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Grex > Agora35 > #44: Rock 103 gone, W4 Country now at 102.9fm, Ann Arbor |  |
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tpryan
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Rock 103 gone, W4 Country now at 102.9fm, Ann Arbor
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Sep 29 16:02 UTC 2000 |
And the Detroit are radio dial changes again.
Today, at 10am, Rock 103, WIQB gave way to W4 Country - 102.9fm.
It's the first day, they just playing tunes and commercials and jingles.
I don't know if it is going to be automated or personality driven.
I had to call. I was the first to give them a positive call
within the first two hours of the change. Yes, 106.7, Alice got themselves
new call letters, so WWWW was availble--once called the million dollar
callsign; it's now here in Ann Arbor. Lady at the other end of the
phone call said there was a lot of negative calls wondering where
the Rock and Roll went.
This supports my idea that one Country Music station in the
Detroit area is to little. This market should at least support two.
The thing is, in Detroit are Country Music radio, the new player has
always won for the past 30 years.
What's going on on this area's radio dial. What do you think?
This is the second time in four weeks that the station I had
tuned into on the way to work had changed by the time I left for lunch.
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| 60 responses total. |
brighn
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response 1 of 60:
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Sep 29 16:29 UTC 2000 |
I think it's time that one of the retro stations started playing more altrock
again. It's pathetic how difficult it is to hear anything made in the last
year or so, rockwise, when it isn't hard enough to make it to the Riff.
Three retro stations (The Planet, Alice, and 89X) are one too many, even if
89X play some newer stuff, when it feels like it.
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jp2
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response 2 of 60:
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Sep 29 17:14 UTC 2000 |
This response has been erased.
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senna
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response 3 of 60:
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Sep 29 17:25 UTC 2000 |
Alice? I hadn't heard about that. I'm absolutely shocked that 102.9 changed
over. It's been rock or some subset of rock for a long time. Rats. It's
going to be hard to listen to radio.
Has 89X changed formats? They've always prided themselves on being "the
cutting edge."
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jazz
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response 4 of 60:
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Sep 29 17:36 UTC 2000 |
I'll mourn the loss of another good rock station to the Dark Side.
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tod
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response 5 of 60:
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Sep 29 17:50 UTC 2000 |
WIQB? Is that some hippy land station cuz we don't get it out
here in the real world.
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brighn
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response 6 of 60:
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Sep 29 18:05 UTC 2000 |
#3> 89X hasn't changed formats. That's the problem. They started playing
cutting edge music ca. 1995, and they're still playing cutting edge music...
from 1995. ;}
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ric
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response 7 of 60:
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Sep 29 18:07 UTC 2000 |
My mom will be happy to hear this news, she loved W4 Country.
I thought I'd heard that the Planet switched back to alt rock a month or so
ago...
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birdy
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response 8 of 60:
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Sep 29 18:17 UTC 2000 |
Dammit dammit dammit... I've changed my presets three times in two months...
First 96.3, then 93.9, and now 102.9. UGH.
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jerryr
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response 9 of 60:
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Sep 29 18:57 UTC 2000 |
anyone care to guess where the largest market station for country music is?
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brighn
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response 10 of 60:
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Sep 29 19:01 UTC 2000 |
#7> Maybe it has. I've been ignoring it, maybe I should pop back there.
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twinkie
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response 11 of 60:
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Sep 29 21:40 UTC 2000 |
re: 3 -- 89X has always prided themselvs on being "the cutting edge", but they
haven't been on the cutting edge since they switched from being C-Mix to 89X.
re: everyone else -- 96.3 is (as it has been for almost 10 years) in some sort
of alternaretro funk. You're never more than 10 minutes away from the
shittiest Duran Duran song ever made. When they're not feeling "retro" by
playing some Blind Melon song, they'll bombard you with whiny pansy music,
like Vertical Horizon. The only thin 96.3 ever did right, was hip hop. It was
more clubbish than Z95 (remember that?) and not as hardcore as WJLB.
I'm firmly convinced that 96.3's playlist consists of Monsters of the 80's
vol. 1 and 2, most of the $3.99 section at Meijer, and whatever shitty single
an intern bought last month, and got tired of.
Back over to 89X, though...what the hell is up with them playing Metallica?
Almost 8 years ago, I said to anyone who would listen "One day, Metallica is
going to cut their hair, put on some flannel, and be the next Alternateen
idol." I was joking. Ugh.
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scg
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response 12 of 60:
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Sep 29 21:41 UTC 2000 |
WIQB is an Ann Arbor station, not a Detroit station. That might sound like
localistic quibbling, given that you can listen to most of the Detroit
stations from Ann Arbor, but WIQB's signal doesn't, or at least didn't, make
it to Detroit.
I really liked WIQB several years ago, when it really was an Ann Arbor
station, that played cool music and had DJs who talked about things that were
going on in Ann Arbor between songs, as well as having Ann Arbor based
commercials, and so forth. My impression the last several times I've listened
to it has been that the music was much less to my taste than it used to be,
and that the DJs were mostly syndicated. I drove across Wyoming listening
to the same "Bob and Tom" show that WIQB was airing. So, not that it's
particularly relevant to me, since I don't live in Ann Arbor anymore, but it
seems to me that the useful WIQB was gone a long time ago. I'm still amazed
at the ability of radio station management to kill long standing popular
stations, and replace them with formats that never catch on.
What happened to 96.3? I think I heard something about 93.9.
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carson
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response 13 of 60:
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Sep 29 21:45 UTC 2000 |
(I'm glad I can stick to WEMU and be done with the whole matter. you
people are *too* funny.)
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mdw
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response 14 of 60:
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Sep 29 22:51 UTC 2000 |
I always thought of WIQB as being the A^2 equivalent of MTV. I never
really thought of it as being particularly Ann-Arborish, but it seemed
like they were in this parking-lot or that mall, doing whatever, usually
with a cheery invitation to come on down & see what was up. I'd
consider this for about 5 seconds, before deciding I'd be like a fish
out of water at such an event. It's hard to believe they could die,
even harder to believe they could be replaced by country music.
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scott
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response 15 of 60:
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Sep 29 23:11 UTC 2000 |
Ah, WJLB. Is that still around in the same format? ie "The Electrifying
Mojo" and all? I should start listening to radio again.
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gull
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response 16 of 60:
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Sep 29 23:18 UTC 2000 |
The most schitzophrenic format I've ever heard is 93.5, WMPL here in
Houghton. They play pretty decent alternative at night....and Rush Limbaugh
and "B-1 Bob" Dornan in the afternoon.
The other odd thing is that, even in their own promos, they're always
referred to as "Wimple."
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ea
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response 17 of 60:
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Sep 30 00:13 UTC 2000 |
WJLB, the last time I listened was "Detroits Hip Hop and R&B, FM 98,
WJLB"
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krj
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response 18 of 60:
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Sep 30 00:17 UTC 2000 |
((( fall agora 44 <---> music 283 )))
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arabella
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response 19 of 60:
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Sep 30 01:23 UTC 2000 |
Aw, damn, damn damn! I heard a country song on 102.9 this
afternoon and thought it was some kind of fluke. Man, I
hate "modern country."
According to a friend who is a local singer/songwriter, WIQB
used to actually play her music, and then about two years ago
they switched to a syndicated rock format. That was sad enough,
but this new development just sucks.
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drew
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response 20 of 60:
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Sep 30 01:30 UTC 2000 |
WIQB was just about the best station I knew of while I was going to school
out there. It started to deteriorate almost the instant I graduated and left.
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bmoran
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response 21 of 60:
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Sep 30 01:44 UTC 2000 |
Gee, thanks a lot, Drew.
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brighn
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response 22 of 60:
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Sep 30 04:02 UTC 2000 |
About half the time I flip past WJLB, it's playing rap. The other half, it's
R&B of the style I'm used to them playing since the 70s.
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senna
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response 23 of 60:
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Sep 30 04:34 UTC 2000 |
What happened to 93.9? I am now really bitter about WIQB's departure. I
thought, of all the stations, they'd stay the same, but nooooooo. Sellouts.
97.1 was the second-best station I had ever heard just before they went to
talk, because they weren't competing well with WRIF (or so I assumed after
they gave up on the stupid anti-WRIF campaign and change formats later) and
went to an edgier, see-if-you-can-catch-the-profanity-on-this-song, hardcore
format. Then they killed it. The best station I know of continues to be 99.7
in Columbus. If they change formats, i'm going to throw my radio out the
window.
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ric
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response 24 of 60:
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Sep 30 05:50 UTC 2000 |
My mom and dad are both very excited about the return of W4 country.
WIQB is mosts definately not a Detroit station, no matter what twinkie says,
since you can't actually receive it's signal in Detroit.
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