Rock and Roll Over Again

The radio station I normally listen to in the New York area, the Fordham University-based public music station WFUV-FM, was broadcasting a Fordham sporting event (football or something like that), so I tuned into WRXP-FM, New York's only contemporary rock station, while driving home. I hadn't listened to that station in a long time. Then I heard a tidbit about Beyoncé Knowles's pregnancy, and I realized something was very, very wrong - rock stations don't give a twit about pop divas like Beyoncé Knowles. Sure enough, the station had changed formats and call letters - WRXP-FM was now WEMP-FM, an all-news station. That's right, an all-news FM radio station, which has been tried before in New York (with WNWS in the seventies). And what's worse, its "news" stories were designed to appeal to female listeners, meaning they tended to be chock full of entertainment without so much information. The format change had happened in August, when the station was sold to a different owner.

The new owners explained that the format change was in recognition of the fact that rock music fans tend to get their music from sources other than traditional radio - and WRXP in fact continues to broadcast online - but I knew what the real reason was. New York City is becoming more of a rhythm town; the hip-hop and R&B market is simply much bigger than the rock market in the Big Apple, and anyone who doesn't like hip-hop or R&B tends to listen to "light" music stations that play empty power ballads and antiseptic pop acts. WCBS-FM, an oldies station, and WAXQ-FM, a classic rock station, are pretty much the only commercial stations left in New York that play the kind of music I like - too bad none of it is current.

WRXP-FM was the second or third attempt at a station with a current rock format since WNEW-FM - whose frequency is now the site of a light pop station designed to appeal to, you guessed it, young women - went off the air. WRXP's banishment from terrestrial radio is the clearest sign that today's rock has no home in New York City. If you enjoy current bands like Coldplay, Guster or the Hold Steady - or current solo artists like Ray LaMontagne - you're not going to find them on commercial radio in the Big Apple very much anymore. They're not the kind of performers that sell out arenas, and their records don't go multiplatinum - it would be a big deal if they went platinum once - and without a commercial radio station to promote them, it will be difficult for them to secure concert dates in the Tri-State area with promoters.

Of course, WFUV-FM plays these artists, but WFUV, as noted, doesn't always play music when it's obligated to serve the university it makes its home at by airing its football games and Sunday church services (it's a Catholic school, remember). And because it's a public station, on the lower end of the FM dial, its reach is smaller than any of the big-time commercial stations. Meanwhile, it looks like many New York rock fans will have to change the way they get their music whether they like it or not - as noted, WRXP broadcasts online, so going to the PC will be the only way I can hear it. I don't have and can't afford all of these portable devices that would allow me to listen to Internet radio away from my PC. If there's a way to still listen to WRXP in my car, I don't know about it . . . and it's probably too technologically sophisticated for me to bother with.

It looks like I'll have to listen to WFUV when I can. Fortunately, I can and do listen to it regularly. I've never taken it for granted, and with WRXP gone from the terrestrial airwaves, I'm less likely to do so.