what will become of Weasel?
a moment of silence please for the demise of WHFS, which for a long time was just about the only place to hear decent new music in the entire Washington DC area. when i first learned of a world of music that didn't exist in my parents record collection or on top 40 radio in the very late 80s, WHFS was there to teach me my Squeezes from my TMBGs, my Ramones from my Replacements. over the years they became much more mainstream just as "alternative" music did and when Infinity bought them in 1996, well that was the final nail in the coffin as they moved to playing a constant stream of Pearl Jam, STP, the Offsrping and lord only knows what else these days. but as another station falls to the specter of demographics, it still seems to be an unfitting end for a station that undoubtedly molded many more minds than just mine.
The Washington-area FM radio station WHFS, long a pioneering purveyor of alternative rock, did a programming U-turn at noon today by ditching the genre for a Spanish-language, Latin music format featuring middle-of-the-road superstars such as Marc Anthony and Juan Luis Guerra.
WHFS-FM 99.1, the radio station behind the popular alt rock music festival called "HFStival," is now "El Zol," featuring Caribbean and Central American music, according to a prepared statement released by Infinity Broadcasting, the station's owner.
here is a brief history of WHFS and another intersting article (albeit 7 years old) called "Who Killed Rock Radio?".
Comments
Weasel was let go a few years back. I heard him this past weekend while I was in MD, he's on some other station now. He sounded just as sleazy as ever.
Posted by: dan | January 12, 2005 11:06 PM
you're right. they did a depressing slide into the muck but this story still saddens me somehow. it's amazing to think that not that long ago they had bands like the candy flips and kitchens of distinction in their top 99 songs of the year. oh how i miss the late 80s/early 90s music scene. i do not however miss weasel although i do miss "my three songs." a perfect game for music nerds.
Posted by: crispin | January 13, 2005 09:26 AM
Wow - shocking. I never listen to the radio anymore becuase I don't have a car, but I did go to a few HFStivals in my day, and they were always fun. So what's left for the cool kids to listen to in DC? Don and Mike?
Posted by: mas | January 13, 2005 11:30 AM
HFS has been intolerable for a number of years now. DC101 sucks. Arrow 94.7 plays the perfect drive time classic rock, which sadly is the best rock radio in DC. This uncool kid in DC listens to public radio and WTOP for traffic and weather on the 8s. Having a six disc changer in the dash and friends with many CDs for me to burn helps a whole lot.
Posted by: jake | January 13, 2005 11:48 AM
There's also Annapolis's WRNR (103.1-FM), but you can barely get it in the District. The rumor on dcrtv.com is that WRNR is going to move to 94.3 so it can be heard in D.C. and not just in Annapolis.
WHFS had been dead for a while. Sadly, the only radio I listen to these days is sports talk.
Posted by: Matt | January 13, 2005 12:31 PM
I interned at WHFS in summer 1993 and worked on the HFS-festival at RFK. I think INXS headlined, if you can believe it. One of my main tasks was calling the Nickelodeon channel repeatedly and pursuading them to send us ten 55-gallon drums of Double Dare slime, which we somehow worked into a contest-promotion in the parking lot.
Anyhow, my summer there convinced me that (a) the station was doomed, (b) radio was absolutely the lowest form of art and (c) I wanted no part of it. I did get to meet the dude from the Smithereens, which was cool, and he invited a bunch of us to come see them at the 930 club (the show was so-so).
Weasel is about five-foot-two and looks kind of like Gallagher.
Posted by: Dave Nelson | January 13, 2005 01:08 PM
in NYC we are fortunate to have WFMU and (in the afternoons) WNYU, both of which play music in which i am vastly more interested than anything else on the radio. it's not always something you want to hear, and the reception can be spotty at best, but at least it's something. of course i still spend a lot of time listening to sports talk as well, at least the stuff that's not totally execrable (i.e. anything involving Rob Dibble). oh how i wish i could get Kronheiser's show here, though.
and speaking of Gallagher, did everyone read the interview with him that CSTB posted the other day? highly recommended:
http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/index.php?p=720
Posted by: jamie | January 13, 2005 02:44 PM
Great interview. Everybody else's act sucks! At least he's not bitter.
Posted by: jake | January 13, 2005 03:19 PM
That's probably why I had Gallagher on my mind. My favorite part of that interview is where he says he says that other hacks like Jim Carrey and Dave Letterman were more successful than him because "America doesn't want the heroic or the moral." A recent Dave Chappelle show featured a bit in which he played the Black Gallagher. I almost pissed my pants.
Posted by: Dave Nelson | January 13, 2005 03:41 PM
Satellite, people. Satellite.
I went to the HFS-festival in 94 or 95 for the Hatchet and it was Radiohead and it was great b/c they rule but every single other aspect of the event, from the expo-type set-up in the basement of the old convention center on a nice Sat afternoon, to being the oldest person there at 19, blew.
I don't get how Infintiy din't tell anyone. Someone on our kickball email mentioned it but it just happened w/o warning. I was in my car later that day and flipping a bit and came to it and was thrown for a second, I had forgotten, and the music, it was the most sterotypical mexican hat dance song and I was like, is this a joke? There's great Spanish-language music, the crap Infinity is playing isn't some of it. I feel like they're digging their own grave, these dumb radio people, I'll bet satellite radio subscriptions in DC double in the next week. I got to meet the two hosts of "Beer Radio" in the past month for work and they're at Infinity but they've already struck a deal for Sirius, which is also the same outlet where my boyfriend, Eminem has a new channel. And I thought I heard something about Chuck D moving his rap show there? But F Howard Stern, he's not funny any more, just sad.
Posted by: Claire | January 13, 2005 09:44 PM
Korheiser's show will be simulcast on XM starting next month, if you want to go that route. Also, you can get it at sportstalk980.com.
Plus, ESPN didn't renew Dibble's contract. He's gone from their airwaves.
Posted by: Matt | January 14, 2005 04:24 PM
so are we looking at a world where all cars will be designed with two slots for in-dash radios? or will someone create a radio that picks up both xm and sirius? this is looking to be a huge dilemma on the horizon. it's a bigger issue than blu-ray or HD-DVD!
Posted by: marc b. | January 18, 2005 12:20 PM