Z Rock

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Z Rock

Type	Radio network
Country	United States
Availability	National
Owner	ABC Radio Networks (through Capital Cities Communications)
Launch date	September 1, 1986
Dissolved	December 31, 1996

Z-Rock was a nationally syndicated radio network based out of Dallas, Texas, USA, in the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s that played heavy metal and hard rock music. The format was one of ABC Radio Network's (now Citadel Media's) 24-hour satellite formats (formerly Satellite Music Network). Z-Rock debuted on Labor Day 1986 and is credited^{[by whom?]} with being the first nationally focused radio station/network.^{[citation needed]} In March 1990, Z Rock was nominated for Billboard Awards, the only full time hard rock/metal programming ever nominated in the history of Billboard magazine.^{[citation needed]} After several changes in personnel and programming direction, the network was discontinued on December 31, 1996.

Contents 1 Airstaff 1.1 Original crew 1.2 2nd crew 1.3 3rd crew 1.4 Last Crew 2 Programming 3 Z-Rock today 4 References

[edit] Airstaff

[edit] Original crew

[edit] 2nd crew

[edit] 3rd crew

[edit] Last Crew

[edit] Programming

Program	Details
Blistering Leads	Program focused on guitar breaks and heroes.
Mandatory Metallica	Premiered in November 1986, was the original Metallica feature copied by stations nationwide.[citation needed] "The Mighty Met" was a similar program that played a half-hour to an hour of Metallica songs (perhaps the most popular band on the network) and aired Saturday nights.[citation needed]
Nationwide Mid-day Requests	A daily all request show.
Z-Rock 5	Nightly countdown of the top five requested songs of the day. Prizes awarded to callers who could recite back the top five songs in the order that they were played.
Z-Rock 50	Weekly countdown of the network's top rock tracks aired Sunday nights.
Z-Rock 1000	End-of-the-year countdown of the all-time greatest rock songs with songs from the previous year included.
Headbanger's Heaven	Program featuring heavy metal including demos and imports hosted by Crazy Mike Paine. Featured thrash, speed, death, and power metal genres as well as several world premieres, contests, and interviews.
Coast to Coast Concert Series	Over 50 live broadcast concerts featuring many of the genre's top names, including Metallica.
Wounded Radio	Sunday night show featuring heavier rock music hosted by Sharkmann.
US240	Saturday night all-request show spanning 240 minutes (4 hours) Originally hosted by Sharkmann.
Nightly Nuke	Weeknight feature where listeners called in and voted on the most despised Top 40 song of the day (usually a contemporary pop song). After the votes were totaled, the winning song would be played with unflattering soundbytes mixed throughout it. After roughly a minute, a loud explosion sound would be played, essentially destroying or "nuking" the song.
Back-Rockwards	Nightly phone-in contest to guess identity of backwards played song (song was played in its entirety with random noises played over it).
Fast Forward	Similar to Back-Rockwards, but with the song played forwards at about 10 times the speed.
Bad-Ass CD Side	Weekly playing of half of an entire CD. Was notably promoted by saying, "Bad-ass CD half, is grammatically correct, but 'Bad-Ass CD Side' Sounds Cooler!"
Too Much	Program held one Saturday a month that would give about four hours playing songs from a select artist. Eventually "Too much" would become a daily mid-day show with one hour of music from any artist sometimes featuring deep album cuts.
Old Stuff for an Hour	Sunday morning classic rock show. Hosted by Crankin Craig.
New Stuff for an Hour	Hosted by Crankin Craig, this show featured new music.
Your Stuff for an Hour (later Two Hours)	Hosted by Crankin, as an all request show.
Z-Rock RIP News	News bits presented in conjunction with RIP Magazine.
Z-Rock news	Commentary and opinions originally hosted by Boobie Bondage and heard in each daypart. The news went through several names and hosts: The Dirt (w/Steve Show), The Mud (w/Michelle), The Sludge with Sharkmann, The Drudge (not related to the internet news site) and just The News (both w/Loud Debi Dowd).

From 1989-1991 the network also produced Z-Rock Magazine, available free in network affiliate cities.

[edit] Z-Rock today

Some bits and pieces of Z-Rock are still in existence today. When the Z-Rock radio network was shut down by the end of 1996, affiliates were free to adopt the Z-Rock name and/or imaging. Some of them are still using it today:

• KRQR 106.7 in Chico, California the last official zrock station!
• WXZZ Z Rock 103 in Lexington, Kentucky
• WTZR Z Rock 99-3 in Elizabethton, Tennessee
• WZJO Z Rock 94-5 in Dunbar, West Virginia
• KHTB 94.9 in Salt Lake City, Utah

Tracy Barnes and Scorchin' Scotty went on to found HardRadio.^{[citation needed]}

A fully moderated, 24-hour modern rock radio stream is still being produced for AFRTS and is available on the digital AFN satellite lineup (with AFN Uninterruptable Voice, besides the Pentagon Channel, the only unencrypted offering on the European AFRTS Hot Bird transponder) ^[1].

The weekly, four-hour modern rock chart program Z-Rock 50, currently hosted by Brian Curry, is also still part of Z-Rock^[2]. It was also part of AFN The Eagle (Sundays 5pm - 9pm CET) and because of that could be heard in many locations throughout Europe and the Middle East but was taken off the air again in spring 2009 ^[3]. The program is also available to other broadcasters worldwide from ABC Radio Networks International ^[4] (now Citadel Media Networks).

[edit] References

1. ^ myAFN Radio Station: Z Rock
2. ^ Z-Rock 50
3. ^ AFN Europe survey 2009
4. ^ CitadelMediaNetworks.com