You may have had a "WTF?" moment last weekend if you tuned in to 93.1 FM, South Florida's only modern rock station. Instead of hard rock, you could have heard "Jingle Bell Rock."
93Rock, "South Florida's Pure Rock," as it was known for the last five years, is dead. The station of Bubba the Love Sponge, Nickelback, Nine Inch Nails and other purveyors of "rock" is now playing "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." It's Christmas tunes 24-7 until the new format, whatever it may be, is launched.
"Don't know if anyone will fill the void or not, " said Brian Elam, general manager of the Cox Broadcasting station. "The young side, or young active rock is a very limited audience in South Florida."
As Elam explains it, the station constantly did research to make the playlist as appealing as possible to rock and roll fans, but there just aren't enough of them in South Florida's ethnically diverse population to support a station that goes beyond strictly classic rock.
Hip-hop, pop music, and classic rock are strong formats here, but what does that mean for mainstream rock and roll fans? You get coal in your stockings.
"I don't know if there will be a future for rock and roll in South Florida," Elam said.
The music editor of the New Times agrees, saying the station's demise makes a statement.
Local
"Yeah, it does, that people here don't care about mainstream rock, I think trying to tap into that market here was a failure," said Reed Fischer of the New Times. "I mean, that's the problem with any of the formats, they're so specific, everybody here, they take their iPods and they listen to tons of different types of music and your Cox Radio or one of these big conglomerates, they can't create a format that's as good as anyone's iPod."
But if you love Christmas tunes, your dreams of a white Christmas have come true: there are currently three South Florida stations playing Christmas music while they get ready for new formats after the holidays.
No word on whether any of them have Adam Sandler's Hannukah song in their playlists.
