Rock 100.5 Skewing New???

[acheron82]

The station that is always changing has started to add modern rock to their format.  Not necessary new rock that are currently on the billboard charts but instead, 2k rock.  I've heard new Foo Fighters, Trapt and some other modern active rock bands.  I still here the 70's and 80's and lots of 90's.  Starting to remind me of one of those stations that plays "Everything thing that Rocks". 

[TheMusicMan]

This station's time was up two years ago. No consistency from the get-go and the ratings have reflected that...they tied with J93.3 in the latest overall rankers. I don't know why Cumulus insists on maintaining this charade any longer. Rock 100.5 shouldn't make it to New Year's, but I suspect it will stick around through spring or so.

[jabba17]

I know that 100.5 can't win the classic rock game vs. River (a game they never should have played); are they now going after Project?  I would like to think that there's a hole between River and Project that 100.5 could fill (80s and 90s album rock???).

[legendhasit]

I welcome the change.

Getting sick of hearing Kidd Chris fart jokes and nonsense in the morning on Project.

If TRG steps up their game, and the music gets better (it sounds better, atleast)...they should crawl up from last place in the ratings.

[Rodney Ho]

The station last week started salting in songs from the past few years, including recent hits by the Foo Fighters, Five Finger Death Punch, Theory of a Deadman, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Seether. But it's only like one an hour. The average age of a song on the station has gone from 1981 to 1986.

[jabba17]

And River is getting harder and jumping further into the 80s AOR void.  Heard Rush ("Tom Sawyer") and the Scorpions ("No One Like You") yesterday...two songs that River wouldn't have played when they were "NEW".   

Although I did hear Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" (aka, boomer porn) this AM...kind of a throwback.

And what's with River burning Stairway To You Know Where every AM lately?  Maybe that song had been out of rotation for so long it got back to testing well.  When I hear that song three AMs in a row in the 6:00 hour, it's time for them to mix it up a bit.

[acheron82]

With regards to 97.1 The River, as a rock music fan, I LOVE to critique the rock stations around town.  Yes, 97.1 The River is playing Rush's Tom Sawyer.  This, however, is not the shocker but instead, it's the fact that The River is now playing Rush in the first place. 

Now, they have been playing Rush a good bit over the past few days but it's just a select few cuts.  This is where I have issues with ALL of the rock stations in Atlanta.

Whether it be Rock 100.5's Rock format, The Rivers Classic Rock format, Projects Active rock format or 99X's Alternative format; The issue with Atlanta rock stations is they stick to a selected playlist that only consists of huge hits.  Rush has plenty of other hits that the River is not touching and even some that were not huge hits but were played on radio and to this day, is still played on big classic rockers around the country. 

Look at 99x, they play two (2) songs from The Strokes.  Never mind that The Strokes had like 6 or so songs that made it on the Alternative charts at one point or another.  What about Arcade Fire?  99X, Atlanta's "Alternative", will not even touch Arcade Fire which was a band that won the Grammys last year.  This would be like q100 not playing GaGa or something.

Is there a station that even plays Jethro Tull, Head East, Uriah Heep, deeper stuff from Pink Floyd (I'm sick of money)....

That is why rock does horrible in Atlanta.  Limited playlists with way too many repeats.

If this subject interests you (some of you may not be), check out the following sites as great examples of both classic rock and alternative rock stations.

Classic Rock:  Hey, it's in our backyard.  Check out their playlist. Station is KZ 106 out of Chattanooga.  Most songs are played in here in Atlanta but look closely and you will see about every hour, a b-side is added to the mix.  http://wskz.tunegenie.com/onair/

Alternative Rock:  This station is out of San Diego.  Yes, many of the songs are played on 99x but look closely and you will see songs that were once played by 99x that have died off the station ever since it was resurrected a few years back.  Here is the playlist http://www.fm949sd.com/onair/broadcasthistory.aspx

[jabba17]

When Z93 was classic rock, they went pretty deep.  Ever since 96 Rock went classic rock in the mid-80s with their "Pure Rock & Roll" format, their playlist was always really thin, right to the end. 

River is starting to sound like 96 Rock in the mid-late 80s, before the hair bands came in.  I would call that a slam and not a compliment, except for the fact that River started as a classic HITS format with a narrow, shallow, relatively soft playlist and now it's relatively deeper and notably harder. 

It appears they are following the Cox B98.5 "burn and turn" model where you play the heck out of songs until they don't test anymore and then swap 'em out, not keeping too many songs in the rotation at any one time.

[atlantaboy]

Just listened today and they're definitely mixing in a lot of 2000s rock - heard Nickelback, Kid Rock, and Shinedown - seems like Cumulus is handpicking the stuff (on purpose) that 99X doesn't play