I couldn’t stop listening to R&B Oldies WXBS-HD3 (Foxy 106.9) St. Louis last week. There’s a station like that once or twice a year. There are client stations to monitor. There are other stations to write about. Instead, a “First Listen” turns into a second or third or fourth listen. When I did finally listen to something else, it was to their Adult R&B rival, WFUN (96.3 R&B).
The stations I keep going back to are usually gold-based in some form. They’re often the stations that I dubbed “Oldies XL” for their “more-than-the-hits” playlists, although sometimes they’re international outlets playing songs that are relatively safe choices in their own territory. There was a gold-based AC from New Zealand last year and CFAJ (Classic 1220) St. Catherines, Ontario from this summer. Those are usually the stations that provide just the right amount of engagement and endorphins to work to.
Foxy 106.9 is an HD Radio/FM translator combo that is planning an official launch with personalities on Dec. 1. 
Both the name and the R&B Oldies format have history in the market. In 2012, Radio One’s Urban AC WFUN (Foxy 95.5) became Old School 95.5 for several years. The sale that put Christian Hip-Hop KXBS (Boost 95.5) on that frequency led to the WFUN calls and Adult R&B format moving to 96.3 under Audacy; the current 96.3 R&B was up 6.2-6.5 in Nielsen’s October PPM ratings.
Listening to big city pop Classic Hits radio as a civilian is hard for me. I was just OK with a lot of the powers to begin with. Now, I’ve heard “Eye of the Tiger” and “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” far too many times to appreciate them in the way that listeners clearly still do. But I’ve also seen too much research to not recognize some of the songs I enjoy more as PD indulgence on a major-market station.
R&B Oldies stations, on the other hand, don’t come along that often. Listening is a different experience that gives me a sense of how Classic Hits and Classic Rock play for other people. Hearing Foxy and 96.3 R&B this week got me realizing that:
It’s all fresh if you haven’t heard it for a while. For the most part, the Adult R&B format has moved away from the ‘70s and early ‘80s songs that used to be the core of the format, emphasizing the late ‘80s and ‘90s instead. I found myself really enjoying some once very available records—“Darlin’ Darlin’ Baby (Sweet Tender Love)” by the O’Jays or “Better Days” by Dianne Reeves. For pop listeners, this is the appeal of, say, KOAI Phoenix where one-time “safe list” songs like “Daydream Believer” or “More Today Than Yesterday” now have “The Wow Factor.”
Local matters. Foxy is also playing one crossover Gospel song an hour and one Blues/Southern Soul title every hour. The Gospel titles were relatively new, but could include ‘80s songs like Howard Hewett’s “Say Amen.” The Blues songs—ZZ Hill’s “Cheating in the Next Room” or “Mom’s Apple Pie” by Tyrone Davis—were ‘80s/early ‘90s secret weapons for R&B radio in the south and Midwest. They were part of Old School 95.5 at its launch; those songs are the anthems of their genre, but since they aren’t heard on most Adult R&B stations, they sound great again to me, too.
“Oh Wow” songs make more familiar songs sound better. Although I was enjoying the station immensely, I was thinking there weren’t a lot of true “oh wow” songs on Foxy until I got to “Ridin’ High” by Faze-O, perhaps the ultimate “lost” late-‘70s R&B hit. Besides the former powers, there were a lot of big crossover hits that you don’t really hear much on either Classic Hits (too old) or Adult R&B (too old and too pop). Those songs aren’t necessarily special to me anymore either. But “Turn Your Love Around” by George Benson was just fine in a mix that I was enjoying overall.
The ’90s work better for me as spice than a center lane. Roughly 25-30% of Foxy was ‘90s/early ‘00s songs likely shared with most Adult R&B stations, including some adult-friendly Hip-Hop. There’s no “oh wow” to Jagged Edge’s “Where the Party At” for me—it’s on Throwback Hip-Hop and even some CHR stations as well these days. But these songs were stronger on Foxy than their ‘90s equivalents would have been on a pop version of Classic Hits overplaying Spin Doctors or Gin Blossoms because there wasn’t much else from the era to choose.
“Lost” songs sound even better on the Adult R&B format, where you don’t expect them. On the hour of 96.3 R&B I heard, a lot of the gold came from an Alicia Keys triple-play. There was also “When Doves Cry” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” that serve the same purpose they would on a Mainstream AC format—era balance but not “oh wow.” But on Mediabase monitors of WFUN, I’ve seen a lot of the same titles that have sounded fresh on Foxy, including some of the blues/southern soul. There are also some I haven’t yet come across on Foxy—i.e., “Am I Dreaming” by Atlantic Starr or “I Love Music” by the O’Jays. (As best I can tell from monitors, many of these songs were on WFUN a month ago, but they’re getting a few more spins a week now.)
“Hits” and “Variety” work best together. Over the last two decades as a music lover who found himself working in music research, I’ve become a believer in the concept of “hits plus variety.” Playing enough hits keeps adding a few “oh wows” from being a “my favorite stiffs” indulgence. Playing just enough variety keeps the hits from burning out. Hearing that play out with my R&B Oldies listening reinforces that for me on the pop side.
Here’s Foxy on November 21 at 2:45 p.m.:
- Patti Austin & James Ingram, “Baby Come to Me”
- Jason Weaver, “Love Ambition (Call on Me)”
- Usher, “There Goes My Baby”
- Donna Summer, “Bad Girls”
- Miki Howard, “Come Share My Love”
- Das EFX, “They Want EFX”
- Nelly, “Ride Wit Me”
- Tyrone Davis, “Mom’s Apple Pie”—with a blues stager
- Ohio Players, “Fire”
- Yarbrough & Peoples, “Don’t Stop the Music”
- Aaliyah, “If Your Girl Only Knew”
Here’s another stretch of the station on Thanksgiving morning around 6:45 a.m.:
- Isley Brothers, “It’s Your Thing”
- Juicy, “Sugar Free”
- Janet Jackson f/Q-Tip, “Got ‘Til It’s Gone”
- Case, “Missing You”
- Faze-O, “Riding High”
- Vanity 6, “Nasty Girl”
- Mariah Carey, “Always Be My Baby”
- Bobby V, “Slow Down”
- Johnnie Taylor, “Running Out of Lies”–with a blues stager
- O’Jays, “Darlin’ Darlin’ Baby (Sweet Tender Love)”
- Freddie Jackson, “Rock Me Tonight (For Old Time’s Sake)”
- Koffee Brown, “After Party”
- Commodores, “Jesus is Love”—with a gospel stager
Finally, here’s 96.3 R&B at 10 a.m. on Nov. 24, leading off with middayer Mishelae’s Mini Concert.
- Alicia Keys, “Fallin’”
- Alicia Keys, “If I Ain’t Got You”
- Alicia Keys f/Tony Toni Tone, “Diary”
- Usher f/Summer Walker & 21 Savage, “Good Good”
- Whitney Houston, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”
- Drake, “Hold On, We’re Going Home”
- Bell Biv Devoe, “Do Me!”
- Chaka Khan, “Through the Fire”
- SZA, “Snooze”
- Prince, “When Doves Cry”
- Next, “Wifey”
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com