The story of how a legendary L.A. radio station - KROQ - came back from the dead to reclaim a ratings crown is an amazing tale. So how did they do it? By going back to basics and giving an audience they chased away during COVID exactly what it wanted - their favourite personalities and their favourite music back. 

"The expectation of the KROQ brand is Foo Fighters, Chili Peppers, Linkin Park and Green Day. [Kaplan] kicked all those bands to the curb in favor of these new TikTok-flavor-of-the-moment bands. That’s not what people expect or want from KROQ. It’s just getting back to what people expect.

"Everyone goes, ‘the station used to play a lot more new music,’ or ‘the station used to be about discovery.’ All those things are still true. It’s just that, our audience is not 12 to 24. Our audience is 25 to 54. These are the people that grew up with KROQ. We’re not chasing something that we’re not going to probably get any longer. We’re going to satisfy the people that are still here.”

Are there lessons there for heritage rock stations like CFNY or even Q107? Maybe. Will they learn them? That remains to be seen. It's worked so far in Windsor with the return of 89X, whose comeback is among those stations also mentioned in the article.

KROQ: The Story Of A Radio Resurrection