Re: 96 Rock is no more as of Friday AM
I have so many mixed emotions about this. One side of me really hates to see a station that I grew up with, the first rock station in the South with a long heritage, die such a pathetic death. Even Cool 105.7 gave their listeners one weekend to say goodbye. On the other hand, this station died a long time ago. 99X planted the first tumor and years later the River made it terminal. Why 96 Rock never tried to re-claim it's glory years...playing 80's rock mixed in with a little 70's and 90's is beyond me.
All that being said, let's look toward the future. 96 The Buzz will not make for a good lead in to Skip Carey and Pete Van Weiren. Major League Baseball is trying to capture a younger audience (see KDKA and KMOX), but active rock is quite a jump from traditional old fogey radio. So here's the $50,000 question: Does the Buzz tweek itself as a hybrid between RIP 96 Rock and 99X? Or do the Braves move to 94.9 and it becomes a more male oriented format? (i.e. classic hits or hot talk?)
If you would have asked me 6 months ago, I would have sworn that 96.1 would have gone Hot Talk and Planet Radio 640 would have become an Air America affiliate. Hot Talk (Regular Guys Morning Hosts), would have made a good logical home for the Braves, but obviously that's probably not going to happen.
I'm sure we'll all know a lot more tomorrow, but my guess is 96.1 will go Active Rock, 94.9 will go Hot Talk after the holidays and become the new home of the Braves. 105.3 will go "Jack" or Hot AC.
