If you’ve tuned into 92.1 FM in the past two weeks, you might’ve thought you were losing your mind or listening to college radio. Silversun Pickups, in the land of the repeat-and-retread rock radio format? Cage The Elephant and Broken Bells? The gods must be crazy.
In many markets, at least one commercially owned station playing quasi-under-the-radar rock is expected. And it’s worth noting that 92.1, since it switched from its previous Cool 92 oldies format, does play some run-of-the-mill modern rock or ’90s favorites you can get elsewhere on the dial, like Green Day, Dave Matthews Band or Shinedown. But around here, different can be rare, and this station is different.
“From what I know, it’s the first of its kind (in the area),” said Willobee Carlan, operations manager for Shamrock Communications, where he is also program director for 92.1 and Rock 107.
I met with Willobee Monday afternoon at Northern Light in Scranton to talk to him about 92.1’s new format. Listeners he’s heard from since “we kind of snuck on the air” on Sept. 16 have been “shocked in a good way,” he said.
Before Willobee took his new job in April, he ran WEQX in Albany, N.Y.— which under his leadership was the first station in the country to play artists like Matisyahu and Gnarls Barkley, he said. Before he started his new gig, he did not have a set plan for 92.1. “One thing that I learned programming radio is not to have preconceptions, because there’s a 50-50 chance you’re wrong,” he said. “I spent a lot of time getting to know Wilkes-Barre and Scranton very well and talking to a lot of people,” conducting what he called “my own little focus groups,” before deciding to flip 92.1’s format.
Disappointed former Cool 92 listeners, he politely and honestly noted, can find what they like elsewhere if they’re not enamored with the new station, which has been promoting itself with digital billboards listing what song it’s currently broadcasting as well as the “Seinfeld”-esque slogan “More music. Less yada yada.”
Willobee agreed with my assertion that it’s not a coincidence that artists like Arcade Fire and Ryan Adams have not been played by non-collegiate radio stations in NEPA and that those artists skip Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when it comes time to book tours. So, will airplay for “alternative” music (that’s in quotation marks because the word “alternative” seems to be relatively meaningless these days, and the word “indie” might be taking things a step too far here) mean some different artists will bring their concerts to NEPA? Maybe. Time will tell. Based on its playlist so far, comparing 92.1 to a tastemaker station like KEXP in Seattle or WXPN in Philadelphia is a stretch. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because the station is less than a month old. Change, as some pundits will be more than happy to tell you, can be an empty word. But, from my view as a sometimes frustrated radio listener, in this case, change is good — and potentially great.
A TASTE OF LIVERPOOL
This weekend, Classical Mystery Tour will team with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic for shows in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, and Joe Ohrin will bring his Almost John Lennon project to Eleanor Rigby’s — an appropriately named venue for the show, naturally, and on Oct. 8, one day before what would’ve been Lennon’s 70th birthday.
The Philharmonic’s Executive Director Nancy Schmitt Farkas said she expects both Classical Mystery tours to sell out. The timelessness of the Beatles’ music should help draw some attendees a little younger than the average philharmonic fan, too. This dovetails nicely with the philharmonic promoting itself to area college students, a text-message ticket contest campaign and an increased social networking presence.
When Ohrin told me about Almost John Lennon and directed me to one of his video clips, I was very impressed. You can find it yourself by searching “Almost John Lennon” and “Joe Ohrin” on YouTube.
Ohrin, known to many in the area for his standup comedy, bears a resemblance to Lennon, both visually and vocally; he voiced the late legend on MTV’s “Celebrity Death Match.”
“I do live vocals and play guitar along to the songs, and I use some background tracks,” Ohrin said of his Almost John Lennon show, which hits Rigby’s Friday night.
“I’m just presenting him in a fun kind of way,” said Ohrin, who stays in the Lennon character between songs and dresses the part, favoring the latter, New York City-T-shirt era Lennon look. He’s brought his Lennon act to the River Street Jazz Caf�’s open-mic nights, he said.
The Beatles are still the most important band in rock history, 40 years after they released their last album. Their appeal is still lively all over the world, and that includes NEPA, as evidenced by this weekend’s Fab Four events and last weekend’s appearance by “Yellow Submarine” animator Ron Campbell at Mount Airy Casino.
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