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Is Alternative dead and how can it go forward?

Alternative AC was actually the name Radio and Records used for Modern AC stations in the very early days of the format, between 1995 and 1996. Anyways, I thought AAA stations that lean more towards current music already fit the bill of what a Alternative AC should sound like.
 
Sometimes in the 90s WEND, the alternative station in Charlotte NC, was playing classic alternative tunes at lunchtime. These are songs that I never thought would be "classic". I can't remember if "Cars" by Gary Numan was one of them. Another song that might have been part of that show was "In a Big Country" by Big Country.

WKZQ also plays "classic alternative" but those songs are probably newer.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Sometimes in the 90s WEND, the alternative station in Charlotte NC, was playing classic alternative tunes at lunchtime. These are songs that I never thought would be "classic". I can't remember if "Cars" by Gary Numan was one of them. Another song that might have been part of that show was "In a Big Country" by Big Country.

WKZQ also plays "classic alternative" but those songs are probably newer.
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Yeah, the thing is, as previously mentioned by other posters, Alternative is a format is one big tent. Much of the music that many would decry as Hot AC, or Top 40 Material, started getting airplay on Alternative, before crossing over to the pop-orientated stations. Both songs that you mentioned were heavily pushed by MTV, back in the early days of the channel, as well as savvy, hip programmers like Rick Carroll.

Then again, both the Alternative, as well as AAA formats, were just AOR spinoff's that placed more emphasis on new wave and post-punk bands, with deeper playlists to boot in the case of AAA. Until 1988, even such legendary Alt-Rockers, such as KROQ and WLIR, were considered AOR stations to the likes of Billboard and R&R. KTCZ was also considered a AOR station at the time, despite having a playlist to stretched from Dylan to Yanni.

By the early 90's, vanguard AAA stations, such as WRLT Nashville, were still reporting to R&R and Billboard as New Rock/ Modern Rock stations. That didn't change until the Spring of 1994, when R&R started the Adult Alternative panel, then known as Progressive. Billboard didn't launch its own AAA panel until 1996.

I would want to make it an educated guess that "Dear God" by XTC, would have never charted as high as 37 on the Mainstream Rock charts, if not for stations like WLIR and KROQ, still reporting under the same panel as stations like WDVE, stations that wouldn't have touched XTC with a ten-foot poll.
 
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Kelly A said:
And unless the owner is independently wealthy and uses the station as some sort of hobby, playing songs that are unknown or obscure is doing nothing more than creating a reason for listeners to tune-away. If you feature new or eclectic artists or titles, you do that in a featured night slot, where potential tune-out does less damage.
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Krbz in kc used to do that all the way up to late 2020 playing lots of new music from s variety of alt artists, some of which were unknown.
 
vchimpanzee said:
It has been my observation that WKZQ Myrtle Beach SC mixes those type artists in from time to time with what is being called "alternative" now and doesn't sound like rock.
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WKZQ is actually one of the heaviest Alternatives on the panels - one of a handful that hasn't rejected the bulk of the 2000's Alternative hits because they crossed from Active. Others include but not limited to KPNT, WXDX, WBTZ, Iowa college station KIWR, and WBUZ (which actually did spend the 2000's on the Active panel) all play a mix of indie Alternative and various rock and metal artists that saw Alt airplay in the 2000's or would've received it if they existed back then such as Bring Me The Horizon or Ayron Jones. Sometimes when all of these Active-leaners agree on something an Active artist can even scrape the Alt chart like The Pretty Reckless did a short while ago.
 
I do have to disagree with that. AAA plays artists that do not even fit on AC charts.
 
Looks like iHeart's Alt 103.3 in Indy is about to bite the bullet.

Not surprising given the lousy ratings of the station for the past couple years.

The mostly active rock format of the station under its prior X103 nameplate should've never been abandoned. Alternative worked reasonably well, though, until 93.9 went active rock.
 
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Don CT said:
Why do some links work around here and not others.
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Glitch that never gets fixed. Some URLs get shortened into forms that take out characters from the middle and replace them with ellipses ( ... ). On other boards, the links from those abbreviated URLs connect with the actual URL. On this board, they don't. The inner workings of the site try to find a website with the abbreviated URL, including the ellipses, and that website doesn't exist.
 
Alternative radio needs to embrace newer music ex. Bob Moses and not ignore new music from core artists ex. Foo Fighters.
 
MVB13 said:
I said they were ignoring new music from core artists ex. Foo Fighters.
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This is a very common thing. Country radio stations mostly play currents by the current artists, and when they play older artists, they play gold. The reason for this is the current artists have enough hits and success to create a new core. That's not the case with alternative. The record labels haven't strived to build their current artists into core artists around which radio stations can build a format. So radio is stuck playing older hits from when alternative was better at making stars and hit songs.

A time comes for every artist, regardless of genre, when they're no longer the hot new thing any more. They can become happy with that, do shows that are mostly older songs, or they can stop performing altogether. But Elton John isn't the hot new thing any more. Once you become middle aged, it's harder to qualify as new & hot. However, other genres are better at artist development.
 
TheBigA said:
A time comes for every artist, regardless of genre, when they're no longer the hot new thing any more. They can become happy with that, do shows that are mostly older songs, or they can stop performing altogether. But Elton John isn't the hot new thing any more. Once you become middle aged, it's harder to qualify as new & hot. However, other genres are better at artist development.
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It is interesting that you mentioned Elton John because, during the last two years, he has had two top 10 hits in the US, "Cold Heart" and "Hold Me Closer." But then, both songs are combinations of his earlier songs and collaborations with younger artists: Dua Lipa and Britney Spears, respectively.
 
Marcos_C said:
It is interesting that you mentioned Elton John because, during the last two years, he has had two top 10 hits in the US, "Cold Heart" and "Hold Me Closer." But then, both songs are combinations of his earlier songs and collaborations with younger artists: Dua Lipa and Britney Spears, respectively.
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That's typically the last step before an artist loses relevance. In country, Alan Jackson had his last hit with Zac Brown. Garth Brooks had his last hit with Blake Shelton.
 
MVB13 said:
No. I consider new music from the Foo Fighters as new Alternative. If you read my message I said they were ignoring new music from core artists ex. Foo Fighters.
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Just because an established artist releases a new album or single, doesn't automatically make it airworthy. Dave's cover of the Bee Gees's is a prime example. That, and as we've talked about several times here; picking certain artists or titles as the reason Alternative-formatted stations aren't what they used to be, is like blaming global warming solely on farting cows.
 
Marcos_C said:
It is interesting that you mentioned Elton John because, during the last two years, he has had two top 10 hits in the US, "Cold Heart" and "Hold Me Closer." But then, both songs are combinations of his earlier songs and collaborations with younger artists: Dua Lipa and Britney Spears, respectively.
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I was going to ask about the one he won an Oscar for but that was 2019.
 
TheBigA said:
That's typically the last step before an artist loses relevance. In country, Alan Jackson had his last hit with Zac Brown. Garth Brooks had his last hit with Blake Shelton.
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Wow. I can remember when Alan was one of those still doing good country music when the format was in my opinion going downhill. Now he's one of those from "remember when".
 
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