When classic and modern collide, they don’t collide very well

There’s been a drought of proper hard rock / heavy metal radio in Los Angeles in recent decades, in the formats successful in both San Diego and Northern California.  There was KQLZ “Pirate Radio” which trying-very-hard-to-be-cool kids (at least one of which I’ve known very well) actually believed was an unlicensed radio station; there was KNAC, which, like the former, garnered some following outside of Los Angeles; but maybe it’s that the crashes-and-burns of both were much harder than their music that has made programmers very wary.

There is now KROQ, a “modern rock” station (and the source of such personalities as Dr. Drew Pinsky, Adam Carolla, Stryker, Carson Daly, and [to ape the shallow sarcasm of KROQ's peak era] so many others of whom we should be so proud.  We have KLOS, a “classic rock” station, which we can be less embarrassed about, as the only national vomit I know that began there are Mark & Brian.

But here’s an interesting thing.  KROQ is now spinning Metallica’s 1991 Black Album — even its hard tracks — which it never used to do; apparently Metallica used not to be “modern rock”, when they were modern, but are now, when they are old.  And KLOS is now considering Guns ‘n’ Roses’s 1991 Use Your Illusion albums to be “classic rock”.  These bands toured together at their zeniths, and neither are in the traditional veins of the respective stations.  It seems these two stations are osmotically filling the void, but very poorly, as one can hear neither, say, older stuff such as Iron Maiden nor newer stuff such as Atreyu.

(I think I need an iPod jack in my truck, if only to keep me from writing such pointless posts in the future.)