First Listen: KBZC (the Buzz) Sacramento
Written May. 26, 2009 by Sean Ross in Terrestrial Radio with 1 Comment
Last fall, when the all-'90s format had not yet made its way beyond Sirius XM Radio to a large-market FM signal, we were very candid about both the reasons that the format would be hard to do (not a decade that contributes a lot of strong testers beyond Rock radio, lots of warring musical factions, rhythmic music that has already failed to take hold as its own format) and why it was inevitable (the very successful all-'80s stations were already in evidence a decade ago, every generation demands its own Oldies, and an economic downturn was likely to help things along).
The '90s are certainly the music of many current programmers' lives; I arrived at a client's group programming meetings the evening the article was published and many excited hours of lobby discussions ensued. So you can expect Entercom's KBZC (the Buzz) Sacramento, Calif., to draw some fire from both sides -- those who use any new gold-based format (including the still-vital Bob- and Jack) as an excuse to give their "fad format" stump speech and those who do have a personal attachment to the music and have their own idea how it should sound.
But this morning, on day four, The Buzz was cohering pretty well. With the exception of the first two songs in the hour below, most of the songs would have either been heard next to each other on the Top 40 radio of the '90s or should have been. Skid Row's "I Remember You" was already gone from the radio by the time the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Give It Away" came along two years later. And in the prevailing wisdom of 1993, there was no station that would have played either of them along with Snoop Dogg's "Gin & Juice." (Possible exception: WHYT Detroit.) But from a 2009 standpoint, one recognizes all three songs as having appealed to a lot of the same guys.
Here's The Buzz at 7 a.m. this morning:
Dr. Dre, "Dre Day"
Sheryl Crow, "My Favorite Mistake"
Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Give It Away"
Snoop Doggy Dogg, "Gin & Juice"
Skid Row, "I Remember You"
Kid Rock, "Cowboy"
Will Smith, "Gettin' Jiggy With It"
Depeche Mode, "Personal Jesus"
No Doubt, "Spiderwebs"
Fugees, "Killing Me Softly"
Duran Duran, "Ordinary World"
Natalie Merchant, "Kind And Generous"
Prince, "1999" (did chart again in 1999 because of New Year's Eve play)
Blues Traveler, "Run-Around"
Nirvana, "Come As You Are"
Reader Comments
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That is a strong hour of music IMO. It's funny in some ways to see Dr. Dre and Natalie Merchant in the same hour of music, but I own CDs from both artists. Actually, with the exception of Will Smith and Skid Row, I've owned CDs for every other artist on that list. And I fit into the 18-34, 18-49, and 25-54 demos...