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