When WNEW-FM in New York Cityremoved "Opie and Anthony" fromits airwaves near the end of 2002 because of the Radio team'ssex stunt in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the station was facing a series of public relations problems. It knew it had aliented the duo’s fans and looked weak caving into pressure from Catholic groups.
In the world of in-your-face personality Radio, it had effectively declared itself a pansy.The pressure was buildingrapidly from a religious lobby that was already shouting "take their license away"andthe Federal Communications Commission was being forced to notice it.In the end, the bottom line was simple: WNEW-FMunderstood thatmaintaining the integrity of its broadcast license wasreally more important than image.
So, it had no choice but to eat Opie and Anthony’s contract, bide its time and then blow up the station at the appropriate moment. That moment came a few days ago when WNEW-FM officially became Blink 102.7 FM.
Realizing it had lost it’s credibility with the previous audience, the owners (Infinity) or programming gurus or whoever’s butt was on-the-line, have decided to settle on a format that might deliver it a demo not being served in the New York market, where hopefully, it could slice out a portion of the advertising dollar pie.
Blink 102.7 is "Music, Gossip, Entertainment" that is aimed at women 25-44. The morning show is "Booker and Lopez", a new concoction comprised of "Entertainment Tonight" correspondent, Chris Booker, and Linda Lopez, Jennifer Lopez's sister.After the morning show, the stationplays five songs-in-a-row. "E!" personality Todd Newton is live from Hollywood each day from 3-7pm and at the time of this writing, the search is on for an evening personality. In between all this, there is spoken and/or reported content from the resources of MTV1, VH1, NBC, "Entertainment Tonight", and Us Magazine.
They’ve even hired Kiefer Sutherland, star of Fox’s "24", as their station voice. $$$$$$$$
I don’t know if WNEW-FM is planning on dumping their call letters, but I hope so. There is no use hanging onto them. If they’re going to change - and drastically - there is no reason to hold back. The WNEW-FM that spit out several generations of Rock music is dead. Long live the King. It’s foray into talk radio that began in 1999 really ended in a pathetic dissaray with the firing of Opie and Anthony.
With the amount of money parent companyInfinity is pumping into this makeover, it will be interesting to see what levels of success it can reach.
The station’s new slogan is "Blink and you’ll miss it". In this competitive business, you can take that more than one way.
