CBS Broadcasting fails across the board when it comes to programming rock stations.
There was a very brief period of time when they got it right with WXRK in NYC ... they had a decent alternative mix going on in '95-'97 and also around '04-'05. After those periods, they decided to throw in a heavy dose of classic rock that wound up alienating much of their audience.
The same applies to WYSP - the difference being that they always leaned more toward an Active or Classic Rock sound. The former was much needed given the competition ... however, they always gravitated back to Classic Rock at some point or another. Now they're a slightly younger leaning WMGK - and they're also posting some of their worst ratings ever.
CBS never learns. They have no idea what their audience wants.
WXRK went talk for a while as Free-FM, and they made the genius decision of giving mornings to radio novice David Lee Roth. All the boards were pegging it as a failure before it even went on ... they were proven correct 3 months later, when DLR was dropped and replaced by a simulcast of Opie & Anthony's show from XM (on a delay, of course). Then they went back to K-Rock for a couple of years, with classic rock comprising the bulk of the playlist at all times. Now they're another Top 40 station, 92.3 Now, and sounding pretty similar to Philly's Wired 96.5.
WYSP had its Free period, which lasted longer and sounded a bit better, as it had a decent amount of local personalities in the mix. But then they brought back the music, touting "The Rock Is Back!" ... unfortunately, it was like the old stale YSP never left. Eventually they dropped all new music and became "The Rock You Grew Up With".
Note to CBS: If we want to hear "rock we grew up with", there's a station that plays it already, and has for some time now.
I'd love to see YSP wise up and go Active (heavy on Korn, SOAD, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Deftones, Static-X, Nonpoint ... all the rock that MMR's too scared to play) or Alternative (a take that's closer to the roots of the genre than Radio 104.5, which is definitely closer in sound to Max 95.7 than either WDRE or Y-100).
However, given their recent history, my money's on CBS bringing the "Amp" brand to Philly on 94.1. Sure, you could call it Top 40 overkill ... but there seems to be this prevailing belief amongst most broadcasting outlets these days that you can never have too many stations like this. They're easy to program, and most importantly, they're cheap.
And those of us who enjoy intelligent radio .. well, I guess we don't matter anymore.
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1996 was XRK's best year IMHO, living in Philly, I could not pick them up, but having relatives in Toms River and going to Seaside Heights many times I had the pleasure to listen to them. I think it was Stern, Slater, Stuttering John, I forget the other jocks but the music was fantastic, Saturday nights were even better, ignoring format and playing all type Alternative cuts, I think that was the year their sister AM was Z-Rock, Metal on AM, what an experience, but bad signal on 1480, all in all, a great combo. I wish YSP was as good as XRK in 96, but YSP was so much better in 1996 then they ever were....althought they did lean more Active and less Alternative.
