The Infinite Dial

The demise of KDLE (Indie 103.1) Los Angeles got national attention last week, but Monday's passing of longtime Alternative outlet WHTG-FM (G-Rock) Monmouth/Ocean, N.J., is more of a milestone, and a change felt deeply in our Jersey backyard. For more than 20 years, WHTG carried the torch for fans of first generation (read pre-Nirvana) Alternative. At various times over the last 20 years, the station would segue to Modern AC or a new PD would tighten the music, but it was almost always a station that was aggressive on new music, always a station with library titles that you didn't hear everywhere else (even when the format became more library-based), and usually a station where you could hear Depeche Mode, the image artist of pre-Nirvana alternative radio, no matter what was happening with Depeche at the rest of the format.

For a while after the first demise of Alternative at WXRK (K-Rock) New York, it looked like G-Rock might find a niche, even with the kind of eclecticism that allowed you to hear "Bohemian Like You" by the Dandy Warhols as an Oldie. But it was below a 2-share in the fall book. And just as it was impressive that KDLE hung in for all of five years, the surprise is not that WHTG changed, but that it endured as long as it did.

In its first days, the new Hits 106 has been primarily satellite. Press reports have PD Terrie Carr and the local staff staying on, however, suggesting that more local programming could be on the way. It would be nice to think that the CHR that replaces G-Rock will ultimately be as distinctive in its own format as its predecessor (or as sister station WWZY/WBHX is among AC stations).