Bear Flag Blog

I have been a long-time listener to KWOD 106.5, based in Sacramento. They've been reliable for years in finding the best new music during the current dearth of anything really good.

In the last couple of weeks, however, I noticed when I flipped the dial to 106.5 that their music had suddenly taken a turn for the old and soft. Music for people not old enough to retire, but whose souls are pushing 75 and who are fearful of anyone yelling. And then I discovered:

KWOD is dead. I mourn.

When I was in high school - a dark period on Musical Earth, when Rock and Roll meant Spandex and Big Hair, and nightmarish "the black music white girls like" bands like Tony Toni Tone, Bell Biv DeVoe, and Bobby Brown dominated the top 40 airwaves - KWOD was the only station a Central Valley boy could turn to for refuge. Although afflicted with the aforementioned plagues, KWOD also broadcast the few bright spots in late 80s music: New Order, Depeche Mode, Metallica, U2, the Cure, the Police - sure, you say that U2 and Metallica and the Police were/are huge, but you are using hindsight and don't understand the total Orwellian domination "My Perogative" had over the airwaves in the late 80s. You've papered over the memories of flipping from station to station and finding only Milli Vanilli and Paula Abdul and New Kids on the Block. I don't blame you.

Anyway. Then the 1990s came and music (well, some of it) became good again, and KWOD helped lead the charge as one of the first "alternative" stations in the nation. And in the naughties, when these useless bastards who make up "Generation Y" continually failed to produce anything musically new and exciting, KWOD nonetheless kept on providing the cream of the mediocre crop.

But that's all over now. KWOD is gone, replaced by KBZC "The Buzz", playing the shittiest, softest music of the 1990s for all your pussification needs. This pretty much sums it up:

The final song played by KWOD was "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" by Sacramento's very own Cake. The first song of the new "The Buzz" format was "Summertime" by Will Smith.

Yes, the music of the 90s is best represented by Will Smith! Gods, shove a spork in my ear! Will Smith!

Fortunately for me, I have discovered 90.5 "The Edge", a student-run station in Concord. Their music errs a little too much on the side of guttural screaming, but I love student-run stations for their amateurish station breaks and general irreverence.

I will sorely miss KWOD. They were a bright spot for many years, and this KBZC garbage is a turd on their grave. Here's to you, DJs and programmers and station managers and everyone affiliated with that once-great institution. Thanks and farewell.