SURGE RADIO

:''This article describes Surge Radio from Lancaster, CA. The article describing Surge Radio from Southampton, UK is Surge 1287am.
'Surge Radio' is an internet radio network broadcasting from Lancaster, CA. It is owned and operated by XRQK. Prior to being owned by XRQK, it was owned collectively owned and was operated local high school and college students, mainly from Lancaster High School, Quartz Hill High School, Paraclete High School and Antelope Valley College, but is not associated with the schools in any way.
They broadcast from a studio in a residential housing tract near Avenue K and 40th Street West and host their servers at the studio through an Antelecom Wireless Broadband connection with a large bandwidth upgrade. The radio station is completely non-profit and barely made enough revenue to cover monthly operation costs.
The website SurgeRadio.org is well known for its games and videos page, including "Mini Jackass" which is an online series produced by Surge Radio's own DJ Zombie featuring ridiculous stunts.

Contents

History

Early FRS Days

Europa Plus Antelope Valley

Europa Plus Online

Zed Radio

Surge Radio

Staff Members

External links

History

Early FRS Days

The station's history begins with the 'TDP1 Simplex Repeater System', which was an FRS simplex repeater system on Channel 8 (467.5625 MHz) with a connection to the telephone network. It was powered on December 28, 2000.
The repeater later became known as the 'DPI5 Simplex Repeater', when it began playing music on weekday afternoons. Music played on the DPI5 Simplex Repeater's music sessions were usually a blend of Active Rock, House music and Theme songs from TV shows. The first song to eminate from the DPI5 Simplex Repeater was Collective Soul's 'Shine'. During the music sessions, the DPI5 Simplex Repeater frequently had problems with people jamming, or overlapping, the signal with their two-way radios.
Once every 1 or 2 weeks, the DPI5 Simplex Repeater would repeat Russian radio station Europa Plus for most of the day. Many people found it strange that a local repeater system was carrying Russian language radio programming. Later, the DPI5 Simplex Repeater began regularly airing 'Evropiskaya Zorka' 8 PM - 11 PM (which was 7 AM - 10 AM Moscow Time), which was the morning show from Europa Plus in Russia.
In June 2001, the DPI5 Simplex Repeater segued to 'FRS Radio Station DPI5', the first widely known FRS radio station in the USA. FRS Radio Station DPI5 was launched with Creed's 'Higher'. The station had a relatively weak signal outside of the areas around Avenue K and Avenue L between 30th and 40th Street West but depending on the radio could be heard up to 12 miles away. They became the inspirations for several other FRS radio stations across the country. Much of FRS Radio Station DPI5's programming was simulcasted on the short lived FRS Radio Station B182 on FRS Channel 14 in San Antonio, Texas.
FRS Radio Station DPI5 broadcasted a mixture of local programming hosted by a computer voice, a small but unique automated playlist, simplex repeater service, and simulcasts of Europa Plus radio 106.2 FM in Moscow and 1220 KIISAM in Santa Clarita. Weekday programming included Rick Dees In The Morning, Rush Limbaugh's talk show in the afternoon, Europa Plus's Evropiskaya Zorka at night, and automated music inbetween programs (possibly with a computer voice announcing artist and track names) or simplex repeater service (usually at night). Weekend programs included Europa Plus's programs: Garage, Bolshoi Ludi, and Euro-Hit Top 40, as well as Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, Leeza Gibbons Hollywood Confidential, and Golf Talk. Programs were sometimes interrupted for live coverage of Dodger Baseball.
After 1220 AM in Santa Clarita flipped to all News Talk in November 2001, FRS Radio Station DPI5 began simulcasting KVVS-97.7 KIISFM during much of the daytime for several weeks. Afterward, FRS Radio Station DPI5 ran on its automated playlist full time with the exception of simulcasted programming from Europa Plus.
In January 2002, FRS Radio Station DPI5 introduced a sister station on FRS Channel 3 (462.6125 MHz) known as 'FRS Radio Station SW87', which was a simulcast of FRS Radio Station DPI5 but Channel 3 better covered Quartz Hill, while Channel 8 better covered West Lancaster. The signal on Channel 8 was always slightly quieter than Channel 3 which had a louder and fuller sound. Both channels 3 and 8 transmitted at 0.5 Watts.

Europa Plus Antelope Valley

On February 14, 2002 at 8 PM, FRS Radio Stations DPI5 and SW87 were rebranded as 'Europa Plus Antelope Valley' with the slogan 'Turn On Your World' (which was a rough translation of Europa Plus's Russian slogan "Vkluchi Ves' Mir"). The station began simulcasting Europa Plus radio 106.2 FM in Moscow full time to the Antelope Valley during the entire month of February. During the months of March and April, they began simulcasting different gamesnet stations; first Rock/Metal/Electronica formatted XFR (Xtreme F'n Radio) for 2 weeks, then Rock/Metal/Comedy formatted CKR (Cyber Kast Radio) for 2 weeks, and finally Top 40 formatted TNM (The New Mix) for a month. During this time, the station still retained some programming from Europa Plus in Moscow. After the station discontinued simulcasting stations from gamesnet, it returned to a full time simulcast of Europa Plus radio 106.2 FM in Moscow.
In mid-June 2002, the 2 FRS signals were leased by gamesnet station DR (Digital Radio) and became a full time simulcast of DR for 2 weeks. Afterward the FRS signals went off the air without explanation.
In late August 2002, the FRS signals returned operating on the original DPI5 playlist for a week, then switched to a full time simulcast of Europa Plus radio 106.2 FM in Moscow for over a month, then began weaving in a mixture of local programming and simulcasts of Europa Plus during the daytime and Digitally Imported Trance during the nighttime and continued this way until its demise. Every morning at 6:56 AM, the station played PPK's ResuRection signaling the end of the Nighttime Trance Marathon, and then started the morning with Europa Plus's news at 7 AM. Local personalities included: DJ CheatX, DJ C-Dog, DJ Skinky, DJ Trigger, DJ Vannelly, DJ Whammy, and DJ Zombie
In September 2002, A new simulcast was added at Channel 10 (467.6125 MHz) serving Rancho Vista and Del Sur from Godde Hill with 0.348 Watts. Europa Plus Antelope Valley also began carrying some programming from Europa Plus Kazakhstan, such as 'Zavadnoy Apelsin' and a segment from 4 PM - 5 PM that consisted enitrely of current Kazakh language hit music (this was the final hour of Musikalnaya Programma na Kaz Yaz which was an automated playlist which ran during the night on Europa Plus Kazakhstan, but with the time difference, ended up being during the daytime in Pacific Time). Later, Europa Plus Antelope Valley was forced to drop the programs after Europa Plus Kazakhstan shut down their online stream.
In early 2003, a simulcast was added at Channel 14 (467.7125 MHz) serving East Lancaster (with fringe into East Palmdale) from Lido Estate Trailer Park on East Avenue I as well as a 24k online stream, and Channel 10 (467.6125 MHz) was moved up to Houser Mountain with 2 Watts. They became the official radio station for the 'Elite Warfare Knights', which was a Counter-Strike clan on gamesnet (now GameSurge). EWK sponsored a 96k streaming server for Europa Plus Antelope Valley in exchange for live coverage of counterstrike tournaments. Members of EWK also hosted live broadcasts from their home computers on weekday afternoons.
Europa Plus Antelope Valley was for the most part unclassifiable under any one genre, during much of the daytime it was Dance intensive Top 40/Hot AC which also included current hits from Europe and Russia, in the late afternoon and evening it played mainly Hard Rock and Metal along with small amounts of Dance Hits and Underground Electronica, and at night it was almost entirely Trance formatted. Europa Plus Antelope Valley, at one point, was recognized as a local radio station at InTheAV.com (the link can still be seen on the radio page of the legacy site). In the mornings and mid-days, Europa Plus Antelope Valley could be heard at various locations inside the Antelope Valley Mall.
On May 7 2003, the Antelope Valley Amateur Radio Club started an investigation of the FRS radio station, and after tracking the Channel 3 signal to the source from the residential home, the plug was pulled on the station at 9:48 PM. Station staff frantically made calls to the individuals hosting the other transmitters ordering that they be shut off immediately.
In September 2003, Europa Plus Antelope Valley reappeared on 106.7 FM as a 1 Watt pirate radio station, only on air between the hours of 4 PM until 9 PM. The first 4 hours consisted of replayed programming from Europa Plus Kazakhstan, and the final hour consisted of programming with a local host (usually DJ Whammy), but on Fridays and Weekends the programming consisted of various local DJs hosting 1 hour segments, and a repeat of the syndicated Europa Plus program Garage at 4 PM on Saturday. After just 2 weeks of being on air, an SWR problem caused the transmitter to fry.

Europa Plus Online

A week after the failure of the FM transmitter, they reappeared again as a full time online radio station under the name 'Europa Plus Online', which simulcasted Europa Plus Ukraine much of the time, and had locally produced programming on weekends. Local programming was usually hosted by the 8th grade students at Grace Lutheran School in Lancaster.
In early 2004, Europa Plus Online rebranded itself as 'Cyber Plus' airing an Active Rock format and independent of Europa Plus, however, this only lasted 9 days. Europa Plus Online returned. Shortly after, exclusive programming for Europa Plus Online hosted in Ukraine was added to the lineup. DJ Zombie began working on a Metal specialty show which started out as Mandatory Headbanging, but later became known as 'Mandatory Metal' with the slogan "For True Headbangers!".
In mid-2004, Europa Plus Online was issued a cease and desist order by the program director of Europa Plus Ukraine, because Europa Plus Online was unable to generate enough revenue to pay the royalty fees for use of the Europa Plus name and programming. Europa Plus Online signed off with the Lords of Acid song 'James Brown is Dead' and then after a few moments of dead air, played Gary Jules' 'Mad World', launching a place holder Top 40 format as 'Radio 1 Online' for 2 weeks before a merger with 'Zed Radio' in June 2004. Zed Radio was owned and operated by a group of DJs and radio producers from Ukraine.

Zed Radio

Originally Zed Radio, being a very well respected Ukrainian online radio outlet, started in late 2002 airing full time but financial problems caused the broadcast time to diminish to only 3 hours per week or less, but after joining with the former Europa Plus staff, became a full time online radio station once again. The new full time format would be apart of a reimaging campaign to expand the listener base outside of Ukraine. The new Zed Radio was branded as 'The Online Party Station'.
The full time format launched on June 19, 2004 with DJ Krush's '40 Winks (No Sleep Vadim Mix)'. During the first few weeks of full time operation, Zed Radio replayed Soma FM's Beat Blender channel while Zed's programming wasn't being aired. Later, the part-time simulcast ended and Zed Radio constructed a playlist consisting of a mainly Dance Hits and Chill Out format, later flipping to Dance friendly Hot AC, then to Urban Contemporary blended with Dance Hits and Drum and Bass, then settling on Dance intensive Rhythmic CHR.

Zed Radio was automated from the Lancaster studio and aired Russian language Dance format weekday programming hosted from Zaporozhye, Ukraine and English language specialty programming hosted from Lancaster, CA on weekends. Specialty programming included Modern Rock format 'Weekend Liftoff' with Smog, Hip Hop format 'DJ Howie's Mixtape', Alternative Rock format 'The Really Really Awesome Friday Show' with Angela Browne and Kay Kolesar, and Metal format 'Mandatory Metal' with DJ Zombie and The Arshole. Many of Zed Radio's specialty programs were syndicated to other online and terrestrial radio stations in California, Idaho, and New York, but the syndication ended after Zed Radio's demise. Mandatory Metal became one of the most listened to Metal shows on SHOUTcast. Zed Radio also aired Ukrainian language programs "Demo Versiya", " Avto-Pro", "Dance Planet" and others produced by FDR Radio Networks. Zed Radio reached the Top 25 of SHOUTcast in September 2004, regularly having several hundred listeners simultaneously, mostly from Ukraine.
Zed Radio and the band 'Toxic Twinkies' (which featured Smog as drummer) hosted several live music shows in the Antelope Valley which featured local Punk and Metal bands. Toxic Twinkies performed at every show. Zed Radio also hosted relief shows for the tsunamis in Indonesia resulting from 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Zed Radio was also featured in Paraclete High School's newspaper, the article was titled 'Four Freshmen and A Radio Station'. Due to excessive advertising on local forums, Zed Radio became quite infamous among high school students in the Antelope Valley.
In mid-2005, Zed Radio's website and streaming servers were shut off unexpectedly. Later, Zed Radio relaunched as Radio Galaktika with all Ukrainian programming once again, while the Antelope Valley staff went in a separate direction. An attempt was made to regain affiliate status with Europa Plus in Moscow, but the regional director, Elena Nikishkina, never returned any of the emails. Shortly after, plans were made to launch a new independent online radio station.

Surge Radio

The name 'Surge Radio' was officially adopted on April 21, 2005 as suggested by Angela Browne. Surge launched on April 22, 2005 from their newly renovated studio with an automated Rhythmic CHR format under guidance by Antelope Valley Mobile DJ 'CM3' who accepted a rare opportunity to develop his program and music director skills and visionary style, he also gave Surge the slogan 'Respect The Music!'. The new station also sometimes included Dance Hits, New Wave, and Local Underground Punk and Metal. Surge Radio also included all of the locally hosted programming from Zed Radio (with the exclusion of Weekend Liftoff). It was also the only American radio station to play Russian language dance music shows "Garage" and "EuroMix" from Europa Plus, as well as Europa Plus's Euro-Hit Top 40 hosted by Alexei Manuylov. Unlike Zed Radio, Surge Radio targeted high school and college students in the Antelope Valley, while Zed Radio targeted people around the world ages 16-25.
After CM3 left Surge in July 2005, Surge Radio flipped to fulltime Dance Hits and still included the locally hosted shows and shows from Europa Plus. Later, due to unsatisfactory listener numbers, Surge Radio transitioned from Dance Hits to Underground Metal and Electronica. The new format was launched with Girls Aloud's 'Sound of The Underground'. This new format consisted of tracks from artists like Cannibal Corpse, Shadows Fall, Zero 7, GWAR, Royksopp, All That Remains, Marly, Hatebreed, Trivium, Ultrabeat, As I Lay Dying, Crystal Method, Otep, Killswitch Engage and Kevin Bacon Experience but also included some very obscure tracks that didn't quite fit the format, such as tracks from Fall Out Boy, James Blunt, System of A Down, Guy Lombardo, Foo Fighters, All Saints, Rage Against The Machine, Patrulla 81 and Kenny Chesney. DJ Whammy gave Surge the new slogan 'Antelope Valley's Underground Alternative Radio', but "Respect The Music" was still heard in on air liners. Surge was usually very careful not to include any music in their playlist which would be considered sacrilegious or offensive to Christian listeners.
In September 2005, Surge Radio began airing afternoon talk programs, many of which were considered, politically, to be Leftist, Progressive, and Anarchist. Such programs included 'Democracy Now', 'Free Speech Radio News', 'Making Contact', 'Sprouts', 'Between The Lines', 'CounterSpin', 'The Shortwave Report', 'Slave Revolt Radio', and 'Bad Cop No Donut', as well as audio collages 'Innerside' and 'Mindwalk'. Surge also picked up morning news reports 'AP Radio News', 'Independent Native News', and 'Workers Independent News' as well as weekend talk programs 'Radio Free School', 'Alternative Radio', WBAI's 'Behind The News', and 'Unwelcome Guests'. Also added was Christian programming, such as 'The Lutheran Hour', 'Woman To Woman', and Church of The Open Door's 'Growing In Grace', as well as a daily morning replay of Lancaster Baptist Church's 'Daily In The Word' also heard on KTLW. Lancaster Baptist Church stated that they didn't mind Surge Radio airing the program, but even though Surge Radio has some "good elements" to it, Surge Radio would never be supported by Lancaster Baptist Church due to the nature of the radio station's main format.
In November 2005, Surge Radio's streams began stunting for several days airing a seemingly endless repeat of a sound clip of the Press Your Luck board, which confused many people. During this time Surge was preparing to launch an FM signal, many tests were conducted where the sound clip would be heard intermittantly on 88.5 FM. Finally, the FM signal officially signed on at 88.5 FM as a pirate radio station, broadcasting with 5 watts. The stunting ended 2 hours after the signal launched, and then aired the Blackbox track 'Strike It Up' followed by an hour of music then resumed the regular programming as it was before the stunting.
Surge partnered with One Louder Radio (a UK based online metal station) and aired band interviews and replays of several shows, including 'Stacked Up' with Richard and 'Brutalism' with Twan. Also, the station picked up numerous other shows including 'The Rack' (Comedy), 'Octane Rock' (Rock/Comedy), 'The Indie Rock Show' (Independent Christian Rock), 'Silent Planet Radio' (Independent Contemporary Christian Music), 'The Nation of Rockwell' (Christian Hard Rock), 'Ghostly Talk' (Paranormal Talk), 'The Unzipped Show' (Comedy/Adult Talk), 'Pop Defect Radio' (Leftist Underground Rock), 'Maximum Rock&Roll' (Punk Rock), 'Pogo Radio' (Punk Rock with German speaking DJs), 'Soundfront Underground' (Underground Electronica), 'The Full Armor of God Broadcast' (Underground Christian Metal-aired twice weekly), and 'Captain Fred's World Cruise' (World Beat). Surge also featured a simulcast of Ministry of Sound radio 11 AM - 8 PM on Sundays.
Simulcasted programs from Europa Plus and former Zed Radio specialty shows still continued to air every weekend. A new local addition was Alternative Rock/Comedy format 'Alternative Afternoon' with Captain Insaneo and Frosty The Dopeman, which quickly became the station's most popular show. Other new local shows included Modern Rock/Hip Hop/Country format 'Fa Show' with Peach Fizz and Phenomenon (Fa Show stuck out like a sore thumb Surge Radio's line up, the DJs of the show stated that they were "giving the listeners a break") and each weeknight there was all request 'Overdrive' with DJ Whammy from Europa Plus Antelope Valley, which made Surge a popular destination on the radio dial for weeknights 8 PM - 10 PM, because Surge really did play anything that was requested. Sometimes DJ Whammy would spin live during the second hour. Even though Surge had a wide variety of shows and programs in its line up, it ran on its automated Underground Metal & Electronica formatted playlist during weekday mornings/mid-days (6:45 AM - 3 PM), weeknights (10 PM - 6 AM) and early Sunday mornings (12 AM - 8 AM).
On December 10, 2005 an announcement was made that Surge Radio would be moving up to 96.3 FM, 2 minutes later the signal on 88.5 FM dropped out and a few seconds later the signal returned at 96.3 FM. The frequency was switched to 96.3 to provide a cleaner signal with less interference, and in February 2006, a 2 watt signal was added at 102.1 FM to provide better coverage in neighborhoods to the south. Surge posted many flyers around the Antelope Valley advertising the FM signals, but the Lancaster Code Enforcement demanded that they be removed.
Surge became a valuable resource for promotion of many independent and unsigned punk and metal bands in the Antelope Valley, frequently heard were songs from 'Only With Hope', 'Panic Over War', 'Bodacious J' (known today as Cheeta Dick Pop), 'And So It Was Said', 'A Beautiful Elgy', 'Without Any Regrets', and 'Gravity Eyelids'. Local Hip Hop artists received some air play as well. Indie bands and artists from around the world also sent in their music for airplay, such bands included 'Punk Bunny', 'Tintozenna', 'Becky', 'Post Mortem', 'Sanctifyed', 'Project Slow Deaf Child', 'Permutaciones', and 'Phillip Glyn'. Ads for events involving local music were frequently heard on air, including several events at El Dorado and The Ceder Centre as well as House parties. Surge Radio constantly bashed The Edge 100.1 for being too mainstream with too little diversity, having too little community involvement and not paying attention to local music.
In March 2006, Surge Radio's website was completely redesigned, games and videos were added to the website. This attracted the attention of many local students in computer classes, and later resulted in SurgeRadio.org's ban from being viewed at any school within the Antelope Valley Union High School District. Later, the new design attracted controversy from KENU because the website layout looked too similar to their current one. A temporary page was put up for several days while the website was revamped again. SurgeRadio.net was confiscated by the upstream provider, and forced Surge Radio to move to a new domain, SurgeRadio.org.
A computer problem wiped out Surge Radio's music playlist, causing several hours of dead air. While Surge was attempting to rebuild the playlist, for 2 weeks Surge aired a simulcast of 680 News from Toronto, Ontario, Canada where it normally aired its automated playlist, regularly aired programs were not affected. Many people were confused by the liners saying 'Toronto's Only All News Radio Station' as well as the local traffic reports for the Toronto area. Several people called in showing appreciation for the "joke", while others called in complaining and asking that the music be returned. The original playlist was eventually restored, and Surge returned to normal. However, in an attempt to attract less attention from the FCC, Surge began lowering the power to 0.26 Watts during weekdays.
In May 2006, Surge Radio suspended its FM transmissions due to a new Construction Permit issued for 96.1 (which affected the 96.3 signal) and interference complaints from KSCA (which affected the 102.1 signal) and continued operating as an internet radio station. 102.1 FM moved to 101.5 FM on May 1st, but interference prevented the 2 watt signal from reaching more than a few hundred feet. Both signals were shut off on May 7th at 10:04 PM. The signals signed off at the beginning of the program Silent Planet Radio, listeners say that the FM signals signed off with a man saying "Tonight, we've got a whole bunch of new....", then the signals dropped out.
The removal of the FM signals greatly affected the station's listenership and popularity in the local community, and even resulted in the termination of the partnership with One Louder Radio in the UK. Without the FM signals, Surge Radio had difficulty maintaining a local identity despite being the only radio station to play local music. Surge Radio's original staff eventually completely left the station with the exclusion of Whammy (GM & PD), Pronto (Assistant PD) and Zombie (DJ). With Whammy moving to Lancaster High, he managed to recruit an entirely new on air staff.
The new local show line up consisted of All Request 'Overdrive' with DJ Whammy, Alternative Rock format 'Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster' with The Bus Driver, a Classic Rock format show with DJ Freshman, Reggaeton/Modern Rock format 'The New Really Really Awesome Friday Show' with Eva, Alternative Rock/Punk format 'Hour of Chaos' with Brian Misled and Brent Menace, Alternative Rock/Punk format 'The Really Rad Radio Show' with Morningstar and oJ-oJ, and Metal format 'Mandatory Metal' with DJ Zombie. A number of incidents, firings, and DJs quitting led to the majority of local show lineup being adjusted and/or replaced multiple times.
The new DJs and staff members as they came and went over time gave Surge Radio a different on air sound with a more mainstream appeal, which caused Surge Radio to lose some of its very loyal listeners. Surge Radio made several attempts to reappear on the FM dial at 95.1 FM but was never able to combat the interference from KBBY and KFRG, which overlapped in the Antelope Valley.
Surge Radio added a morning show 'Bear in The Morning' to the lineup (which replaced the morning news segments and the radio show from Lancaster Baptist Church). Later, 3 new automated music channels were added to provide music programming for those who didn't agree with all of the programming on the main channel. The channels included Death Metal, Black Metal, and Grindcore formatted 'Brutal Surge', Hardcore, Extreme Metal, and Metalcore formatted 'Extreme Surge', and Electronica formatted 'Pulse' which acted as a tribute to the former Pulse 1330 which flipped to Classic Alternative KGRG1 in September 2006. The Pulse later became apart of The Greater Broadcasting Network but SurgeRadio.org still included listen links to The Pulse.
Within a month of the new channels arrival, Surge Radio began dismanteling the format, removing all remaining Dance and Electronica tracks from the playlist, dumped all news-talk programming in order to have a more music based channel, and flipped to Modern Rock due to the presence of Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge. The slogan was reverted to the original 'Respect The Music!' slogan. Surge Radio began to gain a bad reputation in the local community for sounding too much like The Edge 100.1 as well as terrible public relations, and as a result, local band promotion groups no longer wanted anything to do with Surge. The loss of the unique original sound of Surge Radio devistated the station's listener count.
The subchannels Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge began to gain a dedicated following of their own, and even brought some fresh listeners to the original Surge Radio. A fan of Extreme Surge, Tata Calu, redesigned SurgeRadio.org free of charge, and a fan of Brutal Surge, Simon Trask, began working on a php script where people could request songs on Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge, and hear them on demand, but the system was never finished. Brutal Surge picked up a radio show, 'MetalSpace Radio', but discontinued airing the show after 2 months.
Several computer problems lead to Surge Radio, Brutal Surge, and Extreme Surge being taken offline for 13 days, during this time many phone calls and emails were received from angry listeners. The problem was fixed and the channels signed back on, but most of the listeners never returned.
Due to fading interest in the station, the original Surge Radio discontinued updating the playlist in late 2006 and discarded it entirely in early 2007, at which point Surge began running a simulcast of Format Lab's 'Nitro Rocks' format (which consists of Active Rock). Since the station wasn't checked regularly anymore, it began having frequent epidemics of dead air, sometimes lasting up to a week. Surge Radio also dismissed most of the air staff and dropped nearly all of its programming with the exception of locally hosted 'Mandatory Metal' and syndicated 'Bear In The Morning' and 'Full Armor of God' but Surge also gained a syndicated show titled 'EZ Help' (Freeform Talk). Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge continued with their playlists, but never added any new songs.
In May 2007, due to a backlash from former staff members and numerous financial problems, Surge Radio and its subchannels signed off indefinitely. However, during the final hour of broadcast, it was announced that Surge going off the air was the result of the new copyright royalty rates, but Surge signed off 8 days before the rates were due go into effect. The ruling was delayed for 2 months and to this day, still haven't gone into effect. Surge Radio, Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge signed off with Skinlab's 'Anthem For A Fallen Star'.
In late June and early July several former Surge Radio DJs and several new ones began hosting specialty shows on The Pulse, but discontinued shortly after due to controversy from WDOS-FM. Adio later announced on SurgeRadio.org that he would be resurrecting Surge Radio with a new format consisting of a blend of Hard Rock, Punk, and Hip Hop. Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge would return as well.
On July 18th 2007, Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge returned. The original Surge Radio was announced to be returning soon also. The new program director, Adio, moved to Florida, leaving Surge Radio dead in the water. 2 weeks later Brutal Surge and Extreme Surge signed off again, and the website's news section disappeared and was replaced with "More info at a later date, thanks for visiting SurgeRadio.org!".
As of August 2007, Surge Radio, the domain and facilities were sold to XRQK. The former Surge Radio studio became the studio for the new Dance Hits format online radio station branded as 'Rave HD', with the slogan 'The High Desert's Dance Authority'. XRQK has announced that they will bring back Surge Radio with a teen oriented format sometime in the near future.

Staff Members

★ '@Nite' (2004 - 2004)

★ 'Adio' (2007 - 2007)

★ 'Angela Browne' (2005 - 2006)

★ 'Annex' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Arshole' (2003 - 2005)

★ 'Banana Bob' (2004 - 2004)

★ 'Bonzai' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Brent Menace' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'Brain Dead' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Brian Misled' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'Bus Driver' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'C-Dog' (2002 - 2003)

★ 'Candy' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Captain Insaneo' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'Cheat-X' (2002 - 2005)

★ 'Cheriko' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Chichiri' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Chris Bulch' (2005 - 2005)

★ 'Codi' (2002 - 2002)

★ 'CM3' (2004 - 2005)

★ 'Danny Delgado' (2005 - 2006)

★ 'Darkfade' (2002 - 2003)

★ 'Dev' (2003 - 2003)

★ 'Dima Vasilev' (2004 - 2005)

★ 'Duane Segovia' (2005 - 2005)

★ 'Extreme' (2002 - 2004)

★ 'Eva' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'Fluffy Skull' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Freshman' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'Frosty The Dopeman' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'Howie' (2004 - 2006)

★ 'Huggie Bear' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Ice' (2004 - 2005)

★ 'Illusion' (2002 - 2003)

★ 'James Fourr' (2004 - 2006)

★ 'Kay Kolesar' (2005 - 2006)

★ 'Lizzie' (2005 - 2005)

★ 'Mackey' (2002 - 2002)

★ 'Malice' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Massacre' (2002 - 2003)

★ 'Mattjew' (2005 - 2005)

★ 'Miaka' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Mori' (2005 - 2005)

★ 'MorningStar' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Naru' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Necronamican' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Nuriko' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Oblivion' (2002 - 2003)

★ 'oJ-oJ' (2006 - 2006)

★ 'Peach Fizz' (2005 - 2006)

★ 'Phenomenon' (2005 - 2006)

★ 'Pronto' (2004 - 2006)

★ 'Quickie' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Skinky' (2002 - 2004)

★ 'Smog' (2004 - 2005)

★ 'Sterling The Intern' (2005 - 2005)

★ 'Steve-O' (2005 - 2007)

★ 'Steve Webb' (2005 - 2006)

★ 'Stoner' (2005 - 2006)

★ 'Tasuki' (2003 - 2004)

★ 'Taz' (2002 - 2003)

★ 'The DJ Formerally Known As DJ Frodo' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Towlie' (2002 - 2003)

★ 'Trigger' (2002 - 2004)

★ 'Tyler Dean' (2005 - 2005)

★ 'Vannelly' (2002 - 2004)

★ 'Wee Man' (2006 - 2007)

★ 'Whammy' (2000 - 2007)

★ 'Yegor Veklich' (2004 - 2005)

★ 'Zombie' (2002 - 2007)

External links

★ Surge Radio official homepage

★ Surge Radio History