EDITORIAL
Do You Remember Rock And Roll Radio?
By Rob Granger
Posted on Feb 8, 2006

Hello, all. They’ve released me from the confines of my cubicle today so that I can get up on this soapbox here and talk about something that’s near and dear to me: music. First and foremost, I’m a fan of music, especially rock music — I love it. It’s what lead me here and it’s what helps me get through my day. I surround myself with it. I surround my wife and kids with it. I write it, I play it, I read about it — I’m all about it.

It pains me to say that as of January 3, 2006, “modern rock” (for lack of a better description) will, for the most part, be dead in New York City. As Howard Stern makes his ascension to Sirius Satellite Radio (FREE AT LAST!), KROCK, the station that was his home for 20 years, and the last of the modern rock stations in New York City, will be switching formats to talk-based FREE FM. The station’s owner, CBS Radio, which recently changed its name from Infinity Broadcasting, is reporting that during the prime weekday daylight hours, the station will run the new David Lee Roth morning show and a mix of sports, politics, and pop-culture talk, returning to music on weekends and after 7 p.m. weekdays.
I don’t know if you truly understanding the ramifications of this. This is NEW YORK F-ING CITY — the home of CBGB and some of the greatest clubs and bands in the world. Punk rock was born here, and Madison Square Garden is famous for some of the historic shows that it’s hosted. What is that saying about the state of the radio business if New York City can’t support a full-on modern rock station?

It says to me that it’s time for me to say thank you to the fine folks at Sirius and XM Satellite radio. Thank you for giving me over 20 channels of rock in beautiful, near-CD-quality sound. Thank you for serving up all the flavors of rock that my day demands without the need for commercials or lengthy editorials from DJs that I could give a rat’s ass about. Thank you for making the music the message.

Don’t get me wrong, I like talk radio. In fact, I love Howard Stern and I love O&A, and, guess what — they’re on satellite, too.

So, I guess that this is really my final bid farewell to terrestrial radio. I’m done. I’ve had it with the whining in the press that the iPod revolution is killing their business — if they played what listeners wanted to hear in the first place and stopped jumping at the chance to change formats to suck in the hot new demographic, they’d be in a better position today. What was once a brave new world for artists is now a baron wasteland. It’s time to take to the skies to leave the charred remains of what was once a great institution behind.

Rock (radio) is dead, long live Rock (satellite radio).