Fuzz 92.1 Is Dead, Long Live Fuzz 96.1

I feel as if I’ve seen (and heard) a ghost.?

For a week now, a brand I poured my heart, soul, and being into has been resurrected on the radio airwaves across Northeast PA. The beloved “Fuzz” alternative music brand, the brainchild of the powers that be at Times-Shamrock Communications, had been dormant since 2017, and the “alt rock” format had been absent since December of 2020. That all changed last week, when the current iteration of the Shamrock cluster relaunched Fuzz, this time on the 96.1 FM frequency. It marks the first time since the early days in 2013 that I wasn’t involved with the brand, and it brings up a range of emotions for me.

I have been out of the full-time radio game for three years now. My role in collegiate athletics was a breath of fresh air to my professional life. I never regret leaving when I did, starting my career over, and am eternally grateful and very happy with where I am in the world. All that being said, there was still a twinge of hurt, amongst other things, when I saw the Fuzz-brand back on the local radar.

At first, when I was made aware of the return, I felt happy for our area. Far too often, I found myself disappointed with the lack of variety on our local radio stations. Too many same-sounding songs coming from the same cluster of stations. We needed something you wouldn’t hear elsewhere, so I was at least happy to have that option return. But, as the gravity really started to settle in, I felt the pain, like an old wound being re-opened. It wasn’t easy to process, right away.

?I’ve tried to think about it more, and I liken my feelings in that moment to seeing an old significant other, years after you had broken up. Your relationship was up and down, but it was real up until the end, when you broke things off without any real resolution or closure. Then, years down the road, even after you think you may have moved on, you see them out with their new partner, and it eats away at you, simply because of how things ended.

?Listen, I’m under no delusions that the brand is mine and mine alone. My former bosses were the ones who started the brand, named it, came up with the attitude, the logo, the image, and the overall sound of the station. I was simply the one who came in, young as hell in December of 2013, ready to do radio in my hometown. In my mind, I was standing on the shoulders of these guys I respected, trying to make this thing stick.

?All that being said, I was the longest-tenured leader of Fuzz 92.1. That was my baby for 3.5 years. I made us a station that responded to our fans, interacted with them, and made them feel like they were a part of everything we did. I pushed for artists to come to town and play for our listeners, worked hard to have giveaways and experiences that no other station could match, and constantly kept our music library ahead of what was being played in the market. Thanks to people like Johnny Popko and our vibrant local music scene, Fuzz 92.1 made sure to pay homage to our local acts where we could, planting the seeds for what would become our local music-focused shows.

?Under my watchful eye, we earned some of the best ratings that WFUZ had, and our brand consistently grew. I can think of no better example than our Fuzz Fest concerts in the summer at Montage Mountain. Every year, we outdid ourselves, growing it with bigger acts that drew more people to both the concerts and to our station. Someone even made a Wikipedia section about them! I can think of no higher honor.

?I say we, because I wasn’t alone. I was blessed to have the services of my friend Popko, as well as our Promotions Director Mark Hoover, our on-air talent and team-player Mike Duffy, a sales team that believed in us, and a staff of behind-the-scenes folks and part-timers that never flinched in the face of our ever-growing expectations. They rose to meet the occasion, and helped me turn Fuzz into what it became.

?My point is that, with that support, I was able to pour my everything into that brand. I met my wife, who was a dedicated Fuzz listener even before I came along, thanks to my time at Fuzz. I bought my first house while I was there. I grew so much as a human being, let alone as a professional, and Fuzz and its listeners had so much to do with that. Fuzz was an offshoot of me, something I nurtured and raised. ?

?So, when the discussions under a previous administration came about to ditch the Fuzz brand, while still playing alternative rock, I was shocked, saddened, and skeptical, but remained positive that whatever would happen would be in the best interest of our listeners. Despite all the support we had from those behind-the-scenes, the higher-ups and those paid to make big decisions were not as supportive, and either didn’t believe in or didn’t understand what Fuzz was. I constantly had to fight for the station’s existence and place among our cluster of radio signals.

?Eventually, the decision was made that “Alt 92.1” was going to be the new name of the radio station, and it then became my job to create all the new on-air branding and imaging to reflect that change. Not for the last time, I had to completely re-brand a radio station, which meant getting a new voice, writing new material, and figuring out how to explain this pivot to our listeners.

?Without rehashing a pretty turbulent few months in my radio career, all I’ll say is that the shift to “Alt” from “Fuzz” could not have been better characterized than by the weekend we did it: The Cardboard Box Derby at Montage Mountain, that was hosted by, up until that week, Fuzz 92.1. After meetings for months with very smart radio people telling us that the Fuzz brand wasn’t marketable and was toxic for sustained ratings, which Fuzz did admittedly struggle to maintain, we had a weekend where multiple listeners expressed their displeasure about the name change, and we had several cardboard box racers with Fuzz 92.1 logos adorning their hoods, trunks, and sides. All the while, we still had shirts, tents, stickers, and even a truck with the now defunct Fuzz branding, and nothing with our new name. It was one of the most embarrassing weekends I can remember working in radio.

?Slowly, but surely, with the death of Fuzz, the powers-that-be stripped away the remnants of the old brand. Duffy was jettisoned about a month in, then I was let go about three months into the change…two weeks before my wedding. The death of Fuzz was now complete, and the dawn of the Alt-era was underway.

?Two years later, I returned to alternative radio to try to lead Alt 92.1, under different leadership, but the landscape had changed, and things became even more difficult. It felt like I had signed up to captain a ship with no rudder, doomed to crash into whatever was dead ahead. More than once, I lamented the shift away from Fuzz, and made it known that I wanted to bring back the brand to 92.1, but was met with resistance, so I did what I could to try to make Alt stand out. I was tasked with finding a morning show, which launched in February 2020…a month before the entire world changed. The pandemic completely altered the trajectory of the radio station, and gave management an excuse to completely re-brand the 92.1 signal, away from alternative.

?And so, for the second time in four years, I was tasked with completely re-tooling a radio station, except now I had to do it twice in two months, going from all-Christmas to the eventual birth of Q92 in late December 2020. It was the beginning of the end of my time in radio, as six months later, I would leave to work somewhere I felt better aligned with what I wanted in my professional life.

?Fuzz’s comeback to the airwaves brings all those memories, good and bad, to the forefront for me. It’s a something I busted my ass on for years, only to be told it can’t or wouldn’t work. While the times have changed and the people in charge are much different from those who came before, I still can’t help but feel a little annoyed that the company that told me for years that Fuzz wasn’t viable, now believes that the brand is worth revisiting. I guess, on some level, it’s nice to not feel like I was crazy.

?My belief is that, with the people in charge, the new Fuzz (96.1) has a chance to be successful. They have the elements there, and a built-in fanbase that has been asking for this format to return. I hope this station gets the support, both internally and monetarily, from the decision-makers that I felt was lacking in my time. It will be a good thing for Northeast PA if Fuzz sticks and succeeds. ?

?In a way, writing this down has helped me overcome that feeling of seeing a ghost, or seeing your ex out with a new partner. Getting to confront my feelings, typing out what happened…there is certainly some catharsis, which may be a little self-centered, in what I’m doing. But, now, when I see Fuzz out with its new lover, it will make it easier for me to smile, wave, and wish it good luck, as we both pass into the next phase of our lives.

?Fuzz 92.1 is dead. Long live Fuzz 96.1.