R. I. P. 96 Rock

I didn't listen to 96 Rock all the time, but always just assumed it would be there. I listened to it when "I needed it".



Well, it is gone now.

This post is old but captures some of the "atlanta-ness" of 96rock. I'm sure someone will correct me, but i am pretty sure "96rock" at the moment it died last month had the longest continuous run of a commercial atlanta FM station still alive at that moment (in name, call sign, and format). All the others have gone thru many many cyclical renamings and repurposings throughout the years.

My buddy Darin and his family won the annual 96 Rock Memorial Day Ramblin' Raft Race on the Chattahoochee twice in a row i think, in the '70's. "the rafts were manifestations of that peculiar Southern genius for spare-parts engineering." (but not the ones that won). Darin's Dad, legendary Atlanta diver George Krasle, has pictures of the whole family on a raft on the cover of the AJC framed on his wall. This was not some race with a couple thousand people. It was like 100,000 people or something totally ridiculous.

The next closest continuous run in recent times of a station format might have been the period between the late '80's and 2004 that Z93 existed as a "oldies" station. I remember when they switched from top 40 to oldies and it didn't seem that long ago but i guess it was 15+ years ago.