east village idiot

So long, K-Rock. 92.3 WXRK is flipping to Top 40 tomorrow as 92.3 Now FM, ending another brief run of rock radio on a station that was already a shadow of its former self. Maybe if K-Rock had readopted the alternative format it aired during the early part of the decade upon its return in 2007, rather than playing the same 15 classic rock songs over and over again, they wouldn’t have failed so miserably.

But instead, they’ll duplicate a different radio station in the market - powerhouse Z-100. Good luck with that. And while you’re at it, stop denying the past and tooting your own horn:

“For the first time in nearly 30 years, New York now has a choice for hit music,” said [VP/CHR Programming Dom] Theodore. “With 92.3 NOW FM we’re breaking the mold of the traditional radio station and creating a pure multi-media companion for today’s music fans.”

Unless “nearly” means “give or take a entire decade or so,” Theodore is adopting a revisionist history. WHTZ and WPLJ battled for more than eight years during the 1980s and early 1990s for Top 40 radio supremacy in New York. WPLJ threw in the towel in 1991 when they picked up Scott Shannon from Z-100 for their morning show and evolved into an adult-oriented format that promised “no rap and no hard stuff.”

That wasn’t nearly 30 years ago. And the difference this time is that when WHTZ and WPLJ both flipped to Top 40 in 1983, both stations were new to the format. Both stations stood a fighting chance.

This is another radio experiment on a frequency that hasn’t been able to maintain the same format for more than two years at a time. Thanks to advances in ratings technology that provide nearly instant results, this experiment won’t even last that long.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 7:04 am and is filed under The Media. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.