happy new year, everybody! a new year means it's time for new stuff!

for example, indiana equality has a new blog! well, maybe it's not entirely new, as there seem to be three older posts from december. but brandon monson told me they were launching a new blog as of today, so maybe that means today is the official launch and the old posts are just test posts.

if you're not familiar, IE is probably indiana's premier LGBT advocacy organization, dedicated to fighting discrimination and preventing the passage of an anti-gay marriage amendment in indiana. there has been talk of the state legislature once again trying to pass SJR-7 this year; the IE blog should be a good source of info about that.

meanwhile, the new year means new formats for indy's radio stations! last week, WENS officially moved its talk format to 93.1 (former home of top 40, which has moved to 100.9), and today brings the newest format to 93.9:

Hit songs with a smooth texture are the new specialty at FM radio frequency 93.9, where conservative talk was heard in 2007 and Christian music had a home from 2004 to 2006.

"Warm 93.9" plans to play the softer side of acts such as the Police, John Mellencamp and Gwen Stefani in hopes of attracting female listeners at work -- the same audience coveted by competing pop stations WYXB-FM (105.7), WNTR-FM (107.9) and WKLU-FM (101.9).

"One of the most attractive demographic targets now is women 25 to 54," said Chris Wheat, market manager for Warm 93.9 and sister stations WFMS-FM (95.9) and WJJK-FM (104.5). "It's certainly an advertiser-friendly format."

The new format debuted at 9:39 a.m. today, with 1983 Police hit "Every Breath You Take" airing first.

Warm 93.9, which will retain the call letters WWFT for the immediate future, will air the syndicated "John Tesh Radio Show" from 7 p.m. to midnight on weeknights.

Wheat said the station also plans to hire on-air staff.

you're welcome to disagree, but to my eyes the only good news here is that they're hiring local staff. local content is good, and growing increasingly rare in the days of completely automated stations like jack.

also, doesn't this seem a bit sexist? they want to appeal to women so they're going to play smooth music, because women like soft, smooth unoffensive entertainment that doesn't make them faint in embarrassment like that stuff the kids listen to. i'm not going to use the p-word but that seems to be the underlying message: this is soft, feminine music for girls.

personally, i'm going to miss all the perrey & kingsley. you see, after WWFT dropped hannity, savage, and the bunch earlier this year, they switched to christmas music... meaning there was yuletide tunage to be heard both at 93.1 and 93.9 for about two months. after christmas, rather than keeping up with that for another week, WWFT switched to an all–perrey & kingsley format for about a week. hearing the spaced-out campiness of p&k on the radio was delightfully refreshing... until you realized that they only had three or four songs and were repeating them. "swan's splashdown" is a fun song, but after the fifth or sixth time you've heard it within a half hour, you're probably ready to move on to something else. but moving on to john tesh? ¶

judging from the music i hear drifting over my cube walls at work, women in that demographic *do* (often) listen to smooth music. sexist, maybe, but also undoubtedly based on extensive marketing research. ¶