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'50s show on WCBS
is shama-lama-gone
By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, August 7th, 2002
It's goodnight sweetheart for the long-running Sunday night "Doo-Wop Shop" on WCBS-FM (101.1).
Host Don K. Reed will open the shop for the last time on Aug. 25 in what WCBS-FM program director Joe McCoy says will be "a celebration of its 27 years on the air."
Reed's program is the last on New York commercial radio to feature the music that in the '50s was a foundation of fledgling rock 'n' roll radio: songs like "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," "Earth Angel," "Sixteen Candles," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "Sincerely," sung by vocal groups like the Teenagers, Moonglows, Flamingos, Crests, Chantels and Capris.
"This music deserves a celebration," says McCoy, a personal fan. "It's been a big part of this radio station."
WCBS-FM has already, over the last few years, been removing some '50s music and adding '70s and '80s hits. The goal is to attract new listeners who grew up with more recent oldies and thus avoid the fate of, say, popular standards WNEW-AM, whose listeners were extremely loyal but declining in numbers and increasingly less desireable to advertisers.
Any musical change always frustrates some fans who have listened to a station for years. But commercial radio is a business, and WCBS-FM, while still a top-five station, has seen a bit of ratings erosion it would like to stem by making new regulars of those younger listeners.
"People who like doo-wop really like it, but people who don't, turn it off," says McCoy. "This makes the sound of our station consistent, so all our listeners can tune us in at any time."
He says WCBS-FM will continue to sprinkle "doo-wop songs everyone knows and likes," like "Book of Love," "Come Go With Me" or "Since I Don't Have You," into regular programming.
Infinity Broadcasting, which owns WCBS-FM, has taken most '50s music off its oldies stations in several cities - though a doo-wop show in Philadelphia was reinstated after protests.
McCoy says Reed hasn't decided whether to keep doing Sunday nights after the "Doo-Wop Shop" ends.
"We know people will miss the show," McCoy says. "But it's no longer 20 years ago. Its time had come."
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