Clear Channel has once again proven they know how to mismanage into the ground.
Back in May – WRNX 100.9 – a progressive rock, adult contemporary station (we’re talking Counting Crows – not Kenny G) was traded to Clear Channel. Nothing much changed at the time but first they fired Denise Mozilla – the news lady. It was replaced by the aptly coined “Robonews” by Steve Cantara, the newer morning man. He was soon to go as well, citing budget and economy concerns. He was one of the greatest morning men I’ve heard. He had true potential but they never let him do the show he wanted to do. He was then replaced by Dave Sears – previously moved to the afternoon when Steve came on. He’s been with them since the beginning and had a charming dry wit about him that you could not help but relate to. Now it appears that he too is “back on the streets”.
WRNX was the perfect station. My wife and I have been listening to it since we arrived in Holyoke about 6 years ago. It was by accident, being unable to find 102.1 – which came in strong and had music it was ok to wake up to. It was perfect. It wasn’t too hard, it wasn’t lame. It was as if the 90s rock stations had aged right along with us. Combining new, classic, folk, alternative, and modern music into a lovingly crafted blanket. It was great for the car, even before we had our son.
I’m beyond words for the situation because I couldn’t have described anything more uniquely “valley” then WRNX – right down to the dry humor of the comforting DJ Dave Sears. I found out this morning, having turned my dial to 100.9 – it is now a country station. They even mentioned the fact that they had moved and that “you should update the first preset on your dial to 100.9″.
No. I don’t like country. I want my perfect radio station back. When they started they had 2 minutes of local commercials. They prided themselves on their “quick commercial breaks” and I would listen to every single local commercial because they were for places I hadn’t heard about, were in the valley, and were of interest to me. They had worked out the pricing so they could sell commercials for enough that they would be value added. Customers would listen to them, and frequent the advertisers.
There was a sense of community, it had the feel of the valley. Now, instead of taking advantage of that – Clear Channel has wiped them out. WRNX had integrity, they knew music, and they weren’t a top 40. You don’t get that much, and Clear Channel is much of the reason why.
Please join me in calling Clear Channel to protest the removal of WRNX on 100.9 – we want our station back!
413 536 1105 forwards to Clear Channel now, it used to be the WRNX offices. Tell them you’re calling about WRNX and they’ll forward you to the head of programming for Western MA.
**Update** I received an official word from the Clear Channel Director of Programming for Western MA.
I appreciate that he took the time to call me back, but any hope I had that my beloved radio station had simply been moved has been dashed.
I wanted to get these down, edit will happen in a bit:
“Kix 97.3 is going to the Hartford market”
“we made the decision based on the popularity of country in western MA”
[in reference to the local advertisers] “If you listen to the current 100.9 I think you’ll find a lot of that, but you don’t like country…”
“…I don’t really like country either. Listen, my heart is breaking but” [in my line of work] “you need to make difficult decisions.”
“If you listen to the river it has a lot of what RNX was playing, in fact many of the River’s listeners are going nuts because it’s becoming more like RNX”
“I’m really trying to make that happen on one of our other” [bringing back the format of RNX]
Unfortunately no… the river is not becoming like RNX. Would the river play tom waits? Would they play an actual CD? Does a track have a chance if it’s not on the official list? RNX had that special sprinkle of love. Please comment if you love RNX.
