I read about the demise of Washington DC’s former alternative station WHFS last week on two different weblogs: Rage Diaries and 1st Lede Writethru. Lisa and Vince, like me, mourn what once was a very cool radio station. One of the comments at the Rage Diaries, though, made me feel somewhat better. My memory of ‘HFS as cool was from the past; over the years it apparently went mainstream, eventually even playing Britney.
I associate ‘HFS with my senior year in college. I had lived a very insular college life, sticking close to campus. Through my job I met kids from other schools, who listened to different music, read different books, and knew more about the city than I did. Prior to ‘HFS, I listened mostly to classic rock and my cd collection included things like AC/DC and Guns n Roses. After ‘HFS, my music horizons broadened to include Indigo Girls, Sinead O’Connor, They Might be Giants, World Party, John Hiatt, and others, many of which are still in my cd collection today. (I must admit that Lisa’s list at her entry on The Rage Diaries sounds much cooler than does mine, but I’m not tweaking mine to sound cooler. It is what it is.)
I’m more sad for the deterioration of WHFS than I am for the loss of whatever it had become, which doesn’t sound like that much of a loss. I’m hardly surprised though. Over the years I’ve listened to two other stations change and die, and I’ve almost stopped listening to radio.
The first was WDRE in Philadelphia. ‘DRE underwent a lot of changes, but in the mid ’90s it hit a really fun stride with good music and good staff. I especially liked the morning show with Sarah, Vinnie and Spike. DRE got sold, though. Some staff went to its main competitor, Y100. Sarah and Vinnie went to Radio Alice-KLLC in San Francisco.
Then I moved to Minnesota. I really liked 105, even though I came years after its most cool time as REV 105. The music was OK and I really liked the morning show with Brian Oke and Mary Lucia. Then, one morning I was driving to work and they were gone. I have hardly listened to radio since, though I do occasionally tune into Radio K.
Two spots of radio hope are on the horizon in Minnesota, though one of them has mixed elements. St. Olaf’s classical station 89.3 was bought by MPR and is launching as an alt-ish, younger skewing station. Staff members include Mary Lucia and Mark Wheat, the latter formerly of Radio K, and both of whom are great local talent. The bad news, though, is that many of my musical friends are mourning the loss of the St. Olaf station, which was the MPR classical station’s main competition. So MPR is going out and buying up the competition station and turning it to another format. Who do they think they are, Clear Channel?
Why no, in fact, in a strange reversal, the local Clear Channel station is offering financial assistance to the small public jazz station that is the main competition for the Clear Channel jazz station, and helping it to meet its financial goals and stay alive, says the Star Tribune. (You must register to view it.) Representatives of MPR, when asked why they hadn’t done the same for the struggling station, said they were too busy with the launch of 89.3.
So MPR is evil, and Clear Channel is good. Black is white and up is down. Things in radio, at least here in Minnesota, might be getting more interesting.
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