Just before leaving town for Spring Break, UF student Jessica Pisano noticed she'd been turning her radio off more and more.
The local and independent artists she'd enjoyed on her favorite station, 100.5 The Buzz, had been replaced, Pisano said.
"Every time I'd turn on the radio, " she said, "the music would be angrier. Punkier. Whinier. I just stopped trying to listen."
Pisano is not the only Gainesville resident who is tuning out after The Buzz changed its play list earlier this year from "pure alternative rock," a genre outside of mainstream music, to "new rock," which describes music that appeals to a broader audience.
Richard Hinshaw, the general manager at six Sunshine Broadcasting Inc. stations in the area, including The Buzz, said the change was necessary for the station to grow.
"The goal of media is to gain an audience," said Hinshaw, who was hired in February and has helped change the image of The Buzz to generate more mass appeal. "In radio, that means making the music more listenable."
The new "listenable" sound is what some say they can't listen to.
In an online forum about the station at GainesvilleBands.com, there are 61 comments, almost all of which complain about the changes. On a local community blog, one user posted a five-paragraph attack about the station's new format.
There were 67 responses, almost all in agreement.
"I've been wondering why all the false-anger psuedo-punk lately," wrote one user. "It's like passing by the Hot Topic at the mall."
The program director at The Buzz, who asked he be called by his DJ name, "Mojo," has worked at the station for six years and said he is aware of the online uproar.
Mojo said he thinks the criticism results from listeners not understanding what it takes for a station to survive in a competitive market.
"The mentality of the mass listening audience is they don't want to hear weird," Mojo said.
"And weird is kind of the point for bands who are trying something different and new. So we just couldn't sell that for too long."
About five years ago, the station gave Mojo and his fellow employees a chance to make the eclectic sound work.
Employees at The Buzz thought people living in Gainesville, a city with a thriving music scene, would have an open mind to bands not found on mainstream radio, Mojo said.
The problem, he said, is there were not enough open-minded people.
The people who would tune in to The Buzz were often using the Internet more than the radio to find and hear newer, lesser-known bands, Mojo said.
And the ones who were open-minded weren't "loyal."
"The independent music scene can be really flighty at times," Mojo said. "They're not people who constantly listen to the radio. And that's what we needed."
The Buzz, which was the first station to feature Against Me!, a punk rock band that was formed in Gainesville and has been featured on MTV, suffered from falling ratings and inconsistent listeners, Mojo said.
Last fall, its total listeners stood at about 12,000 to 15,000, Mojo said, citing ratings from Arbitron, a radio research company.
Compared to about 100,000 listeners at a competitor's station, Mojo said it was hard to convince the station's owners to stick with such a seemingly unsuccessful business plan.
He added that DJs were also tired of "losing" against the other stations in ratings.
"We were given plenty of rope to hang ourselves," Mojo said. "And we did. Playing what we liked was a dream that basically trickled off and died."
Hinshaw said The Buzz was targeting too small an area with the old sound.
The station reaches all the way to Ocala, Lake City and Wildwood, where listeners prefer the music they're familiar with, Hinshaw said.
"People who say that no one likes the change clearly don't know the range of listeners we have," he said. "We're getting just as much positive feedback as negative."
It is difficult to tell whether the station is doing better or worse because the latest ratings that are open to the public are from before the station made the switch.
Mojo said he feels bad that people think the station let them down. But he suggested that fans should support a station more if they like what it's doing.
"We worked so hard for a long time," Mojo said. "It's a little bit like getting a 'C' on your thesis. I wish people would stick by us, though."
Pisano said she feels there is nothing left for her or her friends on Gainesville radio stations anymore. "I don't want to be a music snob," Pisano said. "But I can't change that I think it's bad music."
