April 17–24, 1997

hit and run

Koob Bye Yah

On Sunday, April 13, WYSP jock Ray Koob ended his Philadelphia radio career with his last installment of his Hard Music show "Rockers." A 10-year Philly radio vet, Koob will be leaving the city in late May to become vice president of rockpromotion at Raleigh, NC-based CMC International Records. Filling Koob's leather jacket as "Rockers" hosts starting this Sunday will be WYSP weekend warriors Matt and Huggy.

"We're not going to change the foundation that Ray built," the duo commented. "We're going to rock just as hard as he did, playing the best heavy music that's out there. The major difference is there'll be two jerks hostingit."

Koob says anyone who wants to keep in touch with him can e-mail him at Raykoob@aol.com.

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Both WMMR and WYSP appear to be tweaking their music a bit. WMMR's gotten rid of some of their sleepier music, sending softer Billy Joel ballads, Fleetwood Mac tunes and the like up the dial to WMGK. Meanwhile, they're upping the number of currentsongs they play, adding bands like Dishwalla, Tonic and Sheryl Crow to their playlist. You can also expect to hear more of the station's core artists, such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. On the other side of things, WYSP seems to becounter-programming during the day. R.E.M., Simple Minds and older Tom Petty tunes have made their way back onto the air at the station amid all the Metallica and Ozzy. Could this mean that the two stations are squaring off against each other in abattle to become Philly's dominant mainstream rock station?

— Bram Teitelman