Oldies 106.7 FM

80s songs are NOT oldies.
Retro, sure, but oldies? No no no.
I get it that most 80s songs are now 30 years or older. I get that most people under the 25 probably think of them as oldies in that they don’t recall them at all during their upbringing. However, they are not oldies.
Oldies, in my opinion, fall in the time frame of 1963 – 1975, starting with the British Invasion and ending with the rise of punk and disco. Some late 50s stuff like Elvis, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper can be considered oldies as well and disco from the late 70s sometimes fits, but golden oldies are usually from 1963 – 1975.
While I appreciate the fact that progressive Portland still finds a home for oldies radio, I’m not a fan of this station for a few reasons. First off, it’s a clear channel station. All clear channel stations sound alike, and with good reason. They are pushing radio stations to become iheartradio stations, all with similar sounds, similar DJs, playing similar music. A McDonaldization of radio. Two, this station has a small playlist. Another Clear Channel trademark. Make a playlist as condensed and as inoffensive as possible and repeat the hell out of it. One day, I heard Neil Diamond’s «Sweet Carolina» played 4 times. I expect this out of Top 40 radio, but not an oldies radio station with a huge library to choose from. Three, too many commercials. I swear it’s 2 – 3 songs and then 5 – 6 minutes of commercials. Four, the music choices. I like Wang Chung’s «Dance Hall Days» and I like Modern English’s «I’ll Stop the World» and I like The Police’s «Every Breath You Take» but to come out of The Supremes or Three Dog Night or Seals and Crofts song and hearing that is jarring. That’s the thing: 80s songs don’t belong on oldies radio. It’s a completely different sound. The 80s were the return of conservatism while the oldies golden age was during the era of free love, peace and independent thinking. Different era, different sound. They don’t belong together.
I love 80s music and I love oldies, but I don’t love them together, especially on clear channel radio.

This Clear Channel owned oldies station cuts off the endings of most songs.
The pessimist says «Hey, I was listening to that!»
The optimist says «They can fit more songs into an hour!»
The DJ says «Making all songs consistently two minutes in length makes programming commercials a freaking breeze!
95% of oldies stations do _​_​_​_​what in the mornings: Have a caller contest of guessing what a given statistic is.
Overall I like 106.7 as their DJs aren’t too talkative and they have a good rota [ending cut off]

Love oldies but not so much from K-​Hits in Portland. My biggest complaint is their playlist. Too many repeats – and I mean on a daily, not an hourly basis. I can almost tell what time of day it is by what song is playing on K-​Hits – and I listen to radio Monday-​Friday from 7 AM — 7 PM, sometimes even later into the evening. Somewhere between watered down classic rock mixed with a little 70s soft rock and once in a great while they throw in a gem from the 60s if we’re lucky. It is very clear that «market analysis» and «advertising dollars per hour» choose the tunes and when they’re played on this station.
Kelly M. got it right in her review – KISN was the King of Oldies in Portland.

I’m giving KHits 3 stars because it’s not KISN.
Remember when Portland had an AMAZING oldies’ radio station that moved from FM to AM a few years ago and got even better? Remember when they had Mark Lindsy, former singer of Portland’s own Paul Revere and the Raiders as a DJ?
Remember when they used to shell out prizes all the time? And remember when they disappeared without a trace or an explanation and KHits was the only thing left on the dial that came close to filling the void?
Alas, I miss KISN.
KHits doesn’t compare. More Classic Rock than Oldies. Less Prizes. More commercials. Sorry, Khits.

I’m a Boston girl, we like Classic Rock in Boston, we like it straight up, we like a little Aerosmith, a little Led Zeppelin mixed in with some Van Morrison, and even some Stevie Nicks blended into that.
KKJZ 106.7 rocked me all weekend long, while looking for houses this weekend and I want to send a big thank you to giving Portland that home-​style classic rock feel. WBCN 100.7 would be proud.
I’m only holding off on the last star because I haven’t heard it during the work hours, but I bet it’s hot.