Keze Takes A Gamble On Adult Radio
After 14 years, Rock 106 is dead. Long live “105-dot-7, The Peak,” which has arisen in its place.
On Friday morning, KEZE-FM dropped the hard rock format it has had since 1981 and switched to an alternative rock format, featuring bands such as the Cranberries, Counting Crows, Alanis Morissette, Pearl Jam, U2 and The Presidents of the United States of America.
The very first song they played at 7:51 a.m. on Friday was R.E.M.’s “It’s The End of the World As We Know It,” (possibly symbolic for faithful listeners of the old format) and the second song was by Better Than Ezra.
The station let go its morning team last week, and it will go DJ-less for the time being.
New program director Scott Souhrada, who came here from Kansas City, said the format is not the much ballyhooed “adult album alternative (AAA)” format, but something “a little more contemporary” and “not as soft” as AAA. Yet still not nearly as hard as KEZE’s old format.
Souhrada said it is definitely an adult format. The target audience is men and women age 18-40. It is modeled partially after a successful alternative rock format in Denver, which is also called The Peak.
The old Rock 106 died at noon on Thursday when the last strains of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” faded away. Faithful listeners immediately recognized the symbolism: “Purple Haze” was also the first song Rock 106 ever played, back in 1981.
At that point, a computer-like voice began a countdown, which lasted nearly 20 hours until 7:51 a.m. Friday.
Fans of Rock 106 will no doubt miss the old station. But that hard rock format had been foundering lately, and an adult alternative format has been sorely missing in Spokane.
After a few hours of listening, this new format sounds pretty good to me, even though I’m past that upper target age.
Permanent Chihuly
The news just keeps getting better for those of us who are fans of Dale Chihuly’s glass art.
Not only is the big Chihuly exhibit opening Friday at the Jundt Art Center and Museum at Gonzaga University, but the museum will also get some permanent Chihuly works, thanks to some generous donors.
A large Chihuly chandelier and a collection of other Chihuly glass pieces have been donated to Gonzaga by benefactors Duff and Dorothy Kennedy of Seattle and Jim and Joan Jundt of Wayzata, Minn.
The chandelier will be in place for the museum’s dedication on Friday at 11 a.m. The rest of the permanent Chihuly collection will be gathered over the next few months.
Duff Kennedy is chairman of the Gonzaga Board of Trustees and the president of a financial firm in Seattle. Jim Jundt is a 1964 Gonzaga graduate, vice chairman of the Gonzaga Board of Trustees and chairman of a Minneapolis financial firm. The museum is named after the Jundts, who provided the lead gift in funding the building.
(Look for a major feature on the Jundt Art Center and Museum, and on the Chihuly exhibit, in Tuesday’s IN Life section.)
Chihuly lecture
By the way, Dale Chihuly’s free public lecture will be Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Spokane Room of the Gonzaga COG building.
Seattle’s opening act
After all of the anguish we experienced over the opening act for the Spokane Arena, I was intrigued to see that Seattle’s new KeyArena landed Peabo Bryson for its grand opening concert.
“See?” I thought to myself. “Seattle didn’t do much better. Peabo Bryson? The guy ain’t exactly Sinatra or the Three Tenors.”
But then I noticed that Peabo was just an added act. Jose Carreras, of Three Tenors fame, was already booked as the headliner, along with the Seattle Symphony.
Never mind.
Inlander’s second birthday
I was all set to congratulate The Inlander on its second birthday. I enjoy Spokane’s alternative newspaper and I read it every week. But then I read this week’s Buzz Bin, usually one of my favorite parts of The Inlander, and just had to shake my head.
They congratulated themselves for getting “the stories that mean the most, long before the daily papers and other media sources.” Then they ran a list of the stories that they “brought to your eyes before anyone else.”
Hmm, quite a few of these stories looked suspiciously like stories that have been plowed into the ground for years, by almost every media source in town.
For example, there’s the STA Plaza. You should get a load of The Spokesman-Review’s clip file on that subject. It begins in January 1988 and continues with story after story, month after month, year after year, practically ad nauseum, including big in-depth investigative pieces pre-dating The Inlander’s story.
The file on the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute is almost as massive. And as for “Sit and Be Fit” PBS exercise show, entire generations of feature writers explored that major public issue in August ‘87, March ‘88 and January ‘92, all before The Inlander was even born.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, here are the things that The Inlander should be bragging about on its second birthday.
The excellent piece by Nick Heil on Spokane’s destructive self-image as “Loserville.”
The fine writing by Amy Cannata on a variety of topics.
The irreverent tone of the Buzz Bin.
Editor Ted McGregor’s independent voice on civic issues.
Chris Toft’s thoughtful theater reviews.
The “Tom Tomorrow” cartoon, which is one of the highlights of my week.
And finally, they should be proud of surviving longer than practically any other alternative paper in Spokane. Now, there’s a “first” that really counts.
Harping on the subject
Don’t forget the massed-harp concert at St. John’s Cathedral, Grand and 12th, today at 4 p.m.
When else can you hear 38 harps, all in one place? It’s called the Harp Festival Concert, and admission is free (donations accepted).
Women artists
And don’t forget the Concert Enchante, a Habitat for Humanity Benefit Concert Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at The Met.
This concert features numerous women performers, including Kendall Feeney of Zephyr, soprano Sharon Daggett and actress Dorothy Darby Smith.
Tickets are $12 and $10 in advance, available by calling Habitat at 534-2552, or $15 and $12 at the door.
, DataTimes