It’s interesting to look at a monitor of WRXP New York when Emmis launched it more than three years ago as “New York’s Rock Experience.” In memory, WRXP has been through a lot of changes: more Triple-A’ish/more gold-based Alternative, more Linkin Park/no Linkin Park, more obscure/more hits. But if you look at the station’s first two hours, there’s really only one record that wouldn’t fit the station today, or the current “Rock 101.9” handle, and that’s Nickelback’s “Rockstar.”

The rest of the two hour launch was made up of songs and artists still front-and-center on the station today: Elvis Costello’s “Pump it Up”; Red Hot Chili Peppers; U2’s “Angel Of Harlem”; Police; Pretenders; Blondie and even a “because it’s New York” appearance by Bruce Springsteen. When PD Leslie Fram arrived a few years ago, it became possible to sense a more regular presence of “power gold” on the freewheeling WRXP, but those powers were still like no other station’s powers. This week’s most-played according to Nielsen BDSRadio include Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Lemonheads’ “Mrs. Robinson,” The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary” and, yes, “Pump It Up,” a rock anthem, but a deep image gold to most PDs.

If it seems that WRXP shifted, it may be because the landscape did. In 2008, WRXP belonged with other Triple-A stations only by dint of its eclecticism. Now, that format is more often built around the softer side of indie rock. And indie rock itself, a daring thing for any big city radio station to acknowledge not-so-long-ago, isn’t as unusual on the radio now that the biggest acts of the last year include a British neo-lounge singer-songwriter and a British punk folk act with fiddles. The puck did eventually come in WRXP's direction, which makes recent events that much more frustrating.

At this writing, it’s a day before the expected takeover of WRXP by Randy Michaels’ Merlin Media. Speculation differs on the immediate disposition of the Alternative format, and a sui generis sorcerer is hardly likely to unveil the real plans for a new purchase in advance. But if WRXP’s rock format isn’t going away soon, it’s the greatest format fake-out ever. So it seemed like a good time for a “Final Listen” to WRXP and some thoughts about New York’s off-again/off-again relationship with Alternative.

For starters, I should point out that the only signs of an impending format change I’ve heard so far are a few sly references in the morning show and a somewhat off-color phony phone call in another shift that seemed as un-WRXP-like as you could get. Otherwise, every station that isn’t changing formats should have as many promotions going on as WRXP does today, including a bar gig tonight at a place called Idle Hands. And the long-expected digging-in-the-crates that often typifies a dying rock station hadn’t materialized by Wednesday afternoon.

(Update: It's Thursday morning and artist Jesse Malin is telling morning host Steve Craig how much he'll miss appearing on the station, just ahead of an acoustic performance. Craig is now saying his goodbyes with a set that began with the Stereophonics' "Dakota (You Made Me Feel Like The One)" and going into Midnight Oil's "Forgotten Years." Now, we're finally getting Green Day's "Time Of Your Life.")

Musically, the station has been settled in to (or back in to) its “Adult Modern, with the license to play an occasional AC/DC song” groove for a while. That’s not unprecedented. WXRK (K-Rock) New York played AC/DC and Van Halen when it was Alternative. Even WRXP’s predecessor, WPIX, which broke a hundred industry hearts three decades ago when it went Top 40, played some mainstream rock along with its proto-punk format.

WRXP never quite settled, though, into the ’90s-based Adult Modern formula that has worked so well for stations like WBOS Boston or WRFF (Radio 104.5) Philadelphia in recent years. There was plenty of ’90s Alternative. But there was more first-generation alternative, and, it seemed, like an unwillingness to walk away altogether from the eclectic ambition of the station in its early days. Early GM Dan Halyburton eulogized WRXP as a diary product in a PPM world, but it’s not like diary ratings measurement was routinely kind to boutique stations. It’s just that PPM has eliminated a few of the outliers, or threatened to.

That said, it’s hard to know what exactly a sure-fire Alternative station might have sounded like. Sister WKQX (Q101) Chicago went through the approved variations of the format—harder rocking, more library-driven, and more true-alt. Now, Q101 is in its expected last days as well. And with two incarnations of WXRK in 15 years, as well as the alt-leaning version of WHTZ (Z100), and the mid-’90s WNEW, you also can’t say that there was a sustained model for success for the format here.

Besides putting the many pieces in better order, Fram brought her massive goodwill to the station. Label people speak fondly about the culture she established there. WRXP certainly exuded caring about the music, and giving some thought to what to play next—not something often encouraged these days. It’s hard to imagine who will play mainstream current-based Rock in New York when WRXP goes, which is why we’ve come up with some other ideas for you. If only for the sake of a varied rock radio dial, though, one hopes that somebody else will eventually accept the challenge of sorting the format out here.

Here’s WRXP at 6:40 on Wednesday morning with Steve Craig:

Verve, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”
Strokes, “Taken For A Fool”
Coldplay, “Talk”
Dada, “Dizz Knee Land”
New York Dolls, “Trash,” Craig’s “Punk Trunk” song of the morning
Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Love Rollercoaster”
Kings Of Leon, Pyro”
Refreshments, “Banditos”
INXS, “What You Need”
Urge Overkill, “Sister Havana”
Cheap Trick, “Surrender”

And here’s the station at 2p on Tuesday afternoon with PD Leslie Fram, with help from Nielsen BDSRadio:

Nine Inch Nails, “Head Like A Hole”
Airborne Toxic Event, “Changing”
Stone Temple Pilots, “Plush”
Joan Jett & Blackhearts, “I Love Rock & Roll”
Weezer, “Undone – The Sweater Song”
Green Day, “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”
Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “The Impression That I Get”
David Bowie, “Rebel Rebel”
Bush, “Everything Zen”
Coldplay, “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall”
Soundgarden, “Spoonman”
Blind Melon, “No Rain”
U2, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
Muse, “Resistance”

Meanwhile, if you're a displaced WRXP listener looking for a new station (or a PD looking to put in a plug for your own station), click here.

And to see Ross On Radio's "Radio's Best & Worst" for July 14, click here.