In my hometown, Rockford, Ill., you can roll down your window anywhere at 5:01 and you'll hear "Surrender." That's partly because Cheap Trick grew up in Rockford, but it's more than that.

It's about staying optimistic amongst the broken dreamers, trusting your own judgment and knowing where you're from. In short, it's about listening to Kiss in a Midwest river town where all the factories are closing shop.

The KSUP rock block has always struck me as a little bit different. Part of it is all the nu-metal bands these days, but musically, it's more about the inherent glory of escapism than it is about embracing the here and now.

Still, it was Juneau's drive at 5, and it sounded like the stoplight at the corner of Egan Drive and Mendenhall Loop Road was speaking to you. Monday, the stoplight and the station was a new man, all grown up and worried about mortgage fees.

After 23 years as "the rock station," KSUP is now "Mix 106," a "hot adult contemporary format" with less of the edge.

The official switchover was at noon Monday. The "hardest" rock song for Tuesday's drive at 5 was Journey's "Separate Ways."

"Most of this new mix is stuff we've been playing for years," majority owner Dennis Egan said. "We've just made it more mainstream. It's basically our same format, but it's not as heavy."

"I can say we have or are in the midst of changing audiences," said the station'sKelly Peres. "We still have a lot of the classic rock stuff: the Skynyrd, the Aerosmith and the AC/DC. But we've also gone a little bit toward the side of what the ladies like to hear. We've added some things that fall into a 'dance' or 'dance rock' or 'contemporary rock' category."

KSUP made the switch to address the void left when KTOO bought the licenses of the old STAR 102.7 and MAGIC 100.7 - two stations that provided satellite-fed "hot" and "soft" adult-contemporary.

"It left one big section of the radio audience in Juneau unserved," Peres said. "Excellent Radio (KTOO's new 100.7) drops in more rap than most adults will tolerate. We're trying to find a niche that will appeal to the 20-to-45-year-olds and not turn off those that are older than 45."

The change means that most of the 1960s "roots-of-classic-rock" songs are out of the format. A casual listen between 5 and 6 Tuesday confirmed as much. Most of the angst was gone. In its place: Gwen Stefani, Matchbox 20, Asia, Guster, late Aerosmith and the Wreckers.

"Hard rock appeals to men," Peres said. "Women were being ignored by what had happened recently with the changes in radio formats.

"I don't think that element of music is going to be left out of Juneau," he said. "I hear a little bit of that now showing up on 100.7 (Excellent Radio). They have a real eclectic mix. Ours is just a little more mainstream."

You'd think the heshers in town - those guys who drive the black pickups with the baseball bats crossed in the back window - would be calling up the station in droves. But they aren't, yet.

"Surprisingly," Peres said. "When we talked about doing this, way back when, we joked about who was going to answer the telephone.

"(Rockin' Ron) got a few calls (Monday) that were negative, but most of the time he picked up the line it was from folks who were very happy about the switch."