Here in Washington yesterday, a lot of local music fans got a surprise when alt-rock pioneer WHFS was pulled off the air in favor of a Spanish Language pop format.
One reporter called the move, "shocking," but just how shocking could it really have been when it was only a year ago that Long Island alt-rock outlet WLIR was erased in favor of another Spanish language station.
I'm not sure why this is such a surprise, as the sort of folks who listened to WHFS most often were the same sort of people who bemoaned the national homogenization of radio (me included) -- exactly the thing that finally choked the life out of the station, and contributed to its demise. So for most of its former fans, the WHFS they came to love died a long time ago.
These people are pretty easy to spot in the D.C. area, as we're permanently jacked into our MP3 players.
Here's a thought: What are you talking about when you refer to the "Old WHFS"? Do you mean the Damian Einstein pre-auto accident era? Or is it the station's "progressive rock" roots? Maybe you just pine for the days of Weasel's "My Three Songs," Gina Crash and the daily Planet of the Apes singalong? Or even the days when the HFStival was at Lake Fairfax Park, and the DJs would complain that the Washington Post wouldn't ever cover the concert?
As for the local music scene, the Black Cat and the 9:30 Club will still sell out. And besides, when was the last time anyone significant was broken on WHFS? These days, a band like that is just as likely to reach new fans via Indiefeed or a free and legal bitorrent than anywhere else.
So cry if you must. Just know that the only thing left to bury is a dried husk of a corpse that only recently realized it was actually dead.
All excellent points.
Myself, I mourn for the late-eighties HFS, when it was alternative when “alternative” meant something. (Or even before, when it was oddball freeform radio, a genuinely surprising grab bag of the brilliant, the weird, and the horrible.) It was also one of the few outlets for indigenous D.C. rock bands.
Of late, you’re absolutely right, it’s been pretty bland. And, heck, last time I was in town, I caught Weasel on a different station. So sic transit gloria mundi.
In the words of Channel Ocho’s Bumblebee Man, “
thanks for the piece and the good links, Eric. The news of the passing of HFS got me reminiscing about its quick decline after the departure of Jake Einstein (and the disappearance from HFS of Bob Here, Damien, Susan D, Tom T, the Daily Feed, and so many other things that made the station great when we were in college), and its continual decline into stunning mediocrity. When I can satisfy my curiosity for new and different music on the internet (WFMU, WMUC, and a host of other options), why subject myself to the crass commercialization of Infinity Broadcasting?
I heard this on NPR this morning, and my first thought was, “Good!”
Before I moved to DC in ‘96, I used to visit a lot, and I envied the region for having such a kick-ass FM radio station. Shortly after I moved, however, they went soft and bland, or as they called it, “alternative.” “New bands” came to mean Matchbox 20 and Alanis Morrisette. HFS became a dime-a-dozen top-40 rock station, which was especially annoying for a town that didn’t have strong college radio.
I moved away from DC in 2000, and I hadn’t thought about HFS for a while until I heard the NPR piece this morning. Here in the Bay Area, we had a similar thing happen — a rock station going Latino overnight — a few months. Societies change, and Infinity knows where they’re bread’s gonna be buttered in 21st century America. But HFS needed to die. Good riddance.
Hearing the NPR piece brought back so many memories — I used to live in Annap. right next door to Neecee (overnights) who drove a Yugo that never ran, so she was often forced to hijack the WHFS slantmobile — Anyway…Can anyone define for me the songs that Weasel used to play on WHFS Friday nights at 6pm? I can remember The Beastie Boys “Fight for your Right”, also Wild Weekend, but not by NRBQ and that song, “It’s a Party, I’ts a Party Party Weekend” but would love to have the whole thing on my Ipod. Help??????