Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Good Peoria Radio Bites the Dust--Again

Well, nuts! I come back from a few days out of town, turn on the radio, and my radio station has changed formats. No more "World Class Rock and Roll" at 99.9 (where the music was so good that I didn't mind the silly "The Stage" moniker). It's now "The Buzz" and the music (the newer, harder edge of the old format), ads (the local strip club is sponsoring the entire first week), and DJ (at least he's a live one) seems to be aimed at potty-mouthed college frat boys. Like a couple of other stations in town.

I suppose I ought not be surprised. Peoria radio stations that I really enjoy listening to never last very long. Even the two I still list on the right column, the classical/public affairs WCBU NPR affiliate and the Adult Standards WOAM, aren't as good as they once were.

As for WWCT 99.9, it went to the "world class rock and roll" format early this year, with an eclectic adult rock format, sort of a cross of LA's KNX-FM and K-WEST circa 1980 (just before they gave up being individual stations and went Top 40) updated for 2008. While I was in hospital for my prostate surgery (and thus not listening to the radio) they announced an upcoming format change (the ratings weren't anything special), but by the time I was home the only change was the new name along with lots of promo announcements about how "the listeners have spoken" so station management listened back and wasn't screwing up the station.

Until this week.

Well, I guess I go back to radio channel surfing in the car, and XM at home if I'm not listening to the news. Thanks AAA Radio.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

try am 650 nashville 50,000 watts.

Pastor Zip said...

WSM comes in okay at night, Biggmann, even though the AM band is a lot noisier than when I was dxing as a kid. But country music (which I've not listened to much the last 25 years) is not in short supply here on the radio dial.