Since they debuted the iHeartMusic festival in Las Vegas in 2011, iHeartRadio has made live events a signature part of their programming. In recent years, the company has successfully expanded into country with their Austin-based country festival, Latin music with the iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina, in Miami, and an annual awards show in Los Angeles.
Their next scene to conquer is apparently the alternative music world. And they are making a huge foray into that genre with the first Alter Ego show, to be held Friday, January 19, at Los Angeles’ Forum (https://news.iheart.com/featured/iheartradio-alter-ego/).
The sold-out bill is impressive from top to bottom with Mumford & Sons, Beck, Cage The Elephant, Spoon, Walk The Moon, the National and Dashboard Confessional. Part of what makes the lineup so strong is the diversity, from current platinum acts such as Mumford and Cage to a more iconic artist such as Beck and beloved but less commercial bands such as the National and Spoon.
I spoke with iHeartMedia’s Brad Hardin, Executive Vice President and General Manager of National Programming Group, and new addition Lisa Worden, VP Programming, Los Angeles’ 98.7, KYSR and Alternative Rock Brand Manager Programming Group, who comes over from seminal L.A. radio station KROQ. Her hire and the debut of the Alter Ego concert proves that iHeart is seriously committed to the alternative world going forward.
Hardin and Worden talked about how the bill came together and what all of this means for iHeart going forward.
Steve Baltin: How has the initial response to the Alter Ego show been?
Brad Hardin: The response has been fantastic, we’re sold out, the artists are excited to do this first-time event, so it’s gonna be special.
Baltin: I’ve covered iHeart shows in the past, but this one is obviously different as it’s dedicated to alternative music.
Hardin: You’re familiar with our other tent pole events, whether it be the iHeartRadio music festival in Vegas or our country festival in Austin or our awards show. We really want to go after the best group of talent that is available at the time, that our listeners and fans of the stations are into. So it always starts out making a target list and then seeing logistically who can happen. When we explained the concept of what we wanted to do we had a lot of support from the artists, the managers and the labels wanting to do the show. I don’t want to say it was easy to put together because these things never are, they take time and lots of conversations. But it came together pretty quickly at the end of the day.
Baltin: I also appreciate the fact the artists have a relationship and fit together versus just throwing a bunch of artists who sell records on a bill together.
Hardin: I don’t know if that was part of the planned process, it kind of just worked out that way, but you’re right. Mumford were probably the last artist we added to the bill, but they shared your sentiments in regards to the other artists on the lineup.
Baltin: Talk about what this means for the alternative portion of iHeart going forward. Do you see this as another franchise?
Hardin: Lisa is a well-respected programmer with deep relationships. When we had the opportunity to have her join the team it’s something we jumped at. And that’s one of the major reasons we wanted her here, to grow our alternative brand. Already we have the largest alternative footprint in the industry with over 25 stations, everywhere from D.C. and Houston, L.A. of course, a couple in Denver and other markets with around 42 million monthly listeners on those stations. Our footprint is already large and what we offer on the iHeart app, with our custom channels, the artist channels, our new play listing features, we really want to be there for the fans of radio music, all genres. And to take it to the next level is an important plan.
Lisa Worden: The opportunity to join iHeartMedia was just such a no brainer for me when it came to being help the voices of over 25 alternative stations. We just launched a new station in Detroit. There’s talk of possibly other markets, putting alternative stations there. The belief in this format within the iHeart system is huge. So I do think this will be the first Alter Ego show, we’ll see how it goes and I think the goal is to try to continue.
Hardin: Yeah, and doing shows with the alternative and rock artists is not new to us. We have two theaters, one in New York and one in Burbank, where every year we do over 15 alternative shows. Just last year we had Kings Of Leon, a Lorde special at the Houdini Mansion in L.A. Foo Fighters we did a special opening of the new club in D.C., Anthem, that was a private show. And all these air on our stations. Then every year at the festival in Vegas and the village in Vegas we’ve always had a handful of alt artists on both of those shows. So this is really the logical next step to do an entire show for the format.
Baltin: At the Vegas festival shows for example though you’ve had U2 and Coldplay, the biggest acts. Talk about what this show means for being able to champion acts who aren’t as well known commercially.
Worden: Music discovery is a huge part of iHeart and it’s both on our terrestrial radio stations as well as on the app. We’ve got a special channel dedicated to all new music for all programs I want to say. Then we do the iHeart village and there’s opportunity there to showcase.
Hardin: Yeah, and you’re right, U2, Coldplay, Bon Jovi have played the arena from the rock side. But the village, I go back to Twenty One Pilots when they were getting airplay on alternative radio, but were not the artist they certainly are now. But when they did the village two, three years ago they were certainly an artist that caught our attention so we booked them. By the time the village came around they’d only started to get bigger and we had them in the arena the following year. So we’re always looking for the village exposure, because that’s kind of a different type of event than the arena, to really find who are the up and coming artists who are stars of tomorrow.
Baltin: Talk about how the strength of alternative music right now makes this the right time for this franchise.
Worden: Alternative has never been stronger and that’s why you’re seeing stations pop up all over the country and that’s why I’m sure iHeartMedia had the idea, “Let’s do an alternative festival this year. This format is massive and it’s hot right now.” The bill is so well-rounded where you’ve got Mumford And Sons on one end and the National and Spoon and even Dashboard Confessional on the other end and the fact this thing is already sold out and it sold out well in advance and the response has been so great it’s further proof how strong the format is.
