Whither New Rock?

After an extended lull, it looks like some changes are finally in store for WUTK FM, New Rock 90. New program director Brian Brooks says that there are many format changes in the works, as well as a move toward more specialty shows at night.

"We're still maintaining the new rock format, but we plan to dwell on other things as well," says Brooks. "In the evenings, it's going to be more or less block programming, with several shows that focus on different kinds of music. We're especially going to focus on hip hop urban sounds on Friday nights and more of a club/house music kind of thing on Saturdays."

Brooks says that the afternoon shows will be a little more "listener friendly" than before. "We'll try to do a little bit better about taking requests and play less of the hardcore material in those periods," he says.

"We're going to have a Morning Drive segment and an Afternoon Drive segment. Those time slots will be a project of the Communications 275 class. We're going to have the same format every day with different DJs and announcers. It'll be kind of like the morning and afternoon shows on other stations, with traffic reports and weather as well as music. Then, at 6 p.m. we'll go into a news program and have specialty shows after that."

A key problem of New Rock 90 has been the seemingly endless repetition of old songs and public service announcements that are played at random by the station's "virtual DJ," a computerized system that is used when there is no one present. Anyone who has tuned in much at all in the last couple of years is surely all too familiar with the "Save a Place For Me" spot advertising the United Negro College Fund, The DeLair family (Trish, Kevin, Jan, and Jon-Jon—killed by a drunk driver) and the advertisement for the Blonde Redhead concert on January 27, 1999, that is still running to this day. Asked about the constant iteration of those spots and the lack of new music, Brooks admits that the virtual DJ is in dire need of an update.

"You know what? I agree with you totally that that stuff has been on for way too long and my main focus is going to be reprogramming of the computer. When I came in here, most of the songs on the virtual DJ were stuff that was programmed in around 1997. It has not been updated since I became involved with the station.

"What I want to do is weed out the virtual DJ completely and have live DJs 24 hours a day," says Brooks. "I know it will be hard to find people to come in on a regular basis at all hours; but that's what we're trying to do. We do have a lot of people who have put in applications and we intend to use them if at all possible."

The move toward more hip hop music and specialty shows should definitely be applauded (and should start happening this week), so we're keeping our fingers crossed that Brooks plans will actually go into effect. As of now, the same old songs and same old spots are running an infinite treadmill, and it won't be that long until another January 27 comes around... maybe Blonde Redhead will play again next year on the same date.

Radio, Radio (Part Deux)

There's a new noise north on the radio dial, where the family of Jonathan Pirkle has purchased and received FCC approval to broadcast over the 106.7 frequency.

Owners of both South Central Communications' WNFZ-94.3 "Extreme Radio" and Dick Broadcasting's WOKI-100.3 "The Eagle" classic rock, the Pirkles will operate 106.7 themselves, adopting the now-vacant WXVO call letters and, at least temporarily, the nickname "The X." Although the station is currently pumping out an engaging mix of songs from the top 100 rock artists of the last five years, Jonathan Pirkle says the current playlist is only a two-week stopgap while "X" tests its equipment and settles on a format.

"We believe Knoxville is hurting for a new voice in radio; we're still working to figure out what that voice will be," says Pirkle. "It could be an all-Latin station. Who knows? It's wide open right now."

Stay tuned.

Testify, Brother

More reader mail:

This is in response to your query about what Knoxville really wants, brought on by that idiotic missive about the "Rock Never Stops" Tour. I have noticed that whenever a tour, band, or musical style (or even movie for that matter, but that's another letter) is reviewed in Metro Pulse by ANYONE, the writer's tongue is usually planted firmly in cheek about that style's aspects unless it is your typically angst-ridden, 20-something slacker party band on White Avenue, or eclectic, elitist, or somewhat exclusive style like that of the Africa Fete. Although the latter may be culturally and historically important...and even entertaining, don't you think it's a bit pointless to deliver a harangue to and about the Knoxville public not showing up? How wide did you think the African Fete's appeal would be in a college town like this, dominated by bars, shirtless, orange-painted, wasted football fanatics, and big-city aspirations from small-town dreamers?

The person still stuck in 1984 did make a couple of valid points, like it or not. Although I have different musical tastes than he, I do agree that the mosh pits, stage diving and let's-get-drunk-and-burn-stuff attitude has become de rigueur in today's music scene. This is true even locally. There have been a couple of times when my band was delayed in taking the stage at Neptune and Mercury while the cops "escort" unruly crowd members out, hands on weapons.

Unfortunately, the "scene expert" is probably right about 80 percent of Knoxvillians liking '80s hair metal. Notice the flourishing extreme and classic rock radio stations. One is just an updated version of the other. We've gone from the ridiculous (Quiet Riot, Slaughter) to the ridiculous (Limp Bizkit, Korn) and totally skipped the sublime in between! I do see points in both arguments. Maybe in a perfect world, Mr. '80s could take a break from making the devil's sign and feathering his hair to listen to some Clash and Metro Pulse could review aging dinosaur rockers in parachute pants and not be so smarmy about it.

Any questions?

John Strong

Zippy responds: Thanks for the reasoned response! (It's just so rare these days...) Honestly, though, the "Rock Never Stops" review was never intended to be smarmy (just accurate). It was a fine show (one which we actually promoted with a very straightforward interview with Mr. Ted Nugent) and it lived up to what one would expect it to deliver. And while it may be an uphill battle to interest "wasted football fanatics" in music that's beyond their usual norm, it sure as heck ain't pointless. In fact, it's something worth doing. If we can help change the life of just one orange-painted small-town dreamer...

—Zippy "Mr. Congeniality" McDuff