Follow up: Q-101 New and Improved? or...

The verdict is in: I'm convinced this station is a sinking ship. After they expanded their playlist on April 1, I programmed Q-101 into my FM presets to periodically check out their new(old) sound. After almost two weeks, I've probably listened to it for a total of about 20 minutes. As I mentioned on the first day of the format tweak, listening to the station completely maddening...in fact, now after checking it out a few times, it's actually become predictably bad. Digging that classic new wave track?? Better keep your finger on the dial, because the next track is almost guaranteed to be some nu-metal/hard rock BS. Shuffle my ass! Sounds like they're purposely arranging the playlist so that you always hear 1 new track, 1 80's track and 1 90's track in every 4-5 song set. It's really frustrating because some of the old songs they've dug up sound great...last night I heard "Cut You Up" by Peter Murphy and I totally cranked it up. But then they followed it up with "Enter Sandman" by Metallica!?! End result? Radio goes off, CD goes in. Luckily, I'm not the only one who thinks that Q-101's programming dept. is on crack. According to today's Feder column in the Sun-Times, many industry experts agree that the station's iPod-like "now on shuffle" modus operandi is seriously flawed: Should a medium that's already universal be comparing itself constantly to a new gadget that's in the craze phase?" the trade publication Inside Radio wondered Tuesday. "Radio in the '70s and '80s didn't compare itself to 8-tracks or cassettes...Mancow Muller, the Q-101 morning star who's missing from the current marketing campaign, finds his bosses' strategy downright hilarious. "Now I'm trying to talk them into sending XM and Sirius Satellite radios to everyone," he said with an evil laugh. So if anyone from the Q-101 staff is reading this, I'll reiterate what I said before about their brilliant plan to be a radio station that's "like an iPod on shuffle" Why would you want to listen to someone else's iPod that's stuck on shuffle and doesn't have a "skip" button?? Wouldn't you rather just listen to your own iPod that's filled with all of your favorite songs? ------------- Speaking of follow-ups, here's a quick Lollapalooza Chicago update: The pre-sale "bargain" tickets for $35 are already sold out. The 2000 that were alloted for the pre-sale sold out in about 90 minutes. Never being one to buy tickets ahead of time, I totally flaked out on this and didn't get to the website before they sold out. Oh well, the artist line-up still hasn't been announced, so I'm not kicking myself just yet. Plus, according to the website, there are still more "deals" to come. We'll keep you posted...