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. "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. |
| 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.
The opening bumper for commercial breaks was an 8-note guitar riff from the first part of the song "House of 1,000 Pleasures" by Japanese band Ezo.
Slogans used for Z-Rock's imaging and promotions included "If it's too loud, you're too old!", "Flip us on and flip them off", "We don't brake for wimps" and "If you're not crankin' it, you must be yankin' it!" It also used to mock classic rock programming, then say "Who cares?! Z-Rock RULES!"
Marketed nationally for local broadcast with local commercials inserted, Z-Rock's market penetration across the country varied considerably. While the local broadcasts were usually FM, in some areas the station was carried by small AM outlets. Some publicity was provided for several years by the comic strip Funky Winkerbean, in which one of the main characters often wore a Z-Rock t-shirt.
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Famous quotes containing the word programming:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)