New Wave Outpost Forum

This of course is purely subjective... but when did KROQ begin to suck? When did relying on KROQ for new music get replaced by nostalgia for the old days? What was that moment when you realized KROQ was just not as good as it used to be?
Here's mine: A trip to LA, after having been gone for a few years, and hearing 'Self Esteem' by the Offspring. RIP KROQ.

1984 for me. And I even think the last hurrah album was Ocean Rain. I remember that it felt like the last great burst of new wave. The people that really liked it were a mix of old-school fans plus new kids who were just discovering this type of music. The latter thought Echo, New Order, D-Mode, etc were something that was just birthed. They thought REM was something new. The former could feel that the early 80s magic of truly novel new wave, post-punk, and DIY feel were pretty much gone. The same sense of wonder and fascination just weren't there. A lot of stuff was still good, but just not the same.

When Nirvana and Pearl Jam started getting big.

"When Nirvana and Pearl Jam started getting big."

I think that is exactly right. If I had to pick a year it would be 1992. The station was still listenable then but the percentage of grunge songs was steadily growing. By the mid nineties I quit caring about the station. KROQ sounded like every other bland alternative station in Atlanta, Omaha, Charlotte, etc..
The summer of 1982 was when KROQ was at its best.

Well, you west coasters have company.It also happened at WLIR here on the east coast.Grunge was the death of our lovable genre.Not to say i hate all grunge, but it was played into the ground....

Late 80s early 90s when KROQ lost its irreverent sense of humor.

The Roq started playing music that was the antithesis of what it was built on. To me Grunge sounds way more like Deep Purple and 70s "Rawk" than Punk and New Wave.

I hated that there was no room for humor in Grunge- life is is oh, so serious. Lighten up you gloomy needledicks! Frickin "Emo" has the same attitude- just faster and whinier.








<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>

The Summer of 1982 *WAS* the best, and as far as I'm concerned, it was all downhill from there. Slowly at first, and then a sudden crash that seemed to coincide with the turning of the decades, with a secondary low-low a year later when the Northwest started sending its spawn out into the world.

[quote][i]Originally posted by djcraig[/i]
<br>Late 80s early 90s when KROQ lost its irreverent sense of humor.

The Roq started playing music that was the antithesis of what it was built on. To me Grunge sounds way more like Deep Purple and 70s "Rawk" than Punk and New Wave.

I hated that there was no room for humor in Grunge- life is is oh, so serious. Lighten up you gloomy needledicks! Frickin "Emo" has the same attitude- just faster and whinier.








<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>


[/quote]
sehr gut gesagt DJ Craig.
So here's a follow-up question: is KROQ's current suckiness just a symptom of the times? Is radio no greater than the music that's out there? Is it as Richard Blade described the atmosphere at end of the 80s: 'You felt there was a winding-down of music... people were just shaking their heads going, "What happened to all this new music?"'

As played out as it became, I can't agree that all "grunge" was bad; Nirvana sounded pretty damn good on the radio when they started getting major airplay in '91. It was in the following year or two when super-mainstream sounding songs like "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots and "Alive" by Pearl Jam entered the mix that alternative radio in general started its long downward spiral. I'm not even saying those are terrible songs; they're not. But they were so far removed from anything to do with new wave or punk , so mainstream, arena-rock sounding, that it truly was the beginning of the end.

Still, no doubt there was good music getting airplay in the 90's. Were Blur, Oasis, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, etc. really that bad? So when was alternative-rock radio in fact ultimately all over? The exact time of the funeral can be traced to one band: once Metallica was suddenlly considered "alternative", that was officially the end for me.

Grunge and techno/rave music hit on the east coast at about the same time at the very end of 91, and 'new wave' clubs began to play a mix of both, but it quickly divided clubgoers--some began to leave these clubs to go to all out rave clubs and others went--well, I don't know where, because I followed the techno crowd to the New York City clubs and never looked back at grunge.

LIR lost any sense of being 'alternative' because pop stations here on the east coast started playing all the same exact songs LIR was--especially because LIR gave up on any dance oriented alternative music and focused completely on guitar based tracks. There were plenty of electronic/synthpop bands recording throughout the 90s, LIR just lost focus on what it originally stood for. By the end of the 90s, early 2000s, it came to its senses a little and began mixing in more club music, including vocal trance, but eventually just gave up completely and signed off. Which is unfortunate because it was just about when they began spinning the Killers--if they had really followed trends, they'd still be around today, playing the likes of the bravery, shiny toy guns, birthday massacre, theSTART, dragonette...they completely missed the opportunity for an amazing comeback, because none of these great bands get any airplay on east coast radio.

I don't know when the date was precisely but it was in the late 80's and it was when you started noticing that KROQ was not playing the bands they were supposed to play or playing them extremely less. There was plenty of great music in the late 80's and early 90's but the airplay was not there. These years were considered the lost years in my opinion as these bands that came out that were dependent on stations like KROQ playing them were not getting the support they needed. It really sucks to hear more New Wave on a station like KBIG 104.3 than KROQ these days.

Like VH-1 Classics, I wish they would have a station that is called KROQ Classics and play the music that made KROQ so popular.

I lived in LA from 1986 (fall) until 1987 (spring).
I found KROQ to be pretty pedestrian and predictable at that point. heavy rotation of Pet Shop Boys (Suburbia), The Cult (Love Removal Machine) The Smiths (Panic) and maybe 5 other tracks. that's all I remember. 91X seemed to take a lot more chances. so, although I did not listen to KROQ that much, that's the time I realized the emperor had no clothes

[quote][i]Originally posted by rotator[/i]
<br>I lived in LA from 1986 (fall) until 1987 (spring).
I found KROQ to be pretty pedestrian and predictable at that point. heavy rotation of Pet Shop Boys (Suburbia), The Cult (Love Removal Machine) The Smiths (Panic) and maybe 5 other tracks. that's all I remember. 91X seemed to take a lot more chances. so, although I did not listen to KROQ that much, that's the time I realized the emperor had no clothes
[/quote]

About 1985/'86 the 'ROQ ended for me, and Blir's 1984 may have nee the last "great" year on the airwaves, a big sucking sound could be heard on the airwaves at that end of the dial...

I think I started to listen more to Y107 (don't remember the call letters) in 1987, but it could have been 1989, then to KROQ 106.7 FM.


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[quote][i]Originally posted by Sean[/i]
<br>Like VH-1 Classics, I wish they would have a station that is called KROQ Classics and play the music that made KROQ so popular.
[/quote]

If only.

Oh wait, they do!

http://www.kroqclassics.com/






<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>