http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/10/nyregion/10RADI.html They say it's free form, but geared toward young women. In other words, welcome to Sorority Radio.
On one hand, I'll root for it because if it works, there may end up being more freedom for djs and program directors to pick their music. On the other hand, I'll root against it because if it works, then they'll be a lot more "sorority radio" (thanks obie) stations popping up. Really though, as long as I never have to hear Opie and Anthony ever again, it'll be ok with me.
WNEW's looking for those listeners AND women who are a little older and richer than KTU & Z100's core. The format will suck, but WNEW will bill double in advertising $$ than they did with talk, instantly.
I should correct one thing in my first post: it's not free-form. There's a format that they are expecting DJ's to follow, even if they get to pick the songs to play around that format. Just to contrast, this is free-form. Playing Etta James, Gustav Mahler and a klezmer version of "War Pigs" in the same block would get you fired from any Inifinity station, including this one.
I did get that. Honestly, as great as pure "frre-form" might be, I don't know how successful it would be in today's market.
The list of songs the jocks will be choosing from will be so finite, you'd never know there was any leeway on the musical choice anyway. I think it's telling that Sean Paul and Kelly Osbourne are involved in the launch...proof that they are already playing the tradeoff games with record labels.
Man, I still remember Scott Muni and "Things From England" on Fridays. Anyway, the younger female demo isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as they don't skew too young. When Q101 first started in Chicago, it was aiming squarely at twentysomething females, and more or less resisted anything with a guitar solo until grunge because so pervasive that they couldn't. As a result of those origins, I think they had a much more interesting format than the more testosterone-fueled "modern rock" format that sucks so hard now. I still point to artists like Sneaker Pimps and Tracy Bonham (who takes a killer turn on the new Blue Man Group record, btw) as emblematic of what was good about alternative radio at that point. Later, COZ
That's part of the science of that format...Infinity, owner of both stations, is trying to have the new WNEW win all the people (read: women) who don't listen to Howard. That morning show is totally non-competitive with WXRK, and is likely to be syndicated to other markets that Howard is in should they show any kind of success in NYC.
You made me laugh so hard I choked on my Pepsi. He probably doesn't like fishing with cane poles or hanging around the barbershop either.