FRED MANTEGHIAN BLOG

Up until some dreadful time today, Connecticut radio station 104.1 played new alternate rock music and did it very well. Not enough of a market to justify formulaic shock-jocks, the former owner, the great, the diseased, the much-maligned Clear Channel radio conglomerate ran 104 WURH like a great indie radio station. No live DJ's, in fact, the few radio breaks they took between songs mostly made fun of the other stations (many of whom they owned). WURH was where I could hear the Killers, the Kings of Leon, Cage the Elephant and a bunch of stuff I didn't care for either, but it was all new for the most part and who isn't at least a little sick of classic rock at this point! Once a week, they played an oldie like that dreadful Four Non-Blondes song whose title I paid a hypnotist to make me forget, but for the most part, radio 104 was always fresh!

Today, all that changed. Needing to divest itself of some of the eight stations in its Connecticut roster, Clear Channel sold 104 to Connecticut local Red Wolf Broadcasting, who promptly reverted the call letters to WMRQ (Mr. Queer as it shall be known) as the station was apparently known back in the nineties before Clear Channel scarfed them up. And guess what, I've been listening to them for a few hours and it seems they have the same play list they had back then too! In other words, it's oldies for tweeners. How disgusting.

They've played a total of two new songs from the just deceased 104's playlist, one from Kings of Leone, the other the new "Wrong" song off the new Depeche Mode album (so technically, it's only one and a half new songs). And now the DJ's will talk. It's unavoidable. They're hiring DJ's, and in time, they will learn to talk. I've seen an example of where this is going already when the afternoon DJ proudly announced that Wednesday's is now biker day! That's right. It's like a crazy uncle that never spoke, and then one day, he sits up says he's joining the circus to tame lions.

But here is the saddest part of this tale of whoa. If you have RDS radio (you know, that little news feed on your dashboard that tells you the name of the artist and song title while it's playing), you'll see that Mr. Queer radio hasn't had time to figure out how to turn off the old feed from the Clear Channel music server and you're reading the name of the songs that you WON'T be hearing while you listen to the Beastie Boys remind you to fight for your right to P-A-A-A-R-T-Y!

So the precious silence is gone and now "live" DJ's will be bringing us their wit and wisdom around the clock. Can't wait to listen to the morning drive-time show dissolve into the same morass of chit and chatter that the new local owners will strive to replicate in their bid to be just as droll as the big boys, who ironically, ran one of the best radio stations in the country until sometime today when the world ended.