It's Friday afternoon, May 21. Liz gets into her car about to make the long trek home. It's five minutes to 5 p.m. She turns on her favorite FM classical music station, KVOD (92.5 FM). It's her station, and she's listened to it for years, even before it moved to 92.5.

John, who is on his way home on crowded I-25, has his AM radio tuned to KEXX (1280 AM), where KXKL (105.1 FM) is duplicating its Kool FM oldies format.

Complicated? Yup — but wait.

Our friend Liz is still tuned to KVOD's classical music. Liz loves KVOD. Suddenly at 5 p.m., while Liz is listening to KVOD, it isn't there any more.

What's going on? You see, 92.5 is instantly Jammin' to the Oldies!

What happened to her favorite KVOD? It's not there on FM any more. It's over on 1280 AM, on good old Ralph. Oops, almost forgot — Ralph is gone.

As for listener John, he's now hearing nothing but static. KVOD's classical music is not yet on 1280. Probably technical adjustments, you know. John waits awhile, thinking his oldies station will soon come back on.

About 10 minutes later, John hears an upcut into some of that classical music Liz likes. It's Liz's KVOD, only it's on 1280 AM now.

John solves the problem. He flips the dial looking for something that he wants to hear. He kind of liked listening to those oldies on 1280, and now that "long-hair" music is on KEXX, John just turns off his radio.

And presto, Liz is now jammin' to the oldies whether she wants to or not. Angry, Liz flips her radio off also.

Well, perhaps Liz and John will sort things out.

Our two radio fans, both of whom arrived home at the same time, are wondering why the change. John says to Liz, "Gee, isn't AM radio better for talk? You know, FM for music, AM for talk."

Liz answers John, "That's what I always thought."

Yes, Liz and John, that's true.

Oh, another thing that confuses John and Liz. When 92.5 changed formats, some strange female voice screams, "It's 7 o'clock in the greatest city in the world! Jammin' Oldies — Jammin' 105, New York!"

John says to Liz, "Gee, I thought Denver was the greatest city in ..." John doesn't finish his sentence. He and Liz enter their home, still confused.

Liz wonders if the nice lady deejay forgot she was in Denver and not New York.

No, Liz, the femme deejay was in New York. The station is simply simulcasting its Big Apple station for now. Maybe later, 92.5 will originate its local version of Jammin' Oldies. Who cares? Certainly not Chancellor Media, owners of KVOD and 1280.

You get the idea. The hell with what the listener thinks or cares. Just do whatever comes unnaturally.

Does Chancellor Media care? Obviously not.

Oh, one more thing. You can use an 800 number to get your jammin' oldies played from New York now. Won't it be fun hearing how the weather is in the Big Apple? And those traffic reports! I wonder how crowded the Brooklyn Bridge is about now?

How long do you think classical KVOD will last on AM? Or do you care at all?

Apparently Chancellor suits and skirts don't.

Format Change Beats Chancellor To The Punch

When it was all said and done, Greater Media was the first to bring rhythmic oldies to Philadelphia.

Greater Media's Max 95.7 (WXXM-FM), a modern adult contemporary outlet that never achieved great ratings in its year-long life span, pulled the plug on Sarah McLachlan halfway through her song, "Building a Mystery," and debuted as Jammin' Gold 95.7, claiming that "This is not your father's oldies station."

Jammin' Gold also promises to play "R&B oldies and the Philly Soul," according to pre-recorded statements.

The move comes as a surprise to many Philadelphia radio watchers, particularly since most believed that one of Chancellor's five local outlets would flip to Jammin' Oldies. Some speculate that the surprise nature of Max's move may have been orchestrated to beat Chancellor to the punch.

Chancellor, which owns the "Jammin' Oldies" trademark, has had much success with its version of the rhythmic oldies format in other markets. Most recently, Chancellor was able to resurrect one of its New York stations from the dead by installing the format on WTJM (105.1 FM), which suffered through a year in the ratings basement as Big 105, a hot adult contemporary station.

The move by Greater Media leaves the status of WXXM's air staff uncertain at this time. Of particular interest is the fate of morning personality Paul Barsky, who debuted at the station only two months ago. Prior to his arrival at Max, the popular Barsky had been off the Philadelphia airwaves for 11 months after having been fired by Y100 (WPLY 100.3 FM).

Max's best performance in the Arbitron ratings came last summer when the station attained a score of 2.3 among all listeners aged 12 and up, good for a 17th-place tie with Y100.

A new format is sweeping the country. It's not a new type of music, or even a cutting-edge thing. It's called Jammin' Oldies.

The format consists of urban leaning oldies -- Motown, disco, soul, etc. -- and is breathing new life into the radio dial.

The format was started by radio conglomerate Chancellor Broadcasting, which probably owns at least one of your favorite channels in any particular market.

The format worked so well in places like Detroit, that it was brought into markets such as New York, Washington and Los Angeles. In fact, the Jammin' format is so strong that WZMX-93.7 in Hartford, Conn., and most recently WXXM-95.7 in Philadelphia have jumped on the format -- and they are both owned by competitors of Chancellor.

By calling itself "Philadelphia's Jammin' Gold," WXXM is hoping to keep Chancellor, or anyone else, from bringing the format to their market on a competing frequency. Smart move.

Expect a variation of this format to appear near you soon.