Active rock

Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across Canada and the United States. Active rock plays current rock artists with a mix of classic rock songs. An active rock station may include songs by known and popular artists such as Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, and AC/DC in its playlist. Whereas a modern rock or classic rock station would not. Similar to active rock stations, mainstream rock stations play current rock music, but concentrate more on classic rock than active rock stations do.

A pioneering station of this format in the late 1980s was WIYY "98Rock" in Baltimore, Maryland. Other early adopters of this format by the beginning of the 1990s include stations KISS "99.5 KISS Rocks" in San Antonio, TX, WAAF in Boston, Massachusetts, WXTB "98Rock" in Tampa, Florida and KEGL, "97.1 The Eagle ", in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Satellite radio channels include XM's Squizz and Sirius's Octane.