When I moved to Houston over 33 years ago as a young college student, 101.1 KLOL-FM was the rock station to listen to “heavy” rock music as opposed to the “bubblegum” rock music that my little sisters enjoyed. KLOL was the rebel station — it played Jimi Hendrix while other rock stations were playing the Bee Gees. Cameron Crowe captured this rebel nature of rock and roll wonderfully in his 2000 film, Almost Famous.
My first exposure to an obscure rocker from New Jersey named Bruce Springsteen came from KLOL. Back in the early 1970’s, KLOL played some bootleg tapes of Springsteen performing his song “The Fever” at the old downtown bar, Liberty Hall, which was located on Chevenert near where Minute Maid Park stands now.
Over the years, as Baby Boom rockers aged, KLOL became more mainstream, but still retained its heavy metal and “reasonable rebel” format. Thus, as my sons reached their rebellious teenage years, they would switch the car radio to KLOL whenever they wanted to make the point that they were now listening to heavy rock music rather than say, Huey Lewis and the News. It’s fair to say that longtime Houston residents who listen to rock music considered KLOL a local institution.
Well, that all changed yesterday, as this Chronicle article reports:

In a clear signal of the growing media clout of Houston-area Hispanics, radio behemoth Clear Channel Communications has yanked legendary rock station KLOL-FM (101.1) off the air and replaced it with a format that radio insiders call “Spanglish Top 40.”
The switch took place Friday morning when the new station ? now called Mega 101 FM (with the tag line “Latino and Proud”) ? began playing 10,101 songs in a row.
The new format is a mixture of Spanish hip-hop, reggaeton and pop/dance music aimed at listeners between 18 and 34 years old. Music in Spanish by artists ranging from the rapper Pitbull to pop star Shakira will be accompanied by DJs using a combination of English and Spanish.

Shakira rather than Johnny Winter? Longtime KLOL listeners are not taking the change well:

The move caught longtime KLOL listeners by surprise.
“There was no warning at all,” said Chris Beck, a 32-year-old cook.
“I’m 35 and it’s been on the air as long as I can remember,” said a real estate salesman who did not want to be identified. “It’s quite a shocker.”
He called Clear Channel headquarters in San Antonio to complain and is encouraging his friends to do the same.

When I informed my 16 year old son of the change this morning, his response probably reflects that of thousands of other KLOL listeners from around the Houston area:

“Spanglish? — I don’t think that means we’ll be hearing Led Zeppelin in Spanish on KLOL.”

Houston’s younger bloggers are already all over this format change. Charles Kuffner reacts here, and Kevin Whited’s response is here.
As one of KLOL’s most played singers would say — “These times are a’changin.”