Journal Broadcast Group has switched its all-'80s station The Point 93.1 FM to a modern country music format. Q93 will ostensibly challenge WIVK 107.7 FM, the format's leader in the market and the entire country, but what is, exactly, the point? Why deprive the dozens of us still listening to Knoxville radio from those secret pleasures derived from retro-classic cuts from Duran Duran and Tom Petty and The Go-Gos, just for the slight chance they might take a nibble of the big frog's market share?
The reminiscence-free zone of "Today's Continuous Country" will no longer bless me with surprising broadcasts of songs by Paul Carrack or Icehouse or Power Station, hits ripped from Casey's Top 40 so fast they cause whiplash from flashback. Aside from photographs, diary entries and stories told by your friends and family, nothing can bring back a memory from the distant past like hearing a song. You can be transported, for better or for worse, for three-and-a-half minutes. It occurred to me more than once that perhaps I shouldn't listen to The Point while driving.
What part of hopeless nostalgia was Journal unable to sell to advertisers seeking the soft spots and heartstrings of 30- to 45-year-old women? It's not like we still have these songs on cassette tape, and I'd be embarrassed to admit it if I had them on compact disc. I don't even know if "Hungry Like the Wolf" is available for download iTunes, and I don't care to know. That was the simple brilliance of The Point's previous incarnation--the rare element of surprise with the gorgeous magic of the wholly familiar. What's surprising about yet another dull, auto-tuned Shania Twain song? Not a damn thing.
The reminiscence-free zone of "Today's Continuous Country" will no longer bless me with surprising broadcasts of songs by Paul Carrack or Icehouse or Power Station, hits ripped from Casey's Top 40 so fast they cause whiplash from flashback. Aside from photographs, diary entries and stories told by your friends and family, nothing can bring back a memory from the distant past like hearing a song. You can be transported, for better or for worse, for three-and-a-half minutes. It occurred to me more than once that perhaps I shouldn't listen to The Point while driving.
What part of hopeless nostalgia was Journal unable to sell to advertisers seeking the soft spots and heartstrings of 30- to 45-year-old women? It's not like we still have these songs on cassette tape, and I'd be embarrassed to admit it if I had them on compact disc. I don't even know if "Hungry Like the Wolf" is available for download iTunes, and I don't care to know. That was the simple brilliance of The Point's previous incarnation--the rare element of surprise with the gorgeous magic of the wholly familiar. What's surprising about yet another dull, auto-tuned Shania Twain song? Not a damn thing.
I was wondering what that crap was this morning.