In recent years, the Classic Hits format’s push into the ’90s and early ’00s has put it in seeming contrast with the Classic Rock format. Classic Hits PDs were determined to “not sound old” and to be cognizant of Britney Spears’ first hits being 25 years old. Classic Rock PDs were still willing to play Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, even as their rivals fled the ’60s and ’70s, and managed to have younger listeners anyway.
That doesn’t mean that there weren’t highly publicized forays into the ’90s and early ’00s, but they seemed to focus on a handful of the biggest Alternative hits from the grunge era and beyond with no depth. But this week, in the spirit of our well-loved “What Classic Hits Added” articles, we took a similar look at what Classic Rock stations had started playing in 2024, and there were certainly titles that went beyond “Man in the Box” and “Even Flow.”
We looked for those songs receiving their first Mediabase spin on a given station after January 2024. To try and eliminate one-off titles, special programming spikes, and the like, we looked for songs that had at least three spins this week or last. The list isn’t definitive — some newer titles might have received their first spin in a previous year but graduated to rotation more recently. Or a title might have been added but recently bicycled out/rested.
A few of the stations we looked at didn’t add any songs in 2024 that were in significant rotation now. KLOS Los Angeles hasn’t added anything since 2020. WZLX Boston’s most recent add was Offspring’s “Gone Away” in 2023. (I remember a colleague derisively referring to it at the time as “that Foreigner record,” which is perhaps an asset here.)
KUFX (The Fox) San Jose’s last add was “Drive” by Incubus. That song was added in March 2020, two weeks into the COVID pandemic, so I like to think the promise to be there “whatever tomorrow brings” was a deliberate statement.
Besides looking for songs added in the last 13 months, we also looked at the 2 p.m. hour of each station in Mediabase for ’90s titles. It’s important to note that even those stations that came into the ’90s were often doing so for the pre-grunge era — Metallica, ’90s ballad Aerosmith — for at least some of those slots.
KGLK (The Eagle) Houston (Urban One)
The market’s No. 2 radio station doesn’t seem to have modernized at the same speed as its peers. There was no ’90s in the 2 p.m. hour, although Aerosmith’s “Cryin’” played in the following one. The only song in significant rotation added last year was:
- Europe, “Rock the Night”
KQMT (The Mountain) Denver (Entercom)
The Mountain bills itself as “Denver’s Adult Rock Station.” It evolved to Classic Rock from more of a Classic Rock/Triple-A hybrid. The market’s Classic Hits outlet, KXKL (Kool 105), has been successful as one of the most aggressive stations to push into the ’90s and ’00s. KQMT had four ’90s in the 2 p.m. hour from Metallica to Pearl Jam:
The Mountain has a lot of newer titles from the last year that give it overlap with not just Triple-A KBCO but also Alternative KTCL:
- 311, “Amber”
- Modest Mouse, “Float On”
- Killers, “Somebody Told Me”
- AWOLnation, “Sail”
- Butthole Surfers, “Pepper”
- Metallica, “Fuel”
- Metallica, “Wherever I May Roam”
- Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “The Impression That I Get”
- Twenty One Pilots, “Stressed Out”
- Gotye, “Someone That I Used to Know”
- Staind, “It’s Been Awhile”
- White Stripes, “Seven Nation Army”
- Faith No More, “Epic”
- Aerosmith, “Cryin’”
Played four ’90s titles in the 2 p.m. hour. Newer songs added since 2024 include:
- Bush, “Everything Zen”
- Smashing Pumpkins, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
- Offspring, “Self Esteem”
- Three Doors Down, “When I’m Gone”
- Evanescence, “Bring Me to Life”
- Goo Goo Dolls, “Iris”
- Ozzy Osbourne, “Time After Time”
The ratings success of Q104.3 in recent years seems to coincide with the modernization of Classic Hits rival WCBS-FM. But there were still two ’90s in the 2 p.m. hour: “The Unforgiven” by Metallica and “Give It Away” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. There’s only one add since last February:
- Smashing Pumpkins, “Tonight, Tonight”
WDRV (The Drive) Chicago (Hubbard)
Chronologically, the 2 p.m. hour had both Led Zeppelin, “Dazed and Confused,” and Foo Fighters, “Everlong,” one of three ’90s titles. The most recent adds are:
- Lenny Kravitz, “American Woman”
- Audioslave, “Like a Stone”
The station is closer to the iHeart template of gold-based Active Rockers but positioned on air as “Classic Rock That Really Rocks.” The four ’90s songs that hour included both “November Rain” and “No Rain.” (Not consecutively, however.) The new adds here are a glimpse of what we might be seeing elsewhere in a year or two.
- Incubus, “Pardon Me”
- Seether, “Fine Again’
- Queens of the Stone Age, “No One Knows”
- Eve 6, “Inside Out”
Only one ’90s in the monitored hour. Most recent adds include an ’80s as well:
- Van Halen, “When It’s Love”
- Green Day, “When I Come Around”
WPBB (The Shark) Tampa, Fla. (Beasley)
There were two ’90s in the 2 p.m. hour, but both were pre-grunge: Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Poison’s “Unskinny Bop.” Another rare case of the one add being ’80s:
- Stevie Nicks, “Stand Back”
WSRV (The River) Atlanta (Cox)
Only one ’90s title in the monitored hour — “Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. The River bills itself as Classic Hits, but is closer to the original definition of the format as a poppier version of Classic Rock, rather than a successor to Oldies.
- Nirvana, “All Apologies”
- Alice in Chains, “Man in the Box”
- Huey Lewis & News, “The Power of Love”
- Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
- Motley Crue, “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)”
- Radiohead, “Creep”
I may be way off, but in looking at the stations’ playlists described here vs. the ratings reports, the stations that play the most “hits” are the most successful. Q104 New York is a great example. Many of the songs they play were Billboard chart hits-owing to their familiarity. Stations that played more obscure songs were much lower in the Nielsen ratings. Point here- a HIT is a HIT is a HIT. If stations wish to modernize, they just need to find the HITS. If it ‘s a Classic Rock station, simply define the Classic Rock HITS that get the best reaction from the audience. Some stations seem to be adding songs just for the sake of “not sounding old” and the audience reaction bears out the possible liability in doing that. Just find the hits (a little work makes that possible) -and play ’em. That’s my 2 (or 1 1/2) cents.
For me, this poses a kind of personal dilemma that also applies somewhat to the recent column on ’90s Classic Hits: What happens when a band’s biggest hits are much mellower than what the band originally did (or even originally became famous for)?
My college-age self (back in the early ’90s) first got into the Goo Goo Dolls with the album “Hold Me Up”. Even though it still might’ve not been as hard as the band’s first releases, it did come across as harder than a lot of what came afterward. (I might’ve even become more familiar with that album’s cover of “A Million Miles Away” than with the original.)
Also, while I never was a big RHCP fan, I did like its EMI-era output enough to buy “What Hits!?” Even then, though, “Under the Bridge” (which was included due to a licensing deal with Warner Bros.) sounded out of place.
And, I still think that Soul Asylum should’ve been more famous for, say, “Somebody to Shove” than for “Runaway Train” (both of which are even from the same album).
Despite all of that, though, I have to concur that it’s probably more appropriate to play those bigger, mellower hits–even on a Classic Rock station.
One curious add in my market (KCFX) was the 1985 song “Your Love” by The Outfield, a song I would normally associate with KCMO-FM.
Rock radio sometimes wants to give “Your Love” to Classic Hits because the Outfield didn’t have multiple hits (although their streak of near hits was a longer sustained career than many bands), but AOR radio definitely broke it and played it at the time. Plus, if a song’s appeal is being the record the Police would have made if they weren’t broken up, why couldn’t Classic Rock play it?