Radio station WNMX (106.1 The Mix) changed its format today, and I guess baby boomers are supposed to be happy because now the station is playing "oldies" of the 1960s and 70s.

If you're under 30, you may have never heard of, much less actually

listened to, The Mix, but for awhile, some time ago, they had as interesting a mix of musical styles as I've heard outside of college radio stations. For a long time, the station played an oddball format that, technically, was supposed to be "adult standards," i.e., Sinatra, Streisand, Big Bands, etc., but included unexpected combinations of songs. Once I heard Tony Bennett and a Glenn Miller big band number, and stuck in between those two was, I swear it's true, The Byrds. The station seemed like a throwback to the years when deejays controlled their own shows and anything went.

Lately, though, even though WNMX was still programmed into my car radio, every time I punched in the station, they were playing junk from some kind of "Worst of the Seventies" format: Captain & Tennille and America, "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" and "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" -- all the artists and songs that made '70s radio torturous.

WNMX management said that by changing to an oldies format, they were looking for a younger demographic. How sad is that? For WNMX, baby boomers like me -- we who somehow often still think of ourselves as hip, even while we're limping from the pain of this particular day's "mystery ache" -- are the younger demographic.

Good luck to The Mix with the oldies format -- as long as they don't wind up like most oldies stations, playing the same 50 or so "classic rock" songs to death. Part of the appeal of that era's rock was its immense diversity and the humongous number of records produced at the time. Tap into that, WNMX, and you could win over real fans of the era's music.