This is a good place to drop general and weird news, entertainment, and general show prep material that might be interesting to air talent or producers. Hot dog threads ALWAYS welcome.
Emmis Smooth Jazz WQCD (CD 101.9)/New York has flipped to Rock, as "The New York Rock Experience." Described as "an innovative new adult rock format," it promises "a respectful and intelligent mix of new music, Classic Rock and Alternative" as 101.9 RXP. The new Rock station has launched a brand new Web site as well at www.1019rxp.com.
"On-air personalities will play a direct part in choosing the music," announced 101.9 RXP Program Director Blake Lawrence. "It's unheard of in radio these days, but 101.9 RXP is about the music and not so much the music business - we're merging rock styles and generations into a singular community that we call The New York Rock Experience."
"Having grown up on the great NY rock radio of the past, I'm absolutely thrilled that Emmis has identified an unserved audience that now has a great new 3 dimensional rock brand!" said Emmis VP of Programming Jimmy Steal. "This brand builds, and expands upon, NY's great rock radio legacy - RXP is a rock station that truly represents a rock culture, for rock music lovers.....and is not just another rock format."
The first song to air on 101.9 RXP was "Rock and Roll" by The Velvet Underground, followed by the world premiere of R.E.M.'s "Supernatural Superserious."
"On-air personalities will play a direct part in choosing the music,"
This will either be entirely awesome, or entirely tiresome. Either way, top marks for effort. Glad to see a radio company that's t least trying to look past ILR's failures. "you know what people really want... an ipod on the radio. With commercials. Man, people love commercials."
So sayeth His Royal Highness King Spike; greatest broadcasting talent of his generation.
I've given the station a few extended listening sessions online... and I really like it. WRXP is not necessarily a format that would work everywhere, but it's right in my wheelhouse as far as the kind of rock music I enjoy.
More on WRXP -- the station has only brief jock breaks, almost always back-selling a current song in rotation before giving the "101-9 RXP, New York's Rock Experience" going into a catalog title. At first I thought it might be mere coincidence, but I've heard it that way enough (and only that way) to the point where I believe this is a calculated effort. And I like it. If you're going to focus on the music and not on air personalities, this is the way I like to see it done.
A major annoyance I have with many stations is the way they turn their jocks into soulless robots, reading liner cards (often with commercial-pimping content) and in general providing very little as far as entertainment or information goes. It's not the fault of the talent; when you're told to do that, you either do it or you lose your job. But, from the standpoint of being a listener, I've found myself trained to tune out the DJ or, even worse, inclined to change to another station.
