Comments on: 99 Xterminated

By: sweatingyankee

sweatingyankee — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:05:09 +0000

Agree 100% with this article. While 99x was well past it’s prime, I’d argue it was still the overall best game in town. Now that it’s gone the audience can either go the Project (way too hard - I’m 35 and don’t really need to be listening to Godsmack every morning) or Dave (started cool but has recently gone easy listening/classic rock - too much Seal & John Mayer). The biggest disappointment to me is that Dave isn’t moving to capture this space. When the horrid Bert show came on 99x the other day I quickly flipped over to Dave to see what they were playing. It was Eddie Money. Argh, if I wanted to listen to classic rock (and sometimes I do) I would go to the Eagle. IMHO, Dave ought to amp things up a bit and capture the 30+, not quite dead yet audience that is currently without a home.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:55:05 +0000

Although 99X was the closest thing I’ve had to a home on commercial radio here in Atlanta, the only time I would ever listen was when Steve’s Retroplex was still on the air. When they axed that, I mostly stopped listening. I also knew that bigger changes would be coming soon.

I’m actually surprised it didn’t happen sooner. The station has been floundering for a long time–in fact the whole “alternative” genre has not really meant anything since the late 90s. Seeing it go is like saying “goodbye” to my youth — sad, but inevitable.

As for HD radio, that is not going to save the Atlanta airwaves. The companies that own these stations are the same short-sighted entities that have brought Atlanta radio to the lame place it is today. If they were going to create compelling content, you’d think they’d put it on their Alpha-stations. Of course, the other problem with HD radio is that the equipment is a lot more expensive than a regular radio, and the content (for the most part) is no better than what you get on the regular dial.

In a few years, wireless broadband connections will be fast enough and ubiquitous enough that Internet radio will be a viable alternative to both terrestrial and satellite. That’s when we’ll start seeing some interesting things happening on radio again. I think that internet radio will allow stations to become more local again (shades of Georgia Podcast Network), while also allowing listeners to tap into edgier content than currently allowed on terrestrial radio.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:18:06 +0000

Haven’t been a fan of 99x in quite awhile, but it’s still sad to see them go. Can radio in Atlanta sink any lower? All of the FM rock stations appear to be national, “canned” broadcasts. WRAS is cool and keeps chugging along, but doesn’t have a morning show with local personalities. The AM side of the dial may be even worse. WSB750 is all commercials, all the time. Maybe that’s exagerating things, they do seem to stick in a minute of content here and there but only to space out the commercials. 790 The Zone, wow, what an awful, awful station with terrible hosts. WGST seems to be in limbo with their morning ‘business” talk. 680 The Fan’s claim to fame is that they’re not as bad as 790. Not exactly a glowing recommendation.

Who would have thought that the 80’s and 90’s would be the glory days of Atlanta radio?