WRAX has been tanking ever since Dave Rossie (I think that’s how you spell his last name) left IMO.
The current PD and management tried to bring back some of the X’s past luster with a move to a mix of Alt Rock, AAA, and pop about 2 months ago. That change lasted all of about 2 weeks before Citadel’s upper management came down from on high to put the nix on that. According to my source, they basically said “You can’t do that, we didn’t say you could do that.” And who knows what the people of Birmingham want to hear better than the corporate dudes in Las Vegas, right?
Well, they’re bringing in a new PD Steve Robison formerly of KTBZ 94.5 “The Buzz” out of Houston. A quick glance at their Top 95 of 2005 shows that they play pretty much the same format that drove WRAX into statistical oblivion (something like a 1.5 share, meaning only 1.5 radios out of 100 were tuned to the X) during the last half of 05.
I honestly only listen to my iPod now. Beaner and Ken just don’t have the same luster they once did, thanks to a combination of the lack of any local content (since their home station is now in Syracuse, NY) and what has to be the worst engineer on the planet running their recorded/delayed show here in Birmingham (the Windows “ding” and Internet Explorer “click” noises can be heard constantly throughout the broadcast thanks to the engineer’s web surfing or something).
So, we’ll see what happens next.
April 27th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
CDs, XM and country radio for traffic reports are pretty much the only things that get played in my car these days.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Thank heavens for college radio. WVUA!
May 1st, 2006 at 10:41 am
I stopped listening to FM radio on a regular basis a long time ago. I figure as long as I listen to an hour or two a week, I know everything that they are playing.
Plus I am getting old, and that means that I dont have room in my head to like any new music, my hard drive is already full.
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:27 pm
I can’t imagine life in the ‘Ham without my iPod. Although I will say that I heard the first good radio station in years down in Lauderdale last week. It was called 93-Rock I think. It was like someone had raided my cd collection plus grabbed all those good rare one-hit wonders I was too cheap to buy.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I have long heard rumors that Beaner and Ken aren’t even in the same room when they record the show. One of them (Beaner i think) is at his house in Jersey and connectes via ISDN to record the show.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
From what I understand they’ve been doing the show that way since they’ve been back together (the WANZ z100.5 days).
June 19th, 2006 at 11:36 am
I live in Houston. Steve Robison along with just about all the dj’s on the station were fired from 94.5 back in 2003 after a change in management. Therefore, looking at the top 95 of 2005 at the buzz might not be a good gauge of what he will bring since he hasn’t been at that station for the last three years. However, I didn’t like the playlist much when he was here so I guess it doesn’t even matter.