Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 58

I A fe i L0 QocC: C2cac35o r.rJ?Tr7TTur:?'7Tlf'v,y7:; fT. jr 7 S3 4Non Blondes, whose debut album just went platinum in the United States," Santa Cruz says. KZRR plays new music every night at 9 p.m. on the "six new tunes" program. Jaxon agrees with Santa Cruz, that the excitement of discovering a talented band is a great reward.

Jaxon also says he broke a number of bands, including 4Non Blondes. If the debate about 4Non Blondes means anything, whoever is right, one thing is clear, it is becoming more and more important to play new music. But it is risky to play music that listeners are not familiar with. "If they aren't comfortable with it, they may tune out," Jaxon said. He claims that because KBAC is so experimental sometimes, there is a lack of consistency in what they do, and that may be why, in Albuquerque, KBAC does not do well in the Arbitron ratings compared to 94 Rock.

But there are other possible explanations. Santa Cruz says she would like to boost the signal strength in Albuquerque because it is weak in the university area, which is home to many of its potential listeners. Also, according to Carolyn Winton, a media buyer for Rick Johnson and Company an Albuquerque advertising firm, stations that play classic rock do consistently well in the Arbitron ratings system, and 94 Rock continues to play a good amount of classic (or clas-sick) rock, even though it is owned by the same company that owns KLSK, a station that plays exclusively classic rock. Winton added that ratings aren't as cut and dried as people think. "Rock music used to be a generic term, much like country and western is now," she said, "but rock is breaking up into more and more subdivisions which cover different demographics.

"It's a formula, and (many people) think it's tried and true," Saunders said of ratings. Santa Cruz, however, does not even bother to enter into a debate about ratings. In fact, she claims not to subscribe to Arbitron at all, which could be a philosophy in perfect keeping with the spirit of the alternative movement, or a way of denying low ratings. And either way it seems that Santa Cruz is determined to continue playing new music, but it would not be fair to say that Jaxon is not as interested in playing new music as Santa Cruz. "Playing new artists is part of your life blood in radio," he said.

He just seems to take a more conservative approach. It is hard to tell at this point, though, if alternative really will be as important as people are hoping. It's possible that this sudden obsession with newness is just a side effect of the so-called "Nintendo generation," which is characterized as collectively having an attention span so short that its members need something new every five minutes to keep them from getting bored. If that's true, even the big name bands of today will be forgotten more quickly and with less pity than disco. It is also possible, however, that alternative could be just what everyone has been waiting for.

It does seem to be gaining momentum and attention. Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam even made the cover of Time magazine recently. Who knows, the alternative movement may turn out to be the modern equivalent of the British invasion, in which case, it could, in fact, be the saving grace that radio and its listeners have been looking for. 7" Armida Santa Cruz, program director of Santa Fe-based KBAC. BY DAN HYATT JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT Finally, in the wake of the snowballing popularity of the alternative music scene, even the people who run rock stations are starting to admit what we have known for a while now: rock radio was getting pretty stale.

"I haven't been excited about rock radio since the late 70s," admits Stacia Saunders, program director of KIOT radio in Santa Fe. Believe it or not, stations seem to have realized that a person can hear "Freebird" and "Stairway to Heaven" only a certain number of times begore going completely buggy. Saunders, along with several others in radio, hope, however, that alternative will bring listeners back to the airwaves. Being very difficult to pigeonhole, alternative music embraces a large spectrum of musical styles from folk to punk. It is marked by a determination to try not to conform to the mainstream, more trendsetting than trend following.

Armida Santa Cruz, program director of Santa Fe-based KBAC, says she believes alternative is the next important phase in rock music. But Jaxon, operations manager for both 94 Rock and KLSK, says he isn't sure that alternative music itself is as important as the honesty and sincerity that underlie it. However, he admits it seems to be having an impact. "A while back, a lot of people were predicting the death of rock radio," Jaxon says in an attempt to explain the disenfranchisement of the radio listener, "but the corporate rock and hair bands of the '80s are out. And bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam have really resparked an interest in the rock genre." According to Jaxon, 94 Rock is playing more new music than it has in the past five years.

Santa Cruz claims that when her station came on air five years ago, New Mexico stations were not trying anything different. She says KBAC decided to fill the void with "the newest in modern rock." It is important, especially now, to play new music, Santa Cruz said, because there are so many good new artists that need to be heard. On "New Music Monday" KBAC starts off every block of music with two to three new releases, and from 6 to 9 p.m. runs a program called "the nude music review" which consists, in Santa Cruz's words, of "stuff we've never played before." "Sometimes we even go out on a limb and play things that might not be commercially viable or radio friendly," she added. But the rewards are greater than the risks.

"I recently received a plaque from Interscope Records because I broke (was one of the first program directors to play) Jaxon, operations manager for both 94 Rock and KLSK. Jffr titH vlV rr Stacia Saunders, program director of KIOT radio in Santa Fe. Sit: i i E4 RIO Albuquerque Journal November 1 8, 1 993.