Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 1, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Richardson greenshields corporate notes Days Over Karla Murkson Arthur Chipman 9345311 rates subject to Winnipeg free press Tempo Section Maureen Houston 6977373 c1 by Manfred Jager staff reporter member your first kiss the first time your dad let you have the car remember the music they played on the radio in those Days if you can answer yes to at least one of these youve just discovered the reason for nostalgia people love to remember their Happi est times As Young adults particularly the romantic Happy times and music More than anything else brings Back the Jack spokesman for the giant nostalgia radio network Westwood said from los he says the system has 190 affiliated stations on both the am and pm just under half of them broadcast the music of the 1940s and the rest concentrate on the 1960s and in the its known As nostalgia but we refer to it officially As adult standards Crawford featured Are such performers As Doris Andy Frank Sina Tony Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond and bands such As Glen Harry James and Woody her the format has been wildly Success Crawford this Winnipeg is getting a taste of nostalgia the people who organized it say the melodies of yesteryear May be coming Back Here priceless records until nostalgia radio is being brought to the airwaves by a group of retired radio personalities with stacks of priceless records collectively num Bering in the thousands and spanning hit the musicals and easy listening repertoire of six broadcasting at a puny 14 Watts on the retired broadcasters aged 60 to 81 Are operating special events permit radio station Ckon from 6 to when the station started its first project was to celebrate be Day plus 50 in May with Call letters that stood for Victory and this time they mean variety and neither announcers nor the technicians cuing the records and operating the switches on control boards in three hour shifts per Day Are Lee a Ham operator and civil aviation inspector with transport started Ckon on a shoestring budget with his own Money in locating his transmitter on the roof of Deer Lodge Smith and his t friends broadcast second world War hit parades for four Days to celebrate Victory All Over last the group was this time on the top floor of the Richardson for their 28day stint in Honor of Rainbow stage and the Richardson family initial Ven Ture into Commer Cial radio Here 67 years ago in were commit Ted to the Melodi Ous popular music you dont hear on the air Smith were trying to gauge the Market and see what kind of a response this Type of program Ming gets Ckon reaches As far As heading Oak Xavier and Crawford believes nostalgia radio is an idea whose time has come in it came More than a decade he says the nos Talgia radio trend started in the United states about 15 years ago when an entrepreneur named Al Hamm started program Ming the first nos Talgia format in calling it music of your a name now protected by Only one West Wood one affiliate is according to Craw it is a Kwh in which signed on with Westwood for nostalgia programming earlier this Canadian radio stations have difficulty with nostalgia because of the 30per cent Canadian Content regulation of the Canadian radio television and telecommunications in the Case of the require ment was lowered to 10 per cent because of windsors proximity to Detroit and the danger that nobody would listen to the Canadian broadcaster if it compete in the Windsor with to there soaking it up retired support staff members and radio program hosts of yesteryear have collected com ments received on Voicemail Tele phone lines arranged for Here Are some samples thank you Toi making me feel Young North Kildonan weve unplugged our television1 until 17 so we can soak up As much of this As possible before going Back to Boring or irritating radio East Kildonan we lost your signal around Anne on our Way to the really Hurt to hear you West end Why cant you stay on the air for Good James in not old enough to belong to the nostalgia but i Hope you can find someone who can come up with some Bucks to keep you North Kildonan thank you for being its wonderful to hear Good music vital we cant be bothered with television this month and As Long As you Are were just sitting and talk ing Here talking and Central Winnipeg Detroit Neil program manager of fun says nostalgia is Here to but its face keeps Chang ing As generations grow old and an am targets people in their 50s and 60s with the music of the while its a Mem outlet relates More to listeners in their 30s and 40s with the music of the we refer to them As musical Gallagher once you know How Many people in a Given age Range there Are and whether its Worth directing the advertising at you present them with the melodies that rep resent nostalgia to when i was listening to the Bea my parents said to turn off that now its my nos the stuff my kids Are listening to today will be their nos Talgia radio 35 years from Jack program director of Penin says his stations pm programming went to nostalgia with the music of the 1970s last year but has broadcast the 1940s and 1950s for about 10 we Call our selves the station of the stars and that name is copy righted just like music of your life Kratoville Philadelphia is the fifth largest popu lation Market in the and nostalgia has gone Over extremely Kratoville were talking to the people in their 40s to people Are in love with the music of their youth with the music of their first with the songs that played the first time they Ever sat in a car and it reminds them of the time they were it Doest get any More complicated than Kratoville said the 1940s and 1950s format will most Likely be on the Wane before very Long because the people who remember their youth by it Are beginning to die several other proponents of nostalgia radio say that not As Long As music is big band or and regardless of who the singers people will like it and will want to hear it Damn Good its very much like the musicals we keep coming Back to on Broadway and All Over North one nostalgia program director people like them because there Damn same with Glen Duke Elling George shearing and Oscar Peter there Here to modern music is plenty of Melody by Paul Mckie staff reporter said nostalgia stations in other parts of North America have found their audiences among people aged 40 and with the largest group of listen ers in the late sos to early60s he said Manitoban Are invited to write to Ckon at to Box Cois Roh 1jo or phone we want to get an idea of the kind of support there is out he we already know that people have been trying to get in touch with us and Ever since our first broadcast project in Ive had literally thousands of Calls to my House and letters from peo ple who heard us depending on the response we we might be persuaded to take a More serious look at the possibilities for nos Talgia radio in retired program hosts now in their 60s and including Cliff Gardner and Gus Nanton and Lee formerly of Bob Glenn Miller and Jim Coghill Ernie Gren Lee major and Frank Stanley Csc and Jack Wells and Frank Roberts sky Are entertaining Winni Eggers with Musi easy big band swing and jazz tunes that retired 71 Hopes Are Here to and there having we made More of a commit ment this time than in Munn everyone puts in Only three hours a that easy when youre doing what you loved doing All your and we dont go through the night like we did in the older listeners of nostalgia radio May raise the chorus that they dont make melodious music like they used to but they be singing the current generation of pop music per formers offers up plenty of Melody and Topnotch pop music watchers most stuff is All said free press pop music writer John Lyons Doest just mean the vocal styling of Whitney Houston or Celine Dion though those performers sell Mil Lions of nirvana is certainly Lyons said of the famed Seattle based grunge whose Leader Kurt Cobain committed suicide last listen to any song on with the growth of nostalgia radio in the and a growing Market Here in win some observers believe younger listeners May tune in to hear Melody and vocal styling there not getting the recent Success of Tony a pop stylist from the 50s and 60s who is now so Cool Hes on has raised Eye brows that maybe today music int i think people Are looking for some said Ross pop music commentator for Csc new world and Host of a weeknight jazz program on Csc Porter said he sees contemporary coun try music fans coming from the ranks of people who used to listen to the eagles and Steve Miller in the but Porter also sees contemporary artists mining the nostalgia Field with new music that hearkens Back to old he Points out whose ingenue album was a collection of melodies and old fashioned pop Lyons pointed to the Success of the pop vocal group Boyz ii who play Winnipeg in As an example of a modern pop group that relies on he added that the Success of people like Bennett is Hes become kind of hip in a cheesy sort of Lyons Porter emphasized the importance of Melody in All areas of popular the two fundamental ingredients of a song will always remain the same Melody and ;