Billed as “moving more rock than Inco,” Sudbury’s rock music radio station has been renamed Q92 from its former 92.7 ROCK.
The official change took place outside the radio station’s Lasalle Boulevard offices at noon on June 28, with a pre-recorded message announcing the changeover followed by on-air comments from announcer and content director Mellaney “Mell” Dahl.
“We have returned to our rock roots and we will hereto forthwith be known by our original name, Sudbury’s Rock Station, Q92,” she said from a mobile radio studio set up on their parking lot.
Addressing a group of supporters, she beckoned, “Let’s hear it for the Q everyone!”
The newly renamed radio station’s inaugural song was the hard-rocking “Rock and Roll,” from Led Zeppelin’s self-titled 1971 album best known as “Led Zeppelin IV” or “ZoSo.”
This, Dahl said, is “the rock song that started it all.”
For newer listeners, the Q92 is a change, but to longer-time listeners, it harkens back to the radio station’s original name.
Founded in 1990 as Sudbury’s first FM rock music radio station, Q92’s parent station, Rogers Media, Inc., rebranded the station as 92.7 Rock in 2016.
“People still call us Q92, and I stopped correcting them a long time ago,” Dahl told Sudbury.com between broadcasts on Friday afternoon, adding that the corporate decision to rename Q92 was “fine, but this is better.”
Through it all, Dahl said Q92 has retained its rock roots, which she pledged they would continue holding true to.
“We will and will always be the rock station in Sudbury,” she said. “We know how big nostalgia is, we know how big and powerful music is and how it brings about memories of people and places and emotions.”
The afternoon broadcast held true to this direction, with songs by masters of classic rock Tom Petty, Bon Jovi, The Tragically Hip, Queen and Jimi Hendrix joining various other Canadian radio staples of recent decades (“I’m An Adult Now” by The Pursuit of Happiness) by filling out the afternoon. A few relative newcomers to the rock music scene were also thrown into the mix, such as Hamilton-based band Monster Truck, whose song “Don’t Tell Me How To Live” was broadcast.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
