Going strictly by playlists:
WYSP Top 10 Songs
1. Kid Rock - So Hott
2. Linkin Park - What I've Done
3. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
4. Foo Fighters - The Pretender
5. 30 Seconds - To Mars The Kill
6. Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
7. Three Days - Grace Never Too Late
8. Tool - The Pot
9.Smashing Pumpkins - Tarantula
10. Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows
WMMR Top 10 Songs
1. Incubus - Dig
2. Linkin Park - What I've Done
3. Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
4. Velvet Revolver - The Last Fight
5. Puddle of Mudd - Famous
6. Foo Fighters - The Pretender
7. Papa Roach - Time Is Running Out
8. Breaking Benjamin - Breath
9. Seether - Fake It
10. Chevelle - Get It
WRFF Top 10 Songs
1. Social Distortion - Far Behind
2. Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
3. Nine Inch Nails - Capital G
4. The Killers - Read My Mind
5. The Killers - When You Were Young
6. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
7. Three Days Grace - Never Too Late
8. Smashing Pumpkins - Tarantula
9. Paramore - Misery Business
10. Snow Patrol - Shut Your Eyes
Y-Rock on XPN Top 10 Songs
1. Rilo Kiley - The Moneymaker
2. Foo Fighters - The Pretenders
3. Tegan and Sara - Back In Your Head
4. Beck - Timebomb
5. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Rockers to Swallow
7. Interpol - The Heinrich Maneuver
8. Jimmy Eat World - Casino
9. The New Pornographers - All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth
10. Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
Songs in common between the four:
White Stripes (YSP, RFF, Y-Rock); Foo Fighters (YSP, MMR); Linkin Park (YSP, MMR); Finger Eleven (YSP, RFF, MMR); Three Days Grace (YSP, RFF); Smashing Pumpkins (YSP, RFF)
I think it's surprising to look at just the top ten of WYSP and WMMR right next to one another. If I had had to guess, I would have probably mistaken MMR's list for something that would play on WYSP. It's filled with a lot more of what I guess could be categorized as "nu-metal" - Seether, Breaking Benjamin, Puddle of Mudd, Finger Eleven, etc. WYSP's list in their first 1/2 week is quite a bit safer, with singles from the White Stripes and Foo Fighters I wouldn't expect to be as high as they are. I think it says a lot about the station and their listeners that Kid Rock's new single is #1. Is that really what they're gunning for? Does WYSP think that brand of southern-fried rock/rap is going to fly in Philly? Also, what the hell is a six year old Queens of the Stone Age song doing in the Top 10, especially when that band has an outstanding new album out just a few weeks ago?
WMMR's Top 10 list is a little stale. If I checked back on posts I made with their Top 10 a couple weeks ago, I'd be surprised if it weren't the same 10 songs stacked a little differently. If I am WMMR, I need to get a little bit more dangerous with my playlist. I'm not the ones trying to establish an identity and core audience, so mix it up a little bit. Play some more new stuff and make it clear to your listeners that you're playing songs that no one else is. If you really really want to go the "nu-metal" route, then make it clear to your listeners that the playlist is going to be heavier than WYSP could hope theirs to be. Try not to forfeit any audiences that you acquired when 94.1 flipped to talk two years ago, and you'll have the upper hand.
WRFF is still trying to figure itself out. I'm impressed to see Social Distortion at the top of their Top 10, but depressed to see two Killers songs that are almost a year old playing #4/#5 back to back. Do you really want a vanilla-sounding band like the Killers to define your format for you? Other than that, the most adventurous of the three commercial stations. That Nine Inch Nails song at #3 is an outstanding protest song. In fact, kudos to the stations that are playing the new Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, and White Stripes as well. Those have been some of the best rock albums to have come out this year, and people are still wrapped up in what Papa Roach is doing? Really?
I included Y-Rock on XPN in here because A.) I've come to love the station since I started listening to it online - I was excited to see the "f-you" attitude the old Y-100 staff had in keeping the Y-100 brand alive and morphing it into the station it's become today. They sound excellent because they no longer have to worry about what corporate wants played on the air. Also, B.) I'm biased, because I now volunteer as a DJ for the station. Songs that I'm genuinely surprised that no other station has picked up yet: Beck, Jimmy Eat World, and to a lesser extent, Interpol. Jimmy Eat World was a Y-100 veteran band that you would've thought ought to have been picked up by WMMR and 104.5 by now, and Beck is just Beck (who doesn't like Beck?).
That's just my take from a purely musical perspective. From a personality perspective, I can't stand YSP's jocks (especially Chris), MMR is hit and miss (like Preston and Steve, like Matt Cord, indifferent about Pierre Robert, indifferent about Jaxon) and WRFF really needs to get someone with a pulse in the studio full-time soon. I can tell when the voicetracks are coming in from San Antonio, and it drives me nuts when I hear that. Y-Rock's staff is full of volunteers that tend to be a little unpolished in their delivery at times (myself included), but I give us a pass because we make up for it in passion for the music we're playing. Also, since RFF has abandoned their stance on commercial-free music, we're the only ones spinning tunes uninterrupted.
I'm going to go with Y-Rock on XPN (biased! I know!) and I encourage everyone to take a second listen to that station to see how they match up. WMMR, WYSP, and WRFF could use some time to re-evaluate their playlists in comparison to one another's so that maybe all three could pick a different sub-genre of rock to gravitate around. WYSP is the natural choice to play more active rock and metal, WMMR ought to dedicate more time to local music and mix up the playlist more often, and WRFF should, theoretically, be one step ahead of both of those stations in playing new alternative rock. Social D at #1 is a step in the right direction for them. For me, I'm going to stick with Y-Rock, which is usually 2 steps ahead (and to the left!) of those other guys.