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Pump up the volume

Credited with breaking bands from the Bangles to the Offspring, 106.7 KROQ is perhaps the most influential station in the nation.Is this radio station really the powerhouse it's said to be? Yes.

By Robert Stevens

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

KROQ disc jockey Rodney "on the ROQ" Bingenheimer has a secret. "Want to hear something weird?" says Bingenheimer, who's been with the station since it's conception. "I've never seen MTV ­ I don't even have cable."

Weird as this may be, it makes sense. While the playlists of most radio stations mirror the well-travelled road of MTV and Top 40 trends, KROQ, L.A.'s 106.7 FM, stands out as the music superhighway that forged these pathways in the first place.

Lauded by both critics and fans as the most influential station in the nation, KROQ has won more than its fair share of awards, including the prestigious 1993 Rolling Stone reader's poll for station of the year.

Not only has the station broken every band from Blondie to Beck over the past 16 years, it's recently moved into third place in LA with its highest-ever Arbitron rating.

"KROQ for better or worse was the first mainstream alternative station," says David Wild, senior writer for Rolling Stone. "It's a very important, very good, ground-breaking station."

In a musically jaded town like Los Angeles, "ground-breaking" isn't a term thrown around loosely. But KROQ has earned its reputation.

"I was the first person to play punk on the radio," says Bingenheimer. "Bands like Green Day ... Bad Religion, I started playing them off cassettes. I remember first playing Offspring like five years ago.

"I play things that I get on cassettes and 45s. I was the first person to play the Go-Gos and Bangles that way too."

One of the most definitive feature of KROQ's playlist is the rate that new and unheard of bands appear on the station's rotation. Once a band's single has made it past the station's unique screening process, the song becomes played heavily along with more mainstream KROQ favorites like Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

And how does a band get this coveted position?

Pretty simply, actually. Each Tuesday every KROQ DJ. meets with Programming Director Kevin Weatherly to discuss what bands they'd like to put into rotation ("You should see him at the meetings, Bingenheimer says. "He will really get into a song and blasts the CD player really loud").

The DJs, as well as an occasional record label rep, bring in whatever new music they enjoy listening to, then debate the band's chance for radio survival. After careful thought, including extensive research about what audiences the band targets, new songs are chosen to be released.

Because of the station's Los Angeles home and its close relationship with the extensive media in the area, landing play on KROQ is of great significance for new bands. If the released single catches on, so does the band's success. Obviously, being played extensively on KROQ is a lucrative proposition for less prominent bands.

"There's no doubt that the only thing better than getting KROQ air-play is getting MTV rotation," says Mark Brown, music critic for the Orange County Register. "It can be an incredible career vehicle for any smaller bands."

Brown also cites patented KROQ concert circuits, like the upcoming Acoustic Christmas, as an important career step for musical acts.

"It could be a real boon to any band to get on the playbill," Brown says.

After looking over the list of bands for the first night of this year's holiday concert, Brown adds, "Stone Temple Pilots doesn't need KROQ. Hole doesn't need them. Liz Phair doesn't need them. Bands like Sunny Day Real Estate and Luscious Jackson are the ones who can really use the break through."

Equally interesting, however, arethe reasons why bands who garner more money playing solo shows would do something like Acoustic Christmas or the springtime Weenie Roast, a similar concert.

"It's always a good thing to keep in KROQ's good graces," Brown says. "In some ways it's pay back for early support. Most bands played early on by KROQ give them exclusive rights in the Southern California market."

One such band is Bad Religion, which is playing the first night of Acoustic Christmas for the second year in a row.

"Let's put it this way," says Greg Graffin, the punk band's lead singer. "The radio station has been supportive of Bad Religion since 1980 ­ virtually the first time we were heard on the radio was on KROQ and it's just a gesture to do them a favor and thank them for their support."

While "supportive" is a good way to describe KROQ's avant garde style of play, perhaps "daring" is a more appropriate adjective. The station's disc jockeys have been breaking new bands for years, many of which have become old favorites.

KROQ's Bingenheimer has the gold and platinum records to prove it. Appreciative of his early air play, everyone from the Bangles to Blondie to the Go-Gos to Joan Jett have thanked Bingenheimer by giving him their milestone albums. Most recently, the Ramones gave the radio veteran its gold copy of Mania.

"It feels good when people give you credit for breaking bands ­ I'm proud," says Bingenheimer, speaking with a quiet confidence. "Bands putting my name on their albums is a big thank you."

"Rodney and KROQ," says Go-Gos drummer Gina Schock, "have done a great job in breaking us and other bands."

The Go-Gos, one of the DJ's favorite bands, credited him in the liner notes of their most recent compilation. They weren't the first to do it and they definitely aren't the last.

Enjoying its most successful year to date, KROQ ranks third overall in the L.A.'s radio market (trailing only the Spanish KLAX and the hip-hop station Power 106) and since last year has been at the top spot in L.A. for English speakers 18-34.

According to Rolling Stone's Wild, "It's these die-hard KROQ fans that boosted the station to the top of its reader's poll ranking in the first place. However, he warns that simply for that very fact, listeners should be wary of KROQ's high profile.

"In the reader's poll, it all comes down to either Los Angeles or New York. It's all strictly based on numbers." KROQ inevitably wins out because, as the magazine's senior writer puts it, "New York radio is famously bad and retro-looking."

"I moved out here from New York four years ago," Wild says, "and I couldn't believe there was a station who'd play so much Morrissey."

Wild, who's based on the West Coast and likes KROQ, stresses that no one working in the East Coast offices of Rolling Stone would even be able to comment on the station's prestige, power or playlist.

The critic, however, is more than happy to relate his own feelings on the heavily repetitive style of KROQ ­ in the way only a New Yorker can.

"God knows I could live with less Depeche Mode."

But could Depeche Mode have lived without KROQ?

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