janesaddiction.org

Mike wrote:Jane's are playing at the X-Fest on June 3rd.
Also on the festival bill is Garbage.

snapshots wrote:Just got my ticket! I love the speculation about a Avery/JA song or two. I just hope they play other Cali dates. I want the full JA experience.

filthpurveyer wrote:I got my tix and I'm pretty sure that Eric will play with JA, but on 1 condition, he must be the real head and not the foreskin.

’83 SWITCH CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR 91X-FM

Written by George Varga

Jane’s Addiction, which headlines Sunday’s X-Fest at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, did not exist when San Diego radio station 91X-FM held its first X-Fest marathon concert. Neither did any of the other bands performing at Sunday’s marathon show in Chula Vista, where the lineup also includes two nationally prominent area bands — Angels & Airwaves and P.O.D. — along with the recently reactivated Anglo-American band Garbage, Rebelution, Neon Trees, Grouplove, Of Monsters and Men, Eve 6 and Walk the Moon.

Then again, the first X-Fest was held in 1983, three years before Jane’s Addiction was formed. X-Fest’s debut that April was held at Jack Murphy (now Qualcomm) Stadium in Mission Valley and featured Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Stray Cats and Bow Wow Wow. At the time, 91X was only four months into its transition from a traditional album-oriented rock format (think Led Zeppelin, Boston and the Rolling Stones) to a New Wave-oriented “Rock of the ’80s” format (think Culture Club, Depeche Mode and, um, Adam Ant).

91X became only the second radio station in the nation to adapt this format, soon re-christened the “cutting edge” of rock ’n’ roll, following close on the heels of KROQ in Los Angeles.

“Back then, 91X was playing stuff that you couldn’t hear anywhere else,” said Tim Mays, the co-owner of the Casbah, San Diego’s leading alternative-rock venue since 1989. While considered a major gamble in 1983, 91X’s musical format shift paid off almost immediately. 91X soared to the top spot in the ratings. In the process, 91X became a regional powerhouse on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and created a programming template that was successfully adopted by the station’s owner, the Noble Broadcasting Group, for its Seattle outlet, 107.7 FM The End.

“I guess it was a risk, but we were looking for something to build our group of radio stations around the nation,” said U-T San Diego CEO John Lynch, who in 1978 co-founded the Noble Broadcasting Group, which owned 91X, with Ed Noble.

“91X broke a lot of bands — U2, Oingo Boingo, The Bangles, Green Day,” said Lynch, who sold his stations to Clear Channel in 1996. “But it was more than music, it was a lifestyle, and San Diego was a growing, vibrant city. KROQ had success, but not the kind we had down here.”

91X, which has a 100,000-watt signal that beams from Tijuana, is now owned by Local Media San Diego. In the most recent Arbitron ratings, it was the 10th-ranked station here. While 91X’s format has broadened over the decades, its foundation — and enduring prominence in San Diego’s radio landscape — owes a great deal to the musical format introduced in 1983.

“It is remarkable that, 29 years later, the station is still playing essentially the same kind of music, although it’s more geared now to a younger audience,” Casbah honcho Mays said. “It’s an incredible feat.”

george.varga@utsandiego.com (619) 293-2253 Twitter: @georgevarga Facebook: U-T Music

X-Fest, with Jane’s Addiction, Garbage, Angels & Airwaves, P.O.D., Rebelution, Neon Trees and others

When: 3 p.m. Sunday

Where: Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, 2050 Entertainment Circle, Chula Vista

Tickets: $9.91 to $55 each (plus service charges)

Phone: (800) 745-3000

Online: livenation.com