After spending a few weeks updating the software and coding 2000 songs for the online station, we were finally able to re-launch Y100Rocks.com v2.0... and then open the mail! And lo and behold - there was a whole bunch of new music waiting for us! Not just the obvious stuff like new singles from the White Stripes and Foo Fighters and Coldplay, but a lot of little gems - the kind of things that might have gone by the wayside in the past (or be relegated to Y-Not airplay only) but now has the chance to fly onto the Y100rocks.com airwaves (or, datastreams?). Here's a little synopsis of some of the new schtuufff:

Mike Doughty - the former Soul Coughing frontman returns with his first "rock band" album in 5 years... and it's great! Produced by former Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson, Doughty manages to strike a balance between catchy choruses and inventive wordplay. We're been playing "Bustin' Up a Starbucks" and the first single "Looking at the World from teh Bottom of a Well" but will soon also start dipping into "Tremendous Brunettes," a duet with new ATO Records label 'boss' Dave Matthews.

Jonathan Rice - I'm not really a Dave Matthews fan, but here I go with my second reference to the pride of Charlottesville. I know very little about Jonathan Rice, except that his vocals remind me every second of Dave, and that this album was recorded by Mike Mogis. No, really? What does that mean? Well, Mogis is kind of the head audio guy behind the entire Omaha / Saddle Creek Records scene - having produced bands like Bright Eyes, Cursive, and Rilo Kiley over the past few years. So while the voice may sounds like Dave (or maybe a bit of Jack Johnson's laid back, raspy surfer?), the production and songs on the album are what separates it from the pack. Inventive use of strings, unique guitar sounds, and songs that build and build - it's one of those albums where the first few tunes seem to be the obvious ones front loaded to appeal to radio, then the meat of the album kicks in and the really great moments hit. The first time I played the album, I was close to pulling it off the CD player several times, but something kept me going... and then rewarded me. By the time you get to the string laden "My Mother's Son" I was totally into this album.

Aqualung - A few months back my friend (and former Y100 Marketing Director) Kelly Gross told me about her latest britpop obsession - Aqualung, and the song "Brighter Than Sunshine." And damnit - she was dead on right. Brilliant! Massive! This song is gorgeous, and I think it's my spring theme for every nice day (that or Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease" - another classic weather-is-breaking jam) from now till July. GO HEAR THIS SONG! Oh wait, just listen to www.y100rocks.com, cause we're gonna play it a lot over the next few weeks. Whereas I heard Keane and initially thought - 'what's the big deal? It's a Travis clone...' when I first got Aqualung, it immediately carved a new niche in my mind - similar to Keane or Snow Patrol or Coldplay, but one all it's own. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm going, 'yeah, sounds like the next Aqualung' and they will cross over to the genre-namer, rather than derivative genre-taker.

Nouvelle Vague - Some French freaks taking late '70s / early '80s New Wave songs and applying a Bossa Nova meets Air approach to remaking them? I'm in. We've been playing my favorites - covers of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and the Clash's "Guns of Brixton," but if you pick up the entire album you can groove to songs by the Cure, Modern English, Dead Kennedys, Depeche Mode, XTC, and more. It's the perfect CD for the 5-disc changer at your next faux swanky cocktail party. Dig it, oui?

Jim

(this is also posted on the news page, but I thought it was important to put it up here also!)

Preston and Steve Out of Non-compete Early?

Preston and Steve, former morning hosts for Y100, have won the preliminary ruling against former employers Radio One in their non-compete lawsuit. Basically, their old contract called for them to stay out of the market for six months. After the demise of Y100 however, they took Radio One to court, trying to make the non-compete invalid. After a lengthy court process and 4-day trial, the judge found in their favor on all counts. Radio One will appeal, but as of now, they are now free to go on the air and likely will soon.

Ooh - UPDATE (insert story here!) - Radio One VP/Operations Zemira Jones says the company will appeal today's court decision that Radio One's noncompete agreement with former Alternative WPLY (Y100)/Philadelphia morning hosts Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison is not enforceable. Jones said, "This decision not only impacts Radio One, but will have an adverse impact on all broadcasters, as it calls into question the enforceability of valid noncompetition agreements when a format change occurs, which is common in the radio industry."

The U.S. District Court in Philadelphia ruled that, because Y100 no longer exists — its former frequency is now home to Radio One's CHR/Rhythmic WPHI — and Radio One operates no competing Rock outlet in the market, Preston & Steve are free to go on the air at their new station, Greater Media's Rock WMMR/Philadelphia.

Jones continued, "This decision is ironic in that it was Preston & Steve's decision to depart Y100 that led Radio One to change Y100's format, and that change now serves as the basis for the judge's decision to bar enforcement of the noncompetes. Contrary to press reports, Radio One made every effort to renew Preston & Steve's contracts with Y100." Hahahahahaha! That's a GOOD one!  Let's see - remind me again of what the press reported about those salaries... R-One offered 170k apiece, and Greater Media offered 300k, with three years guarentee? Hmm - yeah, sounds like EVERY EFFORT there...

Meanwhile, Preston called me and said "we're really excited that it went in our favor and now instead of August we can look to get back on the air in a matter of days as opposed to months and right now we're just looking to figure out how that's gonna work." I wish the former Y100 morning show well at their new home of WMMR, even if it means they have to listen to Skynyrd songs on a daily basis. But I'm really happy that they were able to take Casey and Kathy and Nick - all three of them are great people and great employees.

A four day trial... think about the legal fees both sides spent on this case... each side likely just wasted over $100,000 to defend themselves, basically over the question of whether or not P&S would have a 2 month or 6 month vacation. Hey Radio One and Greater Media, we can think of some other uses for that $200k plus - like maybe a little cat food for the Bunker cats, or a couple of cases of Newcastle for Sun Shine Jones? Or how about a shiny new Apple G5, cause the remaining x-Y100 staff over at Y100Rocks.com need one of those badly...

Jim

Well, you guys wanted a rock show... so we put one together! The Y100Rocks.com FEZtival 2005 is happening on May 15th at Festival Pier, Delaware and Spring Garden Streets in Philly. Garbage and Interpol have been killing it live, the Starting Line are dropping a new album that week, the Bravery are the current title holders of 'next big thing' status, and for the fifth band we figured we'd open it up to the listeners of Y100Rocks.com and try to find a great local band to play. This will be a great show musically, but also - culturally and socially.


Tix went on sale this past Saturday and are only $35 - not bad for an entire afternoon / evening of great live music, and perhaps more importantly, the chance for a community to get together. We really hope you can come to the show and can pick up tix - in many ways, the entire future of Y100Rocks.com is hinging on this show - as we have the chance to illustrate the power of this audience and community. In fact, every musician that complained when we went off the air, every music lover that cried out - we are calling on you to help... come to the FEZ, and if you can't, at least spread the word out there. If this show fails, we all fail. If it succeeds, it will lead to more - more shows, more Big Breaks for local bands, and more great music. Announcing a 'radio' show without a radio station (other than the online stream) and without the typical abundance of media to assist - is a challanging proposition... and one we are taking on. But we need your help - if you care and want us to keep going, it is essential that we have a good showing at the show... thx for reading and thx for listening - see you May 15th at the FEZtival!


Jim

I warn you - this is gonna be long, because I'm VERY angry.

But read it anyway.

This is especially directed at anyone who has even the slightest inclination to saying one bad word about Jim McGuinn.

But even if you like the guy already ... you should still read it.

I'm not trying to get anyone angry at me or the station - but I've just about had it.

Let me tell you about Jim McGuinn - a man most of you have never met, let alone worked with for over six years. Jim is one of the best bosses I've ever worked for - and I've worked with a lot of them - for one simple reason that can be summed up in one simple phrase: HE F***ING CARES.

He cares more about his employees, the radio stations he's run, and everything else he has spent his time doing than almost anyone else I know. If he didn't give a sh*t about keeping alternative rock alive in this city, he would have been out the door, and off looking for his next gig.

Instead, I have a hard time getting a hold of him sometimes - I've learned a new meaning to the word "concise," because I can't tie him up for too long on the phone: he's always in the middle of SOMETHING related to Y100Rocks.Com. And if he's not, he's sleeping.

This is a guy who, for me personally, gave some kid with only 2 1/2 years of full-time production experience a shot to come to the (then) fifth largest radio market in the COUNTRY. Sure, I've been doing radio in one form or another since I was 15, but, in terms of doing production, on paper, I was WAY underqualified. Somehow, Jim managed to figure out that I could do it - even if I wasn't 100% sure that I could.

Eleven Achievement In Radio Awards or so later (I kind of lost count, honestly) including FIVE my first year, I know Jim was right. I was good enough to do the job.

And even though this area is my home, at that point in my life, I don't think I would've left Ohio to work anywhere else here - I wanted to work at Y100. I loved the station - I listened to it when I was home. Hell, the guy who had my job before me (John Castino, for those of you who may remember him from WDRE) was one of the people whose work I studied to get better at it. But beyond that, Jim's reputation as a program director preceeded him - I'd never met the guy, but I felt like I knew him from everything that I'd heard about him, or read in the trade magazines.

And when my phone rang and Jim McGuinn was on the other end of it to talk to me about maybe coming to work with him in Philadelphia - he hadn't even really offered me the job at this point - I walked into the VP of Programming's office and I said to him, "I just got a call from Y100 in Philadelphia. I don't know if they're offering me a job yet, but I'd be very interested in doing that if they do. I wanted to tell you now to give you as much heads up as I could."

Things happened to work out.

I'll admit, like any relationship, it wasn't always perfect. Jim and I butted heads from time to time - but at least he had enough respect for me to listen to what I thought, even if he was in the right, and I was wrong. And what more could you ask for in a boss, especially being in a "creative" field? Creative people tend to be a little weird, and I'll cop to that. But he managed to help me figure out how to figure stuff out on my own - and realize what worked and what didn't work without having to run every single production piece, or piece of copy (a script) by him; and he trusted me enough to not have to look over my shoulder all the time - because of what he taught me.

Look - everyone who's working for Y100Rocks.com is getting exactly $0.00 a week doing it. And to see people bitch about this, that, and the other thing really just pisses me off to no end.

I read this NASTY email from some guy that was bitching and complaining about the internet station - I'm glad to say that we hardly get any of those. And mind you, I'm generally a pretty level-headed guy, but I wanted to rip this son of a b*tch a new one. I was SO angry at him, because he was saying things that were completely ridiculous and maddening to me, I almost let him have it ... then I stopped, and forwarded it to Jim. I didn't want to, but I wasn't going to respond to that kind of udderly stupidity. Actually, I considered trying to find out who his supervisor was, and forward this malicious, nasty email, typed in all caps, and with at least one F-bomb I remember, written via his company's email. That's how mad I was at this guy. But then I realized how much it sucks to be unemployed, so I didn't do that either (You're welcome, buddy...).

I felt HORRIBLE forwarding that vicious email to Jim because I knew it would hurt him to read it. But I did anyway because I knew Jim'd be a much better person to reply to that than me - though I guess I just did, didn't I?

And I was right - Jim's response was far better than anything I could've come up with. In short, he told this guy what I'm going to tell you - we're TRYING. All of us are.

No, the internet station isn't perfect. But let me tell you from personal experience - it's INCREDIBLY frustrating when you're trying to do a show from your apartment, and the (internet service) goes out, and you can't get back on the air - which happened to me on Thursday. I was pulling my hair out, trying to get my modem and router to work - turns out there was an outtage in the area, and there was nothing I could do about it. I tried though, dammit - If I had a landline, I'd have done it on dial-up ... or if I had a way to route it through my cell phone I would've done that too.

But please realize that none of us really expected to be out of a job, and then suddenly have to try and figure out an entirely new thing to us: running something resembling a business. I don't think any of us has an MBA ... though I never asked to see anyone's credentials before diving into this head first without looking. And we're TRYING to make it better, believe me. We're doing the best we can with the staff and resources that we have - some of whom have non-industry related full-time day jobs, or part-time jobs, and contribute their time as they can.

But no matter what winds up happening with Y100Rocks.com, or whether or not someone wakes up and smells the toast burning and realizes that there's a very serious need to have a modern rock station in this town ... I believe in what we're doing - because Jim believes in what we're doing, and he (along with the other staff members who also work tirelessly, and also believe) CARES, damn it.

So to read people slamming Jim McGuinn personally really pisses me off, especially if YOU'VE NEVER MET HIM. Just spend five f***ing minutes with the guy before you pass judgement on him, and you'll apologize for another five minutes for the nasty sh*t you said.

God, there's so many things that I'd LOVE to explain to you naysayers who've never spent 10 minutes working in the radio industry, but I'm not going to. You just don't get it, you don't know, and I could write a "War And Peace" length book about it to try and help you understand - but you'd never read it anyway, and you wouldn't care either - like you probably don't now.

But how do you win when you get slammed by someone for NOT playing [Insert Band Name Here], then, get slammed by the same people FOR playing [Insert Same Band Name Here]?

You know how frustrating it is when you try your hardest, and your boss, or your mom or your dad, or whoever tells you, "You know what? You're still worthless and you still suck, and I don't know what makes you think you deserve to breathe the same air I do?" That's how that feels. As thick-skinned and jaded as I've become, there's only so many times you can get kicked in the teeth before you start getting really aggrivated.

But personal attacks against people you don't even know? I've got to draw the line somewhere - the same way you would if someone started talking sh*t about your friends, or your mom, or your brother, or whoever it is you care about.


If you're a supporter of Y100Rocks.com - THANK YOU. We need you guys (said in a gender-generic sense) more than ever. You wanna know what you can do to help? Spread the word to everyone that we're still here. Believe it or not, there are some people who still haven't figured out that we're even broadcasting on the internet yet!

In closing - if you're still with me - I just wanted to say that Jim McGuinn is the last guy on earth you need to direct any negativity at. He's not my boss anymore in an official capacity - but I'm happy to volunteer my time to work with a guy (and ya know what, the rest of the staff as well, while I'm at it) who feels so passionately that modern rock shouldn't be treated as if it was disco or something: just tossed aside like it's over, never mattered, and was just some passing fad. I'm damn proud to call the man a friend.

And Jim - If you're reading this, this is what I meant by my severe lack of PR skills. I have none. But I am, if nothing else, honest.

-Zack

[ADDENDUM: I don't want to imply that we're getting a lot of negativity - most of it you can see by reading through the comments to the previous blog. But really ... should we have ANY at ALL?! If you don't want to support what this is all about, fine - why even bother saying anything here?]

You know how our Y100rocks.com website says "are you ready for Philadelphia to be the biggest town in America without an alternative rock station?"? Well, we no longer can claim that cultural distinction. Yesterday New York's WXRK (K-Rock) caught the Ben/Jack disease, and decided to tweak the home of Howard Stern... into "K-Rock: Great Rock. Period." And what that means for listeners is that they've 'Jacked' the format - no longer concentrating on the modern/alternative side of the equation, they have spread their rock wings to include Guns and Roses, Queen, Led Zep, etc., mixed with a dash of Green Day, a nice heaping pile of Pearl Jam, and a side of Aerosmith... (basically, their innovation is what we call WMMR?) so while on the one hand it enables rock fans to hear a wider variety of rock, one thing you can absolutely count on is that there will be no depth on the radio. Nothing but boring same old songs we've been hearing the past 25 yeras. Like our local Ben FM, everything they play will be a well-researched, consultant-approved, moster hit. Which is fine... but ultimately boring. And if you put a rule on your station that you will only play hits, at a certain point, where do you go get new hits? What happens to the entire prospect of new music? Because this will leave K-Rock with a current playlist likely to total about 15 songs, versus the 30-35 they used to play... so likely gone will be the Muse / Killers / Radiohead (except for Creep!) / Garbage side of the musical spectrum, along with the majority of interesting new music.


But WAIT - it gets better! Similar but not at all similar to our plight, the corporate do-gooders at Infinity/Viacom have tossed a bone to the music fans! They will launch KROCK2 online! So if you love new music, sorry, but you can go listen to this website... so not unlike Philly now, in New York, supposedly the cultural capitol of America, there is no one playing new rock music on the radio. Where the difference comes in is that at least Viacom cared enough to give the listeners a website - unlike Radio One here in Philadelphia where the staff has had to build our own from scratch, there perhaps they realized the rash of shit they would hear from music fans, record companies, promoters, listeners - so they pre-empted the anger by tossing a few computers in a back office, and are giving the kids their new rock - on the web. Of course, part of me wishes we at least had some backing - health insurance would be nice.


The sickest thing about all this is that if you pay attention to the radio/music industry trade press, you will constantly hear about how radio is failing to interest and motivate young listeners, and how radio is so completely fearful of losing listeners to satellite and web radio... so I got an idea - let's just SEND them there ourselves? Let's target EVERY station in America away from young people, at least young people that like rock music! That'll work great! Push the most technically savvy listeners onto our longterm competition - satellite and Web radio!!


How short-sighted... ah, but with corporations in Dubya's America, can we expect anything more?


[ UPDATE to POST] Sorry if the last sentence was misinterpreted by any Bush fans. I was not trying to be political. However, I do believe that corporations at the present time are more bold and harmful than at anytime in the nation's history. If it were 1999 I'm sure my comment would have read Clinton's America.


Jim

Well, no real surprise here... the mighty Weeze took home the Modern Rock Madness crown for the third time yesterday, with a blowout over Nirvana. What was interesting this year was the power of the internet and web-based communicationi to seal the deal and create some upsets. Unlike in years past where Modern Rock Madness consisted of 30-minute 'battles' on the air and phone calls to Y100, this year we had to take the issue to the web. Instead of getting perhaps 90-100 calls per matchup, this time there were an average of about 1,500 votes per pairing - with a total of 113,945 votes cast over the 7 days of action. And while most of the matches went similar to the way voting would have gone if we did the entire event on the air again, there were some weird upsets - like Muse over Dave Matthews... maybe Dave's fans were busy baking... cookies, or more likely, the Muse fans went out and got help, via message boards and website postings to each other. And even though they would have been a favorite anyway, almost everyday last week Y100Rocks' Modern Rock Madness was mentioned on the Weezer website - encouraging voting worldwide on the competition this year. Some may call it cheating, but I salute Karl and the Weezer camp for energizing and motivating the troops! It's what we are trying to do everyday around here at Y100Rocks.com... get the word out, tell people that we're still kicking and still fighting for a home for alternative rock, and especially - letting people know that they can still hear us online - 24/7.

So congrats to Weezer - can't wait for the new album, which drops the same day that the band will be in Philadelphia for a show at the Electric Factory - May 10th. In the meantime, we listen to Rivers rock out the Frampton-esque solo on Beverly Hills and get ready for a spring of rock, even if not radio (on the air)...