This is interesting and probably shows my age, but WNEW has been revived as a high-def radio station broadcasting on HD Radio and on the Web.
WNEW 102.7 FM in New York, which billed itself as the place where rock lives, was the place — and I mean THE place — for rock ‘n’ roll, especially rock that ignored traditional boundaries. When I was in high school, which was at the tail end of the station’s real heyday, you could hear The Beatles and Led Zeppelin mixed with The Vapors, Jim Carroll and Elvis Costello (this was back when he wasn’t considered mainstream). The mix may not seem that revolutionary now, but consider how rare it is — outside of satellite radio — to hear Kings of Leon, The Fratellis and Art Brut, Zep, the Stones and early Aerosmith on the same playlist.
That cross-pollination was encouraged by a management that valued music and creativity.
That came to an end as the ’80s wore on — the station would continue as a shell of itself until the late 1990s — as the changes in the radio world, the return to extremely segregated playlists and an aversion to experimentation, a devotion to marketing at the expense of the music, replaced the creative impulse. The station moved through various rock formats — classic rock, “new” rock, etc. — that gutted what made the station so vital.
The new technology — the expanded HD spectrum, Web broadcasting — may allow an endrun around the marketers and bring back what made WNEW the station it was.
Hank Kalet 