as five of those per hour.

Oldies stations continued to be late 1960s based throughout the 1990s. WCBS-FM was an exception. Most AM oldies stations also disappeared by the early 1990s except in markets where there was no FM oldies outlet. The format fared well with no end in sight.

Beginning in the year 2000, oldies stations began to notice that their demographics were getting older and harder to sell. Still, at that time only a few stations dumped the format altogether. A few (such as Orlando's WOCL) went for a flavor-of-the-month format called "Jammin' Oldies". But most continued to hang onto the format initially.

Since around 2000, stations have begun to limit selections from the 1950s and early 1960s. At the same time these stations began playing songs from as late as 1979 and even a few 1980s songs. WCBS-FM New York slightly cut back on the pre-1964 oldies and slightly increased the 1970s and 1980s songs early in 2001. They also eliminated the overnight currents and recents at the same time along with some speciality shows.

In 2002, 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—hence, the addition of music from the 1970s and early 1980s. WCBS-FM canceled their "Doo Wop Shop" program and began playing only one pre-1964 oldie per hour; by 2003, there were fewer than 50 songs from the 1950s and early 1960s in the regular rotation.

Many stations have since dropped the oldies format because of low ad revenue despite high ratings. On June 3, 2005, New York's WCBS-FM, an oldies-based station for over three decades, abruptly switched to the Jack FM format, resulting in a tremendous outcry from oldies fans in the Big Apple and a huge decline in revenue followed. WJMK in Chicago (WCBS-FM's sister station) switched to Jack FM on the same day. Some point to the demise of WCBS-FM and WJMK as a sign that the oldies format is in danger, for many of the same reasons that the adult standards and smooth jazz formats are disappearing.

The oldies format returned to WCBS-FM on July 12, 2007, in an updated form featuring music from 1964 to 1989 (and without the word "Oldies", but rather "Greatest Hits" in the on-air positioning), with songs such as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper, "Gloria" by Laura Branigan, and corporate rock hit "We Built This City" by Starship in rotation (though the original WCBS-FM played current hits mixed in with its oldies as late as the late 1980s and the three songs mentioned here during most of their years).

By the mid-2010s, as the phrase "classic hits" came to entail a format centered around late 1970s (disco-era) and 1980s pop, dance and rock format, the phrase "oldies" had come to entail a 1960s to mid-1970s format that centered mostly on soft rock and easy listening (akin to the old MOR format), examples including WRME-LD in Chicago.More upbeat 1960s and 1970s stations are known within the industry as "gold" classic hits.

1960s music is, as of 2020, becoming increasingly rare on radio. Of the 1000 most played songs on radio as of May 2020, only four of them are from before 1970, and three of them also benefit from being aired on classic rock stations as well as oldies and classic hits. The decline has been most dramatic among instrumental selections This is despite a small pantheon of songs from that era that have become part of an "eternal jukebox of all-ages event records," as well as parents and grandparents who had listened to the music when they were younger passing those songs on to their children; in the latter case, the older songs popular among the younger crowd can be more random, driven by exposure in television, film, commercials and person-to-person.

The oldies format remains one of the most popular formats on radio in markets where it is still active. Some of the most successful major-market oldies stations today really lean towards the Classic Hits format and include KRTH "K-Earth 101" in Los Angeles, XHPRS-FM "105.7 the Walrus" in Tijuana-San Diego, KOLA 99.9 in Riverside-San Bernardino, KYNO in Fresno, California, 98.1 WOGL in Philadelphia, WMJI "Majic 105.7" in Cleveland, and KLUV in Dallas. WLS-FM in Chicago, however is similar to the way oldies stations sounded several years back. They still play one or two pre-1964 songs an hour during the day and as many as 4 an hour at night. However, to illustrate the continued decline in the format, San Francisco's KFRC moved toward Classic Hits in 2005 and dropped this format entirely in 2006 in favor of the Rhythmic AC "MOViN" format which left most of Northern California without an oldies station until the debut of KCCL (K-Hits 92.1) in Sacramento in January 2007. (However, KFRC had already evolved its format and positioning to classic hits at the time it changed to "Movin".) But KFRC was not gone for long. On May 17, 2007, with Free FM hot talk format failing on 106.9 KIFR CBS relaunched KFRC with a rock leaning classic hits format on 106.9. But KFRC was not back for long either. On October 27, 2008, 106.9 KFRC FM became an all news 740 KCBS AM simulcast. KFRC now only airs on 106.9 FM HD-2 and online at KFRC.com. But KFRC came back again. On January 1, 2009, KFRC returned on the radio at 1550 AM, as true oldies.

KZQZ, which airs in St. Louis, Missouri and began playing oldies in March 2008, has held onto the traditional oldies format, playing a wide variety of top 40 Billboard hits from the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s.Non-commercial WXRB, 95.1 FM in Dudley, Massachusetts (one of the first non-commercial all-oldies stations in North America) began playing Golden Oldies on March 6, 2005, at 1:00 pm, focusing on the years 1954 through 1979.

On August 27, 2009, Grand Rapids, Michigan station WGVU became the first public radio station to feature an all-oldies format. The format has since been imitated by other public radio stations; for example, WCNY-FM in Syracuse, New York has begun broadcasting a personality-based oldies format on its HD Radio digital subchannel.

Jones Radio Networks, Waitt Radio Networks and Transtar Radio Networks also offered 24-hour satellite-distributed oldies formats; since those companies have integrated into the Dial Global corporation, the networks have merged into one, Kool Gold. Satellite Music Network offered "Oldies Radio;" Oldies Radio survived until its acquisition by ABC but has since rebranded as Classic Hits Radio under current owner Cumulus Media Networks, focusing on music primarily from the 1970s and 1980s, with some limited 1960s music.

ABC also offered The True Oldies Channel, a 24-hour oldies network programmed and voice tracked at all hours by Scott Shannon, at the time morning show host at ABC's WPLJ. The True Oldies Channel was conceived on the concept of avoiding the drift into 1970s and 1980s music that the oldies format was undergoing in the first years of the 21st century. Eventually, by the end of the network's terrestrial run in 2014, it had taken a hybrid approach, with both 1960s and 1970s music being featured at the core of the network, with some limited 1980s music included.

In North America, satellite radio broadcasters XM and Sirius launched in 2001 and 2002, respectively, with more than a dozen oldies radio channels, with XM offering separate stations for each decade from the 1940s to the 1990s, and Sirius doing the same for the 1950s through the 1980s. These companies also offered specific genre channels for disco and dance hits, garage rock, classic rock, classic country, and vintage R&B and soul hits.These pay radio channels boasted thousands of songs in their libraries, ensuring far less repetition than traditional broadcast stations. (In November 2008, following a merger of Sirius and XM, the two services shifted to a unified group of "decades" channels, with the playlists for most cut back to reflect a more conventional style of oldies programming.) Music Choice similarly offers an interruption-free oldies station (which covers the 1950s and 1960s, primarily from the rock and roll era) as well as decades channels for the 1970s through the 1990s. A number of Internet radio stations also carry the format.

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Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Biography

During their nearly 40-year career, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons have sold over 100 million records, making them the most long-lived and successful white doo-wop group. Lead singer Valli (whose three-octave range and falsetto are the group's trademark) has also maintained a successful solo career.

Valli, sometimes billed under his real name and later as Valley (after Texas Jean Valley, a country singer who had encouraged him as a child), began singing in his mid-teens with the Newark vocal groups the Romans and the Varietones. The Varietones, which included Hank Majewski and the DeVito brothers, eventually became the Four Lovers. The Lovers' "You're the Apple of My Eye," a tune songwriter Otis Blackwell gave them in exchange for their not recording his "Don't Be Cruel" (which he then gave to Elvis Presley), was a hit in 1956, and they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The Four Lovers became the Four Seasons (named after a Jersey cocktail lounge) with the addition of Bob Gaudio, formerly of the Royal Teens and composer of their hit "Short Shorts." As the group's chief songwriter, Gaudio changed the Four Seasons' repertoire and sound, which were later refined by producer Bob Crewe. After a single, "Bermuda," flopped, they again became the Four Lovers and returned to the clubs. They also served as Crewe's production group, arranging, performing, and providing instrumental and vocal backing in singles Crewe produced for other singers. This arrangement continued until 1962, when Valli, desperate over the group's lack of success, nearly quit the band. Then the group recorded a song by Gaudio, "Sherry." After the song was featured on American Bandstand, the Four Lovers became the Four Seasons once again, and within months "Sherry" hit Number One.

The followup, "Big Girls Don't Cry," also went to Number One, and over the next five years (until Valli's first solo hit, "I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" in 1967), the Four Seasons had 50 hits, including "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (in an arrangement later imitated by Bruce Springsteen) (Number 23, 1962); "Walk Like a Man" (Number One), "Ain't That a Shame" (Number 22), and "Candy Girl" (Number Three) in 1963; "Dawn" (Number Three), "Girl Come Running" (Number 30), "Let's Hang On" (Number Three), and "Working My Way Back to You" (Number Nine) in 1965; "Opus 17 (Don't Worry 'bout Me)" (Number 12), "I've Got You Under My Skin" (Number Nine), and "Tell It to the Rain" (Number 10) in 1966; "Beggin'" (Number 16), "C'mon Marianne" (Number 9), and "Watch the Flowers Grow" (Number 30) in 1967.

The group left Vee-Jay over a royalty dispute in 1964, and by 1965 was recording for Philips, continuing its string of hits, which ended abruptly with its excursion into psychedelia, Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. (It had also recorded several singles, including a cover of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" in 1965 under the pseudonym the Wonder Who.) As the '60s closed, the group's popularity waned. By the time it signed to Motown's Mowest subsidiary, in 1971, Valli and Gaudio were the only original members left, and a $1.4 million debt had taken its toll.

In 1972 Crewe, whose independent label had folded, joined the group at Mowest. But even with the Crew-Gaudio-Valli team intact, none of its singles hit. The release of a 1972 LP, The Night, was canceled, and the group toured supporting the Four Tops and the Vandellas. Valli's 10-year-old hearing problem (diagnosed as otosclerosis, excessive calcium deposits in the ear) became critical. (Faced with the possibility of going deaf, Valli underwent surgery in 1976.) Meanwhile, Gaudio retired from performing to concentrate on writing and producing. In 1973 one Gerald Zelmanowitz testified before a Senate subcommittee that the Four Seasons had ties to organized crime, a charge he later retracted.

Valli signed a solo contract with Private Stock in 1974 and soon had several hits, including "My Eyes Adored You" (Number One, 1975), "Swearin' to God" (Number Six, 1975), and a cover of Ruby and the Romantics' "Our Day Will Come" (Number 11, 1975). The Four Seasons had almost ceased to exist, but in 1975 they made a comeback with one of their biggest-selling singles, "Who Loves You" (Number Three), followed the next year by "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" (Number One, 1976). Shortly before a 1977 tour, Valli announced—with some bitterness—that he would never work with the Four Seasons again, although he and Gaudio have retained co-ownership of the group and its name. But despite Valli's solo success ("Grease" hit Number One and sold over 7 million copies), the Four Seasons re-formed in 1980 with Gaudio, Valli, guitarist Don Ciccone (former lead singer of the Critters and a Season since 1974), keyboardist Jerry Corbetta (ex–lead singer of Sugarloaf), guitarist Larry Lingle, and drummer Gerry Polci (who had been singing with the group since 1973).

In 1984 Valli and Gaudio formed FBI Records, and the Four Seasons teamed with the Beach Boys for the single "East Meets West." Valli has appeared in the films Eternity and Modern Love. In 1990 the original members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Thanks to the 1994 film Forrest Gump, the Four Seasons' "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" reentered the Hot 100 and became the longest-running single in the chart's history, with over 50 weeks total. The group, which now fluctuates around Valli (Gaudio no longer performs live), remains successful on the oldies circuit.

Just before disco fever peaked and a rock radio station’s “Disco Demolition” promotion gave rise to a disco backlash, there emerged a certain type of dance record: the bandwagon-jumping song from an artist dramatically outside the genre. Think of it as the era of “disco dilettantism.” Not all those acts were in search of the career reinvention that had made the Bee Gees stars again. Many were just following the music, soon to wander off as pop changed again. Gloria Gaynor and Sister Sledge saw lasting career downturns; Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, ELO, and Barbra Streisand kept making hits.

But more than 40 years later, there is a lot of pop disco among the top 15 songs of 1979 with the highest “lost factor” — our calculation of the distance between a song’s success at the time and its availability on broadcast radio now. We’ve been taking the top 100 hits of each year between 1978 and 1989 (so far), assigning them points based on their year-end chart placing (starting with 100 points for the No. 1 song of the year) and dividing them by the number of spins a song received in the previous week on U.S. and Canadian radio, according to Nielsen/BDS.

It won’t surprise those who read this series’ first article about the “Lost Factor” and 1982’s hit songs that an MOR ballad tops the list. But a lot of late ‘70s disco was an extension of ‘60s MOR and ‘70s soft pop, which is why many of them populate our top 15 as well. Teen idols have typically had high lost factors, and Leif Garrett’s one-song disco career (as well as TV star David Naughton’s sole foray to radio) are now scarce on the radio as well. Then-TV movie star Rex Smith’s MOR ballad also put him in double jeopardy and in our top 15.

When calculating the hits of 1978, I was generally surprised by the relative endurance (at least at some small level) of so many of them. The “lost factor” is higher for 1979. There are 51 songs that have a 1.0 or higher vs. 10 in 1978. In 1980, it would go higher still (58 songs). There are also 21 songs from 1979 that received fewer than 10 spins a week, compared to only 10 from the year before.

Throughout our “lost factor” series, reader response has generally been to declare that 80% of the songs on our list remain lost for a reason. That there is no consensus on the “good” 20% is why you don’t hear any of them on the radio much now. As with 1978, I find myself wanting to write a brief for Olivia Newton-John, again spurned with “A Little More Love,” or what I consider other perfectly good hit records. Ian Matthews’ “Shake It” and Roger Voudouris’ “Get Used to It” are songs I always enjoy on specialty programming. Some of the songs a little further down — John Stewart’s “Gold” and Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman’s “Stumblin’ In” — I could probably hear more regularly. But did I mention I graduated high school that spring?

If you’ve seen the Top 100 Lost Songs of the ‘80s, you know that I decided not to include Streisand & Donna Summer’s “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” on that chart. While every year has some chart-cutoff holdover from the previous, that song peaked in early December and just felt like a ‘70s relic. That’s why it’s among our top 15 for 1979. It’s also why I’m showing 16 songs, in case you’re a purist and wonder what song was displaced.

Here are the top “lost factor” hits of 1979, based on points for their standing for the year divided by the number of plays they receive now. In parenthesis is the “lost factor,” followed by the number of spins the songs received in the U.S. and Canada according to NielsenBDS in the week prior to my calculations.

Melissa Manchester, “Don’t Cry Out Loud” (lost factor 38, spins last week 2)
Roger Voudouris, “Get Used to It” (18, 0)
Leif Garrett, “I Was Made for Dancin’” (16, 4)
Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” (16, 4)
Cher, “Take Me Home” (15, 3)
David Naughton, “Makin’ It” (15, 6)
Alice Cooper, “How You Gonna See Me Now” (14, 0)
Barbra Streisand, “The Main Event/Fight” (13, 5)
Olivia Newton-John, “A Little More Love” (11,
Donna Summer, “MacArthur Park” (10, 9)
Ian Matthews, “Shake It” (9, 3)
Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (9, 9)
Maxine Nightingale, “Lead Me On” (7, 11)
Randy Vanwarmer, “Just When I Needed You Most” (6, 12)
Village People, “In the Navy” (5, 10)
Rex Smith, “You Take My Breath Away” (5, 3)

And here are the songs that now get the most monitored spins at broadcast radio, compared to their year-end placing for 1979. It’s worth noting that while these songs have almost always been pop/rock — songs that can play not just on Classic Hits and AC, but also Classic Rock and Adult Hits formats — two are disco-era R&B classics. If we had continued down the list, we would have found “I Will Survive” at No. 18, “Got to Be Real” at No. 20, and “We Are Family” at No. 21.

Michael Jackson, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”
Van Halen, “Dance the Night Away” (the title was bandwagon jumping, even if the song wasn’t)
Robert Palmer, “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)”
Electric Light Orchestra, “Don’t Bring Me Down” (the more overtly disco “Shine a Little Light” has a 3.0 “lost factor” — which would have put it at No. 26 on the above list
Earth, Wind & Fire, “September”

We’ve now calculated the “Lost Factor” for every year between 1978 and 1989. Thus far, I’ve avoided going earlier. The ‘80s have clear winners and losers in the endurance test. For the ‘70s, and certainly for a ‘60s universe of music that has been reduced by Classic Hits radio to “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Respect,” and “Come Together” (if those), there’s less opportunity to look at the contrast between what lasted and didn’t. But I have come up with a way to identify the decades’ most extreme cases. Look for those and my first forays into CHR’s near-obliteration in the early ‘90s next.

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ROCKVILLE, Maryland (AP) -- One of the surest ways to feel older is to listen to the radio and hear songs from your childhood -- or, even worse, your adulthood -- described as "oldies."

If over the years it seems those songs have gotten newer while you've gotten older, it's not your imagination. Oldies radio stations that once featured songs from the 1950s and '60s now play songs from the '70s.

"Radio is an ever-changing thing, especially an oldies station," said Jeff Gold, a 44-year-old DJ whose build and voice personify his station's call letters, WBIG.

"As the years go by, newer songs become oldies. That's just the nature of the beast," said Gold, known as "Goldy" to his listeners in the Washington area.

So roll over Chuck Berry and make way for Fleetwood Mac. Your music hasn't lost its appeal to listeners. But advertisers? That's another story.

Advertisers covet the 25-to-54 age group. The first baby boomers _ the generation born right after World War II and the primary audience for oldies music -- are pushing 60.

"This is Marketing 101," said Dick Bartley, who hosts two nationally syndicated oldies programs, "Rock & Roll's Greatest Hits" and "American Gold." "The oldies format is doing what every business has to do -- follow your demographic."

So as radio stations seek to attract advertisers, it's increasingly difficult for fans of 1950s and early '60s rock to find those tunes on the dial. A study by Coleman, a North Carolina media research firm, found the vast majority of oldies stations in the 50 largest markets are playing more modern music than they did three years ago.

"The only reason that our oldies stations have moved into the late '60s and '70s is the advertisers are telling us we have to do it in order for them to place business on our radio stations," said Marty Thompson, operations manager at KQOL in Las Vegas and director of oldies programming for Clear Channel, the nation's largest chain with 1,200 stations, including WBIG.

The oldies format began in the early 1970s, as then-less-popular FM stations tried to distinguish themselves from the Top 40 AM giants, according to E. Alvin Davis, a Cincinnati-based radio consultant who specializes in oldies stations. Among the earliest: WCAU-FM (now WOGL-FM) in Philadelphia and WCBS-FM in New York City.

By the '80s, almost every major city had a full-time oldies station. In recent years, the industry definition of oldies changed to include all of the '70s.

"As with the format when it originally came about, the whole genesis was to play music that was older," said Tim Maranville, program director at KOOL in Phoenix and vice president for oldies programming at Infinity Broadcasting, which owns 120 stations. "These songs are growing into our format. As an oldies person, the '70s don't bother me because there was some wonderful music in the '70s."

But the newer music has turned off some longtime listeners. Indeed, a new study by Coleman found oldies fans abandoning stations in direct proportion to the amount of '70s music on the air.

That includes people like Joe Barnard, 61, of Fairfax Station, Virginia, who said he now listens to compact discs or cassette tapes because he can't hear '50s songs on the radio.

"I have nothing against '70s music," he said. "It's just not the music I'm interested in hearing. My real interest in music began in the '50s. I still want to hear '50s music."

Jenny McCaw, 54, of Alexandria, Virginia, agreed. "The Eagles are a good group, but they're not '50s and they're not old enough to be oldies," she said.

Alan Lee hosts a Sunday evening '50s program on Baltimore oldies station WQSR and owns record stores in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Baltimore that specialize in oldies music. He said there still is a market for traditional oldies because, "For whatever reason, people tend to be fond of music that was popular when they were teenagers."

One byproduct of the trend toward newer oldies is the return of '50s and '60s music to AM radio, which played those songs when they were new. At least seven AM stations around the country, from Buffalo, New York, to Portland, Oregon, are trying this format. Cincinnati's "real oldies" station uses the same call letters _ WSAI -- and some of the DJs from its days as a Top 40 station four decades earlier.

"We don't pretend that these AM oldies stations are going to beat the FM oldies station," program director Dan Allen said. "Our goal is simply to provide a solid audience. Since this music was on AM originally, we decided to give this a try."