This was how I spent my final days of M.S. & H.S.! (updated with some upcoming events)

I never thought I would be mentioning anything about my last few days of M.S. from June 2009 & my last few days of H.S. last June on this blog, but here goes nothing (& I hope those of you whom this applies to don't mind me making this update!): I'm not sure about other school districts, but in my now-former (as hard as that still is for me to believe!) school district, people have usually made a big deal of the end of each school year, scheduling the vast majority of its awards ceremonies in May & June, & in both my 8th & 12th grade years (2009 & this year, respectively), those ceremonies took up most of my May & June days! In '09, the main ceremony I was involved in was the N.J.H.S. (which is basically the middle school version of that particular organization), & shortly after that, the entire class got a week all to itself, & throughout that week, as I went through each day, I figured that it would be somewhat odd not being there anymore, but @ least I would still be in the same district with many of the same people, plus some new people! Fast forward 4 years to Memorial Day weekend of this year, though, & I got those same feelings, increased many times..... Before I get to all the fun stuff from last June, however, I might as well mention that I was part of 3 more ceremonies that month! The 1st of those was actually in late May, & it was a school-sponsored ceremony in which various district employees past & present gave away various awards, & despite their insistence that some people would be receiving multiple awards, from what I remember, almost nobody actually received more than 1 or 2 awards! For everybody else, the awards came immediately, but I received mine a few days later @ a private luncheon (sssshhhhhhhhh..... did I mention that ceremony was private?)! A few days after that gathering, there was another award headed my way, but this particular award was overtaken by (1) some controversies that had the entire district on edge; so much so, in fact, that the award wasn't mentioned anywhere locally until mid-August & (2) the sudden death of James Gandolfini, which I 1st learned about shortly after I returned home from the BOE building! Once those ceremonies (both private & public) & the slight bit of attention (did I mention I hate any sort of public attention?) that came with them were out of the way, I was finally able to focus on the "fun stuff" that comes with being part of each year's graduating class, such as prom..... Now that I mentioned that, I might as well mention that while that started off somewhat ugly, as rain started pouring just minutes after I arrived there, & naturally, everybody who was on line waiting to enter the building when it started pouring rain was allowed to wait right inside the emtrance instead of just outside the entrance, since the line extended almost all the way down this walkway @ our venue (www.skylandsatrandolph.com/, for you weirdos outside N.J. who are actually willing to eavesdrop on my posts), & once everybody got inside, it was basically just people searching for their other people, & once 30 minutes or so passed, everybody (myself included) made their way upstairs to this huge ballroom-type location that looked like it had been converted from something else (as did most of the building, @ least in my opinion..... out of everybody who was there that evening, I must have been the only person to (publicly) complain about the building's general "outdatedness" (if that's even a word), since I called the building "something straight out of the 1990s", or something like that, on FB the following morning!)..... Considering there were over 800 people in that class with me (although only about 750 of us made it to the actual graduation ceremony, but more on that later!), the place emptied out @ a somewhat fast pace for a Friday night in mid-June, but I guess that must have been only because I actually stayed the entire 4+ hours to witness the building slowly emptying out! Once that weekend came & went, the only real thing I was looking forward to was our H.S. graduation week, which, aside from the somewhat early distribution of yearbooks, played out incredibly similarly to the same week 4 years earlier! This time around, considering I already got many of my M.S. people in that (now non-existent) yearbook, I focused mostly on the students & teachers I had met during my 4 years in H.S. (especially my last 3 years of H.S.), although I made aboslutely certain to get a few of the people I had missed 4 years earlier in this time around, since I knew that there would most likely be no more 2nd chances this time around! (FULL DISCLOSURE: For the most part, @ least for me, it was students & non-teaching staff members in the front, & teachers in the back, although there were some exceptions to that rule!) For the rest of that week, once I got quite a few people into my H.S. yearbook (which I vow to never lose after what happened to most of my M.S. stuff!), I spent the vast majority of my time wondering where those people would be starting their college years, but I managed to put all those somewhat worrisome thoughts of mine behind on the last Friday of June, when the long-awaited graduation ceremony finally happened, & for a few short hours that day, all of the uncertainty was replaced by people showing all kinds of emotions (as 1 would most likely expect from 1 of those ceremonies), as well as getting to see everybody else in their graduating class together for the final time (since, as much as I hate to tell you people this, a lot can happen in the span of 5 or 10 years!)..... Once that was done, & everybody headed back home, there were a few hours between the ceremony & a special post-graduation gathering @ another local venue (www.funplexeasthanover.com/), & just as the Skylands people had done for us 2 weeks earlier, those people closed off the entire building for us! As the "nighttime" hours became the "overnight" hours, I started getting more & more emotional on the inside about not seeing many of those people again after that weekend..... I managed to keep all those emotions inside me, however, until the bus ride back to our H.S. parking lot, which had gone from being a completely shut down party zone the previous evening to practically a funeral home/mausoleum/etc. in the span of just 9 hours! Once my bus, which was the last bus out of almost 10 of them to return, arrived back in the parking lot, I stood amongst a bunch of other people who were already all emotional about moving on from H.S. life in general, & once I got away from all of them, I proceeded to do the exact same thing, as I suddenly let all the emotions I had tried to keep inside me throughout the entire previous week loose in a locked room that I had all to myself, & I ended up doing the exact same thing I had done the final Saturday morning of June quite a few more times throughout July & August (mostly July), & even on my 1st night in college, when all the frustration with my current campus had reached its (previous) breaking point, but other than those occasions, I managed to keep people from witnessing any sort of emotional breakdowns on my part..... It wasn't just those types of occasions, however, in which I managed to keep any emotions I might have been feeling inside me until I was away from everybody else, but considering the once-in-a-lifetime nature of those occasions, I consider it even more of an accomplishment than usual on those occasions!

(P.S.: I would mention that I'm planning on returning to those aforementioned events & venues next June, but there are a few potential time constraints that might get in the way of me (sort of) re-living my senior year, such as (1) this trip to western Europe (Spain & France, to be exact) that my family has been planning for a bunch of years now, & (2) I put off my planned Temple U. Japan summer trip for another year just to be able to deal with the whole transition process from this freshman year to my sophomore year, since I'm not willing to have to have made the transition from H.S. to college only to have to transition from U.S. to Japanese culture & life temporarily about a year later! All that being said, however, if my H.S. is gracious enough (& actually willing) to invite me (or anybody else!) back next June, then I'll be 1 of the 1st people making my way back to all of those venues for the 2nd time in a year next June!)

Why has everything seemed so stagnant all of a sudden?

Obviously, like anybody else who's reached this point in time, I had to experience many "highs" & "lows" just to reach this point, but @ least before now, the "highs" were usually more regular, & the "lows" were usually more uncommon & less severe, @ least academically (since my social life was basically the same throughout all 12 years)! Throughout many of my K-12 years, I pretty much passed each grade with practically all A's & B's overall @ the end of each school year, & anybody who had me in any of their classes can certainly "second" those facts, even if not everything that occurred along the way was A/B material! Out of all of the few C's/D's/etc. I received throughout those years, 99.99% of the time, I recognized that those situations called for slightly more desperation/urgency/etc. than the rest of my grades that particular quarter of the year, so I usually focused more on my lower overall grades while focusing slightly less on whichever grades I noticed were the highest that particular quarter! Among those C's/D's that I got up back to a B or perhaps an A were the following: 1: Q2 of 2008/09: My last year of middle school seemed fairly pedestrian early on, considering I had fulfilled most of my "requirements" (to the extent that any classes were "required" back then) in my previous 2 years there with all A's & B's overall @ the end of both years! Around the middle of that year, however, I guess the fact that my middle school years would be done by June finally reached the back of my mind, & while I had all A's & B's elsewhere, my 2 English grades (considering the "language arts" & "writing", or whatever the heck they were called, components were split up that year, for some reason) were both 78, which meant that my average between both of them was also a 78..... It took me a few days to recognize the slight threat that those 2 78's posed to my chances of moving on to H.S., but considering I had more than just middle school graduation depending on my grades that year, I worked myself to the point that by the beginning of the last-ever quarter of my middle school years, my grades everywhere else were pretty much similar to what they were throughout the 1st 1/2 of the year, but most importantly, my 2 English grades (again, don't ask me why, but "language arts" & "writing" were separate that year, & that year alone) were both back to exactly 90, saving me the trouble of having to keep working to the extent that I did throughout the 3rd quarter of that year! 2: the following year, my freshman year of H.S.: After all the trouble I went through the previous year just to get 1 grade from 90 down to 78 & then back to 90, I figured that if anything similar were to occur the following year, that it would occur in a different class, & sure enough, they resurfaced, except in algebra instead of English! This time, however, the situation was more drastic, as I started off the year in there with an 80, meaning that I couldn't afford as big of a drop without risking failure in that class for the 2nd quarter of that year..... While that, thankfully, didn't occur (I got a 70 in that class the 2nd quarter), I recognized that the only way to go in order to pass the class would be up, not down, so I kept my quarter grades in every other class high enough that I could focus slightly more on fixing that 70, & by the end of the year, I had a 70something the 3rd quarter, & I was back up to the grade I had started the year with to end the year (another 80)! 3: Having averted that grading crisis before it started, I figured that I would never come that close to failure ever again throughout 3 years in the main H.S. building, & considering I got above an 85 in every class except for geometry (where I started the year with a 78), I considered the events of the previous year to be a "blip on the radar", & for the most part, despite that 78 & a 76 in English the following quarter, those situations weren't nearly as troubling to me or anybody else as the previous year's events! 4: The following year was mostly uneventful grade-wise, considering I kept my usual all A's & B's everywhere except for algebra II, where I kept high C's every quarter throughout that year, allowing me to look forward to senior year basically from the halfway point of the year forward to the end of the year, when I figured that I would mostly be concerned about my future beyond that year, despite the fact that there was a 75 listed for my 4th quarter French grade, which I had already taken care of during the previous 3 quarters with my usual grades, so while that stuck out more than the rest of my 4th quarter grades, that never bothered me because I had already gotten enough points to pass for the year by then..... 5: The beginning of senior year, however, turned out to be the quarter that tested everybody's patience the most..... I hadn't yet fulfilled my "fine/performing arts" requirement during my previous 2 years in the main building & my 1 year @ the annex (where, ironically enough, 1 of my middle school art teachers was suddenly teaching a few art classes!), so considering I had to pass that class, as well as my English & P.E./health classes (which are the only 2 required 4 year-classes @ my H.S., for some reason), I was mostly focused on fulfilling those requirements early enough in the year so that I could just enjoy the rest of my senior year, but after receiving a 58 in my engineering graphics class to start the year, I figured that the 1st 1/2 of the year would end up being a "roadblock" of sorts to all of the end-of-H.S. enjoyment that I was hoping I would be able to look forward to from the beginning of that year! As soon as I noticed that 58 on an otherwise all A & B-filled report card, I figured that I wasn't 100% @ fault for what happened in that class, & as it turns out, the teacher in there admitted after a few days & a bunch of meetings with a bunch of different people, from the school's head of the technology department, to my family, to a few of the administrators who (thankfully) also noticed the situation, to not checking all of the work that had been assigned that quarter, & while that created a scandal that involved too many people, once everything was said & done, my grade in that class was "flipped" from 58 to 85, meaning that my lowest grade that quarter was somewhere in the 80s! After that "scandal" passed, & I was finally allowed to focus on all of my classes without having that distraction bothering me every day, I was able to keep the rest of my grades @ their usual levels the entire year after that, meaning that all the enjoyment I thought I wouldn't be able to experience in June had finally returned to my life! It's simply something that I hope to keep around once this semester &/or year are done; if nothing else, this semester &/or year, if that ends up being as rough as this semester has been, will remind me if anything else in the future ends up being rough!

Part 2 of a look @ top 40/adult contemporary/contemporary hit radio!

"With today’s consumer wanting to custom tailor everything to their liking, the name MY is a perfect brand for radio. This is a station designed by the listeners to play music they tell us they want to hear. How do we know what they want to hear? Extensive market research and continual weekly music information to keep the station familiar, fun and family friendly."
     
     The above quote comes from a 2009 interview between Radio & Records & Clear Channel Communications' L.A. programming VP Michael Martin, which KBIG (FM)-L.A. program director Dave Denes seconded later in the same interview, after mentioning a few top "adult" songwriters: ".....every song we play is or was at the top of the charts." That sentiment seems to be echoed by numerous other top 40/AC stations nationwide, as MTV's Corey Moss relayed back in November 2006 (FULL DISCLOSURE: I still remember those days better than most people I know, mostly 'cause I had just started middle school back then!): "While those songs (referring to 3 songs that were near the top of the charts back then) are cringe-inducing reminders of way back when we feared the bird flu (and the Steelers!) for the typical top 40 fan (since not every radio listener likes to hang on to "old" top 40 hits), they're current hits on the AC radio format, where "current" is a relative term." That sentiment might not be as (publicly) prevalent now, almost 7 years later, but later on in that article, Moss laments some disagreements among most "typical" listeners: "In other words, AC stations are where pop songs go to die a very long death. Or, to optimists, to get a second life." Gary Berkowitz, adult contemporary-leaning radio consultant, is quoted in the article agreeing with Moss (& yours truly, for the record): "The format [has] never been known for making its own hits. As I always say, AC listeners know what they like and they like what they know. Familiarity and comfort-ability is really important in this format, and what we've discovered is new music is not that important to our listeners." Meanwhile, Roy Trakin, senior editor at Hits, a radio trade magazine, thinks the format is more based on songs than their performers: "Let's put it this way: It's a song-based format, it isn't a personality-based format. There's no guarantee that the next top single is going to go on right away. Probably half the people don't even know who the artists are when they're listening. They just know the song, and the songs are fairly indelible." On the other hand, Steve Hunter, operations manager @ multiple Tulsa, Oklahoma stations, thinks (& I disagree with him, BTW) that most AC artists (were) "one-hit wonders": "A lot of the artists playing on adult contemporary radio right now are one-hit wonders and it's unfortunate; they're not really building that bond. I don't know if our listeners are going out and buying the album or if they're downloading the single. My guess is that they're downloading the single, but they're not making that connection." Moss goes on to mention 1 of many stations' biggest fears: "AC programmers also back their low turnover with market research, which includes testing for "burnout," the industry term for overplayed." Now, normally, I would agree with him there, but here's what I've noticed over the years: Most performers have found their way into the top 40, struggled through the top 40, displacing a few other former top 5/10/20/etc. hits along the way, all the while getting progressively more airtime. Eventually, I've noticed songs in the top 5 or 10 get overwhelmingly more plays than everything else, leading to that "burnout" mentioned above. Once those songs have fallen out of the top 5 or 10, & especially once they've dropped out of the top 40, they've gotten airplays "once in a blue moon" (as evidenced by the playlists on the 6 NYC FM stations I profiled last night!), but for some of them, whereas they originally got played perhaps 10 or 15 times a day (on average), they now get played perhaps between 5 & 10 times a day, if they even get played that often! 

UPDATE #1: The following link mentions the 3 songs whose names I purposely omitted @ the beginning of this post to prevent any sudden "nostalgia" issues among you people: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1544498/adult-contemporary-radio-where-hits-go-die.jhtml

UPDATE #2: I've found all of those stations' (recent) playlists!

http://923now.cbslocal.com/playlist/ (This playlist is practically only stuff from this decade (so far), & nothing else!)

http://wplj.tunegenie.com (This playlist goes back quite further than 92.3 NOW, playing some late 90s stuff every so often.....)

http://www.z100.com/music/playlist/ (Just like 92.3 NOW, this playlist sticks mostly to this decade, but unlike 92.3 NOW, not entirely!)

http://fresh1027.cbslocal.com/playlist/ (This playlist goes back the furthest of the 1st 4 stations, playing almost everything from this millennium (so far), but little else!)

http://www.ktu.com/music/playlist/ (This playlist, interestingly enough, has lots of 2000s stuff, little, if any, 90s stuff, &, owing to the original 'KTU station's heritage as a disco station, occasionally plays some 80s tunes to satisfy those people who still remember the original 'KTU!)

http://www.1067litefm.com/music/playlist/ ("3 parts variety" has been 1 of this station's main slogans for a bunch of years now, & if it wasn't for 80s stuff, I'm not so sure this station would have the same format it has right now, if it would even be on the air @ all in such a scenario! Unlike 'KTU, however, this station doesn't neglect the 90s; in fact, out of all 6 of these stations, "Lite FM" plays the most 90s music out of all of them!)

Part 1 of a look @ NYC's (mostly NYC'S) top 40/adult contemporary/contemporary hit radio history!

Christmas Day 1948-present

The 1st station covered here started on Christmas Day 1948 as WMCA (FM), simulcasting its AM counterpart. From the beginning, however, the owner decided that an AM/FM simulcast wasn't for him, leading him to decide whether to sell the station or just shut it down. On 2/26/51, the new owners switched from 1 simulcast to the other, simulcasting an ethnic/mostly Spanish-language music format with WHOM (AM). That format lasted almost a 1/4 century when, as of 6/5/75, the station switched its call letters to (this might sound familiar to those of you who listen to present-day NYC FM radio) WKTU, & its format to adult contemporary. Ratings throughout the '70s were stable enough, but also low enough for SJR Communications to look for other formats for the station. After 3 years of searching, in the mid-evening hours of 7/24/78, the station abruptly switched to a then-unprecedented all-disco format, just as many other big-city-based music stations abandoned disco in favor of some other more proven formats. Over the next 7 years, the station underwent so many changes (none of which led to the demise of its "Disco 92" identity, however) that its competitors changed formats instead of trying to force it to abandon its disco format! On the night of the Live Aid concert series, however (7/13/85), the station started its 1st stint as WXRK, which established itself as a mostly rock station from the beginning through the 1990s. By New Year's Day 2006, though, the station ended its 1st stint as WXRK in favor of the WFNY call letters & a split talk (weekdays)/classic rock (weekends) format. WFNY's initial ratings were actually lower than its WXRK days, but the longer the station kept its newest format, the lower they went: from a 7.9 in morning drive all the way down to 1.8, & a 13.8 among ages 18-34 all the way down to a 1.3; overall, the station was down from a 3.2 in mid-'05 to 2.7 by the '06 holidays, & finally, as if the ratings could decline any further, to a 2 after the beginning of '07! The continuous decline & numerous controversies involving Opie & Anthony ('cause who else generates more controversy than those 2 crazies?) & local hosts led the then-renamed CBS Radio to bring back classic rock as of 5/24/07, & the WXRK call letters as of 5/31/07. Unfortunately for those listeners who were excited to witness the WXRK/classic rock reunion, the new WXRK lasted just under 2 years before adopting top 40 & the WNOW call letters on 3/11/09.

5/4/48-present

The next station covered here started in 1948 as a simulcast of WJZ (AM), & when ABC merged with UPT 5 years later, the simulcast continued, albeit as a simulcast of the re-named WABC (AM). The simulcast continued into the 1960s, including a short time in 1962 when the stations broadcast 17 hours of news coverage daily to make up for that year's NYC newspaper strike! Between 1968 & 1971, ABC's FM stations became part of the "Love Network", broadcasting progressive rock mostly aimed @ younger audiences. In 1970, however, a mixup on the part of both ABC & the FCC awarded the call letters the station wanted (WRIF) to WXYZ (FM)-Detroit, & the call letters that station wanted (WDAI) to WLS (FM)-Chicago! Needless to say, that mixup left the network looking for a new identity for its then-flagship (FM) station, & on "V-Day" 1971, ABC found the identity that's stuck with the station ever since: WPLJ-FM! Throughout the 1970s, the station mostly played classic rock; in fact, they had gained so much of a reputation for being the classic rock station that when the then-WAPP tried that format in 1982, it only lasted 9 months or so before it influenced 'PLJ to drop its longtime format in favor of top 40/adult contemporary/contemporary hit radio/etc.!

Before this station became "KTU", it influenced 'PLJ to switch from classic rock to CHR!

1983-present; this station attempted to capitalize on the "infighting" between WAPP & 'PLJ around the time of its 1st sign-on

Out of all the "rags-to-riches" stories I've ever heard, this is 1 of the most forgotten of those types of stories I've heard of! It signed during the early morning hours of 8/2/83, but unlike WAPP & WPLJ, it played top 40 (which WPLJ had recently switched to) from the beginning, & its format consistency made listeners take notice immediately; in fact, the station took just 74 days (8/2/83-10/6/83) to go from last to 1st place in NYC's Arbitron ratings! Ironically, the format that the station initially tried to take advantage of back in '83 was what it ended up switching to -partially- by the early 1990s, as it responded to WPLJ's switch back to top 40 in 1992 by combining top 40 with alternative rock & hoping listeners wouldn't mind hearing the 2 formats together on the same station. That didn't work, however, & later in the decade, it switched back to its current top 40-only format, which it maintains to the present day.

8/25/58-present; this station had to surrender some rather legendary call letters to obtain its current identity!

The next station on this list had its history prior to 1958, but since nobody seems to remember what it was prior to then (if any of you are curious, BTW, the station's call letters prior to 1958 were WNJR-Newark, NJ & WHFI-West Paterson, NJ!), I'll just stick with the 55 years between 1958 & now! From its very 1st day on-air, WNEW (FM) mostly played "popular music" (not to be confused with the current "pop music"), while also simulcasting its AM counterpart. Over the next decade, the station gradually went more middle-of-the-road. Between Independence Day 1966 & September 1967, however, the station returned to a mostly "popular music" format, but with a then-unprecedented twist: It had all female DJs! The stunt, for what it was worth, was so successful that it lasted, as previously mentioned, over a year, & all of the ladies involved in the temporary format moved on to other broadcasting jobs in September 1967 once the format ended once & for all. Over the next (almost) 3 decades, the station leaned progressive rock, giving the 1 & only E Street Band some of its 1st public exposure, & holding a charitable benefit concert @ MSG every holiday season, extending its reach beyond radio listeners & ratings. By 1995, the station had decided to abandon its longtime format in favor of more alternative rock, going so far as to almost completely ignore Jerry Garcia's death that August, which alienated many of the station's most loyal listeners (See what I keep telling you people about loyalty?)! The station attempted to combat a severe ratings decline by changing its format, effective 9/12/99, to "hot talk", @ least only on weekdays; the station actually kept both its call letters & classic rock format, albeit on only on weekends. By 2001, controversial talk show hosts Opie & Anthony practically ran the entire station, as they forced classic rock out in favor of infomercials, & got the FCC to fine the station twice in 2002 alone; a reference to incest in early 2002 made the FCC fine the station $21,000, & a stunt in which O&A encouraged 2 random people to engage in intercourse inside St. Patrick's Cathedral, of all places! Once the station declined to a .7 overall share, management decided more changes would occur, & they changed to CHR in January 2003 before changing to rhythmic adult contemporary after less than a year, leading the station to adopt its current call letters (WWFS) on 1/2/07, & the rest, as "they" say, is history!

6/5/75-7/13/85 on 92.3 FM; 2/9/95-present on 103.5 FM

(DISCLAIMER #1: This station actually went through 7 different sets of call letters between 1948 & 1995, & on 2 different frequencies, so instead of covering all of that history, I'll just stick to the current station here to avoid any total mass confusion!)
After 47 years of various formats, call letters, & a long stint "down the dial" on 93.1 FM, the then-WYNY (FM) changed to its current call letters & format during the evening of 2/9/95. Listeners hoping for something to finally stick on that frequency were rewarded early on, as the station immediately reached #1 on NYC's Arbitron ratings list! Initially, the station leaned CHR, but the mostly-CHR format underwent gradual changes over the next decade, as it added more rhythmic AC & subtracted rap/hip-hop/etc.; eventually, the rhythmic AC gained enough prominence on the station that as of 9/9/06, rhythmic AC was (for all intents & purposes) the station's full-time format. Its status as a full rhythmic AC station was not officially fulfilled (@ least according to the then-renamed Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems) until 4/4/11, when BDS moved 'KTU from rhythmic CHR to rhythmic AC/top 40.

something/something/61-present; apparently, a long jazz history couldn't keep this station out of the top 40!

For a station that prides itself on tradition just as much as the next station, this station sure has had an interesting history! In 1961, Riverside Church NYC started a jazz station, hoping to capitalize on a surprisingly under-represented (@ least for N.Y.C.!) genre back then! As interesting as that decision seems to have been, its ratings were always sort of low, so Sonderling Broadcasting bought the station from the church in 1976, hoping to move it into more "urban" demographics to allow it to compete with more established "urban" station such as WBLS, which competed directly against Sonderling's other station, WWRL. In 1980, however, the soon-to-be-a-massive-media-company Viacom bought the station from Sonderling, shifting it to a then unheard-of country music format, but considering country music's much lower reach back then compared to now, as well as immediate opposition to the format by listeners surprised by the overnight format change, the format only lasted 4 years before obtaining its present WLTW call letters & M-O-R/adult contemporary/etc. format. The interesting difference between this station & the rest of the top 40/AC/M-O-R/CHR stations is that while most of them tend to stay within a decade & a 1/2 or so of the present day (with more recent hits obviously getting more airtime than older ones), "Lite FM" has always kept the '80s on its regular schedule, & it mixes the '80s with the new millennium so effortlessly that their ratings have almost always been #1 in the NYC market over the past bunch of years!

(DISCLAIMER #2: Due to the on-&-off nature of this post, I was going to mention my thoughts about where I see the current top 40/AC/rhythmic AC/hot AC/CHR/etc. format not just around here in the NYC area, but in the U.S./elsewhere as a whole, but since I was coming & going so often between this post & other commitments, I'll just leave part 2 of this post for next time!)

(DISCLAIMER #3: After checking all of the aforementioned playlists again just a few minutes ago, I've noticed a few changes, which are as follows!)

#2: As for the rest of the stations, the only 1 I've noticed that hasn't budged much @ all since mid-October has been 92.3 NOW; all the rest of the stations seem to have "re-discovered" some slightly older stuff from most current performers featured on their stations, & as evidenced by the most recent playlists on their websites…..

#3: Some of those performers &/or groups will actually be (re)visiting this area in the near future (in fact, PLJ has an upcoming concert list (UPDATE: they removed it!)….. well, when that list was up, it ran from current stuff all the way through the end of July! If that playlist gets returned to its usual position, then I'll definitely show it to you people; if not, then I guess you'll have to take my word for it that the stations are certainly willing to keep us informed of local events!