Good-bye, The Refreshments and Bob Marley. Say hello to The Eagles, Journey, Foreigner, Billy Joel, and Boston. Don't even go looking for groups like The Doors, Canned Heat, Pink Floyd, or Jimi Hendrix. They're not nearly uplifting/commercial enough. And you're dreaming if you think you're going to hear Strawbs, Nightwish, or Country Joe & The Fish.
The "hook" appears to be that you can communicate with KEXX - via Twitter, E-Mail, Phone, and/or FaceBook. So in theory, it's "your radio station". I guess I could request the Strawbs.
In practice, you can forget about them playing anything but schmaltzy pop-rock. They got something like 700 e-mails in the first two hours this morning. Dave Pratt, the morning DJ, vows to answer every one of them personally. Dave Pratt, the morning DJ, did NOT promise he'd play every one of their requests. Mathematically, there's no way the air-time will keep up with the requests. This reminds me of the KRZZ and KRUX request lines from long ago. You could call in and request what you want, but the truth is, they already knew what they were going to play. (*)
We already have our watered-down Classic Rock station - KSLX. Also, just four clicks down from 103.9 KEXX is a fantastic Classic Rock radio station, 103.1 KCDX. They play a better variety of songs (including just about every group listed above). And it's commercial-free. Plus you don't get long-winded DJ's rambling on about humdrum topics. It's too bad Radio Free Phoenix is no longer on the radio, they were also commercial-free and played some b*tchin' contemporary rock music.
I'll probably still occasionally turn the dial to 103.9, hoping that this was all a bad dream. And I have to admit 103.1 forgets to turn on its "transmit" button all too frequently. But one yearns for a radio station that would hearken back to the KDKB of the early 70's by Bill Compton. When you never knew what he was going to spin; you just knew that it was going to be awesome.
(*) : We busted this myth one night. Several of us spent a whole hour phoning KRUX and requesting The Pusher Man by Steppenwolf. Statistically, we had to have been the Number 1 request. You know the outcome. KRUX didn't even acknowledge our efforts; the played something like The Carpenters instead.
2 comments:
Looks like we've been relegated to the fringes again. 20 years from now it'll be "cool" again and they'll bring it back. In the meantime I'll stick to my internet radio I guess. Boo. :/
there are too many Classic Rock stations in Phoenix. one or more will be forced to change formats due to lack of market-share. here's hoping that they realize that there's no one playing Alternative Rock anymore.
Post a Comment