“60 Minutes With” New York’s New Rock 101.9

And with a blink of an eye, albeit a year long blink, Merlin Media has brought alternative music back to the FM airwaves in both Chicago and New York. In New York, New Rock 101.9 (with an awesome logo to boot) has been back on the air for less than two weeks. It was announced last week that they would retain the WRXP call letters that were utilized when Emmis was running an alternative station in NYC for much of the 2000′s. We asked Operations Manager Jim Richards if the same musical strategy would take place as it was under then Program Director Leslie Fram telling Alternative Contraband, “we retained the ‘RXP call letters mostly for sales and advertising.  People in that community are used to RXP for Arbitron ratings or knowing that that means alternative so we are doing that but not going to call it RXP. New Rock 101.9 is the name so strategically we are different and modeling it different…”

WRXP, as you recall, had a AAA lean. Richards tells Alternative Contraband that New Rock 101.9 strategically is “ a mainstream alternative radio station for New York City.”

And in our listening, it sounds different than any alternative station New York City has had in a long time, if ever. K-Rock/NYC was very rock leaning and New Rock 101.9 is nowhere near that.  And since so many great songs have come out in the past year, New Rock 101.9 currently and understandably has a recurrent heavy sound. That said, it sounds very fresh and contemporary leaving much of the 90′s music in the rearview mirror.

Check out the music and messaging from our “60 minutes with” aural visit with New York’s New Rock 101.9:

Wednesday August 1st 6:55

Legal ID                   WRXP-FM New York WRXP HD1 Alternative is back and it missed you something awful
Foster The People               Don’t Stop
Female recorded backsell
Sweeper                      New Rock For New York on 101.9
Young The Giant              My Body
cold segue
Third Eye Blind               Jumper
Sweeper                      Musical discovery happens on 101.9
Lumineers                        Ho Hey
female recorded backsell
Weezer                              Beverly Hills
Sweeper                       New York’s New Rock 101.9
Neon Trees                        Everybody Talks
cold segue
Of Monsters & Men          Little Talks
Promo                           You have 101 messages. Hi this is XXX from Jersey and thank you for bringing  Alternative back” 800-423-1019. New
Rock 101.9
Spots
Sweeper out of spots   Alternative is back and it sounds like this. Hooks from Alex Clare, Linkin Park, Black  Keys.Yea, we’ve missed you too.         New Rock 101.9
The Cure                            Friday, I’m In Love
Sweeper                         101.9 New York’s New Rock
The Naked & Famous       Young Blood
female recorded backsell
Lemonheads                       Mrs. Robinson
sweeper                          You look different, did you grow your hair out? Now that Alternative is back, we’ve got some catching up to do.
Candlebox                         You
sweeper                           You found us and we found this for you. It’s like a musical buried treasure. New Rock 101.9
Florence + The Machine  No Light No Light
female recorded backsell
Queens Of The Stone Age   No One Knows
sweeper                             101 9 New York’s New Rock
Linkin Park                      Burn It Down
Legal ID                   WRXP-FM New York WRXP HD1 Alternative is back and it missed you something awful
Walk The Moon                Anna Sun

New Rock 101.9 has a clean, hip presentation utilizing a recorded female voice to quickly backsell titles that have not been exposed in the market. The station’s messaging is clear focusing primarily on the key positioner “New York’s New Rock 101.9″ and secondary positioners like ”musical discovery happens on 101.9″ to introduce new songs. The tone of the writing is extremely listener focused with statements like “Alternative is back and it missed you something awful” and “yea, we’ve missed you too” versus the oft heard chest thumping “we’re back” verbosity.

Give it a listen yourself http://www.newrock1019.com/

So, when is the station going to staff up and grow arms and legs? Richards excitedly tells us “we’re searching for a PD and air staff eventually slow row for now. We will be very clean for the next 60 to 90 days.  We will add slowly some people into the mix, but again, probably not many former RXP people.”

So, a new dawn of Alternative radio in New York is off to a great sounding start. Congrats to Richards and his team for building a great foundation. The story will continue to unfold with new hirings over the next few months. Alternative Contraband will keep you updated on all the happenings.