Classic Rock 99.5 renamed 'The Buzzard'

From the Birmingham Business Journal:

Gilbert Nicholson

Citadel Broadcasting wanted to add pizzazz to its 13-year-old classic rock station, WZRR-FM 99.5. So the company held a name suggestion contest at http://www.wzrr.com.

"We chose 'The Buzzard.' But 'The Rock' was the No. 1 choice," chuckled operations manager Kerry Lambert. "We have another classic rock station in Albuquerque (KBZU-FM 96.3) that uses The Buzzard moniker."

Nothing but the name has changed at WZRR, which plays music from the 60s, 70s and 80s, formerly with the slogan "Classic rock that really rocks." Now it's "The Buzzard. Pure classic rock."

"We've been on the air 13 years and really did it just to give the station a little more personality. Kind of like a fresh coat of paint," Lambert says.

For those of us who grew up in the mid- to late-1970s, this is just a bit too much. At one time, 99.5 went by K-99, and was one of the better album-oriented rock (remember albums? remember album-oriented?) stations in the South. Lots of dope-smokin' music, a goodly dollop of redneck rock, a bit of comedy from George Carlin or Richard Pryor, weird science stuff from Omni--but NO DISCO! For all the record execs who fume at people downloading MP-3s, it must seem absolutely incredible that radio stations used to publicize times when they were going to play an entire recording over the air with no commercial interruptions or DJ goob IDs of the tracks. People would actually stay home and pop a tape into the deck and record the whole thing. Amazing, eh?

And now? The Buzzard.

Oh, please.
posted by Terry at 3:54:00 PM