Re: Breeze Petsmart Remote
mjb1124 said:
Too bad G-Rock couldn't have done some remotes in the Brunswicks.
Amen, dude. I used to get 106.3 loud and clear in my dorm at Rutgers.
G Rock remotes were few and far between as it was. I can't say I'm shocked at all that they never went up to the Brunswicks.
While Press did run some permutation of an alternative format for 8 years, the way they ran it during many of those years was questionable ... I remember when they used to work in Pink and Maroon 5. Five years later, WHTG/WBBO is all about those artists. It's obvious to see what kind of music that Press management is into.
The situation with Press and G Rock was comparable to the one in Philly with Radio One and Y-100: A parent company with no clue how to run their chosen format, and worse yet, absolutely zero passion for said format. Some fickle excuse was given for the change about moving from a "niche" format to a "mass appeal" one - as if bands like Foo Fighters, Oasis, Kings Of Leon, Radiohead and countless others play little coffee bars instead of arenas. The problem was poor promotion, taking liberties with your audience by playing non-alternative titles, the PD/MD chairs changing so many times (by contrast, WRAT has had the same people for over 13 years!), unceremoniously dropping your popular morning show and replacing it with something inferior, not providing an adequate heads up that the simulcast moved from 98.5 to 106.5, and so many other things. And without question, Press had an influence on the musical direction of the station for a while ... G 106.3 sounded pretty much like a Hot AC when FM 106.3 vet Rob Acampora was PD, probably because that's what he was forced to do.
Hopefully Top 40 Station #6 (my name for Hit 106) will fail and open up the eyes of Press execs to what they had with G Rock. And maybe they'll learn that they need to invest some things like passion, promotion, and good old-fashioned EFFORT in order to help the station realize its potential. Or maybe someone else will wake up and realize this huge hole we have for new rock in the market, since the only station that plays any at all is in NYC and only reaches part of the market.
