The New York Times > Arts > Music > Fade-Out: New Rock Is Pass%uFFFDon Radio

The New York Times > Arts > Music > Fade-Out: New Rock Is Pass%uFFFDon Radio: "ajor radio companies are abandoning rock music so quickly lately that sometimes their own employees don't know it. Troy Hanson, the program director of WZTA in Miami, said that he first learned that his station's owner, Clear Channel Communications, had ditched the rock format - and his staff - when he tuned to the station one morning in February and heard talk-radio. His rock domain, known as Zeta, had vanished. 'We didn't even get to play 'It's the End of the World as We Know It,' ' the R.E.M. anthem, as a sign off, he said. Advertisement In the last four months, radio executives have switched the formats of four modern-rock, or alternative, stations in big media markets, including WHFS in Washington-Baltimore area, WPLY in Philadelphia and the year-old KRQI in Seattle. Earlier this month WXRK in New York discarded most newer songs in favor of a playlist laden with rock stars from the 80's and 90's. Music executives say the lack of true stars today is partly the reason. Since rap-rock acts like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit retreated from the scene, none of the heralded bands from recent rock movements, be it garage-rock (the Strokes, the Vines) or emo (Dashboard Confessional, Thursday), connected with radio listeners or CD buyers the way their predecessors did."