K-Rock Not Quite the Same

[jon]

After their DJ hiatus and all-request Dog Days of Summer, it isn't just "same old, same old" at K-Rock Edmonton. A Year in Your Ear has disappeared from its 7-8 p.m. time slot -- at one time, it ran 7 days a week.

I don't listen that much, but I don't ever recall hearing an Elton John song before. But now, all of a sudden, he's a Feature Artist, with Imaging in front of every one of his records. It was "Goodbye, Norma Jean" (original '70s version) a few minutes ago.

Interesting when you consider the fact that he didn't score a single song in the Top 97 requests from their Dog Days compilation.

Interesting, too, when you consider the fact that, a couple of years ago, they did 30-60 minutes of requests, labelled a Sell-Out, every weekday afternoon at 5 p.m. And that was the first time I'd heard two songs in a row that I liked on K-Rock. In fact, the entire first afternoon of requests was fabulous. But they killed the whole thing in less than 2 weeks. It took them at least a year before they finally killed the heavy metal.

But, what can I say? They get decent ratings, so there must be an audience. Though, I think the comments I've seen in print and overheard are telling: a lot of people listen for the Morning Show talk and ignore the music. Which means it is doubly important that they get the right Morning Crew to capture most of the magic that lived there with Terry Evans. Not my kind of magic, mind you, but Paul Brown on The Bear has certainly proven that there is a big audience -- enough for good ratings by both stations -- for that sort of treatment.