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QWK Rock changes its tune: Station shifts format to conservative talk [The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.]
[August 04, 2009]

QWK Rock changes its tune: Station shifts format to conservative talk [The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.]


(Centre Daily Times (State College, PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 4--After almost 40 years on the air, a local radio station known for playing modern rock music went silent Monday morning, replaced by the steady tones of conservative talk radio hosts.



WQWK, broadcast at 103.1 FM, will not return to the airwaves but will continue to be streamed online, according to the vice president of the media group that owns WQWK.

"We clearly made a format change on 103 FM," said Forever Broadcasting's Dave Davies on Monday afternoon. He said there was a "lot of thought" behind the format change.


"You know, radio certainly has to look at what audiences they're serving ... and the youth market was in fact being served by our other rock format, The Bus," he said. "And what we thought was State College, Centre County, has a lot of educated people, a lot of diversity ... so what we're trying to do in Centre County is really serve the interests of what is known as the conservative thinker and the progressive thinker." To serve both of those audiences, Davies said 103.1 will become a conservative talk radio station while its sister station, WRSC 1390 AM, will air "progressive talk." The station's morning news talk program, featuring Kevin Nelson and Pat Boland, will be simulcast on both stations.

1965:WQWK first signs on air as "Quick Radio" 1969:Begins rock format Mid-1980s:Becomes Top 40 station; frequency at 96.7 FM 1989:Returns to classic rock format; changes frequency to 97.1 FM 1993:Modern WQWK "QWK Rock" emerges 2004:Moves to 98.7 FM 2006:Moves to 103.1 FM Monday:Replaced by conservative talk radio station Read online, among dozens of comments about this story. You can join the conversation today.

"I cannot believe this. I went through high school AND college with this station in the background. It was the only decent one you could get! I don't even live in State College anymore and I could cry over this one." kopannie "Conservative talk radio makes big bucks due to the fact that a lot of folks are starving for some truth in the 'news' arena. This is a good thing for the general population." Fred "Talk radio is nothing more than trash spewing propaganda for those (who) care not to think. Who in their right mind listens to people who say one think when they are in power but another when they aren't." kfred "What a shame that an era has been yanked from the people of State College. I was responsible for flipping QWK Rock from Top 40 to the rock format in 1988 and was very happy to be a part of a community active radio station that had its hands in everything from the Dance Marathon to the Regatta. This is yet another incident to support my theory of how greed and lack of foresight has ruined the radio industry." "Like any other media ... whether it is the CDT, the (Altoona) Mirror down here or another radio station -- you really have to look at what market is being served properly and what market is being underserved," Davies said. "And obviously talk is really hot these days ... certainly there is an explosion in talk in the United States." The media group is hardly alone in ending its broadcast of modern rock. In Boston, New York and Denver, major networks have announced they are pulling out of modern or alternative rock, many of them switching to talk or sports formats.

"There's been a move to FM news and talk for 20 years ... but it has picked up a lot of steam over the last year," said Sean Ross, executive editor of radio-info.

com, an online industry group.

Ross said the decline of rock music on the FM dial cannot be attributed to any one issue, but rather a culmination of many changes -- from the emergence of satellite service and Internet stations to a lack of super-groups within the rock genre.

"So there are all those issues, to which you can now add that guys ages 12 to 34 are less beholden to radio than they were 15 years ago," he said, as technology overtakes the FM airwaves. "There will be a moment in the not-to-distant future -- whether it's wireless broadband in the car or everyone has a 3G (wireless) network ... if WQWK goes away you'll just listen to the X or WRFF from Philly or whoever you like." Still, said Ross, even with the choices available to listeners the loss of a local rock voice was "regrettable ... and it's happening all over." Forever Broadcasting's statement came after the group declined to comment for nearly a week about the pending format change. When contacted last week about the end of QWK Rock, Davies said he "really can't comment on what is going on in our other markets." On Monday, when he spoke on behalf of the media group, he would only say that Forever's decision not to announce the change was a "management decision." "We thought it was just best to let the format be born and comment after the format was born," he said.

Nick Malawskey can be reached at 235-3928.

To see more of the Centre Daily Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.centredaily.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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