Alternative rock stations that should be active rockers

[p_herring]

This idea was taken by the thread below. Many of Clear Channel's alternative stations, as well as several others, I feel should be reporting as active rock stations rather than alternative. I'm glad that Project 96.1 in Atlanta is reporting as active rock, but here's the start of a list of stations that are "alternative" that should be active rock, in my opinion:

WBCN/Boston
WJRR/Orlando
KXTE/Las Vegas
WHRL/Albany
the 'alternative' station in Dallas (Can't think of the calls)

The list started reflects the stations that may play artists that fit the alternative format, but either 1)mix in hard rock from the past, like GN'R or AC/DC, 2) play many hard rock bands influcenced by classic rockers (Buckcherry or Shinedown), 3) fail to play actual alternative artists like Death Cab for Cutie, Muse or Nickelback, or a combination of those three.

In other words, I think alternative stations should sound like WFNX/Boston, WEQX/Manchester, VT-Albany, NY or KROQ/LA. Feel free to add others...

Jacko

I think you have a very limited view of what alternative is. A true Alternative has a feel unlike any other format. Music is just the easiest way for programmers to express it. Saying Shinedown or Hinder isn't Alternative is stupid and short sighted ... Do they belong on stations like 'FNX? prolly not, but that's because Tolkoff has his vision of Alternative in play and it is respondant to his community. Being Alternative isn't just playing the hippest music ... it's having DJ's that stand out like nobody else in your market ... it's about having contesting and promotions that don't sound the same on any other station ... Alternative is the one single format that can have a unique identity built just for it's market. Just because our station (WKRL) doesn't support Death Cab for Cutie or plays 3 deep tracks from The Kooks doesn't mean we're not Alternative. ... One of the problems with all of Alternative is that, for the most part, we generally blame the record community for not helping us remain relevant. That's not their job ... that's ours. Alternative is about being different ... what's different about every one sounding like KITS in San Francisco (with all due respect) and their monster 1.3?

by the way ... Alternative is still a rock format ... and not Top 40's b-i-t-c-h.

K-Rock Syracuse is basically Active Rock. When I went to school at Ithaca I would catch a listen and they would play the same tired nu-metal bands (Even still played Kid Rock). Going to one of their radio-station sponsored concerts was even worse. It was ALL mooks trying to "kick major ass in the pit bro" while, during the slower songs, seeing how many women would take off their tops. Disgusting...

So, you pull a Clear Channel and homoginize our version of Alternative because it flies in the face of what KROQ is doing? Here's a little interesting fact about KROQ ... being born in market #2 doesn't make them right for the nation just like being in market #79 doesn't make us right for the nation. If you want 77 stations that all sound the same ... get a job at a company that makes all music & jock decisions at corporate level.

The irony is that K-Rock Syracuse DOES sound like basically any Clear Channel alternative station. The jocks are all typical "shock" jocks, not realizing how lame they sound, and the playlist is super-safe nu-metal-tinged. Look, if the ratings are good and people respond to it, fine. As for it being "alternative", I remember when The Dog and 95.X were all doing the current rock thing and it was basically impossible to differentiate from the 3. Plus, any Alternative station that boasts about Shinedown headlining it's big radio concert needs to be seriously re-evaluated.

 

[scottpetibone]

This idea was taken by the thread below. Many of Clear Channel's alternative stations, as well as several others, I feel should be reporting as active rock stations rather than alternative. I'm glad that Project 96.1 in Atlanta is reporting as active rock, but here's the start of a list of stations that are "alternative" that should be active rock, in my opinion:

WBCN/Boston
WJRR/Orlando
KXTE/Las Vegas
WHRL/Albany
the 'alternative' station in Dallas (Can't think of the calls)

The list started reflects the stations that may play artists that fit the alternative format, but either 1)mix in hard rock from the past, like GN'R or AC/DC, 2) play many hard rock bands influcenced by classic rockers (Buckcherry or Shinedown), 3) fail to play actual alternative artists like Death Cab for Cutie, Muse or Nickelback, or a combination of those three.

In other words, I think alternative stations should sound like WFNX/Boston, WEQX/Manchester, VT-Albany, NY or KROQ/LA. Feel free to add others...

Jacko

I think you have a very limited view of what alternative is. A true Alternative has a feel unlike any other format. Music is just the easiest way for programmers to express it. Saying Shinedown or Hinder isn't Alternative is stupid and short sighted ... Do they belong on stations like 'FNX? prolly not, but that's because Tolkoff has his vision of Alternative in play and it is respondant to his community. Being Alternative isn't just playing the hippest music ... it's having DJ's that stand out like nobody else in your market ... it's about having contesting and promotions that don't sound the same on any other station ... Alternative is the one single format that can have a unique identity built just for it's market. Just because our station (WKRL) doesn't support Death Cab for Cutie or plays 3 deep tracks from The Kooks doesn't mean we're not Alternative. ... One of the problems with all of Alternative is that, for the most part, we generally blame the record community for not helping us remain relevant. That's not their job ... that's ours. Alternative is about being different ... what's different about every one sounding like KITS in San Francisco (with all due respect) and their monster 1.3?

by the way ... Alternative is still a rock format ... and not Top 40's b-i-t-c-h.

K-Rock Syracuse is basically Active Rock. When I went to school at Ithaca I would catch a listen and they would play the same tired nu-metal bands (Even still played Kid Rock). Going to one of their radio-station sponsored concerts was even worse. It was ALL mooks trying to "kick major ass in the pit bro" while, during the slower songs, seeing how many women would take off their tops. Disgusting...

So, you pull a Clear Channel and homoginize our version of Alternative because it flies in the face of what KROQ is doing? Here's a little interesting fact about KROQ ... being born in market #2 doesn't make them right for the nation just like being in market #79 doesn't make us right for the nation. If you want 77 stations that all sound the same ... get a job at a company that makes all music & jock decisions at corporate level.

The irony is that K-Rock Syracuse DOES sound like basically any Clear Channel alternative station. The jocks are all typical "shock" jocks, not realizing how lame they sound, and the playlist is super-safe nu-metal-tinged. Look, if the ratings are good and people respond to it, fine. As for it being "alternative", I remember when The Dog and 95.X were all doing the current rock thing and it was basically impossible to differentiate from the 3. Plus, any Alternative station that boasts about Shinedown headlining it's big radio concert needs to be seriously re-evaluated.

That is a purely narrow view of the world. K-Rock Syracuse can play the Placebo's and the Shinedown's because we're not focused on being labeled or put in a box. Most rock guys get labeled as "closed minded" because the records that work for them are records that most "open minded" music heads view as boring. I don't have to take shots at any record because every record has a certain value. The Shins, Manic Street Preachers, Placebo, Muse, et all have a value ... and it's up to the vision of the programmer to determine whether it's valuable enough to make the needle move. I know where we stand in the world and I know where we stand in the format and where we stand in our city ... sorry bro, we all don't share the elitist view of where Alternative should go. Alternative does not have a "sound" ... it has a "feel" ... Some programmers get it ... some don't. The real problems with the format don't come from the "sound" of the current grouping of music but in the stations not pursuing their own agenda. Even if this format dies ... K-Rock in Syracuse will still be an Alternative by it's feel and by it's nature ... and still playing the songs that the audience wants.

 

[Saladressing]

The alt. stations that are called alt. yet play a lot of active rock still at their core play artists that are not played by active rock such as AFI, Beck, and 311, and are therefore classified as alt. because in addition they do not play in general a lot of the artists championed by actives such as ACDC, Zeppelin and Scorpions.

I personally do not enjoy these active-leaning alt. stations that proliferate the country, but this is why i think they are classified as alt.

 

[bobbybooey]

Who cares? If you're programming your station based on what "format" you want to be recognized in the trades as, as opposed to basing it on what your audience wants, you're an idiot. Some of these music snobs are so hung up on being the arbitrer of cool that they force their indie-leaning tastes on listeners who really just want to hear what they like regardless of what it's labeled, and the ratings suffer accordingly. Do you think all of these "active-leaning alternatives" are sitting on stacks of good-testing "alternative" titles but not playing them? No. The fact is a lot of alternative music has a very narrow appeal; hence the moniker "alternative." Narrow appeal translates to small ratings.

People point to KROQ as evidence that more "alternative" stations are viable, completely ignoring the facts that a) the station has a 20+ year heritage, and b) LA is unlike any other market in the US. Some of you bitch about "alternative" stations playing bands like Hinder and Nickelback, but fail to realize they provided some of the biggest-testing hits to alternative audiences last year. If the audience likes a Nickelback song and thinks Death Cab For Cutie sucks, should a station play the Death Cab instead of the Nickelback just so it can gain some cool-points in the minds of the fringe music snobs? That's plain stupid, and it's why a lot of "alternative" stations get hammered in the ratings. A good example involves one of the stations mentioned earlier in this thread, WJRR/Orlando... they are a more active-leaning alternative, and they're kicking the crap out of the much more "alternative" O-Rock, ratings-wise.

Check your ego at the door, play the hits, and win. It's not rocket science.

 

[p_herring]

Who cares? If you're programming your station based on what "format" you want to be recognized in the trades as, as opposed to basing it on what your audience wants, you're an idiot. Some of these music snobs are so hung up on being the arbitrer of cool that they force their indie-leaning tastes on listeners who really just want to hear what they like regardless of what it's labeled, and the ratings suffer accordingly. Do you think all of these "active-leaning alternatives" are sitting on stacks of good-testing "alternative" titles but not playing them? No. The fact is a lot of alternative music has a very narrow appeal; hence the moniker "alternative." Narrow appeal translates to small ratings.

People point to KROQ as evidence that more "alternative" stations are viable, completely ignoring the facts that a) the station has a 20+ year heritage, and b) LA is unlike any other market in the US. Some of you bitch about "alternative" stations playing bands like Hinder and Nickelback, but fail to realize they provided some of the biggest-testing hits to alternative audiences last year. If the audience likes a Nickelback song and thinks Death Cab For Cutie sucks, should a station play the Death Cab instead of the Nickelback just so it can gain some cool-points in the minds of the fringe music snobs? That's plain stupid, and it's why a lot of "alternative" stations get hammered in the ratings. A good example involves one of the stations mentioned earlier in this thread, WJRR/Orlando... they are a more active-leaning alternative, and they're kicking the crap out of the much more "alternative" O-Rock, ratings-wise.

Check your ego at the door, play the hits, and win. It's not rocket science.

I totally understand that line of thinking because, the bottom line is, what do your listeners respond to? However, if you program a real active-leaning alternative and your listeners respond to the heavier/active stuff (i.e. Hinder, Nickelback, Shinedown, etc.) why not just go it all the way? If you're an official "Active Rock" station, throw in your Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Guns' N' Rosees, Metallica, etc. It seems like, for the most part, listeners who are into Death Cab, 311, Beck aren't too down with Hinder, Shinedown, etc. and vice versa. The only acts that seem be able to walk both the Active and Alternative lines decently are Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, RHCP, Tool and Pearl Jam (well, bands that still put out records these days).