Auntie Ordinary ([info]madame_foo) wrote in [info]atlanta,
@ 2008-01-11 23:38:00
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Current mood: pissed off

 

Steve (formerly) from the Steve Show

 

Last Updated:
Jan 11, 2008

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Gender: Male
Status: Engaged
Age: 101
Sign: Leo

City: Atlanta
State: GEORGIA
Country: US

Signup Date: 02/28/05

 

Friday, January 11, 2008

 

Wave goodbye to an era...
Current mood: sad

I really wanted to say goodbye. 
I remember when Sean Demery got to say goodbye several years back.  THAT was a great exit. Surrounded by the entire staff, he thanked, kudoed, wept and said goodbye. Today, the day that 99X ceased to exist, I was in the middle of my show, having been informed that my boss and longtime friend Leslie Fram and her morning show co-host (and a hell of a nice guy) Jenners were both fired.  I was trying to keep it together and be the professional music presenter that I am,  But you can only go so long wondering about your fate.  Some other staff members were being told that they were OK, but no one knew what was going to happen. I wondered why the corporate guy wouldn't come into the studio and say "Steve, don't worry, you're fine, and we'll talk more after your show"...  So I went to him and asked point blank.  I was told right then that I would no longer be needed, and they called in Axel to finish my last hour.

After 15 years, all I wanted to do was say goodbye.

Because I loved being with you every day... I love what I do, and I loved what I did at 99X.  Taking away the Retroplex was like lopping off a leg, and then being blamed for not being able to run.  That really broke my heart.  What really hurts, though, is that our corporate guys never really understood what 99X was. And they wouldn't listen to those who did. 

But what the "understanding few" accomplished here, I hope will never be forgotten. Because we did some pretty cool shit! 

So I join the spirit of Wil Pendarvis, Leslie Fram, Fred Toucher, Crash Clark, Jimmy Baron, and my best friend of almost 30 years, Sean Demery... and say

I WAS 99X!


That's what Steve Craig, apparently now the FORMER afternoon Jock at 99X for the last 15 years, wrote in his MySpace blog about 30 mins ago.

I don't know about you guys..but that SERIOUSLY bums me out.

Man..Do You Remember Rock N Roll Radio?
Does anyone anymore?


(Post a new comment)


[info]autifon
2008-01-12 04:55 am UTC (link)
What a fncking classless, corporate way to handle this. Amazing. Good for Sean for getting out last month! Amazing how they just shit on people who made the station.

Steve is awesome & I hope he finds a good place to land. I wonder if he'll move back to Cali?

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[info]madame_foo
2008-01-12 04:59 am UTC (link)
i dunno but this SERIOUSLY makes me wanna take up signs and protest at 99X's offices.

what a bunch of fucking morons and chicken shit know-it-alls!!!

in all seriousness..this REALLY bums me out.
i live for music.

the end of an era indeed.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]flyswatter
2008-01-12 05:07 am UTC (link)
Radio in Atlanta is seriously dead, at least commercial radio. There's a smallest common denominator mentality where the same music is played over and over and it's all about demographics and offending nobody. But I understand that for the most part it's that way all over the country. Me, I listen to NPR, college stations, and indie podcasts*. If I did a lot of cross country driving, I'd have satellite radio.

There was a time in the early 80s when we were just married and we were seriously broke--moving to Atlanta and finding our paychecks barely covered our rent and utilities. We had no furniture and slept on blankets on the floor, we didn't have a television, but we had a fairly good stereo. Our entire entertainment consisted of sometimes seeing second-run movies at the old Rhodes Theater, library books and the radio. I miss actually finding the radio entertaining.

People are growing ever more disgusted by the lame vanilla drivel that comes out of radios.

*Let the record show that I am a podcaster myself.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]itealaich
2008-01-12 05:29 am UTC (link)
This is why I have a CD player in my car. *sigh*

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]ikitten, 2008-01-12 08:16 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]nerdgirl, 2008-01-12 02:15 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]_stasha, 2008-01-12 02:49 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]dandyxr, 2008-01-12 05:56 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]ikitten, 2008-01-12 06:11 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]morethanpoor, 2008-01-13 01:58 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]materialgirlau, 2008-01-12 10:51 pm UTC

[info]cryo
2008-01-12 05:45 am UTC (link)
just stop listening. once corporate gets a clue that their advertising revenue has hit the shitter, then it'll be too late.

These guys should look at getting an XM channel for Retroplex.. or X99X

Either way, as it was already said, ATL radio is dead.

$5 says it'll turn into a Christian "rock" station.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

won't matter by then
[info]pkbarbiedoll
2008-01-12 01:57 pm UTC (link)
they'll just find cheaper syndications.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

(no subject) - [info]hooper_x, 2008-01-12 02:16 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]sirinek, 2008-01-12 09:17 pm UTC

[info]mermaidkween
2008-01-12 06:48 am UTC (link)
And this is why I love my XM.

(Reply to this)


[info]shanoyu
2008-01-12 11:04 am UTC (link)
Doh. That means everyone left at 99x is a character from the sad sad clear-channel alternative station sitcom that they've managed to set up in every market across the country.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]hooper_x, 2008-01-12 02:17 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]morethanpoor, 2008-01-13 01:56 pm UTC

[info]lupaloo
2008-01-12 12:44 pm UTC (link)
Video is exonerated. It was corporate greed that did it.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Ha - [info]muse0fire, 2008-01-12 05:05 pm UTC
Re: Ha - [info]ikitten, 2008-01-12 06:14 pm UTC

[info]shes_precious
2008-01-12 12:55 pm UTC (link)
OMG!

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[info]lordbleys
2008-01-12 01:50 pm UTC (link)
Wow.


Right before we left Boston Toucher and Rich (with Crash) came on the air at WBCN (104.1), and I knew they were from Atlanta but never figured out which station.


99X reminded me of WFNX 101.7 in Boston, it was a like a home away from homw. I'm really bummed by this. 99X was one of the best stations down here.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]marlatiara, 2008-01-12 02:31 pm UTC

[info]pkbarbiedoll
2008-01-12 01:56 pm UTC (link)
I can't remember the last time I listened to corporate radio. The ads and cookie-cutter music turned me off.

(Reply to this)


[info]cocakolis
2008-01-12 02:56 pm UTC (link)
Same damn thing happened to the station I worked for in Minneapolis before moving here this summer. They went from Alt Rock to Love songs of the 60's, 70's and 80's. I wasn't on air other than as an intern or V/O in station produced commercials but I mainly did promotions. I had quit a little before it happened but still had a bunch of friends there. The listening age went from 15-40 both male and female to pretty much 45-80 females. It's been sort of a pandemic across the country. Corporates just figure that its mostly older people listening to the radio these days since the majority of people under the age of 40 have an iPod or sat radio and plain don't listen to commercial radio anymore. (I know I don't listen anymore) So they keep the stations that are raking in the money (relatively speaking) and replace the under performers with Baby Boomer and senior home fare.

(Reply to this)


[info]muse0fire
2008-01-12 03:07 pm UTC (link)
That absolutely sucks. I had mostly stopped listening to 99X, with the exception of the Retroplex. When they took that off the air I just occasionally switched over, and usually only stayed on the station if it was Steve Craig's show.

What a crappy way for them to end his term at the station. He definitely deserved better.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]autifon, 2008-01-12 03:21 pm UTC

[info]froofie
2008-01-12 03:35 pm UTC (link)
Thank you so much for posting this. I am so heartbroken for Steve. He's a very good guy.

(Reply to this)


[info]cinemaair
2008-01-12 04:54 pm UTC (link)
88.5 all the way.

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[info]1smart1
2008-01-12 04:56 pm UTC (link)
IMHO, 99X died quite a while ago.

Hopefully he'll move his career up & on to better things. Hopefully he doesn't have a non-compete clause in his contract, but I suspect he's going to be forced to sit on the sidelines for about 6 months.

(Reply to this)


[info]baldsug
2008-01-12 05:31 pm UTC (link)
I remember when 99x first started and a lot of the DJ's and programmers had come right off of WRAS. It was college radio with mainstream resources and it was brilliant. The station started becoming a force and was breaking a lot of bands into the mainstream. After the the first Live X sessions at Catspaw started being recorded and sold and then the big Pearl Jam show, somebody at corporate seemed to take notice and to my mind - packaged it, got rid of the things that couldn't be fit into a cookie-cutter, and shipped it all over the US until the point now where they've bled their packaged "project x" genre dry.

"Clear Channel - We leave you no alternative"

I would really love for some venture capital to group a lot of these original 99x folks together on Satellite or Podcast or something.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Yeah 1993 weeee - [info]jolefay, 2008-01-13 04:08 am UTC

[info]blackwolfga
2008-01-12 05:42 pm UTC (link)
While I never really listened to the morning show (had a later shift) I did listen to 99x for the short drives I had to make - and I was always happy when I would be driving during the Retroplex. I think it sucks that Steve had to be let go just because the morning show sucked ratings-wise - especially without being allowed to say goodbye.

Makes me glad I'm in Internet Radio.

(Reply to this)


[info]tenmazero
2008-01-12 09:46 pm UTC (link)
GOD DAMN IT.

Looks like Q100 is moving in. I hope they at least make 100.5 Alternative.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]morethanpoor, 2008-01-13 01:53 pm UTC

[info]arseaboutface
2008-01-13 12:07 am UTC (link)
Now as much as 99X sucked, it's a shame they're getting rid of it and not Project 96.1, or whatever the hell stupid name they're calling it nowadays.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2008-01-13 03:06 am UTC

[info]morethanpoor
2008-01-13 01:51 pm UTC (link)
I agree with most of this but I also agree that Leslie Fram was past due with the exit herself. As a program manager she has ABSOLUTELY no clue about what the listeners wanted anymore.

I do miss the old morning show with Toucher, Jimmy, Wally, Crash and even Calandro. Their antics were perfect for a morning ride into work.

This news does generally suck though. Steve was awesome.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2008-01-16 03:27 am UTC

[info]baldyman
2008-01-13 03:03 pm UTC (link)
91.1FM makes me happy.

(Reply to this)


[info]shelchan
2008-01-13 04:27 pm UTC (link)
Unfortunately, 99X hasn't been what it was originally back in the late 90s. I used to love listening to it while I was in high school, but when I returned from college I was disappointed to hear the same emo-trash I could find on Q100 and 99.5. I thought 99X was supposed to be the good rock, classics and new, and yet it became exactly like every other station out there on the market.

It was a bad way to fire people, but it happens that way more often than we'd all like to think.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]chivas_instead, 2008-01-14 03:51 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]auralarua, 2008-01-14 10:48 pm UTC
Sheep-like agreement - [info]adric, 2008-01-15 04:50 am UTC
Re: Sheep-like agreement - [info]auralarua, 2008-01-15 09:52 pm UTC
Re: Sheep-like agreement - [info]adric, 2008-01-16 04:58 am UTC
Re: Sheep-like agreement? eff off lawl - [info]auralarua, 2008-01-15 10:12 pm UTC

[info]chivas_instead
2008-01-14 03:49 pm UTC (link)
yeah i heard about this on the radio this morning (on Q100, 100.5 FM).

it is sad to see 99x go, and i used to love it, but i have to say that i started hating their music for a while. i miss the way they used to be. back when music midtown was around! (RIP music midtown!!)

so anyway, Q100 is now going to be on 99.7 and theyre all excited b/c they'll be able to reach a tonnnn more ppl, but i could tell they were still a lil... sad or something? idk. they said that stuff has changed so much and that 99X is going to be an internet-only type of radio station... personally that sounds so crappy to me because i'm not an internet-radio sort of person, but hey, maybe i'm missin somethin.

it is sad to see 99x go, but honestly i probably wont even notice =\

(Reply to this)


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