Alt 104.5 Embracing the 90s again?

[atthestars]

Not only have I heard some 90s tunes recently that I haven't heard them play in a while (like "Fade into You" by Mazzy Star, or "There She Goes" by the La's), I could have sworn I heard a quick liner before they played "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows that said something like "DRE played this back in '93!"

Small, little changes, but they add up over time

 

[MarcB]

We have a similar station in Hartford-Radio 104.1 WMRQ. It's locally owned. While they play some new music they also play a lot of 90s music. Plus every weekend they do a 90s weekend. This is actually Radio 104.1 version 2.0 it was relaunched when local ownership bought the station in 09. Previously it existed from October 31, 1994 until September 2003 and it was owned by a predecessor to iHeart Radio. (I don't recall which one).

 

[radiodx10]

"Fade into You" by Mazzy Star

Easily in the top 5 best songs of the 90s.

 

[RStacey1990]

Easily in the top 5 best songs of the 90s.

Ever play that on a high end system? Its ****ing incredible. Sounds great thru Marantz & JBL.

 

[radiodx10]

Ever play that on a high end system? Its ****ing incredible. Sounds great thru Marantz & JBL.

I got a pair of Pioneer CS-99As (that I unbelievably trashpicked!) and a 2009 repress of So Tonight...that whole album sounds utterly stunning.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Fwiw .......
An AARPer here, a decade or so way out of any reasonable advertising demo, owner of a well-guarded lawn and as such resistant to everything new or different.
Yet, I found myself enjoying that early 90's Grunge (if that's an accurate term) for different reasons than most people, I suppose. While in my Fifties!
A lot of it was a sonic throwback to the late 60's Heavy Metal days. I always found that genre head-shakingly *funny* at times amid the all-male nihilism and the hopeless 'We're a rock band ; where are all the chicks???' desolation and mayhem. A big reason, though, was that I'd hear a good guitar or rhythm riff being torn off back then. A decent hook maybe one out of every three or four songs. That percentage of appeal seems to've been the same for me in any format .... C&W, pop, jazz, R&B, A/C .... and so it was 20-some-odd years later.
For a while in the mid-90's I'd gone back-and-forth eMail with the music director of such a station (an OTA one but I found on the internet). We swapped observations on demos, instrumentalization, roots, ratings ; me twice his age but getting a primer on the Modern Rock scene and format. I hope he reciprocally benefited.
So I have lots of songs from the likes of the Smashing Trees and Screaming Pumpkins and others in the house-speaker playlist rotation -- along with a new regard whence and how a lot of it came.
Putting it another way: That MTV era was almost a total waste for me. Who wants to watch attempts at tinny songs with a half-a-hook made to seem more presentably musical by $100,000 video subliminals?
Each decade has its gems, of course. But in one sub-regard I largely went from the 70's to the 90's and sneered at the bulk of the 80's. So it's nice to see discussion about a sliver of a fairly recent craze still being held -- especially a trend that no one my age was supposed to tolerate, let along enjoy.

 

[AMFMTV]

Fwiw .......
An AARPer here, a decade or so way out of any reasonable advertising demo, owner of a well-guarded lawn and as such resistant to everything new or different.
Yet, I found myself enjoying that early 90's Grunge (if that's an accurate term) for different reasons than most people, I suppose. While in my Fifties!
A lot of it was a sonic throwback to the late 60's Heavy Metal days. I always found that genre head-shakingly *funny* at times amid the all-male nihilism and the hopeless 'We're a rock band ; where are all the chicks???' desolation and mayhem. A big reason, though, was that I'd hear a good guitar or rhythm riff being torn off back then. A decent hook maybe one out of every three or four songs. That percentage of appeal seems to've been the same for me in any format .... C&W, pop, jazz, R&B, A/C .... and so it was 20-some-odd years later.
For a while in the mid-90's I'd gone back-and-forth eMail with the music director of such a station (an OTA one but I found on the internet). We swapped observations on demos, instrumentalization, roots, ratings ; me twice his age but getting a primer on the Modern Rock scene and format. I hope he reciprocally benefited.
So I have lots of songs from the likes of the Smashing Trees and Screaming Pumpkins and others in the house-speaker playlist rotation -- along with a new regard whence and how a lot of it came.
Putting it another way: That MTV era was almost a total waste for me. Who wants to watch attempts at tinny songs with a half-a-hook made to seem more presentably musical by $100,000 video subliminals?
Each decade has its gems, of course. But in one sub-regard I largely went from the 70's to the 90's and sneered at the bulk of the 80's. So it's nice to see discussion about a sliver of a fairly recent craze still being held -- especially a trend that no one my age was supposed to tolerate, let along enjoy.

Screaming Trees are great... good taste!

 

[Jstnpspck]

The fragmentation of modern "Alternative" may be something iHeart is tired of trying to reconcile. They have at least one classic alternative station (103.3 in Indy) and a handful of "classic alternative" stations have launched in recent years to some success (91X relaunching in San Diego 99X in Atlanta I think) where iHeart may be deciding to refocus on that easily distinguishable era. I really don't want to hear "Lose Yourself", "Hey Ya" or "Bad Guy" on an Alternative station (however, Indy 103.3 is playing 2 of those 3...)

 

[atthestars]

Alt is leaning into the older stuff this week by playing (and replaying) their Top 104 of Alt Time. Something to fill the void of the last week of the year, or a subtle way to shift the station focus after the holiday?

 

[tall_guy1]

The fragmentation of modern "Alternative" may be something iHeart is tired of trying to reconcile. They have at least one classic alternative station (103.3 in Indy) and a handful of "classic alternative" stations have launched in recent years to some success (91X relaunching in San Diego 99X in Atlanta I think) where iHeart may be deciding to refocus on that easily distinguishable era. I really don't want to hear "Lose Yourself", "Hey Ya" or "Bad Guy" on an Alternative station (however, Indy 103.3 is playing 2 of those 3...)

Is the fragmentation due to the fact that alt stations are playing things which are not really alternative? I would say the audience for Mumford and Sons likes a certain type of music, whereas the Fall Out Boy audience probably likes Taylor Swift.

 

[atthestars]

Is the fragmentation due to the fact that alt stations are playing things which are not really alternative? I would say the audience for Mumford and Sons likes a certain type of music, whereas the Fall Out Boy audience probably likes Taylor Swift.

What if I like both Mumford and Fall Out Boy?

 

[Jstnpspck]

I think a difference in modern alternative radio compared to previous eras is the broadening of the term "alternative", specifically the difference between it and "alternative rock". If WRFF wants to be an "alternative" station and play, say, Billie Eilish, or other artists who push the limits of their format, they can. It seems like most major modern alternative stations have taken that approach. It's not what I'm used to, not what I prefer, so I wouldn't listen, but that isn't to say other folks won't listen. It's harder for me to grasp how Eminem or Outkast could be considered "alternative". Granted, some alternative stations were playing Eminem at the time of his debut (certainly pre-"Lose Yourself" which is what iHeart alt stations seem to spin), but "Hey Ya" is a straight up pop song that is way closer to a Hot AC track than Alternative (or even classic alternative at this point).

 

[atthestars]

I think a difference in modern alternative radio compared to previous eras is the broadening of the term "alternative", specifically the difference between it and "alternative rock". If WRFF wants to be an "alternative" station and play, say, Billie Eilish, or other artists who push the limits of their format, they can. It seems like most major modern alternative stations have taken that approach. It's not what I'm used to, not what I prefer, so I wouldn't listen, but that isn't to say other folks won't listen. It's harder for me to grasp how Eminem or Outkast could be considered "alternative". Granted, some alternative stations were playing Eminem at the time of his debut (certainly pre-"Lose Yourself" which is what iHeart alt stations seem to spin), but "Hey Ya" is a straight up pop song that is way closer to a Hot AC track than Alternative (or even classic alternative at this point).

Let's not forget that "Hey Ya" peaked at #16 on the Alt chart back in 2003. I don't remember Y100 playing it much at all when it was new, but it still must test well with the target audience that WRFF plays it. Eminem had 3 songs hit the Top 20.

Alternative has always had a wide brush to paint with depending on where the trends went. In the 90s, we had the "Tool to Jewel" era where it wasn't that shocking to hear both played on the same station. Or Sarah McLachlan segue into Rancid or something like that. It has always been a wide format, but over time, as different facets of Alternative have sprung up (Emo, Nu-Metal, etc.) the audience has fractured.

 

[Jstnpspck]

I've never heard the term "Tool to Jewel" but I love it . That's a great point, and I wasn't aware that Hey Ya made the alt chart. I do think the continued fracturing has likely hurt the numbers, especially when people can hyperfocus on their preferences with the likes of Spotify and other services. It'd be interesting to see a station embrace that "Tool to Jewel" spectrum and openly acknowledge it; a sort of alt-Jack FM, if you will (but how they rate would be another story...).

 

[atthestars]

I've never heard the term "Tool to Jewel" but I love it . That's a great point, and I wasn't aware that Hey Ya made the alt chart. I do think the continued fracturing has likely hurt the numbers, especially when people can hyperfocus on their preferences with the likes of Spotify and other services. It'd be interesting to see a station embrace that "Tool to Jewel" spectrum and openly acknowledge it; a sort of alt-Jack FM, if you will (but how they rate would be another story...).

Yeah, it's interesting to see how stations that have shifted to Classic Alt tailor their playlists. 91X in San Diego and 99X in Atlanta take a pretty wide swath, including a bunch of 80s/new wave tracks. Same for KLO-FM (103.1 the Wave in Salt Lake City). While others like Indy 103.3 in Indy, or 95.1 the River in Texarkana really focus on 90s/2000s (The River even spikes in Natalie Merchant and Hootie).

Want some harder edge? KPCZ (106.7 the Planet in Lafayette, LA) does 90s/2000s without shying away from the Crunchier/Nu-Metal era.

I'm glad to see all the attempts so far trying their best to tailor the sound to the local market (Whether they have old playlists to work from or good research), and not trying to be one-size-fits-all-only-the-biggest-hits quick burnout style

 

[tall_guy1]

I think a difference in modern alternative radio compared to previous eras is the broadening of the term "alternative", specifically the difference between it and "alternative rock". If WRFF wants to be an "alternative" station and play, say, Billie Eilish, or other artists who push the limits of their format, they can. It seems like most major modern alternative stations have taken that approach. It's not what I'm used to, not what I prefer, so I wouldn't listen, but that isn't to say other folks won't listen. It's harder for me to grasp how Eminem or Outkast could be considered "alternative". Granted, some alternative stations were playing Eminem at the time of his debut (certainly pre-"Lose Yourself" which is what iHeart alt stations seem to spin), but "Hey Ya" is a straight up pop song that is way closer to a Hot AC track than Alternative (or even classic alternative at this point).

I just do not think there is much confidence in the format at all. Alt listeners are probably refreshed to hear those songs once on a station, but not on a regular basis. They might as well kill off the format

 

[atthestars]

I just do not think there is much confidence in the format at all. Alt listeners are probably refreshed to hear those songs once on a station, but not on a regular basis. They might as well kill off the format

Stations like KPNT in St. Louis, KITS in San Fran, KTCL in Denver, KTBZ in Houston, WEQX outside Albany, the recently-expanded WCYY in Portland ME/New Hampshire, WWDC in Washington, WXDX in Pittsburgh, just to name a few, would all beg to differ.

 

[andygradel]

I was shocked to hear "Black Metallic" from Catherine Wheel on WRFF last Thursday around 6:45pm.

They were doing their "Top 104" of all time and featuring a handful of tracks that didn't make the list, but that felt like it was completely out of left field. I don't think I've heard that on any terrestrial station since I got to play it at 2am at FM1063/WHTG back in 1994.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Two AoR programmers at two stations and myself had some great rapport. The more recent PD gave me the go-ahead to do a Saturday night show in 1975 of what was probably real close to being a Classic Rock format. I'd do A-Z artists, or Z-to A, or do just years or other themes. But no recent material got played. We got quite a response to it. Another jock there and myself mutually suggested and agreed that we were unveiling some new Solid Gold venture -- even though Solid Gold was only four years old itself as a format.
Now, granted : the AoR genre was broad enough at the time to have a suitable lot of musical overlap between (perhaps) three separate approaches. There existed the somber, older-school presentation, the original one, which was more 'beatnik' than it was 'hippie'. Think WNEW-FM, or WBAI.
At the more immediate extreme were the hit album stations -- the Lee Abrams-ish performances, which garnered spectacular numbers of teens at the time to augment the numbers of the peer leaders of the college age crowd and their pals. Offered here as examples are WPLJ NYC and WYSP Philly.
Then there were those stations in the middle, lacking either the budget, or talent, or resolve to situate a definite identity. Smaller suburban stations like WDHA Dover NJ, WBAB and WRCN on Long Island, and WPLR New Haven fell into that middle either by default or design. The big Philly WIOQ was like that, too.
The thinking here is twofold. 1) None of those three orientations wanted to lose the imagery that got them to where they were, and 2) the avalanche of album pop/rock/singer-songwriter material made for a huge library, an overall soundtrack for close to an entire generation, that got suitably cherry-picked and distributed to the masses. I exaggerate here, but seemingly most anything written on a looseleaf page, in a diary, or on Bambu rolling papers, a road map, cocktail napkins or burrito wrappers and then sung by the author was considered 'heavy' and relevant.
Alas ; the total fragmentation of the AoR scene (I put the first notable tremor around 1979) brought THAT era to a close. Youth music as a generational unifying undertone went in too many directions to pinpoint. And the more modern marketing ventures toward presenting/exploiting any of them largely went nowhere.
Call that past sound anything you wish ..... Modern Rock, Alternative, New Wave, Active Rock, all-Eighties, AAA : each was a period piece. If it's a favourite milieu for you -- as the ELO song goes -- accroche-toi aton rêve. Find more of those songs in the sliver you prefer, hold on tight to your dream, and put them in your mP3 library. Bickering about what songs belong on certain radio stations is not the issue here. Besides, commercial radio stations are designed today solely to be the place that everyone agrees is somewhat better than nothing.

 

[brokentuner]

Stations like KPNT in St. Louis, KITS in San Fran, KTCL in Denver, KTBZ in Houston, WEQX outside Albany, the recently-expanded WCYY in Portland ME/New Hampshire, WWDC in Washington, WXDX in Pittsburgh, just to name a few, would all beg to differ.

I agree. Add KVIL WLUM KKDO WRXL WEDG WEND for ratings success or look at how well KQX or KROQ bills even with wild swing in ratings. Its working, to some extent, in some places.