Which musical eras defined WOMC?

WOMC really hit its stride with the Motown and oldies sound from the 50s and 60s, but they also leaned hard into the soft rock and pop hits of the 70s and 80s. For a long time, that station felt like a time capsule of what Detroit loved to dance to and cruise around to, keeping it simple and familiar for folks who grew up with those tunes.

Detroit's oldies backbone was the obvious foundation, but what always amused me was how WOMC's playlist became this strange museum of "we play everything from doo-wop to disco." The 1960s Motown sound was their bread and butter, no question, but they also heavily leaned on late 70s soft rock and early 80s pop that wasn't quite "oldies" yet. It felt less like a defined era and more like a fuzzy nostalgia blender that kept adding new decades.

The 1960s Motown sound was the absolute heart of WOMC for years, but I always felt like they were the station that kept the 1970s soft rock torch burning long after other stations moved on. You know, that whole era of Hall & Oates and Steely Dan that feels like a sunny afternoon drive. Don't you think the station's identity shifted more toward a "greatest hits of the 70s and 80s" vibe once the oldies format started to fade?

WOMC carved its identity by straddling the 1950s and 1960s Motown catalog as the core library, but I noticed the real shift came when they committed to the 1970s singer-songwriter era as a bridge to attract younger demos. The station essentially created a "soft rock gold" zone, featuring artists like James Taylor and Fleetwood Mac, before eventually folding in 1980s pop staples like Michael Jackson and Madonna as the audience aged. Did that gradual blending of decades dilute the station's original oldies focus, or was it a smart survival tactic to keep listeners from drifting to the FM dial?

That station's soul was always anchored in the 1960s Motown explosion, but I noticed in the early 2000s, when I was back in the US from London, they started pulling heavily from the 1970s singer-songwriter catalog and the 1980s soft rock sound. It was like they took the Detroit car-radio soundtrack and made it a permanent loop of "Reelin' In the Years" and "Africa."