Monday, August 15, 2005
End of a Lazer
Well, ladies and gentlemen of Milwaukee, after 18 years, Lazer 103, the dominant hard rock station in the area, is changing formats.
As I'm sure you expect, I take full responsibility and credit for this sudden change.
Apparently the new station is calling itself "The Hog". Not exactly a sign of good sounds to come, eh? The station is announcing its new format at 10:AM today. In the meantime, they've dropped the rock format and the DJs. Worse, they have been playing everything from old-time country to Vanilla Ice. Folks, this can't be an improvement.
Will's Predictions for What Lazer will Become:
1.) Their sister station is the classic rock station in town, so I don't think they'll go entirely classic rock. But the hot new station of the moment is an 80s rock station. This is closer to what I think "The Hog" will be.
***Let me just pause a moment and state that (A.) "The Hog" is perhaps the worst name anyone could have dreamed up and (B.) because of this, I've moved 102.9 down to my 2nd tier of FM radio stations in my car. Let there be no doubt about my feelings: Lazer was flawed. But this doesn't sit right. We are moving in the wrong direction.***
Back to prediction. Basically, I think they're going to go for a "More Redneck, More White Trash" approach. Lazer always sort of leaned that way to begin with. And with the success of The Brew, it just makes sense. Remember, my theorem with radio is programmers never, ever go for creativity. They copy. They spin-off. They beat a dead horse. So what does that mean? Older hard rock and older metal. Time frame of 1975-1990. But no more new rock. No rock-rap. No industrial. No metal . . . except for 80s metal. They'll be The Brew without as much 70s thrown in. No Elton John. No prog-rock. No acid rock. No pop rock. No keyboards (except for a stray Van Halen keyboard song).
2.) If they don't go "More Redneck, More White Trash", I predict they'll go for a straight-up country format. But non-pop country. We've only got two country stations in town, and one is small and unknown. The other is pop-country.
The only positive thing about this that I can tell, right now anyway, is they're keeping their great "Bob and Brian" morning show. It's a money maker, even to the point that it's syndicated throughout the state. So at least we haven't lost everything.
Nevertheless: thank God for the iPod.
As I'm sure you expect, I take full responsibility and credit for this sudden change.
Apparently the new station is calling itself "The Hog". Not exactly a sign of good sounds to come, eh? The station is announcing its new format at 10:AM today. In the meantime, they've dropped the rock format and the DJs. Worse, they have been playing everything from old-time country to Vanilla Ice. Folks, this can't be an improvement.
Will's Predictions for What Lazer will Become:
1.) Their sister station is the classic rock station in town, so I don't think they'll go entirely classic rock. But the hot new station of the moment is an 80s rock station. This is closer to what I think "The Hog" will be.
***Let me just pause a moment and state that (A.) "The Hog" is perhaps the worst name anyone could have dreamed up and (B.) because of this, I've moved 102.9 down to my 2nd tier of FM radio stations in my car. Let there be no doubt about my feelings: Lazer was flawed. But this doesn't sit right. We are moving in the wrong direction.***
Back to prediction. Basically, I think they're going to go for a "More Redneck, More White Trash" approach. Lazer always sort of leaned that way to begin with. And with the success of The Brew, it just makes sense. Remember, my theorem with radio is programmers never, ever go for creativity. They copy. They spin-off. They beat a dead horse. So what does that mean? Older hard rock and older metal. Time frame of 1975-1990. But no more new rock. No rock-rap. No industrial. No metal . . . except for 80s metal. They'll be The Brew without as much 70s thrown in. No Elton John. No prog-rock. No acid rock. No pop rock. No keyboards (except for a stray Van Halen keyboard song).
2.) If they don't go "More Redneck, More White Trash", I predict they'll go for a straight-up country format. But non-pop country. We've only got two country stations in town, and one is small and unknown. The other is pop-country.
The only positive thing about this that I can tell, right now anyway, is they're keeping their great "Bob and Brian" morning show. It's a money maker, even to the point that it's syndicated throughout the state. So at least we haven't lost everything.
Nevertheless: thank God for the iPod.
