Max Media keeps greasing The Pole

As pointed out in a Monday blog, the transition of Indie 101.5 to a "Stripper Radio" format dubbed The Pole is most assuredly a stunt. After all, a consultant to 101.5 and its sister station, Hot 107.1, pulled off a similar gag earlier this year in Virginia, when a signal dumped an old format in favor of attention-getting "Chinese Classic Hits" before transitioning to something more long-term. But the folks at Max Media, 101.5's owner, recognize a good thing when they see and hear it. Rumors were hot and heavy that the outlet would flip to a conservative-talk approach as early as yesterday afternoon. But when I spoke to general manager Jeff Norman several hours earlier, he gleefully told me that wasn't true, and in that instance, he was being forthright. As of this writing, the stripper-friendly jams keep on coming -- and early this morning, the folks spinning The Pole faxed out the following spelling-and-grammar-challenged press release touting their accomplishments to date:

101.5 The Pole... Dancing in to the National Press!!

A NATIONAL MUSIC REVOLUTION has begun!! The Classic non-stop Stripper Hits of 101.5 The Pole has infected the National radio scene with its play "broad" list and non-traditional delivery!

The Pole has received AMAZING listener feedback and 101.5 The Pole's 1st client "Shotgun Willies" received over 3,000 comments on their Facebook page in only 2 days, in addition to the 1,000's of people that showed up to the radio stations live Broadcast at the client location on Saturday Night!!

With in hours of existence last Friday, 101.5 The Pole's website and on-line stream crashed due to heavy ammounts of National web traffic. Listen to the Revolution NOW at www.1015thepole.com.

Let the dancing continue!!

How much longer will The Pole make it rain on the airwaves? In the aforementioned conversation, Norman mostly dodged this question, preferring instead to talk about the flood of listeners that tried to stream The Pole this past Friday -- he claimed the website temporarily crashed due to its popularity -- as well as a phone message from one insta-fan who assumed all broadcasts were coming from Shotgun's and begged for a job. Toward the end of the chat, however, his facade showed a few cracks. Who knows what 101.5 will end up being, he said. It might even turn into a Christian station.

Fat chance.