What generation has the best music?

It has happened again. Applebee’s is running a commercial to the tune of The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself.” This comes on the heels of Volkswagen introducing the Tiguan last October to “Turn Around, Look At Me” by The Vogues. Madison Avenue has a choice of tens of thousands of songs over the past 50 years that they could use in their commercials, yet they continue to spotlight songs from the sweet spot of the musical lexicon, from the mid 50s through the mid 70s.

This is nothing new! Remember the BEHR Paint DeckOver TV Commercial, 'Dance Party' that features the 1966 hit song “Barefootin’” by Robert Parker. That commercial ran as late as 2014? I must admit that this commercial always made me wince a little because the idea was that if you dance barefoot on a deck that was painted by BEHR’s DeckOver paint you would not get splinters in your feet. I ran barefoot through too many sandspur patches growing up in Florida to ever get that out of my mind. Heck, even the “Mad Men” TV series was set in the golden age of pop music. Who can forget the ending of the last episode of Season 1 to Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's All Right?"

Even AM Radio station playing Oldies are making a comeback. I offer for your consideration some rockin’ AMs; WMTR (1250 AM) Morristown, New Jersey bringing the oldies to northern New Jersey, Rod Stalvey’s WGTN-AM (1400 AM) rocks Georgetown South Carolina and KLYC (1260 AM) in McMinnville, Oregon and surrounding areas such as the state capitol, Salem all the way up to the southern edge of Portland one of the best music cities in North America. Note: you might spend a little time listening to this last one; you might just hear a familiar voice there soon. Oldies and AM radio are a natural match as the frequency response of the old 45 RPM records matches that of AM radio.

Despite being born on the AM dial there are a ton of FM stations playing oldies. Take for example here in SC there are several being run by friends; Jim Graham has WZFN FM in Sandy Springs SC at 104.3, Bob Smoak runs WBSC FM at 102.3 in Bamberg SC, WPUB – FM 102.7 Kool FM “Good Times and Great Oldies” in Camden SC and WCRE at 93.9 FM and 1420 AM in Cheraw, SC. just to name a few. Unfortunately there are none broadcasting true oldies full time here in Columbia. Sure there are stations calling themselves “Classic Hits” but you have to be a little careful. WCRE is a classic hits station that plays true oldies but there are others that play 80s music. In my humble opinion, 80s music is NOT oldies.

I know I’m leaving oldies playing stations out but my point is that despite the pundits that write about radio, Oldies is not a dead genre. It is very much a living thing with a loyal audience. Note: radio programmers, that loyal audience has a disposable income!!!

Despite oldies being around, there is a paucity of the other major experience of 50s ,60s and early 70s radio; live DJs. Almost everything is automated with “voice tracking” DJs these days and that includes Oldies formatted stations. I understand the financial forces that have brought this around but I for one, when I’m travelling, come across a live DJ plying his trade, rocking the airwaves, I’ll listen to him or her until they go off the air or the station is lost in the ether as my car reaches the end of their coverage area.

As I sit here writing, I’m listening to a syndicated oldies show (Goddard’s Gold) on WCRE in Cheraw, and the song “Tin Man” by America is playing in my studio, without a DJ to tell you that George Martin, the "Fifth Beatle" plays the piano part on the song, one will likely go through life ignorant of that cool song fact!

Yeah – I know! That goes right up there with the Internet memes that complain that you never need that high school algebra and trigonometry that you all struggled with back in your youth and more. Wait a minute; I used both of those last week, even with a little college calculus thrown in to boot. And I am retired! So there, Karen! I know! I’m such a geek!!

So, to answer the question posed by this blog; The Boomers have the best music!!!

So tomorrow morning I’ll be packing my 15,910 oldies and driving through the morning rain to the WUSC-FM studios to rock the airwaves. It’s a good thing that they are on a computer and not individual 45’s, I’d need “Two Men and a Truck” for that. Oh MY!