It was Tuesday afternoon of the week leading to the Super Bowl. On KYSR (Alt 98.7), p.m. driver Chris Booker and newly arrived co-host Ted Stryker were talking about celebrities and Cincinnati Bengals fans flying into town. L.A. always has “crazy energy,” Stryker noted, but now the town’s sports teams were on a roll, the Super Bowl was in town, the Rams were in the Super Bowl, and Alt was giving away tickets. There was extra excitement, he noted.
For that reason, it’s been fun to listen to Alternative radio in Los Angeles this week. Rival KROQ is giving away Super Bowl tickets, too. It has also been heard tweaking its music recently, moving a little closer to the rock lean that the station had for years. It was time for a Fresh Listen to both stations.
A year ago, the pop lean of KROQ, and Audacy’s Alternative stations in general, was controversial in the industry, particularly because KROQ had been one of the stations that stayed with guitar rock after Alternative and Active Rock started to diverge in the late ‘00s. But reactive pop was in KROQ’s heritage, too. When Audacy’s Mike Kaplan was at KYSR, he drew heavily on that legacy. But it’s hard to reclaim that KROQ heritage now when it’s represented throughout the market: Kevin Ryder and Doug “Sluggo” Roberts in afternoons at KLOS; former APD/PD Lisa Worden now format captain/PD at KYSR.
In late January, KROQ attracted attention by advertising for an air talent “with knowledge of the Active Rock format and audience.” At this writing, it’s still playing acts that put them firmly on this side of the Alternative/Active divide — Rex Orange County, Lumineers. But its currents also include on-the-cusp acts like Turnstile and Bring Me the Horizon. I’m also hearing a few harder titles from bands like Alice in Chains, System of a Down, and Rage Against the Machine now, while acts like Glass Animals and Billie Eilish have been phased out. Imaging also more recalls the feel of the station a decade ago as well. (“Somehow our dumb boss is letting us give away a pair of tickets to the big game.”)
On the afternoon of February 8, p.m. driver Megan Holiday was doing a “tell me something good”-type bit for “Posi-Tuesday.” (A caller thanked her for the Halsey/MGK tickets they won. Another announced they had gotten a job in their field and could get out of customer service.) Holiday was also doing shtick with station veteran/weekend host/podcast host Beer Mug about trying to figure out how he could get into celebrity Super Bowl parties. Here’s KROQ at 5 p.m.:
- Black Keys, “Lonely Boy”
- Sublime, “Caress Me Down”
- Yungblud, “Fleabag”
- Gorillaz, “Clint Eastwood”
- Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, “Face Down”
- Lovelytheband, “Broken”
- Coldplay, “Clocks”
- Nirvana, “Lithium”
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Maps”
- Jack White, “Taking Me Back”
- Harvey Danger, “Flagpole Sitta”
- Offspring, “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid”
- Ramones, “I Wanna Be Sedated”
On Alt 98.7, Booker & Stryker were taking hourly qualifiers for the Super Bowl tickets by asking them questions about topics discussed in the last hour. One contestant was asked how sports-radio sister KLAC hosts Petros & Money referred to Bengals QB Joe Burrow. “Can I say that on the air?” he asked. (The answer was “old butthole eyes.”) Later they played back Mark Hoppus’s Super Bowl predictions. There was also a Green Day trivia contest with deliberate softball questions (e.g., “name any member?” “what Green Day concept album became a musical?”).
Even with a two-person show, there were 14 songs in the hour I heard (helped by it being commercial- free). Here’s Alt 98.7 at 5 p.m. on February 8:
- Naked and Famous, “Young Blood”
- Nirvana, “All Apologies”
- Coldplay x BTS, “My Universe”
- White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”
- Lana Del Rey, “Summertime Sadness”
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Californication”
- Machine Gun Kelly & Blackbear, “My Ex’s Best Friend”
- Paramore, “Misery Business”
- Phantom Planet, “California”
- Twenty One Pilots, “The Outside”
- Blink-182, “What’s My Age Again”
- Muse, “Madness”
- Gorillaz, “Feel Good Inc”
- Wet Leg, “Chaise Longue”