New “Oldies” Radio Station Launches In Greater Saint John
QUISPAMSIS — A new community radio station out the Kennebecasis Valley is bringing the best of the oldies to Greater Saint John.
Oldies 96 is officially launching Monday, November 9, with Saint John radio legends like Donnie Robertson, Terri Wallace and Bruce Weaver returning to the airwaves.
The station is operated by Don Mabee and his son, Matt Mabee. Don, who’s worked in radio for decades, previously ran a radio station NewSong FM, a contemporary Christian music radio station that operated in uptown Saint John. Though the station was successful for a while, similar stations popping up in the market, so he decided it was time to make a big change.
“We decided we would do something different and we applied to the CRTC to change formats to an oldies station and also increase our power. At the time we had the Christian station on it was 50 watts,” says Don. “The CRTC allowed us to change the format to oldies and they also allowed us to increase our power to 2,500 watts. So we’ll basically be serving all of southern New Brunswick.”
Based out of a location on Hampton Road in Quispamsis, Oldies 96 (96.1 Fm on the dial) is the first radio station to be based in the Kennebecasis Valley.
Like most radio stations, it will rely on advertising as its core source of revenue. Under the regulations NewSong FM operated under, they weren’t able to sell advertising, which made it especially difficult to run. But Oldies 96 is a registered community radio station, which means it’s able to sell ads while also offering in-kind advertising to local community groups and non-profits.
“When people need help, we reach out to help them. It’s a community organization, non-profit, then we will help them,” says Don. “In return, the Community Radio Association of Canada allows us to sell commercials for [goods and] services.”
Oldies 96 will play music from the mid-50s (think when Elvis arrived on the scene), through the 70s.
Though on the surface the switching from a Christian radio station to an oldies station may seem like an odd choice, it’s actually a smart one.
Greater Saint John hasn’t had an oldies radio station for years. Previously, it was CFBC, which switch to country music. The city has stations for rock, 80s and 90s, country, and modern pop, but none focusing on the 50s, 60s and 70s eras. And given the province’s older demographic, and a resurgence of interest in artists from the era from young generations (if don’t believe me, just take a look at what TikTok did for Fleetwood Mac) there’s a hole in the market to be filled.
“I feel like oldies music has been neglected for a very long time, not just here in Saint John, but everywhere,” says Matt Mabee. “All the stations today want to play the hits and the latest music and that’s fine too, but there is a lot of great music from the 50s, 60s and 70s … There’s a lot of great music that everyone from any age can enjoy.”
The radio industry as a whole has face massive upheaval over the last 10 years, with the streaming services like Spotify making it easy for anyone to listen to curated playlists at their fingertips. Yet, radio stations, particularly those with strong roots in their community have persevered.
“You can listen to Spotify in your car, but Spotify is not going to tell you there’s a traffic jam on Loch Lomand Road. It’s not going to tell you that’s you’re going to get hammered with 50 cm of snow later that day,” says Matt.
“You can listen to whatever you want on Spotify, but it’s the local community connection for us.”