Last night, I blogged about some obscure messages coming out of the camp at WMYX-FM (99.1).
This afternoon, we have some answers.
No, the station is not flipping formats, explains Tony Lorino, morning show producer and assistant program director at the Entercom-owned station. Instead of dumping its longtime "Mix" format, the station will drop its normal playlist in favor of all-'90s music over the Fourth of July weekend.
The station is soliciting votes for the "Top 99 songs of the '90s" now at its Web site.
The songs will span all genres of '90s music, including dance hits, hip-hop, grunge, singer/songwriters and more. The playlist will be similar to the one used at Entercom sister station KBZC in Sacramento, which adopted the '90s format late last month.
"The '90s are a different decade musically than a lot of previous decades and eras," Lorino said. "There was a lot of musical change. In the early part of the decade, pop music was Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton, Madonna and Billy Joel. Today, that's considered soft rock. Then came the alternative revolution, then hip hop and of course, grunge.
"For a short time, with The Mighty Mighty Boss Tones and Reel Big Fish, ska was popular. Thats the thing about '90s music. There were a million different genres."
Most of those artists still get significant playtime on the radio – WMYX, at times, plays songs from Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer – but rarely, with the specialized nature of programming today, can such a mix of genres be heard on standard, commercial radio.
"A lot of the music on WMYX comes from the '90s, already," Lorino said. "Thats our format. We were looking, do something fun over Fourth of July weekend, which is kind of a time to throw a party on the radio. We brainstormed, talked about class reunions, this and that. But we came back to this idea and said lets give it a try."
Voting is already open. Listeners can pick up to five favorite songs at a time, along with a favorite '90s memory.