The Infinite Dial

I grew up with this radio station and it's such a sad moment in my life to see them move on. 99x will be greatly missed on the dial.

I can remember vividly the day 99X signed on the air. I was working at Radioactive Records as the National promoguy, and was in Atlanta on a roadtrip with +Live+ who were playing in town that night. I took them to WRAS that day, which as we know, was the only "alternative" game in town......until that day. After i dropped the band off at the hotel in the mid-afternoon, being the radio-geek I am, I drove around for almost 3 hours listening to that first day of 99X.

Brian, Lislie, and Sean found a place for Dave Matthews Band when others felt "it just doesn't fit". Boy did 99 X make it fit. Thanks.

I too agree it is a sad day 99X vanishes from the market and format world!

Unfortunately, due to its poor run in recent years, there seemed like there was not much to do.

I've felt for some time, converting the station into a "classic" alternative could have had success. But all must recall Atlanta is heavily covered by a wealth of younger appeal stations.

Here's to a great 15 year success! We'll miss you on radio's real deal connection!

Goodbye 99X -- I concur that the influence it had was felt on stations all across the southeast.

Thanks for the acknowledgement of 99X's lasting imprint. And, as always, I thought you chose the perfect song to explain the special essence of 99X in its prime -- Tracy Chapman's "Gimme One Reason". Thanks especially to Sean and Leslie, the station was frequently a first home for "homeless songs" that eventually became mass appeal hits. BP

I moved to Atlanta in '89 as a teenager and found Power 99.

I have been a dedicated listener ever since, and have followed the station through its format changes and personality changes.

Some personalities I was happy to see go, others I still miss (Rich, Toucher, Jimmy).

I'm not sure I'll be able to check out their new format online. Maybe they can pull it off and start a new trend.

Thank You to 99x/Power 99 for 19 years of unforgettable radio!!
ChatterBox

I started listening to Power 99 in the 5th, and then to 99X from the 7th grade until today. It's the station I grew up with and it seriously got me through high school. It's the place where I formed my musical persona. Even to this day, I think 99X plays music that you can't get on any other station in Atlanta. I truly feel like "I AM 99X". Thanks for the last 16 years of my musical life!

man, i loved that station in their 90's heyday. wilco's live x was still the best show i ever saw. big days out 1,2,&3. it really turned me on to so many bands, i cant even imagine how many. i guess i forgive them for sucking those last few years. thanks yall.

Don't forget the amazing image of Keith Eubanks!

It's sad that a great radio station is being replaced by yet another boring Top 40 station. I mean how many frickin' Clear Channel Top 40 stations do we need? If I want to hear Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, or Timbaland I already have lots of choices and don't need more (eg Star 94).

All I can say is thank God for my iPod, and streaming audio. I guess I'll be listening to more talk radio and Neal Boortz from now on (unfortunately).

Clear Channel is destroying every vestige of originality and variety that made radio exciting.

THIS SUCKS!!!
MORE THAN SUCKS!!!
MORE THAN REALLY SUCKS!!!
YOU WILL BE MISSED!!

Editor's note: Q100 and 99X are owned by Cumulus. Clear Channel's only role in 99X's demise was as a competitor with the Buzz and then with WKLS (Project 9-6-1).

Wow, I've been a loyal listener since 1994--99x has always played (mostly!)the music I was into, and introduced me to new music along the way. Their leaving the airways is truly sad for Atlanta's music scene--what about Organic X, On the Bricks, Unplugged in the Park, Big Day Out?!? Leslie, Sean, and Brian--thanks for the memories and music--I guess I'll be listening to my iPod now.

99x was awesome, how many artists actually became famous because of 99x? Sean Mullins comes to mind right away...all I can say is top 40 stations are Garbage. Tell hell with this, I am getting Sirius.

Screw you Cumulus.

Ok, this morning I received a trajic surprise when I turned on 99x to find the boring Bert show. What the hell? Who makes these stupid decisions? I thought I might give this lame show a try and after a few minutes of listening to them play Guitar Hero on the air and the sidekicks cracking up like it was the funniest thing ever I deceided that my new morning station will be NPR. If I can't get interesting or funny then I might as well be well informed. Bert show sucks.

I still remember living in Atlanta in the '90s and listening to Barnes, Leslie and Jimmy every morning on my way to work. The music was great, but so was the morning chatter and the ridiculous bits: "How you durrin'," "Hey, Queen!", the April Fool's joke when Leslie was "fired" for not being attractive enough and listening to all the outraged fans leaving voice mails for the GM, etc. I still keep the "Live X II" CD in my car and listen to it all the time. Where else would you hear Live, Crowded House, Tori Amos, REM/U2, Sheryl Crow with John Popper, and Tony Bennett all on the same live CD? While I didn't like 99X for the past few years, after Barnes and then Jimmy left and the song choices fell into an ever-narrower range, I'm sad you guys are gone. Thanks for making the '90s the '90s. 99X rocks.

Imagine my surprise this AM when I heard some nobodies interviewing Jordan Sparks! I have Satellite and I'll just be listening to that from now on. I'll miss Leslie and the morning gang. The morning show and NPR are the only terrestrial radio I had listened to. As my husband says, this is just another sign of the apocalypse.

I am so happy to hear that 99X is gone. I hated their morning show - No more Shawn, Leslie, and especially Jimmy... So bah-bye, folks. That said, I too am bored to tears with the radio music scene in this city. It's either pop or hip-hop, neither one of which strikes a chord for me. It drove me to buy XM radio. Fortunately, XM (and my iPod!) give me much more to choose from.

OK, what just happened here?!!! I think a lot of people can relate to my opinion when I say that most people in their early thirties DO NOT want to listen to yet another station dedicated to Beyonce, Britney and other overexposed artists. I moved to Atlanta in late 2000 and was quite impressed with 99x, especially their morning show and Toucher late in the evening. The station was a little boring over the last couple of years, but was the only place to hear new and old alternantive. It really saddens me that people would rather listen to Britney Spears than real artists like Foo Fighters. Yuck!!

99X started out with great promise in the 90's. I can remember the first day they switched over, how great it was to be able to hear the music I like without having to listen to my worn out squeaky tapes over and over. Of course that didnt last long and they started sucking, pretty much playing "top 40 alternative" in my opinion. I have hardly listened to them in the past two years mainly because I dont like what I considered to be "wimpy" alternative music. Still, it is sad to see them go, mainly because the Atlanta radio market for the most part sucks. Thats why I have a stereo in my car that plays mp3 disc's and can hook up to my mp3 player.

I grew up listening to 99x. I know my mom hated me listening to them when I was in middle school. Half of their conversations were over my head, but I still loved the music. Sean, Leslie and Jimmy, will always be a fond memory of music. All the radio stations play the same sequenece of music every hour or so. I think after my meager restitution comes in the form of tax refund, I think I will get Sirius or XM.

Yes, thank the lord for ipod's. Now, with 99x gone, where on the local dial, do i turn to hear music that is not or not yet on my ipod?

Oh my god. I am so sad. I can't even see straight. 99X was one of the best parts of living in Atlanta. I am so depressed! Someone, PLEASE, do something.....QUICK!

What the hell!!!!!!

RIP 99x! I almost cried this morning when I heard the Bert show on 99.7. I have no idea what I'm going to listen to anymore. There is nothing on Sirius or XM that even compares. I feel like throwing a tantrum like a 2 year old. I guess I'll listen to my iPod and scour the Internet for new music.

WTF? 99x was the only thing that kept me from ripping the tuner out of my car and replacing it with nothing but an MP3 player...

It's as if a friend has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and have been given until Friday to live.

I'm not the sentimental sort, but this saddens me. Amazingly, Leslie Fram has become the good friend I've never met and I hate that she and her cohorts won't be apart of my daily routine going forward.

Yet another reason to move out of Atlanta...

With 99X gone, Atlanta radio has nothing to offer. I've been listening since Day 1. I'm devastated. 99X was the only Atlanta station that offered adult humor and discussion. I can't stomach the "cheesy" shows offered elsewhere along the dial. Can't even believe we're left with Bert. Who are these people anyway?

Thank God 99x is gone! The last few years they have really went down hill. Their morning show was never funny, the DJs there thought they were way cooler than they were. I have been a loyal WRAS listener ever since Leslie stopped doing the 90s at 9 but every now and again would try to give 99x a chance but they could never have what they used to have. I blame Bubble Gum Alternative really I think this was a great decision and i agree go buy Sirius radio

It's sad to see a unique radio station leave the air. I moved here two years ago and my radio dial hadn't moved after I found 99x. The range of music offered was far better than most of the stations in L.A. Now it's been replaced with yet another Top 40 station filled with mindless tripe.

I wonder if Cumulus has stock in Siruius or XM radio and this is just a conspiracy to get listeners to sign up for subscription services.

I dearly hope another company has the vision to fill the void left by the demise of 99x and bring another station to the airwaves that will dare to take chances and not succumb to the trend toward mediocre clones.

Thanks for the ride, 99x. It was fun while it lasted.

Man, this sucks big time. I've been listening to them since they started up. hell, I even won a car, snowboard, and a mountain bike from Axel back in 2003. This is a very sad day in Atlanta radio. Axel, rock on, you are one of the best around. RIP

I want my radio station back!!!

I'm been listening to the radio in ATL since 1990. 99x will leave a massive hole in an already poor market for music. Thanks goodness for XM/Sirius. 99x, I will miss you and always remember you.

I remember moving to the Atlanta with Georgia-Pacific in February of '95 from Maine. I spent a couple months going back to ME on the weekends while we were waiting to have our 3rd child before moving the family down here. I used o tell everyone back home about this awesome radio station in Atlanta - 99X. I never knew Bush, Portishead, The Offspring, PJ Harvey - any of these great bands - until I heard 99X. Now my oldest son (who is a freshman in college) says, "Dad, why is 99X going away?" He grew up listening to it. We'll miss you guys!

WTF Clear Channel??? Top 40?? You have to be kidding me! 99X was my favorite station and Atlanta will never be the same. I will never listen to radio again!

I'm so irritated that 99x is gone, it was a staple part of my morning routine and commute. The Bert show sucks in my opinion, and I'm going to miss Leslie dearly. I used to work in the same building as the radio station and thought it was so cool that I worked so close to 99x. Guess not anymore...

I encourage all of you to send e-mails to the General Manager of the station: Gary.Lewis@cumulus.com

While I will miss aspects of 99X (Sunday School, Metroplex and Organic X in particular!), it should not be missed that Atlanta DOES have some FANTASTIC radio stations. They are not all "mainstream alternative all the time" like 99X mostly was (and I say that in a good way), but do not miss out on stations like WRAS, WREK and WRFG which are all fantastic and continually supply me with great stuff to seek out and add to my ipod.

I won't miss 99Xs morning show at all, but I will miss it as a radio option and we definitely do NOT need more top 40 radio in Atlanta, so that part really sucks as well.

But don't miss these other great stations we have, cuz they are great radio!

Yea,
Well if they never changed about 2 years ago this never would have happened. Every since they did the "tell us what you want" crap, it kinda started sinking.
I will be the first person to say that 99x was the best station ever, but that changed 2 years ago. And with big contender Project 96.1 (then 105.3 the buzz) in town, they never had a chance.
If they were to air again today, I would hope that they would be the same alternitive station that they were 2 years ago.

This just gives me another reason not to move back to Atlanta.

99X you will be sorely missed. You made the awful trek through Atlanta worth all the hassels. You got my husband and I through many hours stuck in Atlanta traffic snarls!!!!

I remember an interview with one of the personalities that started 99X in the beginning (Brian? Sean?). They were asked, "what demographic do you think the station will appeal to?" And the answer was something along the lines of, "people listening to CD's in their cars."

It loks like that demographic is about to come back in a big way.

Cumulus created its own game of corporate twister. Hopefully heads will roll when reality makes it clear that rock 100.5 is doomed to mediocrity and eventual oblivion. So the 99x audience is shrinking. So what. It makes more sense to have flipped stations and allowing a personally committed audience to have its 100x. Heads will roll soon.

Wow, that sucks. I too remember when 99x came on the air, switching from Power 99. I thought it was great and we listened for hours and hours at college. I feel like I grew up with the station, and throughout the 90s my friends and I always listened to it, became Freeloaders, and went to countless events done by the station. We discovered all kinds of new music and heard stuff we'd never heard before, but I guess all good things come to an end. A couple of years ago they started becoming stale and I bought XM radio and haven't looked back; perhaps a lot of people left. Still it's a pang of regret and nostalgia as yet another great station is replaced by some mindless, corporate pablum. The Bert Show? Never heard of them, and I have no intentions of doing so either.

I've read most of the other posts on this blog and I have to agree that the station fell apart several years ago and has been running on fumes. I also agree with many of the posters that this station would be fine if they had only started doing what they did between 1992 and 2004.

I just got back from the Middle East 6 days ago to find that my radio station is gone. Thank you Cumulus.
The terrorists win.

Atlanta/Athens used to be an exciting place musically. 99x kept these fires burning. I owe my love of alternative music to the origional pioneers of this station. While like others I resisted the changes at the station, I will miss alternative music on the airwaves. I am now being pushed toward Youtube to get my alternative fix. What a shame.

I loved this station in the 90's, of course towards the end it became a bit to "poppy" and "bubblegum" for me... sort of sold out. That's why i'm not surprised it was replaced with a top 40 station that caters to the lowest common denominator. I will sorely miss it's passing though, because now there is only ONE station in Atlanta left that is even faintly rock and roll or alternative. Of course we have a dozen or so rap + r&b stations, and five or six stations in spanish... I just listen to my CD player 99% of the time now.

When I found out, I could not believe that THERE WAS ACTUALLY A TOP 40 STATION IN ATLANTA that ACTUALLY PLAYED REAL DANCE MUSIC! And of course it popped up right after I moved from there for good! Then that same year I moved to Phoenix Az, the dance leaning top 40 station we had here had just changed to HIP HOP AND R&B! I could not believe it! I was too pissed! But then we had another station that popped up playing r&b, hip hop AND dance, so it was o.k., but the dance music was only in the mixshows. However, this station actually introduced and took house music to another level here..... but I'll get to that later. Of course, the station did not last long and got bought out four times. I remember how they tried the hip hop and rock format for a while... so then the Hip Hop station picked up the Saturday night house music show and brought the Power Workout at Noon, when they played dance music, such as r&b/pop remixes, some house, and even some BOOTY BASS IN AZ, but more on the west coast electronic style.

Flash forward a few years later, we end up getting a real top 40 station as well, and this was good because when the hip hop station decided to drop the dance music and do hip hop many times throughout those past few years, at least it was heard on the top 40 station.

Flash forward a few months, towards the time when the whole Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez...etc style was blowing up, I went to Cuba. I connected flights in Atlanta. This was when I discovered the TOP 40 95.5 The Beat, because I was flipping through looking to see if there was anything new other than the same old boring Star*94 I had to depend on for any chance of dance at all. I actually heard "sexual" by Amber and it was at that moment I knew finally SOMEBODY in Atlanta realized there was more than just Booty Bass, and there were other forms of fast, uptempo music out there! It was followed by Freak Nasty "da dip", and then I even heard Eiffel 65, so I knew something was up. About two years later I go back to Atlanta and find out that 95.5 decided to go rhythmic and dropped the alternative and most of the dance, except in mixshows, however, there was the new Q100 that took that format. The only thing was that Q100 was only playing really really mainstream hits, and even during the Saturday night mixes, it was just the same stuff as always, just a bit more dance remixes and some Alice DeeJay...etc.

I move from Atlanta for good and decide to check back with Q100 and see they've completely dedicated their weekend nighttime mixshows to dance.

THIS WAS THE BEST ATLANTA HAS DONE FOR DANCE MUSIC EVER! I couldn't believe some of the stuff they were actually playing on Friday and Saturday nights live from the club, and not to mention, 95.5 The Beat also doing a bit of it too! Maybe they introduced a lot of stuff to Atlanta a few years late and people thought it was all new, but better late than never, right?

Well, flash forward to now, and 95.5 is now all hip hop like the Power station (now Power 98.3) we have here, and Q100 doesn't go as deep into dance anymore like before. I guess that was the best it was ever going to get for dance music in Atlanta, but here in Az, we have a top 40 station that plays more hip hop than usual, a rhythmic station like 95.5 The Beat, but the only difference is that now WE actually have a better variety here on 101.5 JamZ than The Beat in Atl, and Energy 92.7/101.1 which is ALL dance, and yes, Power 98.3 where Hip Hop lives, which I forget exists most of the time, but they are now similar to Hot 107.9, even though they play some stuff that Hot 107.9 still would never dear to touch, despite the fact that 107.9 has also seriously been toned down when it comes to music. I actually listened to Hot 107.9 and see that they are no longer "any harder" than our hip hop station here! I guess whoever is in control of the stations across the U.S. has gotten to all of them so they all now play the same ol' same ol' over and over again.

Oh yeah, and yes, thanks to the big reggaeton epidemic, we got a new bilingual station that plays r&b, pop, reggaeton, and hip hop in both spanish and english, so.... we've finally got variety here. I know you people from Atlanta are probably thinking "a station like the Que Viva we have in Atlanta?" NO. Que Viva is a spanish top 40 station. We have one like that too, IN ADDITION to the other one I was just talking about. I can't believe they even have a spanish station there in Atlanta finally! People are beginning to realize that there is more than just hip hop and r&b there....

Well...I just hope Internet radio takes over soon, because even Satellite radio does not provide the truest form of variety. They do have a lot, but I hope peopel start thinking and realize there are several stations on the internet that you could only dream of. I'm not just talking about dance. The only reason I got so much into the dance topic was because I couldn't believe it was actually playing in Atlanta, but they've got so much on Internet right now you have no idea. I can even listen to 2 STEP and GARAGE from the U.K. or even some BASSLINE tracks, or..... I bet I've lost just about everyone already.

This is why we need to quit brainwashing ourselves with this mainstream crap over and over and REALLY begin to discover music. I like the fact hat Sirius has a chill channel, light rock, oldies...even dance...AND REGGAE....etc, but.. there's still so much more missing.

I do have to agree that even though all these new statons popped up in Atlanta, radio there still pretty much sucks big time, and it's very unfortunate they all managed to pop up AFTER radio politics became very strictly enforced. Now it's basically just a couple of stations that are being forced to play the same thing over and over. That really sucks.

Well remember, INTERNET RADIO. Just wait until cars get internet service as well. That's coming soon. Forget H.D. radio. Doesn't look like that's going to be too much better. 99x became an INTERNET STATION. Think about it.... and read the blog on my page about it as well.

I was just sitting in my cubicle, thinking about how bad the music was that I listened to on my way in from work today. No funny disk jockey skits that are actually worth listening to (pranks on the 20's... didn't Bart Simpson used to do that stuff?) So I googled 99x and read this article.

I wish someone in the Atlanta market would play "Dig" I love that song.

There's something about having a DJ that you can somewhat relate to, play a song that you really like. I can't really explain it, but I can tell you for sure that it doesn't exist in Atlanta anymore.

THEYRE BACK!!!!
97.9
the signal sucks, but THEYRE BACK!!

I listened to Power 99 and then to 99X. I moved to PA, but have listened to 99X on the internet on occasion, this radio station going off the air is a loss the city of Atlanta. RIP 99X