WNCN goes to hard rock format
testn...@pegasus.att.com
to hard rock / heavy metal as of midnight, Friday night December 17.
Sources of the tip included Inside Radio and WINS radio (I heard it
from people who heard it from sources).
New York has been without a hard rock station since WZRC-1480 dropped
SMN's Z-rock on May 27, 1993. I would expect the new station, WAXQ,
"Q104.3" to do better than WZRC because:
a)it's FM. Does the target audience know AM exists?
b)it has a solid signal in the entire metropolitan area, while
WZRC is weak, distorted, and/or interfered with in many
of the suburbs due to its directional pattern at night.
c)WZRC at best had a 0.3 rating. It wouldn't take much success to
beat a 0.3!
So far they are doing AC/DC A-Z. They've also had some promos indicating
they'll be playing the hard end of "alternative" rock, ie Pearl Jam,
Stone Temple Pilots, which I never thought of as alternative anyway,
but MTV 120 Minutes and New York's Z-100 seem to think so.
The station is reportedly being consulted by John Parikhal, and radio
people seem to think the format is here to stay, rather than a smokescreen
for something else (classic country, fulltime modern rock, FM News/talk, etc)
What follows is a transcript of the announcement made by Randy Bongarten
after the last classical piece was aired at 11:45 pm.
"Symphony #45 in F sharp Minor, the Farewell" by Franz Josef Haydn
(3 1/2 minutes of spots)
"This is Randy Bongarten, President and General Manager of WNCN
Tonight at 12 midnight WNCN is permanently leaving the air,
and this radio station will no longer broadcast
classical music. We are deeply aware that WNCN's rich
tradition in classical music will be missed by many in
in the New York area. The decision to make this change
was very difficult, and only arrived at after much
deliberation and consideration. It is clear that the needs
of the New York metropolitan area radio audience have changed
over the years. The audience for classical music, which
was never large, has been eroding, and its diminishing size
can no longer support the number of existing classical stations.
At the same time, new music has been developing, that hundreds
of thousands of people want to hear, but is generally
unavailable on the radio. It is to this unserved audience,
listeners of current rock, that the new radio station, Q104.3
will address itself. There are two other major radio stations
that air primarily classical music WQXR and WNYC. These are
both excellent radio stations, and serve the classical music
audience well. There are several smaller stations which also
program classical music. WNCN's departure may even enhance
the chances for success of these remaining classical
music stations. On behalf of the entire staff and management
of WNCN, I would like to to thank you for your loyal listening.
You may find classical music on your radio dial by tuning to
WQXR at 96.3 FM or to WNYC at 93.9 FM. Thank you.
(62 seconds of silence, 12 minutes of clock ticking)
3:39 ticking starts break 12:33 resumes to 15:33
"And now we say good bye to WNCN New York, (guitar riff) and
hello to WAXQ-104.3 New York's pure rock. The new Q104.3"
(Then the AC-DC fest began).
Paul Richards
testnet!p...@pegasus.att.com and yes, I taped it!
Bob Weinstein
>GAF's WNCN-104.3 New York City has switched from a classical format
>to hard rock / heavy metal as of midnight, Friday night December 17.
>Sources of the tip included Inside Radio and WINS radio (I heard it
>from people who heard it from sources).
Does anyone have any idea how they managed to do this without any advance
warning?
As far as I can see they had to arrange to:
1) Hire a new PD, announcers, etc.
2) Acquire a new record library
3) Sell commercial time on the new station
4) Apply for a call letter change from the FCC
How could all of this possible have been done without someone in the media
figuring out what was happening and leaking the story?
Bob Weinstein
bp...@panix.com
--
Bob Weinstein
bo...@panix.com
Steven J. Sobol
> So far they are doing AC/DC A-Z. They've also had some promos indicating
> they'll be playing the hard end of "alternative" rock, ie Pearl Jam,
> Stone Temple Pilots, which I never thought of as alternative anyway,
> but MTV 120 Minutes and New York's Z-100 seem to think so.
Being from the Seattle grunge scene (so are Mudhoney -- a precursor to
Pearl Jam -- and Nirvana) they are therefore considered "alternative."
--
The Tiny Software Co. Steve Sobol, President & Head Hacker
23707 Glenhill Dr. E-Mail: sjs...@tiny.com
Cleveland, OH 44122 TALK/FINGER: sjs...@wariat.org
Ellis Bromberg
classical music fans?
This reason I ask is that WNCN, of course, was involved in one of the more
publicized---and quickly reversed---format changes in New York City history
in the mid-70's when they attempted to switch from classical to rock. One
of you will probably have the details at hand (please correct me if I
misstate something!)...but I believe William F. Buckley's Starr Broadcasting
purchased the station and changed it to a rock format with the calls WQIV.
Protests from the public...pickets, letters, press, and legal action, I
believe...forced another ownership change, to GAF which returned the station
to classical and its previous call letters, WNCN; GAF may have PROMISED to
keep it classical...but you can keep promises in broadcasting only so
long.
I loved how the station statement made it sound as if the return of a Z-Rock
format to New York was being done as a public service!
Ellis Bromberg Phone: (217) 333-1070
Station Manager FAX: (217) 244-6386
WILL-TV Internet: brom...@uiuc.edu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign