New Wave Outpost Forum

I said it before and I'll say it again: KROQ began sucking when they first played "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction.

Was just in LA over the weekend. Tuned in for five minutes. Heard Staind. Still shit.

Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire made a great point when he mentioned that the iPod and music downloading had rendered the DJ irrelevant.

I think you can point to 4 things that happened that contributed to the death of KROQ; as we knew it in the early and mid 80's anyway.

First, I am pretty sure that KROQ went through a slight format change in 1989. They stopped playing obscure "FLASHBACKS" and focused more on the bands that made them famous. Proof of this is to pull their flashback 500 lists from rocklists.com from 1988 and 1989. 88's version contains a lot more stuff you would consider obscure as to the 1989 version. For example, Brian Eno had a song in the top 100 of 88's version.

Secondly, as far as new music, it seemed like 1988 and 89 were not great years for alternative music. Or, at least it seemed like there were not a lot of good new bands. Or, KROQ missed a lot of good new music. I guess the highlights for new bands then were the Pixies, Edie Brickel, and Tone Loc, (yes KROQ played Tone Loc). Some of the well known alternative bands like DMODE, the Cure, REM, and INXS did their top 40 cross overs around then. So, I wonder if KROQ had much to work with in 88 and 89. It seemed like 1990 was a little better with the manchester movement, but that seemed short lived. I guess you cannot consider 1990 a really good year for them either because their #1 on the 106.7 countdown was Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares to U.

So, I think they were not embracing their roots for their classic music and did not have a lot of good new bands they were playing as the 80's ended. 91 rolls around and you have this new sound from Nirvana which did sound really new and fresh at the time. KROQ jumped on it but unfortuntately played everything that sounded just like it, and just seemed to never look back.

The 4th factor that you may want to consider, and could very well be the real factor, is Kevin and Bean. They started right around this time. 1990 I believe. Their show helped KROQ become more sucessful and with this sucess I wonder if they mainstreamed their playlist more and more.

I could be way off here but they are points to at least consider.

Carrstream, I think your assessment of what happened to KROQ is accurate. I wish they would have evolved into a Adult Alternative format which would have allowed them to hold on to their original audience as it aged.
An AA format that would be unique to southern California with 40% new music, 30% from the 80's, and 30% from 1990 to 2008.

Here is a sample of how KROQ would sound today if it were up to me.

1 Oasis- Morning Glory
2 Devo- What We Do
3 XTC- Life Begins at the Top
4 Death Cab for Cutie- Meet me on the Equinox
5 James- Laid
6 DepecheMode- Behind the Wheel
7 MGMT- Time to Pretend
8 Morrissey- Something is Squeezing my Skull
9 Sneaker Pimps- Six Underground
10 Joy Division- Ceremony

I would love to see some other ten song examples of how KROQ would sound today if it were up to you.

[quote][i]Originally posted by gpow[/i]
<br>Indie 103 was doing everything right that KROQ has gone wrong. Too bad they went off the air in january. They were playing alot of classic KROQ tunes combined with alot of the newer bands like Von Bondies, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. KROQ in the meantime was too busy playing Red Hot Chilli Peppers for the 100th time in the same day
[/quote]

AGREED!

Indie can still be streamed here: http://www.indie1031.com/include.php?pa ... hp%3Fid=27

Just hit the <img src="http://www.indie1031.com/img/listenlive.jpg"> button in the right hand corner.


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

Nirvana ruined EVERYTHING

"You just pick a chord, go twang, and you've got music." ~ Sid Vicious

For me, it was around '84 when Richard Blade went balls out with Wham & Duran Duran in constant rotation. Ugh. A Music Bore.

<img src="http://i31.tinypic.com/14ms2o5.jpg"

Did anyone not notice KROQ-HD2

Try this:

http://player.radio.com/player/RadioPla ... tation=308

They even run the old promos...

-Sean
<a href="http://www.altrok.com">Altrok 90.5 HD2</a>
On your HD Radio, it's Modern Rock at The Jersey Shore!

I can only speak about wlir/wdre being from long island,but I agree with some that in the early 90's grunge killed it,probably was the same with kroq,lir and kroq pretty much were twins on different coasts,I do not hate grunge,but would have much prefered an all out assault of brit pop,which would have fit perfectly with the cure and depeche mode,and new order and echo and the bunnymen,etc. as they entered their 2nd. decade of being the best bands ever!!!!!

Great topic first of all! 1984 was the first swing into sucking. That's when they would play all kinds of stupid sound effects (three stooges, Dragnet) over the music to the point of overkill.

They resurged with the Smiths and New Order in '86 then overdid it by overplaying the Smiths beyond repetition.

The last hurrah was 90 with the Sundays and the Stone Roses. Nirvana was a breath of fresh air until all you heard on the station were a bunch of lesser bands trying to sound exactly like them.

The station never recovered after Rick Carroll died - that's when the playlist become predictable and a lot less adventurous. That said I love KROQ2, the DJs do a great job focusing on the rarer cuts.

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>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.
[/quote]

The decline continues
https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-p ... evin-ryder

I’ve never been to California so never heard KROQ. However I can tell you that i had read about it in the really early 80s and in my mind it took on epic proportions. I figured it was always playing nothing but wild hardcore like the stuff I heard on the ‘Rodney on the ROQ’ comp albums.

Not true. A long way back someone on this site was posting hour long stretches of KROQ that were were probably home cassette-recorded in the day. They were a revelation. For starters, Rodney was not some wild crazy DJ; he was likable but kinda awkward sounding... like a geeky teen like myself might’ve sounded like!

I wanted to reply to this topic for quite some and now can !

I feel that the classic KROQ music started to dwindle around 1988.
I worked at a regional chain of record stores from 84-88 and it was still a great time for new wave music but in 1988, I think tings started to change with "alternative" bands, industrial, house music, etc started to make inroads as we approached the 90's.

in fact, I don't think i really listened to KROQ in the 1990s and beyond but for the ocassional Flashback lunch with Richard Blade before he left the station.

In fact if you look up the Top 106.7 songs by year on the web, you will see the type of music that started to get more popular from 1988 forward.
Most of the good bands peaked or were trying to new styles of music etc and other bands started to really grow (U2, REM, Cure, Erasure,Depeche Mode,Smiths-Morrisey) with a new audience.

I still like to listen to Richard Blade on First Wave on Sirius, but like and prefer KROQ2 on Radio.com (or on digital radio in your car) with Freddy Snakeskin, Jed the Fish, etc which plays more of the deeper 80's cuts from our the era. First Wave seems to play more of the popular songs but once in a while has some deeper cut from time to time.
Hearing the original DJs reminds of the best years of KROQ when it was relevent and the bands sounded fresh and new.