NYC Radio: WCBS-FM Plays Up The '80s

Jim Ryan

Jim Ryan, PD at CBC Radio's WCBS 101.5 FM bigger mission, and triumph, has been moving the whole station to No. 1 — and one of the main ways he did that was by waving goodbye to most of the 1960s music that for decades was the station’s backbone.

When he started as WCBS-FM program director in the summer of 2012, Ryan notes, “The average vintage of the music we played was 1973. Now it’s 1979,” he told media writer David Hinckley at the NY Daily News.

“We still play a few ’60s songs. But we keep it to maybe one an hour.”

The station still has Beatles Wednesday. But even the Beatles, long considered the most timeless rock band ever, are no longer a tentpole of WCBS-FM.

“We don’t want to abandon our long-time listeners,” says Ryan.
“But people who are 47 years old didn’t grow up with the Beatles. They will stay tuned through a Beatles song if they know there will be an ’80s song after it.”

And that 47-year-old is, frankly, more valuable than the 65-year-old who has been listening to WCBS-FM since it switched to oldies in 1972.

“The most important thing for any radio station is attracting listeners 25 to 54 years old,” says Ryan. “That’s where radio stations make their money. That’s just a fact.”

WCBS 101.1 FM (6.7Kw) 54dBu Coverage

“We also have airstaff that says ‘New York.’ Anybody who listened to the radio then knows Bill Lee, Dan Taylor, Joe Causi. Scott Shannon is the ultimate ’80s DJ and he came from Z100, which was the ultimate ’80s radio station.

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