Though becoming famous as a cutting-edge station playing the latest underground music (and often beating the mainstream to the punch by months and even years), the station, under Infinity Broadcasting's ownership, became the local modern alternative station in the mid-1990s.
No longer playing rather obscure progressive rock, nor the classic and hard rock of its Baltimore competitor WIYY, HFS was now formatted more towards a younger set of fans who were more apt to listen to Green Day and Fuel than less mainstream artists such as Fugazi or Lou Reed.