They basically tried to just pick fights with me. The problem, I think, is that a lot of radio programmers, who maybe got into alternative rock before it was a major commercial powerhouse, got into it because they had a passion and a love for the music. But as modern rock exploded as a radio format and a sales force, I think a lot of those same programmers, at this point, are basically counting numbers just like any other bean counter. Obviously, something's wrong when one of America's most popular modern rock-oriented publications voices dissatisfaction with the stations that play the music. But most radio programmers and people who work in the radio industry have either ignored the story or tried to bait me and say that I was generalizing about something that wasn't necessarily true.
Program directors come to the defense of modern radio by pointing out that it starts with the music.
I can remember when rock stations played Michael Jackson because Eddie Van Halen played guitar on his record. All of a sudden it was a rock record. In much the same way, the grunge movement that spawned modern rock as a genre sent the business searching for a whole new direction. It was a feast. These days, however, the looser structure that modern rock once enjoyed is nowhere to be found.