Alternative Alternative Airplay Chart week of 8-30

Chart of estimated airplay of selected stations based on chart positions with 1 =20 20=10 and anything over 20 getting nothing



1. The Fixer -- Pearl Jam (1) 770
2. Notion -- Kings of Leon (5) 503
3. Panic Switch -- Silversun Pickups (4) 471
4. Uprising -- Muse (6) 462
5. 21 Guns -- Green Day (2) 454
6. Use Somebody -- Kings of Leon (7) 420
7. No You Girls -- Franz Ferdinand (3) 374
8. Ignorance -- Paramore (11) 359
9. New Divide -- Linkin Park (8) 357
10. Ain't No Rest for the Wicked -- Cage the Elephant (9) 354
11. Savior -- Rise Against (13) 329
12. Help I'm Alive -- Metric (10) 279
13. 1901 -- Phoenix (12) 267
14. You Never Know -- Wilco (15) 262
15. I Want You To -- Weezer (-) 256
16. Check My Brain -- Alice in Chains (39) 249
17. Fugitive -- David Gray (25) 239
18. Kids -- MGMT (20) 236
19. Why I Am -- Dave Matthews Band (16) 234
20. Feel Good Drag -- Anberlin (18) 230
21. She's A Genius -- Jet (22) 220
22. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight -- U2 (17) 205
23. One Day -- Matishyahu (24) 195
24. Got Nuffin -- Spoon (31) 176
25. Fireflies -- Owl City (32) 171
26. Little Bribes -- Death Cab For Cutie (21) 151
27T Jars -- Chevelle (19) 146
I've Got Friends -- Manchester Orchestra (14) 146
29. Wishing Well -- Airborne Toxic Event (23) 143
30. You're Going Down -- Sick Puppies (28) 131
31. Say Please -- Monsters of Folk (-) 110
32. Sometime Around Midnight -- Airborne Toxic Event (26) 99
33. Maybe -- Ingrid Michaelson (-) 97
34. It's Alright -- 311 (29) 95
35. Life In Technicolor -- Coldplay (30) 92
36. Two Weeks -- Grizzly Bear (34) 91
37. I Will Not Bow -- Breaking Benjamin (-) 87
38. Back Against the Wall -- Cage the Elephant (-) 83
39. Oscar Wilde -- Company of Thieves (35) 82
40. Breaking -- Anberlin (-) 79

KRVO Top 103 of 2008

KRVO is a strange AAA-Alternative-Active Rock-Hot AC hybrid out of the Kalispell MT area. Fortunately, I like strange

1. Viva La Vida -- Coldplay
2. Pork and Beans -- Weezer
3. Love Song -- Sara Bareilles
4. If I Had Eyes -- Jack Johnson
5. I Will Possess Your Heart -- Death Cab For Cutie
6. It's Not My Time -- 3 Doors Down
7. I'm Yours -- Jason Mraz
8. Shattered (Turn the Car Around) -- O.A.R.
9. Long Road to Ruin -- Foo Fighters
10. Supernatural Superserious -- R.E.M.
11. Stop and Stare -- One Republic
12. You Can't Count on Me -- Counting Crows
13. Mercy -- Duffy
14. Love Remains the Same -- Gavin Rossdale
15. Spaceship -- Jason Spencer
16. I'm Amazed -- My Morning Jacket
17. Come on, Get Higher -- Matt Nathanson
18. Bleeding Love -- Leona Lewis
19. Hope -- Jack Johnson
20. Sex on Fire -- Kings of Leon
21. Feels Like Tonight -- Daughtry
22. Believe -- Bravery
23. Won't Go Home Without You -- Maroon 5
24. Something Good This Way Comes -- Jakob Dylan
25. Human -- The Killers
26. Sweet and Low -- Augustana
27. Rise ASbove -- Seether
28. Whatever It Takes -- Lifehouse
29. Take Back the City -- Snow Patrol
30. Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution -- Black Crowes
31. Orphans -- Beck
32. All Summer Long -- Kid Rock
33. Don't You Evah -- Spoon
34. Make You Crazy -- Brent Dennen
35. Hollow Man -- R.E.M.
36. Dream Catch Me -- Newton Faulkner
37. Into the Night -- Santana feat. Chad Kroeger
38. Violet Hill -- Coldplay
39. The Way I Am -- Ingrid Michaelson
40. Handlebars -- Flobots
41. Bottle It Up -- Sara Barielles
42. Come Around -- Counting Crows
43. In Love With A Girl -- Gavin De Graw
44. Say Hey (I Love You) -- Michael Franti & Spearhead
45. 27 Jennifers -- Mike Doughty
46. Believe -- Staind
47. Troublemaker -- Weezer
48. Realize -- Colbie Caillat
49. The Shock of the Lightning -- Oasis
50. Say -- John Mayer
51. Motivation -- Sheryll Crow
52. Life, Love & Laughter -- Donovan Frankenreiter
53. House of Cards -- Radiohead
54. 2:00 a.m. -- Slightly Stoopid
55. Saving My Face -- KT Tunstall
56. Fake It -- Seether
57. You Are the Best Thing -- Ray LaMontagne
58. Cath -- Death Cab For Cutie
59. Rock & Roll -- Eric Hutchison
60. A Change Is Coming -- Lee Roy Bell
61. Lost -- Coldplay
62. Funplex -- The B52's
63. Let It Die -- Foo Fighters
64. Chasing Pavements -- Adele
65. Crack the Shutters -- Snow Patrol
66. Fix It -- Ryan Adans & The Cardinals
67. I Still Ain't Over You -- Augustana
68. Peace, Love & Happiness -- G-Love & Special Sauce
69. Love Is Free -- Sheryll Crow
70. Gotta Be Somebody -- Nickelback
71. Falling In Love In a Coffee Shop -- Landon Pigg
72. Stepping Stone -- Duffy
73. Atmosphere -- Scott Fisher
74. You Found Me -- The Fray
75. I Kissed A Girl -- Katy Perry
76. You're Gonna Go Far Kid -- The Offspring
77. Sing For You -- Tracy Chapman
78. Wounded Bird -- Black Crowes
79. Be OK -- Ingrid Michaelson
80. Will It Grow -- Jakob Dylan
81. You and Me and Everything -- Blues Traveller
82. Underneath -- Alanis Morisette
83. Kiss Me Again -- Ben's Brother
84. Crush, Crush, Crush -- Paramore
85. What's Been Going On -- Amos Lee
86. Good With You -- LP
87. Slippery People -- Jason Spooner
88. Jigsaw Falling Into Place -- Radiohead
89. When I Dream of Michelangelo -- Counting Crows
90. Little Favours -- KT Tunstall
91. Until the Day Is Done -- R.E.M.
92. Run -- Gnarles Barkley
93. Old Enough -- The Raconteurs
94. Right as Rain -- Adele
95. Staying With Me -- Los Lonely Boys
96. Boys With Girlfriends -- Meiko
97. It's About Time -- Barcelona
98. Dance With Me -- Old 97's
99. The Only One -- The Cure
100. New Soul -- Yael Naim
101. You Won't Be Able to Be Sad -- Break and Repair Method
102. Rebels in the Roses -- Everest
103. Falling Slowly -- Glen Hansard and Marketa
.

Alternative Alternative Airplay Chart Pt 2

So far 34 stations have been selected, mostly low hanging fruit. Now it becomes trickier.

The next group (Group 8) are the Generic Alternative Stations. Two of them brag about having no DJs and a third had no DJs until recently. Their playlists are safe and familiar, but definitely not active rock. So they're in.

WMRQ -- Waterbury, CT
WBOS -- Boston, MA
WKRK -- Cleveland OH

Now comes the rest of the alternative stations -- I culled out all the ones that heavily leaned active rock In other words if Godsmack, Seether and Shinedown were all in your top 10 then you were gone. This is what I came up with

WLUM -- Milwaukee WI
KROX -- Austin TX
KXRK -- Salt Lake City UT
KRZQ -- Reno NV
WSTW-HD2 -- Wilmington DE
WNXX -- Baton Rogue, LA
KFMA -- Tuscon, AZ
WKZQ -- Myrtle Beach SC
WDYL -- Richmond VA
WWCT -- Peoria IL

The last group is rock-leaning Adult Alternative stations WXRV and WRLT are the outer limit of includable stations. If Eric Hutchison, Adele and Rob Thomas are all in your Top 10,then you're out. KFOG, WMMM WMVY and KGSR are all examples of AAA stations that do not play enough alternative rock to be considered here. This leaves the following stations:

WWMM Birmingham AL
KPRI San Diego, CA
CIDR Windsor ON/Detroit MI
KMTT Seattle WA
KMMS Bozeman MT
WRLT Nashville TN
WXPK White Plains, NY
WXRV Boston MA
WFIV Knoxville TN

I would have liked to include more Canadian stations, but airplay lists of individual stations is just about impossible to come by.

So here's our ignagural chart

1. The Fixer -- Pearl Jam 727
2. 21 Guns -- Green Day 506
3. No You Girls -- Franz Ferdinand 496
4. Panic Switch -- Silversun Pickups 486
5. Notion -- Kings of Leon 475
6. Uprising -- Muse 417
7. Use Somebody -- Kings of Leon 413
8. New Divide -- Linkin Park 400
9. Ain't No Rest for the Wicked -- Cage the Elephant 397
10. Help I'm Alive -- Metric 386
11. Ignorance -- Paramore 382
12. 1901 -- Phoenix 362
13. Savior -- Rise Against 299
14. I've Got Friends -- Machester Orchestra 288
15. You Never Know -- Wilco 286
16. Why I Am -- Dave Matthews Band 268
17. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight -- U2 244
18. Feel Good Drag -- Anberlin 240
19. Jars -- Chevelle 192
20. Kids -- MGMT 183
21. Little Bribes -- Death Cab For Cutie 176
22. She's A Genius -- Jet 163
23. Wishing Well -- Airborne Toxic Event 158
24. One Day -- Matishyahu 157
25. Fugitive -- David Grey 149
26. Sometime Around Midnight -- Airborne Toxic Event 137
27. Funny the Way It Is -- Dave Matthews Band 136
28. You're Going Down -- Sick Puppies 124
29. It's Alright -- 311 120
30. Life In Technicolor -- Coldplay 111
31. Got Nuffin -- Spoon 110
32. Fireflies -- Owl City 106
33. Back Against the Wall -- Cage the Elephant 104
34. Two Weeks -- Grizzly Bear 100
35. Oscar Wilde -- Company of Thieves 98
36. Backwards Down the Number Line -- Phish 89
37. Sound of Madness -- Shinedown 84
38. Sugarfoot -- Black Joe & the Honeybears 82
39. Check My Brain -- Alice in Chains 80
40. Say Hey (I Love You) 72
37.

In Search for a Format that Works-- An alternative alternative chart

It's no secret that Alternative Rock radio is in crisis. Unlike many, I think the crisis is not primarily attributable to the outside competitors -- the I Pod, the internet, satellite radio. All genres face this competition. It's not that alternative rock is inherently uncommercial. Kings of Leon, Green Day, U2, Coldplay, Weezer and Linkin Park, all sell millions and have had hits on Top 40 radio.

The crisis in alternative rock radio has its roots earlier in the decade, when program directors became convinced that the advent of Korn and Limp Biskit made necessary a purge of both female artists and female listeners and the focus narrowed to nu metal and third generation punk and frat boy attitude became standard.

Some good bands came out of this -- Rage Agaisnt the Machine, Incubus, Rancid to name a few -- but soon another format came about to up the ante, namely active rock, further marginalizing the format. Then adult alternative came along attracting the older part of the alternative rock audience. For a while alternative rock stations followed the lead of the active rock stations -- the charts for the two genres were almost indistinguishable as recently as a couple of years ago -- but recently a divergence has occurred, as alternative stations increasingly sought to distinguish themselves, even as many Chicago's WKQZ and St. Louis' KPNT continued their slide toward active rockdom.

The alternative rock airplay charts, however, are still skewed by this drift of nominally alternative stations. While those stations are pulled toward Godsmack, some of the hipper adult alternative stations are equally pulled toward Colby Caillat, and the adult alternative charts don't reflect the artists those stations play. My favorite stations are the ones that manage to straddle that line and resist the pull, so I decided to group those stations together to see what an airplay chart would look like.

I don't have the raw data on airplay, but I have seen a some airplay charts and the number of plays descend very gradually, with the number 20 song usually getting approximately half the airplay of the number 1 song. So I will assign points based upon chart position (based upon most played charts from Yes and Tune Genie)

1. Gets 20 point
2 and 3 gets 19 points
4 and 5 gets 18 points
6 and 7 gets 17 points
and so on until you get to 20 which gets 10 points.

Now for the stations. First is group one -- the most recognized innovative and influential modern rock stations -- these are the core

WWCD, Columbus OH, WFNX, Boston MA, WBRU, Providence RI, KRBZ, Kansas City MO and KNRK Portland OR.

Group 2 are the major players -- the stations that people think of first when they think of modern rock.

KROQ, Los Angeles, CA, XETRA, Tijuana/San Diego, KITS, San Francisco and CIMX, Windsor ON/Detroit MI

WKQZ was intentionally left out.

Group 3 are the commercial AAA stations that are either the most cutting edge or that more loud rock than average for the genre

WRNR -- Annapolis/Baltimore MD
WXRT -- Chicago IL
WRXP -- New York, NY
KENZ -- Salt Lake City UT
WNNX -- Atlanta GA.

The next group is the NPR type public AAA stations, which tends to favor offbeat cerebral bands and the stray singer-songwriter.

WTMD -- Baltimore MD
WXPN -- Philadelphia PA
KCMP -- Minneapolis/St. Paul MN
WYEP -- Pittsburgh, PA
WYMS -- Milwaukee WI

The next bunch is the group of Clear Channel stations that have diverged from the active rock lean of that chain

KCCQ -- Ames, IA
WRFF -- Philadelphia PA
KCNL -- San Jose CA
KTCL -- Denver CO

Nest are the alt rock stations that are somewhat adventerous, but that nobody outside their listening area had heard of.

WEQX -- Manchester VT
KBZT -- San Diego, CA
KEDJ -- Phoenix, AZ
KEGE -- Pocatella ID
KRXP -- Colorado Springs, CO
KRXF -- Bend OR

Next are the college and community stations -- airplay info on this type of station is hard to come by and the playlists so unrepresentative as to be unusable. WRAS, WREK, WRIU and KSCL

WBER -- Rochester, NY
WAPS -- Akron, OH
WBWC -- Cleveland OH
WERS -- Boston MA

We'll finish the rundown and give you the list tommorow

KTNI Goes Internet-only

One of my favorite stations KTNI has decided to go off terestial radio. Their site says the reason they are doing this is because there is that there is too much pressure to play hits when you broadcast over the airwaves. The site also promised to get more local in focus. I pretty much saw this one coming. Arbitron ratings below 1 are a surefire ticket to format change, no matter how weak your signal is.