SOJ's 12th

We'll have a more complete semi-update sometime early Monday, then we may be scarce for a while. No, we're not ready to break out the H word, as we still could be around and updating.

But a tip of the hat to a local radio organization that could well be called "A Bunch of Friends of OMW".

The weekly "Sunday Oldies Jukebox" turns 12 years old on Sunday. The "day format" hit the airwaves on November 30, 1997.

The oldies programming takes over Streetsboro City Schools-owned WSTB/88.9 Streetsboro (otherwise a student-run alt-rocker called "The AlterNation") once a week, and adult volunteers deliver a day full of 50's and 60's (and some 70's) rock and roll oldies to audiences in the Akron area and beyond, each and every Sunday from morning until night.

Engineer "Uncle Bill" Weisinger, a Friend of OMW, helms the "SOJ" effort as its volunteer program director. SOJ is "84 in dog years", Bill notes on the station's website. (Unfortunately, due to rising costs and onerous playlist accounting requirements, SOJ no longer streams its output...you'll have to be near a radio tuned to 88.9 FM in Northeast Ohio to hear it.)

The SOJ has not had a completely smooth road, of course.

OMW readers know that the Jukebox - and host station WSTB - left the air for a while recently, and you can use the search box above to catch up, if you missed all the commotion. We won't revisit the controversy here.

But the Sunday oldies stream returned to the eventually returned 88.9 FM, and continues to fill what's mostly an unmet need on the local airwaves - offering "older" rock oldies titles to local listeners, commercial free.

We haven't done a playlist analysis, but "SOJ" would seem to offer older titles that aren't even in the music library of the only local commercial AM outlet that still embraces the word "oldies", Rubber City's WAKR/1590 in Akron. We can't remember the last time we heard a 50's tune on 1590, for one...the station mainly offers popular 60's music along with its news and sports programming.

And of course, Clear Channel Cleveland FM powerhouse WMJI/105.7 "Majic 105.7" has long since abandoned those two decades - and the word "oldies" - as a station featuring "classic hits" from the 70's and 80's outside the "Lanigan and Malone" morning drive talk show.

Between those stations, and standards WKHR/91.5 Bainbridge serving up the older music for nearby areas of Cleveland's eastern suburbs, there's plenty of musical room for the SOJ.

Anyway, Happy 12th to "Uncle Bill" and the SOJ crowd from your friends here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)!