ROCK IS DEAD IN HOUSTON
KLOL suddenly speaking Spanish

From the Houston Chronicle:

In a clear signal of the growing media clout of Houston-area Hispanics, radio behemoth Clear Channel Communications has yanked legendary rock station KLOL-FM (101.1) off the air and replaced it with a format that radio insiders call "Spanglish Top 40."

The switch took place Friday morning when the new station — now called Mega 101 FM (with the tag line "Latino and Proud") — began playing 10,101 songs in a row.

The new format is a mixture of Spanish hip-hop, reggaeton and pop/dance music aimed at listeners between 18 and 34 years old. Music in Spanish by artists ranging from the rapper Pitbull to pop star Shakira will be accompanied by DJs using a combination of English and Spanish.

And

Once known as "The Texas Rock 'n' Roll Authority," KLOL went on the air in 1970 and has featured rock music ever since.

Through the years, the station has been known for its bad-boy disc jockeys, including the morning duo of Stevens and Pruett and evening DJ Moby.

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This is kind of sad. I really cut my rock teeth on KLOL when I was a kid. Those were the days, filled with the sounds of AC/DC, Loverboy, Billy Squire, and others. But that was then. I must admit that I haven't really listened to KLOL since the late 80's because, on the whole, commercial rock has sucked for a long time--okay, the grunge era was cool, but just a flash in the pan, when you get right down to it. This is notable because there is, as far as I know, no longer any station in Houston dedicated to playing new rock music. Rock is now dead in the bayou city.

Actually, I'm almost tempted to say that rock is dead in general, but I don't think we're there just yet.

Anyway, long live rock!

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