Active rock
Encyclopedia
Active rock is a radio format
used by many commercial radio station
s across the United States
and Canada
. Active rock plays contemporary rock artists with a mix of songs common in the classic rock
radio format.
Airplay Monitor, described active rock in the late 1990s as album rock "with a greater emphasis on the harder end of the spectrum".
An active rock station may include songs by "classic" artists in its playlist, whereas a modern rock
station would not. Conversely, unlike classic rock
stations, an active rock station also plays music by popular current and new rock artists, including the hard edged rock and heavy metal product.
Similar to active rock stations, mainstream rock
stations play current rock music, but concentrate more on classic rock than active rock stations do.
A pioneering station of this format in the late 1980s was WIYY
"98Rock" in Baltimore, Maryland. Other early adopters of this format by the beginning of the 1990s include stations KISS
"99.5 KISS Rocks" in San Antonio, TX, WAAF
in Boston, Massachusetts, WXTB
"98Rock" in Tampa, Florida
, WGIR (FM) "Rock 101" in Manchester, New Hampshire
, KEGL
, "97.1 The Eagle", in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
, WJJO
"Solid Rock! / 94/1 JJO!" Madison Wisconsin. Satellite radio
channels include Sirius XM Radio's Octane, and the gold-based
Bone Yard channel, also on Sirius XM Radio. Former counterparts prior to the November 12, 2008
Sirius/XM channel merger were XM's
Squizz
and Sirius's
BuzzSaw. Australian radio network Triple M Network also uses this format. A later Internet radio station, Frogbox Radio, also began playing an Active rock format.
Active rock stations in Canada
also include CFPL-FM
in London, Ontario
, CKQB-FM
in Ottawa, Ontario , CFBR-FM
in Edmonton
, CHTZ-FM
in St. Catharines, Ontario
and CJKR-FM
in Winnipeg
.
, with forty positions on this chart and it is solely based on radio airplay. 62 Active Rock radio stations are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
. Songs are ranked by a calculation of the total number of spins per week with its "audience impression", which is based upon exact times of airplay and each station's Arbitron
listener data.
Songs receiving the greatest growth will receive a "bullet", although there are tracks that will also get bullets if the loss in detections doesn't exceed the percentage of downtime from a monitored station. "Airpower" awards are issued to songs that appear on the top 20 of both the airplay and audience chart for the first time, while the "greatest gainer" award is given to song with the largest increase in detections. A song with six or more spins in its first week is awarded an "airplay add". If a song is tied for the most spins in the same week, the one with the biggest increase that previous week will rank higher, but if both songs show the same amount of spins regardless of detection the song that is being played at more stations is ranked higher. Songs that fall below the top 20 and have been on the chart after 20 weeks are removed and go to recurrent status.
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
used by many commercial radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
s across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Active rock plays contemporary rock artists with a mix of songs common in the classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
radio format.
Format background
Sean Ross, editor of BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Airplay Monitor, described active rock in the late 1990s as album rock "with a greater emphasis on the harder end of the spectrum".
An active rock station may include songs by "classic" artists in its playlist, whereas a modern rock
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
station would not. Conversely, unlike classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
stations, an active rock station also plays music by popular current and new rock artists, including the hard edged rock and heavy metal product.
Similar to active rock stations, mainstream rock
Mainstream rock
Mainstream rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada.-Format background:...
stations play current rock music, but concentrate more on classic rock than active rock stations do.
A pioneering station of this format in the late 1980s was WIYY
WIYY
WIYY is a radio station in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, owned by the Hearst Corporation. WIYY broadcasts an Mainstream Rock format that mixes music popular in the modern rock, heavy metal and classic rock genres...
"98Rock" in Baltimore, Maryland. Other early adopters of this format by the beginning of the 1990s include stations KISS
KISS-FM
KISS-FM is a radio station broadcasting an active rock format serving the San Antonio, Texas area. The Cox Radio outlet broadcasts at 99.5MHz.- History :...
"99.5 KISS Rocks" in San Antonio, TX, WAAF
WAAF (FM)
WAAF is a Boston, Massachusetts, area commercial Album Oriented Rock/Active rock radio station that mixes music that is popular in the modern rock, heavy metal and classic rock genres....
in Boston, Massachusetts, WXTB
WXTB
WXTB — branded 98 Rock — is a commercial radio station in the Tampa, Florida area. However the station can be heard as far north as Ocala and Williston due to its strong signal...
"98Rock" in Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
, WGIR (FM) "Rock 101" in Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
, KEGL
KEGL-FM
KEGL is a radio station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, USA. The station broadcasts a mainstream rock music format to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
, "97.1 The Eagle", in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
The Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a title designated by the U.S. Census as of 2003, encompasses 12 counties within the U.S. state of Texas. The area is divided into two metropolitan divisions: Dallas–Plano–Irving and Fort Worth–Arlington. Residents of the area...
, WJJO
WJJO
WJJO is a radio station broadcasting at 94.1 FM in Madison, Wisconsin. . It describes itself as having an "active rock" format, targeting adults 18 to 49. WJJO is considered one of the hardest active rock radio stations in the country, and was voted #1 Rock Station in the country by the music...
"Solid Rock! / 94/1 JJO!" Madison Wisconsin. Satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
channels include Sirius XM Radio's Octane, and the gold-based
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
Bone Yard channel, also on Sirius XM Radio. Former counterparts prior to the November 12, 2008
2008 in radio
Several events occurred in radio in 2008.- Events :* January 2: WWFT finished Christmas music stunting, rolling out the red carpet for Adult contemporary music branded as "Warm."...
Sirius/XM channel merger were XM's
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
Squizz
SquiZZ
SquiZZ was an XM Satellite Radio channel devoted to hard modern rock from the 1990s and 2000s. It was launched on November 14, 2002 as part of a playlist split from The Bone Yard, its sister channel. After this, The Bone Yard would become the home for classic hard rock, whereas Squizz became home...
and Sirius's
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
BuzzSaw. Australian radio network Triple M Network also uses this format. A later Internet radio station, Frogbox Radio, also began playing an Active rock format.
Active rock stations in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
also include CFPL-FM
CFPL-FM
CFPL-FM, or FM96, is a radio station owned by Corus Entertainment and based in London, Ontario, Canada that transmits at 179,000 watts at 95.9 MHz on the FM dial...
in London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, CKQB-FM
CKQB-FM
CKQB-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts an active rock format at 106.9 FM in Ottawa and 99.9 FM in Pembroke...
in Ottawa, Ontario , CFBR-FM
CFBR-FM
CFBR-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting an active rock format at 100.3 on the FM dial in Edmonton, Alberta. The station uses the brand name 100.3 The Bear....
in Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, CHTZ-FM
CHTZ-FM
CHTZ-FM is a radio station in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The station airs at 97.7 on the FM dial, and broadcasts an active rock format with the brand name HTZ FM...
in St. Catharines, Ontario
St. Catharines, Ontario
St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land...
and CJKR-FM
CJKR-FM
CJKR-FM is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 97.5 FM in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The station airs an active rock format branded as Power 97. It shares a studio location at 1440 Jack Blick Avenue in Polo Park, Winnipeg, with sister stations CJOB 680 and CJGV-FM "Groove FM". Currently CJKR-FM is...
in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
.
Active Rock Airplay chart
Active Rock Airplay Chart is a chart that compiles the current hits on Active Rock radio stations and is used as a component for the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. This chart is exclusive to R&RR&R (magazine)
R&R was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes...
, with forty positions on this chart and it is solely based on radio airplay. 62 Active Rock radio stations are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, better known as BDS, is a service that tracks monitored radio, television and internet airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections...
. Songs are ranked by a calculation of the total number of spins per week with its "audience impression", which is based upon exact times of airplay and each station's Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
listener data.
Songs receiving the greatest growth will receive a "bullet", although there are tracks that will also get bullets if the loss in detections doesn't exceed the percentage of downtime from a monitored station. "Airpower" awards are issued to songs that appear on the top 20 of both the airplay and audience chart for the first time, while the "greatest gainer" award is given to song with the largest increase in detections. A song with six or more spins in its first week is awarded an "airplay add". If a song is tied for the most spins in the same week, the one with the biggest increase that previous week will rank higher, but if both songs show the same amount of spins regardless of detection the song that is being played at more stations is ranked higher. Songs that fall below the top 20 and have been on the chart after 20 weeks are removed and go to recurrent status.
See also
- Classic rockClassic rockClassic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
- contributes to active rock format, but less so than modern rock. - Mainstream rockMainstream rockMainstream rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada.-Format background:...
- like active rock, a mix of classic rock and modern rock, though trending closer to classic rock. - Modern rockModern rockModern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...
- contributes to active rock format, but more so than classic rock.