RADIO

Indie 103.1: rockturnative
The former KDL-FM in Los Angeles epitomizes the cross-pollination of rock and alternative music formats.

February 4 2004

On a recent Tuesday, rock fans tuning in to a station on the far right of the radio dial were treated to music by the B-52s, Peaches, Ramones and Polyphonic Spree, but they weren't listening to longtime alternative stalwart KROQ. Rather, the station was a little further left on the dial, an alternative alt-rock upstart named Indie 103.1.

It wasn't just dance fans who were shocked to hear rock music on what had been known as the "new party station." Alternative music listeners were equally surprised. With the exception of short-lived Y-107 in the mid-'90s, KROQ-FM (106.7) has long been the only commercial outlet for alternative music in L.A.

All that changed over Christmas, when the dance tracks stopped spinning on the station formerly known as KDL-FM. Moby and other beatmeisters were gone. Mixing classic tracks from bands like the Beastie Boys and X with modern acts like the Distillers and Phantom Planet, Indie 103.1, as it's now known, is edging in on the alternative music fan base — in particular targeting older listeners who were full-grown adults when alternative first rolled on to the radio.

"We felt that KROQ was winning the 25- to 54-year-old demo by default, not because they're good there but because it's the only place for alternative music in Los Angeles," said Jeffrey Liberman, president of Entravision Radio, the Santa Monica-based broadcast chain that owns the station. "The audience on KROQ is very wide, and they can't serve all segments of that wide audience with what they're doing today. We felt there is a hole for the upper end."

Known in the radio industry as the "classic alternative" or "alternative gold" format, Indie 103.1 and its 50/50 mix of alt classics and current songs aims to peel away the top layer of alternative music listeners by simultaneously appealing to their sense of nostalgia and hunger for fresh, new sounds.

While KROQ offers the same sort of mix, it tends to be more populist in its selections. Indie 103.1 digs a little deeper, playing lesser-known tracks on more obscure records along with underplayed songs from current releases.

Though new to L.A., Indie 103.1 is part of a larger "neo radio" movement that is beginning to take root around the country. Pioneered by a Detroit-based radio consulting group, Jacobs Media, this "locally controlled, values-based, listener-responsive radio" was introduced on San Diego's KBZT-FM, an '80s format station that was getting clobbered in local ratings until it switched to a neo radio format in November 2002.

Until then, Madonna and Prince had left the station wallowing in the lower rungs of the ratings ladder. But after replacing '80s rock royalty with new bands like the Thrills and vintage acts like Nirvana, the station catapulted from 18th in the market to its present, fifth-place position, leapfrogging over the city's long-standing, alt-rock powerhouse, 91X.

Last December, two stations in Seattle followed suit — KNDD-FM "The End" and KYPT-FM "The Point." So did WNNX-FM "99X" in Atlanta. Industry insiders anticipate others will soon switch as the format proves itself.

According to Jacobs Media consultant Dave Beasing, "There's a certain amount of boredom that's set in with rock songs that sound the same as half the other rock songs that have been released in the last five years. Alternative's not that alternative anymore."

In the dozen or so years since Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the rest of the Seattle grunge scene flew the flannel, ushering in a new musical era and, with it, a new radio format, alternative has slowly lost its meaning. It is no longer a reaction to mainstream rock, as it was when it began. It is mainstream rock.

"In the last five years, the alternative and rock formats have been growing so close together that it's almost impossible to tell them apart," said Max Tolkoff, alternative editor for trade publication, Radio & Records. "There's been so much cross-pollinization, you can look at the two charts of active rock and alternative and not tell too much of a difference."

Blink-182, Linkin Park, the Red Hot Chili Peppers — all are staples on both rock and alternative stations around the country, including KROQ in L.A.

One of the more progressive alternative stations in the country, KROQ, in addition to its traditional hard-rock fare, also plays sensitive boy bands like England's Coldplay and regularly mainstreams new sounds once they've been proven on college radio, like garage revivalists the White Stripes and Jet, and new new wave acts such as the Faint and Hot Hot Heat.

But the vision at Indie 103.1 and other classic alternative stations is to go even further. The idea is to play deeper tracks on classic albums, not just the hits, and to be even more adventurous with new music.

"We are programming by gut rather than by being influenced by record companies and their agenda," Liberman said.

The signal on 103.1 has carried a variety of formats in the last dozen years. In the early '90s it was alternative techno station Mars-FM. It then mutated into jazz, then smooth jazz, then mainstream adult contemporary before circling back to electronica, then adult album alternative. Under Entravision, which has owned the station since 2000, it lived as a Super Estrella Spanish pop station before switching to dance and now alternative alternative. The dance format that had been on the air most recently was "narrow," Liberman admitted. "We felt that we could serve more people by being wider and going into the alternative range of music."

Whether the new format will stick remains to be seen, but industry insiders indicate a couple of issues may impair its success. First is its signal, which covers just 70% of the Los Angeles market. A simulcast of two signals — one broadcasting from Santa Monica, the other from Newport Beach — Indie 103.1 tends to fuzz out in areas far from the ocean.

The other issue is the music itself. Some analysts believe the unfamiliar songs that are being played as a means of differentiating 103.1 from its competition just a couple of clicks up the dial may turn listeners away.

Or it may keep them locked in. It's too soon to know. Because the station is so new, listener figures are not available. So at least for now, dance music fans' loss is modern rock fans' gain.

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times