Fresh Listen: KINK Portland and Houston’s The Buzz

Their stations don’t have much in common musically, but both Triple-A KINK Portland p.m. driver Gustav and his Alternative KTBZ (The Buzz) Houston counterpart Theresa were talking about Stevie Nicks on Wednesday afternoon, within a few minutes of each other. 

Nicks came up on The Buzz because a listener had reached out to plug his girlfriend’s candle-making business. Theresa had checked it out and found the vibe to be “very Stevie Nicks/Lana Del Rey.” Gustav set up “Edge of Seventeen” by talking about how cool it had been to see Nicks on Saturday Night Live, even if the current season was otherwise just OK.

The state of every rock format these days is informed by not having a Fleetwood Mac-level superstar band. Both KINK and the Buzz have been standouts in their respective formats for thriving anyway. In Nielsen’s just-released October PPM ratings, both stations are No. 3 in their markets. The Buzz is up 4.9-5.7, while KINK is up 5.4-6.5, its best share since 1992 according to ratings historian Chris Huff.

The Buzz and PD Elliott Wood last appeared in these pages in 2020 as one of a handful of rock-leaning Alternative chart reporters that stood out in a format that was then experimenting with The Kid Laroi and 24K Goldn. KINK was one of our “Intriguing Stations of 2021,” under then-PD Gene Sandbloom, in part for playing Olivia Rodrigo, as well as Elton John & Dua Lipa’s “Cold Heart.” 

Four years later, Alternative isn’t rocking much harder, except for library material and artists already in the format (Jack White, Linkin Park). While some PDs were quick to assail anything that resembled Hip-Hop, there’s still plenty of streaming-driven pop but these days that’s Myles Smith or David Kushner. To some extent, that reflects the influence of Triple-A on its adjacent format. Is Triple-A a good neighbor for sending over Good Neighbours? It’s worth noting that KTBZ isn’t playing that band, top 10 at both formats.

Under Ken Benson and Max Dugan, who became co-PDs in 2023, KINK still has some pop component—the station just began playing Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”—although it felt less noticeable when I heard them this time. Promotionally, the station was giving away tickets to Cyndi Lauper’s farewell tour, as well as a “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” weekend to see her in Las Vegas. Next week, the station begins giving away Zach Bryan tickets and qualifying winners for a New York flyaway.

Here’s KINK just before 3 p.m. on October 30:

• Zach Bryan, “Pink Skies”
• Everclear, “Santa Monica (Watch the World Die)”
• R.E.M., “Man on the Moon”
• Beck, “Loser”
• Benson Boone, “Beautiful Things”
• Cars, “You Might Think”
• Lumineers, “Ophelia”
• Sublime, “Santeria”
• Myles Smith, “Stargazing”
• Police, “Roxanne”
• Jack Johnson, “Upside Down”
• Stevie Nicks, “Edge of Seventeen”
• Good Neighbours, “Home”
• Stereo MCs, “Connected”
• Killers, “Mr. Brightside”
• Zach Bryan f/Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything”
• Blondie, “Call Me”

On the Buzz, Theresa was the only personality I’ve heard so far acknowledging the upcoming election. She had already voted, she said. She encouraged anxious listeners to “stop watching the news” and “social media.” Instead, “walk a dog. If you don’t have one, find one.” 

Besides being part of iHeart’s $1,000 cash giveaway, The Buzz was also giving away tickets to Jerry Cantrell and to Linkin Park in Dallas. Listeners could win the latter by singing a Linkin Park song on the iHeart app talkback feature. Here’s The Buzz just before 3 p.m., October 30:

• Staind, “It’s Been Awhile”
• Papa Roach, “No Apologies”
• Third Eye Blind, “Graduate”
• Butthole Surfers, “Pepper”
• Linkin Park, “Lost”
• Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”
• Bush, “Glycerine”
• Breaking Benjamin, “Red Cold River”
• Three Days Grace, “Never Too Late”
• Green Day, “Welcome to Paradise”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Around the World”
• Gorillaz, “Clint Eastwood”
• Imagine Dragons, “Enemy”
• P.O.D., “Alive”