If you want oldies, forget 105.7 Crush radio… I got something better.

Well, I bet THAT blog post headline made you take notice.

I realize that the new 90’s-themed CRUSH radio (WQSH 105.7) is very popular in the Capital District – heck, half my Facebook friends have either posted their love for the  station on their profiles, or have gushed about the station in their blog posts.

In all honesty, I listened to CRUSH in my car a couple of times, but its mix of oldies was all over the place – it would jump from 1991 to 2003 to 1986 in the span of three  songs.  A few more minutes of that, and I quickly popped a CD into the car stereo deck.

But what if I wanted a radio station that actually played the big hits from a certain timeframe – and ONLY from that timeframe?

Well, thankfully there’s a free online station that accomplishes that feat.  And whether you grew up in the Kennedy years or the Bush years – either set of the Bush years – CBS Radio’s “Reunion Radio” online stations are perfect for you.

CBS Radio hosts hundreds of free streaming online radio stations at this link.  You want to hear Scott Bob Shannon on WCBS-FM in New York City?  You can do that.  You want to hear the news from Philadelphia on KYW?  Not a problem.  The stations are free and contain limited commercial interruptions.  And the sound quality is pretty decent.

And among the plethora of free radio stations are a series of “Reunion Radio” channels.  The station’s playlists?  All the big hits and cool tracks from a certain year, without any disc jockey intro-talk messing up each song. The station simulates what a Top 40 radio station would play in that year – almost like listening to WPTR or WTRY from that era.

Here’s an example of the playlist from an hour of the “Reunion Radio 1976” channel.  All the songs on this list were hits either in 1976, or in the latter months of 1975.

• Chicago, “If You Leave Me Now”
• Firefall, “You Are The Woman”
• Jigsaw, “Sky High”
• Gordon Lightfoot, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”
• The Beatles, “Got To Get You Into My Life”
• Tavares, “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel”
• Earth Wind and Fire, “Singasong”
• Electric Light Orchestra, “Evil Woman”
• The Who, “Squeeze Box”

And yes, the Beatles actually fit in that timeframe – see, in the mid-1970’s, the Beatles’ entire catalog was re-released, and a new two-LP Beatles compilation, “Rock and Roll Music,” sold quite well.  One of the tracks from that LP, “Got To Get You Into My Life,” actually hit the Top 10 on the pop charts in 1976.  And so it fits in the time period.

How about the lineup for the 1968 Reunion Radio channel?  Check this lineup out.

• Clarence Carter, “Slip Away”
• The Vogues, “Turn Around, Look At Me”
• Tommy James and the Shondells, “Mony Mony”
• Stevie Wonder, “Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day”
• Deep Purple, “Hush” (live version)
• Jerry Butler, “Hey, Western Union Man”
• The Rascals, “People Got To Be Free”
• Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, “The Look of Love”

Now let’s say you don’t like one of these songs, and you’d rather the station played another track rather than the song that reminded you of the night you went to pick up your girlfriend at her place, only to discover that she went out instead with her old boyfriend.  No problem, you can actually click on the “SKIP” button on the player, and you can jump to another song (limit of six “skips” per session).

And if you do like a certain song or artist, the online player provides links to the singer’s biography; you can even download the played song through iTunes or Amazon.com should you so desire.

Just something to consider.  CRUSH radio might be just what you’re looking for – but if you really want to experience what the music was like in the past, you need to check the “Reunion Radio” streaming audio channels out – at radio.com.