Cautiously optimistic. That’s the only way to describe how I’m listening to the new radio station in New York -
1019 WRXP. For now, all is well. But is the end just around the corner? We’ll see.
You see, I grew up in New Jersey in the 80’s. It was a glorious time to be a music fan, and it was an era that spawned many a music snob such as myself. Big and small stations alike, radio ruled from 87.5 to 108.0. And it felt like the majors really
cared about their listeners. WNEW had awesome live concerts on the King Biscuit Flower Hour, WAPP played OZZY when he wasn't a punch line to a drunken joke. Even the old WPLJ played The Smiths on occasion. Sure, we were inundated with terrible new wave and bloated arena rock on the big New York stations. But we had so many options - we could go elsewhere. We had WFMU, WDRE and WSOU. We had MTV when it actually played music…sometimes even good music. We had the U-68 Power Hour to bang our heads to. Music, and a diversity of music, was everywhere. I went off to college in Washington, DC and WHFS was there waiting for me. I was serenaded with the sounds of Fugazi, Jane’s Addiction, Helmet and then-unheard of bands like 311, Green Day and something called Nirvana.
Then, the mid 90’s arrived, and media empires like Infinity and Clear Channel rose from the Earth like lamb-horned beasts in The Revelation of John and homogenized all of the major radio stations. And the indies soon followed suit. WDRE changed format, and WFMU, while still great, lost consistency and gained obscurity. WSOU still rocked, of course. Darkness fell upon the musical land, and we were forced to listen to hours upon hours of Stone Temple Pilots, Filter, Linkin Park, Creed, and other sorts of regurgitated Seattle Grunge-Meets-Butt Rock-Meets-Shit Metal-Meets-White Boy Rap. I won’t even get into what the Top-40 and Hip-Hop stations were playing as I don’t usually like the taste of my own vomit in my mouth. Yeah, there were glimpses of bright spots, but it was a dark time my friends.
Behold a revolution! Satellite radio seemed to be the answer. Freedom! No pressure from the prehistoric record industry – let ‘em die! No AOR format! Deeper Cuts! Real rock! Real punk! All ska & reggae stations! No commercials! And thank God and the geniuses at Apple for the iPod! And thank you Napster and all the mp3 blogs! Ah, real music was back again! Behold, I could listen to what I wanted to hear, when I wanted to hear it. If I didn’t want to hear a song twice a day, I didn’t have to! Fuck the radio and their heavy rotation of Led Zeppelin. I love LedZep…but it’s flippin 2008, not 1978! Diversity has returned! With new sounds to explore, new frontiers to conquer, I turn a misty, sentimental eye back towards the radio and it’s dusty, archaic dial. Let’s give a listen…
92.3,
Opie & Anthony, yes...your music, no. 104.3, sheesh, Aerosmith...really? 105.5, man I hate New Jersey sometimes. Z-100, um what the hell? 95.5, please kill me now. Ugh. They just don’t get it. But wait, what’s this? Some new station calling itself RXP on 101.9. Hey isn't that the old "smooth jazz" station? Let's check the website...hey it's that fat metalhead from MTV. He was OK. Let’s give a listen. Hmmm…Generation X. Haven’t heard them on the radio since I don’t know when, nice. The Duke Spirit…wow, surprising. Black Crowes…ugh, here we go, another record company owned station. But wait, the Pixies?! Awesome! A deep cut by Springsteen from Nebraska?! OK. The Shins? The Clash? Bob Marley? Now I’m diggin’ the variety! Haha…boy the chips are stacked against these guys.
A closer look reveals the fact that the station is owned by
Emmis Communications out of Indiana. Seems they own Hot 97 and Kiss FM here in New York as well as a
WHOLE BUNCH of other shit around the world. I don't know what their political interests are or how they manage the content of their media outlets, but if they allow their stations to deviate from the standard AOR/CHR format, then they're OK by me.
But like I said, we'll see. For now RXP is the best thing on the air. But that’s not saying much these days. That’s like being the winner of an all-male wet t-shirt contest. But they do have something all the other stations don’t have: Diversity. But that could all change with a little old fashioned bait-n-switch. Remember, when K-Rock went to an all-rock format (again) in 1996, they played the Dead Kennedy’s on the air…the fucking Dead Kennedys! How awesome was that?! Now look at K-Rock. Their idea of cutting edge is the new track from 3 Doors Down.
So please Mr. Smulyan, surprise us all and shun the notion that you're just another evil force in the collective that's out to destroy American Radio. Please tell the major record companies to go pound sand. Please let your DJ's play more Cake and less Coldplay. More Tom Waits and less Tom Petty. More Bad Religion and less Bad Company. For God sakes stop playing shit before your core demographic was born unless it was a band that incited riots or had Iggy Pop, Joe Strummer or Henry Rollins as a lead singer. Guns & Roses was great...we get it. But if we wanted to hear them, we'd tune in to the half-dozen other stations in the NYC area that are playing them
RIGHT NOW too. Please remember what it was like to be young. Please save the radio.
I had the president of Harvard University speak at my high school graduation. Don't remember a word of it. But this school gets alumnus Patton Oswalt, who is awesome, to speak. His words and message are nothing short of amazing. Read his speech here.
Sorry Hil, but nobody really thought you had a chance...even yourself, admit it. Good fight though, and we admire your perseverance even if it was a tad misdirected. But I think Obabma can take it from here. The smartest thing you've said all year was, "The way to continue our fight now to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama."
