I'm late in putting my two cents worth here, simply because I'm not from Jacksonville.
But I LOVED the old format. When I would visit Florida, I often would insist on NOT taking a flight and driving the whole day, or day and a half, just so I could tune into what I thought was the best playlist I'd ever heard from a classic rocker from the drive from Georgia to Daytona Beach.
I thought the Cowhead Show was brilliant, Greaseman a legend, and even got excited when, as a Pittsburgh native, I would hear Dan Marino do car ads.
But what I really enjoyed was the '80s intensive playlist. I've always felt too many classic rockers practically ignore that era, which is clearly my favorite. To me- a drive through Jacksonville was being 17 again and watching Adam Curry- NOT RIKKI RACHMAN BUT ADAM CURRY- give me the Headbangers Ball from midnight to 3 a.m. every Saturday night-Sunday morning.
People can tell me that era is now, at minimum, 20 years old and up to 30. That I've hit middle age now and it's time I let that era go. That we're going to have the 20-year revival of a past culture and revive the '90s in this era the way the '80s bands were revived at the beginning of the last decade and grunge took particular pride in killing the '80s rock sound (and with it, I would argue, killing rock music).
But to them I would argue that AC/DC was as big as ever when they released their "Black Ice" album two years ago. That Kiss is doing Dr. Pepper commericals. That Bret Michaels is bigger now than he was when "Every Rose Had It's Thorn" was the No. 1 single in the country and Jon Bon Jovi is bigger than when Slippery When Wet and New Jersey topped the charts, Dee Snider is on Broadway, and Motley is about to become a movie.
Or maybe I should ask this- why does it seem a '70s intensive playlist is more acceptable than an '80s intensive one is? I thought 50 was the age when advertisers no longer cared about you.
Okay, it's a personal preference. And all good things must come to an end, and AC/DC is still being played.
But man, I can't be the only one who hates grunge, rap-rock, and thinks modern heavy metal with its shaved heads and tattoos is simply music to go to prison to.