By Andy Dehnart
This past weekend, some Central Floridians lost a close friend. Saturday night, SHE 100.3 died. Orlando’s only adult contemporary station went off the air, replaced by the “new Cool 100,” an oldies station.
The change came on the heels of the recent death of Orlando’s only oldies station, Cool 105.9. According to reports in the Orlando Sentinel, that station’s revenues were nearly twice SHE’s.
Wanting to pull in more advertising dollars, the powers-that-be at Clear Channel — SHE’s parent company — pulled the plug on SHE’s adult contemporary format.
It was quite a shock: suddenly, around 11 p.m., the music just changed to oldies; the between-song taglines to, “the new Cool 100.”
At first, it seemed like a horrible joke or a screwed-up promotion of a new station. But then, sometime after 1 a.m., came the official notice of death: “W-S-H-E Orlando, Cool 100.”
A station’s call letters are its identity, legal and otherwise, and when the official ID mentioned both the new name and the old call letters, it was clear this wasn’t a joke nor the extended promotion of a new station.
A quick phone call to the jock on duty confirmed the format change.
What’s strange is that the change came with no notice; suddenly, Sarah McLachlan, the Barenaked Ladies, and Dave Matthews disappeared forever, relegated to gratuitous airplay between Def Leppard and Hanson on other Orlando stations.
SHE’s eclectic assortment of songs from the top-40 charts, adult contemporary playlists, and retro-’80s music was unmatched in Orlando.
For its often annoying heavy repetition of certain songs, WSHE was an original, funky station.
From those “witty little things that go in-between songs” to the quirky personalities, the station with the cool name had a big following here and elsewhere in Central Florida.
Sadly, it’s uncertain whether SHE’s air staff will remain. It’s hard to imagine Shark announcing a Beetles song or Pat Largo making cracks following a track from the Temptations; hopefully, they’ll all go on to bigger and better things elsewhere.
It’s definitely our loss. Worse, the Central Florida bands like My Friend Steve and Von Ra, who have SHE to thank for frequent airplay and increasing notoriety, are left mostly without a vehicle for their music.
Even Shawn Mullins, the Atlanta-based acoustic artist, has credited SHE with helping to boost his popularity.
Since SHE’s owners took our favorite radio station from us, we should take their advertisers from them. By not listening to their family of stations, and not patronizing their advertisers, we can let SHE’s parent company know that the station was well-listened to and a positive contributor to the Orlando music scene.
Clear Channel owns six stations in Central Florida, including the new oldies station: WJRR 101.1 FM, Magic 107.7 FM, Real Radio 104.1 FM, 540 AM The Team, and News/Talk 740 AM. Or call Clear Channel’s corporate offices at (407) 916-7800 to let them know what you think of the change.
We probably won’t get our SHE back.
But we can let the people in charge know that, to us, good music and original programming is more important than an extra few million bucks every year.