Once again, talk is brewing about the University of Florida changing the format of one of its radio stations. WRUF-AM (850) has already switched to all-sports programming while WUFT-AM (89.1) ditched its classical music become all-talk/news last year, with much dissent from music aficionados. Now the "big guy on the block", mainstream/boring WRUF-FM (103.7), may be seeing the next change.
The driving controversy at WRUF-FM is its morning Lex and Terry show, which features two obnoxious and offensive men ridiculing other demographic groups of people for laughs. Ha-ha-ha. Apparently, there are enough hateful, cruel listeners out there to have sustained their show for many years. But for me, it is the #1 reason I reject listening to that station. Now, though, Lex and Terry appear to be the main focus of programming change for this station.
I also have a very, very big problem with "Rock 104", as they like to call themselves, regarding their lousy playlists of songs. It isn't that I object to screaming hard rock, you see; I like a lot of such music, listening with pleasure to groups like Linkin Park, System of a Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, and Korn. I would just like to see some other genres mixed in, as well as "deep" album tracks mixed in from the aforementioned groups. There are many great artists in alternative/independent rock to draw upon, including Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, Metric, Neko Case, Fanfarlo, Silversun Pickups, Gomez, Andrew Byrd, Kings of Leon, Kasabian, the Strokes, Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Iron and Wine, and many, many more.
It would be a mistake, in my opinion, for UF to drastically change WRUF-FM's format to something like jazz or classical music. Better to make it more of a station befitting its college environment and play ground-breaking popular music that is currently being virtually ignored on the broadcast radio band but which is being avidly followed on the Internet and the concert circuits.
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