NP: Helmet, Size Matters

I had heard the rumblings yesterday, but apparently it's real. 94.7 The Zone has abandoned "active rock" for the oldies market previously vacated by 104.3 FM.

On the one hand, good riddance. I thought Bill Gamble made a huge tactical error when he tacked so hard back toward the Loop crowd with all the AC/DC and Metallica, and apparently his bosses don't disagree. Q101 has been kicking their butts since that station opened up their playlist back in April. Not to mention the notion that "active rock" has been musically bankrupt since about fifteen minutes after Limp Bizkit bought their way onto the airwaves. Nobody is going to remember any of these bands save maybe Korn and Disturbed, but they're the exception and not the rule.

On the other hand, I feel bad for the likes of DJs James VanOsdol and Brian the Whipping Boy, who fled Mancow and deserved better than this. JVO is going to have a hard time staying in Chicago at this point, I would imagine, as he seems to have burned bridges with both Q101 and WXRT, where he landed briefly before moving over to the Disney-owned station. I can't quite hear him on the Loop or The Mix.

This does mean I've got an open preset on my car stereo. Who wants it?

(Okay, technically, I've got about eight or nine open presets, but not on the "main bank" of six FM stations, so there.)