99.9 – It’s Really Better Here.
I previously wrote about and touted FM 107.9 as it was the best channel in the area, and while I enjoyed their variety in comparison to the other local channels, I rarely listened to it preferring to stick to CD’s and Satellite radio. That has changed for the time being, as I recently discovered WWCT 105.7, The home of rock and roll, WWCT 99.9, The music lover’s station. I don’t know if that’s really their tag line, but that’s what the Journal Star’s Steve Tarter said, and he’s the professional, so I’ll go with it.
In his brief review he wrote the understatement of the year in saying “it’s refreshing to hear a rock station that actually plays something we haven’t heard hundreds of times before.” I’ve been complaining about this for years. The Who, the Stones, Beatles, Eagles, you name it, have more than just one or two radio friendly hits, and people actually do want to hear them!
I wrote down a list of what they played a few days ago in a roughly half hour segment to give you an idea of what you might hear.
Neil Young – Comes A Time
The La’s – There She Goes
something by a band called the Flee Foxes
Bonnie Raitt – I Feel The Same (a sweet blues track w/ killer slide guitar)
Peter Wolf (of J. Geils fame) & Shelby Lynne; didn’t catch the name of the song.
U2 – Run To You
John Lee Hooker & Van Morrison – Gloria
David Gray – A Moment Changes Everything
The Specials – Monkey Man (yes, they really played this!)
Lyle Lovett – In My Own Mind
The Band – Chest Fever (from the album Music from Big Pink)
I’m actually finding myself turning on FM Radio for the first time in a long time just to hear what they’re going to shock me with by playing next. Today I also heard Warren Zevon’s Excitable Boy, an alternate version of Tom Petty’s hit song I Won’t Back Down, Dear Prudence by the Beatles, REM’s Driver 8, and Leon Russell & Elton John singing “If It Wasn’t For Bad.”
October 17th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
I listened exclusively to 99.9 about a year ago until the station started broadcasting a couple morons during the morning show. Afternoons on 99.9 were great. Then 107.9 started being innovative. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the change in format of 101.1…I’m really digging it. Those who miss “Hippy Radio” should simply dial down to 93.3…same exact format. I don’t like that 101.1 is DJ-free, but I am very much enjoying the selection thus far.
October 18th, 2010 at 5:23 am
I’m loving 99.9 so far. I can actually turn on the radio and enjoy song after song instead of the normal repetition I usually find. I had almost exclusively gone to NPR talk radio just to avoid the frustration of the songs some stations play.
Nothing against NPR, but sometimes I just want to hear some music during my commute.
October 18th, 2010 at 5:58 am
On the flip side… my 13 year old son, along with a number of his friends, used to like the format of 99.9 the Buzz before it changed, as it played more ‘alternative’ material. Now there are no radio stations that really interest him at all. Admittedly I liked the previous format more too.
The move towards making radio stations obsolete proceeds as they shift to old music to appeal to ‘older’ people on an old format. Any effort to appeal to a new generation has been abandoned.
October 18th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Time to short some radio stocks.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:12 am
I will have to try 99.9…I was excited about the new Jack FM until I realized they play the same stuff as 93.3 but with an occasional newer song thrown in. I wish we could get something like a KROQ from LA here in Peoria because, as Mahkno said, there is no place to get alternative music here. Thank goodness for internet radio!
October 18th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Sounds like the WXRT format or what we have hear with WMMM http://www.tunegenie.com/onair/wmmm/
October 18th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
I am finding some repetition on 99.9. If I can catch Plant’s Angel Dance three days in a row in the couple hours a day I listen, at different times of day, then they apparently have the same sort of limited catalog rotation that an average station uses. Just different types of songs. Not bad for now but I can predict it getting boring the more I listen. There is more out there to play.
October 19th, 2010 at 6:15 am
Uh-oh. I hope you’re wrong, Gary, but I fear you are not. In the limited amount of time I’ve been listening (in the car mostly) I have heard the new song by Peter Wolf & Shelby Lynne twice, but it’s new and it’s a great song, so I was giving the station a pass on that one.
October 19th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
You all know these stations can’t play these songs for free. They have to pay a royalty for each song that is played. They make up a play-list or two or even three but with the same songs just mixed up. This way, they know how much they have to pay and can budget the station. So, you are going to hear repetition. On the old Hippy 101.1 I could almost guess the next song depending on the time of day and which list they were on.
October 19th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Of course they have to pay royalties, thanks for stating the obvious. From what I can gather, they have some newer songs on heavy rotation, but the selection of classics are very wide and diverse. I have not heard an older song repeated. If the station would answer their phone I would be able to tell you how large the playlist is; I spoke to a secretary from advanced media, who also owns 101.1, and I asked how large their playlist was. She wasn’t sure, but she said it was “huge.”
October 20th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Well the way you all were carrying on, I thought the obvious needed stated. Now you know why I don’t comment here very often. Subject too anal retentive.
October 20th, 2010 at 6:03 am
To each his own, Emtronics.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
FEH ……………………………….
October 21st, 2010 at 3:30 pm
The abomination known as “heavy rotation” is understandable in a business sense but still annoying. If it’s something new and exciting maybe but 30 year old Zep tunes?
October 21st, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Well, how old are the Zeps? Whick reminds me, how did whole lot of love ever make it on radio in 1970 with some of those lyrics?
October 25th, 2010 at 10:13 am
I do miss alternative radio sometimes.
I stumbled across Bradley’s student radio, The Edge, and listen to it once in a while on iTunes for a local alternative station.
November 13th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Let us know if you can find a playlist for this station. They played a song yesterday that’d I’d love to find.
Wish they did one like WGLT did.