Interesting article, but I question new rock's death that was alluded to. Perhaps it's because Top 40 stations tag along with the "big" new alternative bands, but I find it strange that acts like Fun., Gotye, Grouplove, Imagine Dragons, Foster the People and Alex Clare actually seemed to have given new rock a big push back into the mainstream. Yet, it's the new rock stations that failed? (at least in Atlanta). There was reference to Mumford and Sons as well as Adele in the article, but there's more than that going on.
I'm in Greenville, SC, and rather surprisingly, we got a new Alternative rock station around the same time all of this mess happened in Atlanta. AND we also got Chuck (a variety station ala Dave, although with a bit older focus) as well as a Hot AC that serves up a fair amount of new rock hits.
I went from absolutely hating the GSP market and desparately wishing I was still in Atlanta (at least for radio) to actually liking our market in a matter of a year's time and being glad I'm not in Atlanta.
Guess maybe overall as far as Top 40 vs. New Rock is concerned, the vast majority of people must like an alternative sprinkle in their mix and not the whole deal. We'll see what happens in GSP (unfortunately both our X98.5 and Chuck are on translators so huge ratings probably won't be in the picture regardless).