Not that long ago, Active Rock radio was multiply challenged — by a lack of current product and by current rock music’s diminished prominence in the firmament. There were also new stations who tried to get around that by just playing a harder, newer version of Classic Rock that included grunge and the early ‘00s.
Entercom’s KISW Seattle pushed through that period through its emphasis on personality — morning team B.J. & Migs and afternoon show The Mens Room. Beasley’s WRIF Detroit was certainly helped by morning team Chuck & Dave the Freak, but also did the best of many major-market outlets in exposing recent Active Rock chart acts.
On Saturday, both KISW and WRIF celebrate their 50th anniversaries. KISW will focus its celebration on Friday’s programming. WRIF has an entire special weekend. Both have been leading up to the weekend with artist tributes, vintage audio, and the like. Listening this week has been an enjoyable reminder both of Album Rock radio’s power in the ‘70s but also of its renewed currency over the last year, when men have controlled more of the available radio listening.
As a college freshman in Southeast Michigan in 1979, I experienced WRIF in a peak year. Among my college radio friends, the proudest moment was meeting the station’s JJ & the Morning Crew in public; as often, they were walking around doing George Baier’s character voices themselves. WRIF was always a little more eclectic than one would expect in 1979. The two songs I most associate with the station that fall are “Powderfinger” by Neil Young and “I Fought the Law” by the Clash. The next year, the more corporate-rock-driven WLLZ came to town and rock radio was disrupted for a while.
Active Rock remains a few different formats now. Some of the format’s recent successes, including WMMR Philadelphia and WIYY (98 Rock) Baltimore, sound more like the Heritage Rock outlets of the early ‘90s. KISW was library-driven in middays — its only music-intensive daytime shift — when I listened. WRIF has emphasized the today half of its yesterday-and-today mix more than most. When WRIF does “Two-for-Tuesday,” the blocs include AC/DC, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Rage Against the Machine, but also Halestorm, Pop Evil, and Corey Taylor.
My “Fresh Listen” to WRIF was with p.m. driver Meltdown, who, even when I’m not listening, is somebody I see daily as one of rock radio’s most active social media presences. His daily “Fourplay” 4 p.m. feature this week was devoted to one of the station’s decades for each day. Monday, when I listened, was devoted to Detroit artists from the ‘70s. “I can’t think of Detroit without thinking about the RIF,” said an artist drop from Alice Cooper when his song played. “The home of rock and roll in Detroit Rock City,” said the :00 ID.
Here’s WRIF at 3 p.m. on February 8:
- Rob Zombie, “Living Dead Girl”
- Motley Crue, “Wild Side”
- Green Day, “Longview”
- Stone Temple Pilots, “Dead & Bloated”
- Royal Blood, “Trouble’s Coming”
- Sublime, “What I Got”
- Guns N’ Roses, “Live and Let Die”
- Nine Inch Nails, “The Hand That Feeds”
- Breaking Benjamin, “So Cold”
- Puddle Of Mudd, “Control”
- Pretty Reckless, “Death by Rock and Roll”
- Offspring, “Come Out and Play”
- Ted Nugent, “Free-for-All”
- Bob Seger, “Turn the Page (Live)”
- J. Geils Band, “Detroit Breakdown (Live)”
- Alice Cooper, “Be My Lover”
I heard KISW with OM/middayer Ryan Castle and again that afternoon with the Mens Room. Castle played Jane’s Addiction and recalled the station’s Rising Star Concert Series at the Paramount Theater in 1989 when that band played with Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden. “Were you there?” he asked. A sweeper promised that the anniversary broadcast would contain similar “juicy stories, cloudy memories, and dancing.”
The Mens Room topic was “embarrassing things you’ve had to tell the doctor,” with plenty of Miles Montgomery and Steve Hill’s own stories, listeners’ freak accidents, the friend who had heart trouble at a young age and had to (honestly) deny having a cocaine addiction every time a doctor or nurse came by, and what dental hygienists know about your personal life. The show plays two songs an hour; listeners call in to dedicate character voice bits to loved ones.
Here’s KISW just before 11 a.m., February 9 with Castle:
- Muse, “Uprising”
- Everlast, “What It’s Like”
- Led Zeppelin, “Over the Hills and Far Away”
- Jane’s Addiction, “Jane Says”
- Greta Van Fleet, “Safari Song”
- Bon Jovi, “Livin’ on a Prayer”
- Nirvana, “Polly”
- Queen, “Another One Bites the Dust”
- Linkin Park, “In the End”
- Offspring, “The Kids Aren’t Alright”
- Pink Floyd, “Speak to Me/Breathe”
- Alice In Chains, “It Ain’t Like That” (the lead-off song in “The Hook Up,” the Noon feature where each song starts with the last letter of the previous title)
- System of a Down, “Toxicity”
There’s more info about KISW’s anniversary here. See the WRIF info here.
