I've been teasing this announcement for about 24 hours now and I can finally make it official.

Here at 99 1 The Whale, starting in the 9 a.m. hour, you get a 40-minute Classic Rock Ride every hour. That means 40 minutes of non-stop classic rock with no commercials. I wanted to be able to do something like that during Freezone in the Morning. So I spoke with my bosses, and after a bunch of meetings, a couple of video conference calls, and many pots of coffee, we came up with the “Commercial Free Zone”.

Starting tomorrow, Friday the 28th, we will start a 2-hour commercial-free rock ride at 8 a.m. every weekday. Technically it will last for like 2 hours in 20 minutes on average. Shhh, don't tell my bosses.

One of the reasons why we wanted to do this is because music makes people happy. It helps them deal with stress, and a lot of people in the Binghamton area are stressed out by what's going on in the world right now. So why not give them more music?.

We will still feature the Whale Comedian with The Whale Morning Laugh around 8:33 each weekday morning, but other than that, you'll hear 2 hours of awesome classic rock.

When it comes to  commercials, they keep the lights on here at the station and they provide the electricity for us to play you the great music we do each and every day. Advertising also helps businesses, by us running their commercials, it helps their business grow. The majority of businesses that do not advertise, do not stay open for long.

And commercials are a good thing. If it wasn't for advertising, you would never know where to go to get the necessities you need, and you wouldn't know about fun and entertaining events like concerts and festivals.

So weather you listen with a radio, the Whale Mobile app, or streaming on our website or your smart speaker, make sure you spend your 8 and 9 a.m. hours with me every morning, and I will continue to supply the awesome soundtrack to your day.

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“The Commercial Free Zone”! It's got a nice ring to it.

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