Welcome again to the Gripe O' The Week!... where I take a subject that truly pisses me off and tear it to shreds. Today my gripe is about Twin Cities radio and how its steady decline in quality over the past 2 years. It actually started before that, when in 1996 the cold, heartless Disney corporation purchased the main outlet for independence in the FM, Rev105. (At the same time, Diz had just completed a deal to buy ABC, which owned KQRS, KEGE and a few frequencies on the AM dial.) For those of you who do not remember the Rev was one of the greatest outlets for the "true" alternative music fan, as well as a leader in broadcasting the work of local bands. This was more cutting-edge and enjoyable than the garden-variety, radio-friendly "Edge" residing at 93.7 on the dial. Well anyhoo, the rev was bought out and the format promptly changed to a hard rock/metal variety, to appease the local trailer parks. At which time AMFM, Inc., which owned Cities 97, KDWB, K102, Fox29 and a few AM stations, completed their acquisition of the 100.3 frequency being filled by WBOB and also changed their format from the long-tired country to a metal genre, anchored by the Howard Stern show in the mornings. Thus began the decline, as KQ's dominating morning show gradually moved to toilet humor. Things held steady for the next 2 years, save for when the Edge and X105 swapped formats, and when KMJZ, the only commercial jazz game in town, was changed to "The Point." KQ and Cities 97 were in a spirited battle for daytime and evening listeners, and both stations reached their modern high peak. Case in point: in December, the rock-minded KQ would always do an "A to Z" of their music library, and when the eclectic Cities joined in, the A to Z festivities lasted nearly 3 weeks on both stations. Then in 1998, the next big blow occured, when Rock100 announced they were dropping Stern and adopting a "classic hits" format. Essentially Top 40 radio for middle aged people, 100.3 WLOL cosisted of FM edits of hit songs from the 1960s-1980s, "tricked up" by a few rpm's to give the impression that KQ was slower. Cities 97, the battle with KQ all but over, began grappling for female listeners from KS95 by playing a lot more contemporary music and repeating songs three, four, even 5 times a day.

This brings us to our current glut of shit on the radio. My solution? MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MINDS. People liked the way radio was in 1995, back when the same conglomerate didn't own half the radio frequencies in town. So let's sell off all those chunks, and get some real competition on the airwaves again. Asses.

Labels: GOTW