What? New formats?

According to AllAccess.com*, the Denver Radio Company launched two new FM formats this morning, "Martini on the Rockies," shaking, like, Norah Jones, Sarah MacLachlan, and Sheryl Crow with a splash of Linda Eder, Diana Krall, plus a spritz of Michael Buble. You might even hear Sinatra, Bennett, Ronstadt or Rod Stewart. Get the picture?

The other format, "Sassy"-- for "active adult women," --might stir Carly Simon and Carol King in with America and Chicago.

The execs are hyping this as local-local-local, because it ain't "the best hits from the 60s, 70s, and 80s." Um, well, not that part of those decades. Hey, they're trying. And, like all flips, this'll sound new for a while. That is, if you don't compare it to a few dozen mixes available on Web or satellite radio. Or your own, on your little white you-know-what. Are the aging Denver Boomers going to buy it?

Don't get me wrong. Radio's still big. It's just not growing--read what another Denver exec told InsideRadio. Radio has always defined growth as taking Arbitron share away from another tower radio station. This will not be enough in the future.

Well, congratulations, anyway, Denver Radio Company. E for Effort.

* AllAccess.com is a kinda slow, Flash-animated-GIF-heavy, frames-using site, and you'll need to register as a radio guy--no charge, and no radio-guy-ID-card required. If you get through all this, click on "Net News."