Hello, Dave
The bane of my existence in Atlanta, or at least one of the banes, Z93 FM, has become "Dave FM." Really. Infinity has changed the format from classic rock to … something.
Based on Dave FM's first 30 minutes, the music appears to have skewed more heavily the '80s and '90s: "Orange Crush," by R.E.M. ; "Stay (Wasting Time)," by the Dave Matthews Band; "It's Only Rock 'n Roll," by Rolling Stones ; "Found Out About You," by the Gin Blossoms; "Come As You Are," by Nirvana; "Clocks," by Coldplay, "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel and "Wrong Way" by Sublime.
So wrote the AJC's Rodney Ho (registration required), who has been all over this story. No, the format shift wasn't a war or anything, but most newspapers have a way of ignoring radio until somebody says too stupid for radio. That kind of coverage has often fallen short for regular people, the kind who listen to the radio every day. The Post used to be an exception until the paper dropped the Listener column. It was probably too good to last.
You see, when I was growing up, my favorite radio station changed from oldies to '70s to top 40 (making it not my favorite radio station) to "more of today's best music," which is actually "adult contemporary" or something that lets them play Jet and Semisonic (or Sugar Ray and Maroon 5, for quality-counterbalance) back to back. And every time the format change went down the same way: The music would be different one day. The DJs would be gone. The commercials would be gone. There would only be a voice assuring us that something new and better was coming, but the voice never told us why!
And clearly this traumatized me.
Ahem.
Why did they choose "Dave FM" for the Atlanta station? Radio station names were on my mind a few weeks ago at the beach, where every station ran along the lines of "WBCH, The Beach" or "WSND, The Sand" or "WBRN, The Burrrn." Then there was nearby Elizabeth City's "Classic Hits 104.9" and its slogan, the strangest classic rock radio slogan I'd ever heard, "Classic hits, without the hard rock."
Apparently, lite classic rock became a whole genre a while back — Pennsylvania's 99.9 "The Hawk" gave itself exactly the same slogan. I didn't notice the difference on the Carolina station until the announcer read the phrase, but maybe the lack of guitar solos would've become more obvious eventually. Going back north, into the range of Richmond's classic classic rock 96.5 "The Planet," I wasn't as sure as I thought I'd be about which format was better. Anyway, Rodney Ho asked Atlanta's new "Dave" about its (his?) name and got an answer, sort of:
"We're building a station that will have a personal connection with its audience," said Dave FM General Manager Rick Caffey. "Why not use a person's name? Why not Dave?"
Why not indeed. The station wanted to get across its new slogan, "Rock without rules," and one vague turn deserved another. With either move, managers have given themselves the challenge of finding a new listening base. Now left without a classic rock station in town, the existing base hasn't reacted too well. According to a second Ho story, they've faced the following in the last few days:
Dave FM so far blends '80s new wave (New Order, Depeche Mode), old standbys (Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix), grunge staples (Nirvana, Pearl Jam), rock currents (Modest Mouse, Jet), female-friendly flavorings (Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones) and forgotten '90s bands (Crash Test Dummies, Lemonheads). The station is also throwing in deeper cuts, such as "Galileo" by Indigo Girls, as well as their much bigger hit "Closer to Fine."
These former Z93 core acts have proven scarce on Dave FM: Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Queen, Van Halen, the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and part-time Atlantan Elton John.
I haven't decided what to make of this change myself. I complained about the Eagles overplay within days of moving to the city, and the station certainly abused their playlists with the rest of those "core acts." No one on Earth needed to hear that much Levon or Gimme Three Steps. But still, I didn't hear the new format these past few days. Maybe it's been worse.
Related site:
Related Atlanta radio entries:
-July 6, 2002: Eagles, Steve Miller overplay
-July 11, 2002: Dave Matthews, Jimmy Eat World
-July 23, 2002: In-studio guitar solo
-July 17, 2002: What we know about the day
-July 21, 2002: John Mayer, you talentless hack
-Aug. 8, 2002: Defending Michael Jackson a little
-Nov. 2, 2002: Sheena Easton sing-a-long
-Dec. 29, 2002: Figure eights in the parking lot
-Jan. 24, 2003: Atlanta's dream interpretation radio show
