WNEW is back...

For those of us who grew up with the best radio station ever, this is certainly good news... Let's hope they can reasonably approximate the old programming style, which pretty much had no programming - if it was raining and the DJ felt like playing the Beatles, you heard the Beatles all day. If somebody liked a new band, they just played them... It's the anti-ClearChannel... Right now they're playing an interview w/ David Bowie by Scott Muni from the early 70s, but the last thing they played was the new Portishead, and then a rare Stones outtake from the 60s.

From a review article:

WNEW-FM, the New York station that pioneered free-form rock radio, is coming back. CBS Radio, which owns WNEW and its former frequency in the New York region, 102.7, will begin broadcasting a high-definition signal and Internet stream today based on the station’s rock format. The streaming audio version, on wnew.com, will play a mix of classic 1960s and ’70s music and current rock songs, as well as historic concerts and interviews from its archives, but will not have disc jockeys. Instead, CBS says, listeners will be able to contribute through wnew.com and last.fm, a social-networking Web site owned by the CBS Corporation.

A note from Norm Winer...
WNEW.com is a channel and website created by and for people who are passionate about rock. Unlike most radio stations, who limit themselves to one style or vintage (e.g., alternative, hard rock, soft rock, classic rock), WNEW.com will reflect the broad tastes of listeners who enjoy a wider spectrum of music. Perhaps the most unique aspect of WNEW.com is our incredible audio archives, featuring historic concerts and live performances from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, as well as timeless interviews with a remarkable roster of rock immortals. We’ve gathered and digitized hundreds of amazing moments from the airwaves of some of America’s great rock radio stations, most notably our namesake WNEW-FM, which ruled the airwaves in New York City for four decades. On-air visits were commonplace by members of the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Dead and virtually every superstar you could imagine. And the amazing WNEW airstaff always made them feel at home.

As the leader (or the 'ringleader') of our staff here at WNEW.com, I want to encourage you to join us for this noble experiment. Listen live whenever you can and spend some time on our website. To make this a meaningful relationship we hope to hear from you often. So, please, let us know your thoughts. Share your comments, insights, and memories with us. We have no intention of just being another 'station.' With access to all this great music and other resources, it’s going to be pretty hard to screw this up.

Our primary goals are to be an extraordinary rock outpost and to be extremely relevant to you. We want to recapture the spirit and philosophy of progressive rock through WNEW.com and connect the dots to rock's most compelling artists of the present and future.

Please help guide us with your input as we get to know each other better.

Welcome to the NEW frontier.

Thanks.

Norm Winer, program director, and the staff of WNEW.com