I don't understand why they do that. I guess they think older people are not as likely to buy new products.

When you say "classic oldies", can you give some examples?
Classic oldies are songs from roughly 1955 to the early 1970s.
It used to be 1955-1964 but was later expanded to the entire 1960s.
Unfortunately, very few of those songs are played on commercial radio these days.
Most don't consider 80s music "classic" or "true oldies."
Advertisers hold this marketing discrimination against anyone with gray hair, or older than 50.
Any radio listener who was 20 years old in 1965 today would be in the 70s.

I see. That is definitely before my time, but I would still prefer it over a lot of the garbage on the radio now. My taste probably starts late 60s (bands like Deep Purple) to the 80s hair bands, then some "power metal" type bands like Helloween, etc.
As for Michael Jackson, I know my opinion isn't popular. But I don't see the "great talent" in someone known for lip synching his concerts.

Please click on
http://wmtram.com/classic-oldies-artists/
for WMTR's list of classic oldies artists. They seem to focus on music from the '50s to the '70s. WCBS-FM doesn't play many songs from the '50s and plays a lot of songs from the '80s. I really don't need to hear artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna on an oldies station. You might be able to listen to WMTR online. Please click on
http://wmtram.com/

Sometimes I get WDHA where I am, sometimes it doesn't come in. (I'm just outside of Staten Island). I never heard of WMTAM. When you say "classic oldies", can you give some examples?

I am a Jersey Boy from the Exit 153 area. I listened to WPLJ until they went pop. That was the day the music died for many people I know. You are absolutely right about Q-104.3 playing the same songs from the same artists over and over. I listened to WSOU a lot back in the '90s. I also listen to the oldies on WCBS-FM. My favorite station is WDHA-FM 105.5 from Cedar Knolls, NJ. One of my friends was one of the "jocks" there in the '90s. "WKRP in Cincinnati" sometimes reminds me of hanging out at the 'DHA studio. I sometimes listen to 'DHA's sister station WMTR-AM 1250. They play classic oldies.

Yes, I am from the area. I have three older brothers - 8, 14 and 15 years older than me. So I grew up hearing rock from different eras, even if the later years still played stuff from the earlier. WPLJ was the usual station, or WNEW. I did listen to WAPP also, but often just forget all about it.
Later I switched to WSOU when they were playing the hair metal bands, which was what I had grown to prefer.
I try to listen to Q104, but they just play the same bands over and over all day, every day. Little to no variety.

WAPP was 103.5 FM. Are you from the New York area? I listened to WAPP a lot when they had their commercial free summer in 1982. For some reason WAPP didn't really catch on with listeners. Many were loyal to to WPLJ and and/or WNEW. When WPLJ switched to a contemporary hits format, WAPP's ratings got a slight boost. In 1984 WAPP's owners decided to change the station's format to contemporary hits. The station could not compete with WPLJ or Z-100 and their ratings fell. In 1986 the station became Hot 103 with new call letters WQHT and a new format called rhythmic contemporary. WAPP is known as the station that helped launch Bon Jovi's career. So blame them.

It's not about "having an issue with race". Venus did not play rock music, which was why I answered the question.
By the way, I vaguely remember WAPP. What was their number on the dial?

There are African-American disc jockeys who work on rock radio stations. When I was a kid Mark McEwen was an African-American gentleman who worked on New York rock radio stations WNEW-FM and the defunct WAPP. I don't think any normal person had an issue with McEwen's race. He went on to work in TV and is probably best known as the host of "A&E's Live by Request". Please click on
http://www.markmcewen.com/

He wasn't. He was hired for a TV show.
If don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you doyou are misinformedMark Twain

But they didn't stay at the bottom of the ratings. In the final episodes the new ratings indicate that the station had risen to #6 in the Cincinnati market.

Maybe that's why they stayed at the bottom of the ratings. People who tune into a station for a specific music genre usually don't want to hear something that is drastically different from what they like.

In the season 4 episode "The Consultant", the consultant Mrs. Carlson has hired tells Andy that the sound of the station is "all over the road" and Andy makes it clear that he lets the deejays program some of their own music.
You can see it here:
The Consultant
http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2008/10/wkrp-episode-consultant.html
This is the episode with the famous Bailey "M & Ms" scene with her Nestle commercial spoof. (Nestles makes the very best chocolate).

I think Andy hired Venus because they had worked together at a rock station in another city possibly New Orleans.

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I think it's supposed to be a Top 40 type station. Barry White had many Top 10 hits.

He was obviously just used as a token black character which was common for shows from the mid 1960's-1980's.
yes, The shows from the 1970's had only token black characters: "Sanford & Son", "The Jeffersons", "Good Times", "What's Happenin'", "The Jackson 5ive", "The Harlem Globetrotters", "Diff'rent Strokes", etcetera.
1980's and after "The Cosby Show", "A Different World", "Family Matters",
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", "Homeboys in Outer Space", "Livin' Single", etcetera.

Actually WMCA out of NYC had basically a Rock/pop format. In the evenings a Black DJ - Frankie Crocker was on. He was similar to Venus.

The show wasn't very realistic to begin with so they just added Venus as a token minority character.
Yes they eventfully added him on the Pilot Episode

@JohnQ
You do realize that there were other shows on the air in the era like What's Happening, That's My Mama, Sanford and Son,Good Times, which were,in fact, written and produced by black writers/directors, and had mostly black casts? So,no, the whole era wasn't just putting actor of color in "token minority" roles. And, yeah, shows were beginning to get more diversified, due to black folks demanding that black people be represented not only in front of the camera, but behind the scenes,too. When you look at the fact that black folks were barely even cast in "token" roles on TV in the '60's, the '70's were a huge step forward in improvement.
And another thingI used to listen to an oldies rock station out of Ohio back in the late '80's which actually had an early Sunday morning jazz show, of all things. Like another poster said, radio formats in the '70's weren't always as rigid,timid, and limited as they are now. Heck, radio in the early '80's,looking back, seems to have been a little more adventurous that any of these music stations today. And,BTW, black people pretty much invented rock n' roll, so there wasn't anything really strange about Venus being therehe should have been able to play it,too,or whatever the hell else he wantedand not just R&B.

How about Taxi? Not one minority cab driver in NYC during the 1970's?? LOL.
To be fair, there were minority cab drivers who worked for Sunshine Cab. (I seem to recall an episode where some young black female cab driver had a crush on Alex.) We just didn't see them regularly because they weren't part of Alex Rieger's circle of friends.

Well there's a big difference in Laurie Anderson type program to a free form Black R&B/Soul/Disco show.
It's really not that big a deal because the show wasn't very realistic in the first place. Hardly any of those 70's Sit-coms were very realistic.
How about Taxi? Not one minority cab driver in NYC during the 1970's?? LOL.

Lots of rock stations, including a fair number AOR ones, got significantly mellower and / or outside their normal format in the late-night time slot (which was always portrayed as the time slot that Venus worked). And not just on Sundays. During the time period when
WKRP
was on the air, WRIF in Detroit had a nightly show (originally 2:00 - 4:00 AM, but later expanded to a 3 or 4 hour slot) called "The Rif Rock Cafe"; and nothing that you ever heard on that show would ever be played on that station in any other time slot (though that particular example was sliding off in a different direction than what Venus played; the Cafe tended more toward Laurie Anderson).
That part never struck me as much of a stretch. The part that did seem odd was a generally low rated station having a DJ that was always talked about in terms of being a top ratings draw, and keeping him perpetually hidden in that late-night slot where his earning potential (for the station) is so limited.