For Those About to Rock In New York City . . .

FIRE!!!

After six years without a commercial new-rock station, New York City has such a station once again.  WBMP-FM, the station broadcasting on the old 92.3-megahertz frequency of the old alt-rock station WXRK-FM, or K-Rock, switched from a hit-radio format to an alternative-rock format this past weekend, and it's been marking the occasion by playing the first ten thousand songs with no commercial interruptions.

It's been a long time coming - six years to be exact.  WRXP-FM was the last big station in New York to play alternative rock, and it also played classic rock in between newer and locally based rock artists.  It was the brainchild of MTV personality Matt Pinfield, who hoped to bring back the sort of rock station that prospered on the New York airwaves in the early seventies.  The call letters suggested a "rock experiment" (although they were supposed to stand for "rock experience"), but that experiment failed; the station's owner, the Merlin company, switched it to an all-news format in 2011, and the station became WEMP-FM, but that format failed too.  Except for a brief return of WRXP for three months in 2012 before Merlin sold the 101.9-megahertz station in New York to CBS Radio and 101.9 FM began simulcasting an AM sports station, there hadn't been a commercial rock station in New York from 2011 until now except for WAXQ-FM, which only plays "classic rock" - rock your dad likes.  This format change might not have been possible if not for the fact that 92.3's parent company, Entercom, merged with CBS Radio.  

I've always had a problematic relationship with commercial New York radio.  In the 1980s and early 1990s, I would alternate between K-Rock, which was then a classic-rock station, and WNEW-FM, which played both classic and present-day rock.  Then in the mid-nineties, K-Rock went alternative and WNEW dropped classic rock from its playlists.  Look, I had nothing against nineties rock, but I was still steamed over the sudden lack of a classic-rock radio outlet; there should be an acknowledgment of the past on any rock station, and the Stones or Hendrix should have been played along with Garbage or Blind Melon in the nineties and should be played along with the Strokes and Kings of Leon in this century.  Fortunately, there was always WDHA-FM in northern New Jersey, and later, WXPK-FM in Westchester County, New York.  But suburban stations don't always have the most reliable signals, of course.

Eventually, WAXQ began playing classic rock, but then WNEW - which tried to bring classic rock back to its playlists - disappeared in 1999, WXRK went off the air ten years later (and had been off the air in 2006 and 2007 during a failed experiment with FM talk-radio on that frequency), and WAXQ grew boring.  By the near end of the two thousand zeroes, I had long since discovered public rock-music station WFUV-FM and had largely gotten off commercial radio, but when WRXP came along in 2008, I was pleased to listen to it and was grateful for that . . . until it went off the air.  Since then, it's been nothing but public radio for me.

But now WFUV is becoming predictable, and it's beginning to pull some punches with the music, sticking with the same tried-and-true artists and not going far enough beyond that self-imposed limitation.  The new ALT 92.3 could shake things up going forward, with Entercom claiming that it will have "an expertly curated playlist with local, informed discovery," which I take to mean that it will push more new rock bands and solo acts and a time when new rock acts have trouble getting attention in an era dominated by pop divas and rappers - something WRXP tried to do.  Entercom's President of Programming, Pat Paxton, says of the new station, "In a city where alternative music is a way of life, we are thrilled to finally fill the void in radio in New York City. With the launch of ALT 92.3, we will cater to the passionate / core audience who have helped define the genre for decades -- and we couldn’t be more excited to turn up the volume."

Rock on.

Yeah, there will be no inclusion of classic rock in the mix, but trust me, a station that plays new rock and no classic rock is better than no station playing any rock at all.  And remember, commercial radio is entirely dependent on ratings and demographics.  Not too long ago, Big Radio decided that New York was a hip-hop/R&B town with no room for a new-rock format, and while market research has apparently indicated that this has changed, ALT 92.3 will only last as long as the ratings justify it.  And rock is still in trouble after relentless competition from hip-hop that, sorry to say, still continues.

How long will this new-rock station last?  I'm beginning to wonder how long rock itself will last.  I have been led to understand that WAXQ is increasingly centering on "classic" rock recorded after 1980, with less emphasis on rock of the 1960s and 1970s.  That is, the music of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin is slowly fading from radio, just like the music of fifties rock pioneers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard seems to be fading away.  (True, you can hear all of this on satellite radio, but not everyone has sat - I don't!)  All popular music is of its time, so we in the New York area should enjoy ALT 92.3 while we can, before rock's time is up.  To those who dismiss the idea that rock could ever fade away entirely, try to find a big-band pop station on the radio today (again, 40s on 4 on Sirius XM doesn't count).

In the meantime, for those in the Big Apple ready to rock . . . I salute you. :-)