New sounds in store rock station
The music scene on Logan’s radio airwaves is about due for a change.
Rock 95.9 KLZX will announce its new music format Monday at noon. One of the station’s new features is live disc jockeys, as it currently runs automated broadcasts.
One of the new disc jockeys is Scott Garrard, who currently can be heard all over the Cache Valley Radio Group’s stations.
During the last two weeks, listeners have heard an announcer, Sam O’Neill, say the format is changing, and he has invited people to call in and make suggestions as to what the station should play.
“We have received over 500 phone calls,” Garrard said.
Many of the phone calls are archived on the radio group’s server. Some of the calls were made by people who feel adamantly the station should make no change to the format.
However, calls that aired on the promos were made by people seeking change in the station’s musical selection. Different genres of music from Motown to jazz, hip hop to Celine Dion and country to R&B have been suggested.
In order to preserve the current musical selection, some callers have offered to be the new disc jockeys. Others have threatened to stop listening if the station plays “any of that rap crap or Motown crap.”
Heather Bailey, a salesperson for VFX, KVNU and KLZX, said KLZX had its inception Oct. 31, 2000 as an all-Christmas music station.
Bailey said as of Dec. 26, 2000, all that changed when an announcement was broadcast that day.
“This ain’t your grandma’s Christmas station,” Bailey said.
Since then, the station has played rock music while running on auto-pilot without a morning show like stations such as Q92, VFX and KIX 96 have.
Garrard said the morning show won’t be big, but live disc jockeys will be on the air throughout the day.
Bailey said sales have been great for KLZX, especially since VFX (formerly known as The Fox) changed from being a rock station to playing top-40.
She said the current format needs to be better-defined because the music played ranges from bands like the Beatles to Creed.
“That’s a 40-year span,” Bailey said.
Bailey drew an amoeba-shaped blotch representing the station’s current playlist on a piece of paper and circled the center of it, cutting off the outlying areas, making the whole of the blotch more consistent. That is the goal of the new format.
The Cache Valley Radio Group consists of FM stations VFX (94.5), KIX 96 (96.1), Q92 (92.9), Rock 95.9 and the recently-acquired KGNT (103.9). The group’s AM stations are KVNU (610) and KLGN (1390).