WYSP Changes Formats, Attracting Much Sought-After "White Trash" Demographic

Radio listeners were in for some changes yesterday morning when they turned their dials to WYSP (94.1 FM) and heard bands like Foghat and The Scorpions on their way into work. The change of formats, to what YSP is calling "The Rock You Grew Up With," targets the much sought-after "white trash" market.

WYSP, which is owned by CBS Radio, believes their format change will strike a blow to similarly formatted stations in the Philadelphia area, and seems to be setting their sights on long-time owner of the white-trash radio population, WMMR (93.3 FM).

"We're going to rip the heart out of WMMR," said YSP operations manager Andy Bloom. "If you've got a 1977 El Camino with the transmission ripped out on your front lawn, if you wear shorts in the winter to show off your sweet calf tattoo, if you have a tv sitting on top of your tv ... you might be a YSP listener."

Local residents had mixed reactions to the format change. Mike Belkin of Linwood, Delaware County, said the change is just what he's been looking for.

"Finally there's a place where I can hear Lynyrd Skynrd, Def Leppard and Metallica without changing stations," said Belkin. "My girlfriend's going to love it too. So will my ex-wife, and mothers of my five kids.

But local hipster Stephan Idaips said this is just more of the same from Philadelphia radio.

"Once again there's nowhere for me to listen to the music I want to hear," said Idaips. "Where am I going to hear The Creaky Boards, or VCR-legs or Wolfman Weekday? You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you?"

The Phunyun archives show this latest format change is the 89th change for the WYSP in the last decade.

Radiohead Shares Meaning of Life with Camden Crowd

Radiohead, who played a sold out concert at the Susquehanna Bank Center last night in Camden, is not Led Zeppellin, the Rolling Stones, or the Beatles... so just shut up. Their lead singer, Thom Yorke, has something wrong with his eye. Their setlist consisted mostly of songs from their "pay what you want" album In Rainbows, with a sprinkle of previous albums here and there. And while I was taking a piss, they supposedly shared the meaning of life with the couple thousand fans in attendance.

I had just returned from the bathroom and was standing in line, waiting for a Michelob Ultra, when I noticed everyone in the crowd was hugging and crying, but in a happy way. Even the dweeb at the beer-hut wasn't paying attention to the twenty I held out to him. It was like the ending of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where everyone at the top of the mountain was touched by some sort of experience that no one else would ever understand, unless they had been there.

I grabbed a kid wearing a Manic Street Preachers T-shirt and demanded he tell me what the band said, but he couldn't describe it. Apparently, Yorke began speaking in tongues, sharing information in the form of clicks and pops, like some sort of African dialect, but everyone could still understand him. While he was doing this, the rest of the band made hand symbols and stood in varying body formations, turning these little flash lights on and off.

They then climbed into a flying boat made of tinfoil and headed back across the river to Philadelphia. I didn't get to hear Grizzly Bear, the opening band from Brooklyn, because I was huffing a nitrous balloon in the parking lot and getting a hummer. For a song by song recap of the show, click after the jump.

More...
01. 15 Step - Opening song from In Rainbows and the closest thing to rock this band played
02. There There - This one needs a little less big drum and a little more cowbell
03. Morning Bell - wtf???
04. All I Need - I could bang to that.
05. The National Anthem - That's not our national anthem.
06. Videotape - How do you groove to something like this? This is a concert... right?
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi - Beatles cover, I think.
08. The Gloaming - Something is wrong with their instruments. They sound fuzzy.
09. Where I End And You Begin - *yawn*
10. Faust Arp - I really hate playful banter between the band. See: Van Halen
11. No Surprises - *fell asleep*
12. Jigsaw - This band is a rock-tease.
13. The Bends - I heard this on Y100 once.
14. Idioteque - Yorke dances wildly, like that guy from the Mighty Might Bosstones, on crack.
15. Climbing Up The Walls - brb.
16. Nude - ...
17. Bodysnatchers - Thank God that's over.

Encore 1
18. House of Cards - Shit!
19. Lucky
20. Go Slowly - Was this a slow song? I couldn't tell. No wait, there are my parents dancing to it over there... nevermind.
21. Just - let there be one more song.
22. Street Spirit - I heard this on WMMR once.

Encore 2
23. Reckoner - Fuck!
24. Planet Telex - This is Where I go to the bathroom.
25. Everything In Its Right Place