August 03, 2005

• I stopped listening to radio about the same time I found Frank Zappa, a long aeon ago. I despise it and force my wife to switch it off while we're in the car. So I probably don't fit into the whole thing of this thread.
• I only listen to the CBC and Jazz FM (although I avoid Benmurgui like the plague he is). My rock radio days are long over. My rock sensibilities were created by CFNY, back in its incarnation as the Spirit of Radio, before it turned into New Alternative, then New Rock Alternative, then New Rock, and then the Edge, losing the CFNY altogether. Given how I was raised up on a rock station that celebrated the eclectic, everything else sounded the same old crap. Now, the Edge itself is just boring and loud. I may never hear the Toast song broadcast again... Now, all my rock picks are made by what I hear in the club, or by word of mouth. Or, surprisingly, what I hear on Mother Ceeb.
• WOXY the future of Rock and Roll. The best station EVAR. They now have a "vintage" stream that plays modern rock from the last thirty years.
• I don't really listen to music radio anymore because I'm either tired of hearing the same old stuff, or the new stuff just doesn't appeal. There's been some buzz lately over Jack FM, which promises to be somewhat "anti-format", but is really just another corporate station with a large playlist of tunes popular with a certain demographic. People seem to like it because they know all the songs. The opposite of that here seems to be The Current, a newish anti-format public music station under the MPR umbrella. I find the randomness of the music to be jarring, so I don't listen to that either. However, it's pretty popular, as far as I can tell.
• Commercial radio has always sucked. They play the same old songs to death. Blarg. Twas ever thus. College radio is often better, and no ads. But nowadays I just listen to my vast digital music archive. ha.
• cabingirl: yeah those "Jack" and "Bob" stations aren't bad but the Blender article made the point that they don't play any new music, so it's kind of built-in-defeatist. I also think it's interesting that college radio sounds the same over decades despite the fact that it changes bands out like a smoker exhaling.
• I'm am fortunate to live in the Philladelphia area, Where WXPN (mentioned in the article) resides. It's either that or NPR for me. I haven't heard a radio commercial in years!
• I only listen to the local college/NPR stations these days. That mostly means news, jazz, and big-band stuff recorded 40 years before I was born. I think the PMSimon piece hits the nail on the head - rock critics can complain- but they weren't complaining when THEY were 15 and THEIR taste ruled the airwaves - i.e., radio has been a steaming cesspool of mind-numbing repetition and homogeneity for a long, long time. Kids tend not to notice. The kids who are being pandered to at any time either don't notice or tune in for precisely that reason. I liked rock/pop radio well enough when I was 15, I guess, but I began to despise it before I went to college. Crap radio must be a factor in the takeoff of satellite radio. Movies and video games are becoming more and more important forms of music marketing. CD and MP3 players are nearing ubiquity, satellite radio is doing traditional radio shows better than terrestrial radio ever did, and the myriad forms of internet music completely kick everything else's ass when it comes to discovering new music. It seems likely that terrestrial radio will get squeezed into a dwindling niche of local talk/news and dentist's waiting-room din if somebody doesn't wake up and realize that quality matters.
• I thought that Video killed the Radio Star. (Maybe Video was acquitted?) I still listen to radio, but only in the car, and only because the 'scan' button is my friend. But, yeah, I totally agree that commercial radio is teh suck. (And don't even get me started on the FCC.)
• I stopped listening to rock radio after college. I listened to NPR until I moved to Canada, then tuned my clock radio to CBC, so I hear it for a minute or two every morning. Other than that I don't bother. The radio stations around here are sucktacular in the extreme. I have to hear peoples' radios in the office sometimes, and I want to kill myself. I know there's some good new music out there, but you can rest assured it will never play on the airwaves.
• The little woman can't listen to the radio in her car... it stems from an incident involving the radio antenna in her car and a Jack In The Box antenna topper about 4-5 years ago. Hilarious story, if you can get it out of her. She keeps a large library of CDs in the car when driving. As far as me, I only listen to about 3 stations in the Denver area. One is a classic rock station, the other is an alt-rock station, and the last is an interesting all-inclusive "rock" (one moment you'll be listening to Beatles or The Who, and the next, they'll be playing the latest rock song someone is paying to play). I carry a small selection of CDs, and figure that the CD/radio playtime ratio is about 90% CD, 10% radio.
• NPR is the only radio I listen to with any regularity anymore. I occasionally get a hankerin' for one of the local classic rock stations, but even they have succumbed to the lure of homogenization and play pretty much the same playlist every day.
• I also like WOXY, and I wish I could listen to it in my car. It's all I listen to at work, though. I'm also thinking of getting satelite radio, though I don't usually spend enough time in the car to justify it (I walk or bike to work), except on the two or three times I drive to TX a year or going to the store.
• WXPN had a pretty subversive show back in the late 70's called the "Vegetable Report". They got kicked off the air due to their antics. Now that is radio :)
• Like everyone else, I'm sick of most radio, except for CBC and Jazz911. In the car though, the wife scans MIX999, Jack FM, and a couple of country stations*. I veto Q107 and Edge 102, she vetos any college radio, and any station I'd prefer to listen to. * When you're in Northern Ontario, and can't put the antenna up because of the canoe, all you get is country. Before, we treated it with scorn, now it's occasionally listenable, assuming that we're tired of all the cds, and we have no alternative.
• Now I live in the middle of nowhere, and the only stations I can get on the way to work play the same list of songs at the same time every day, so I usually listen to NPR news and CDs (and get my new music via friends and/or the internets). Sometimes I hit the college stations. I'm a bit too much of a control freak about what I listen to for radio though. And there's no stations between here and my parents' house near Philly. Although I did inexplicably catch something that sounded like African techno once. In high school, before I discovered WXPN and had my own cd player, I listened to Y100 allll the time. I remember hearing Tori Amos, and Nirvana, and Tracy Bonham and Crash Test Dummies and all kinds of good (imho) stuff. By the time I got to college and they got bought out by Clear Channel...well, I came home one break to hear the dj saying "Here's the new song by Garbage. So don't call in complaining that we don't play chicks." And that was the end of that.
• Just as a catching up on WOXY. To make this full circle, about a year and a half ago WOXY was bought out by a big radio company (not ClearChannel) since then they are internet only and unlike most internet only radio stations(ok, every other that I am aware of) during the week they have live djs that will usually play whatever you request and no commercials. Guess what the terrestrial station that was WOXY is now broadcasting? Thats right, BobFM! Only they don't call it that since there is a radio station in Cincy (near where the old WOXY tower is) that has the call letters WBOB.
• I only listen to the radio when I'm driving and there's a really, really bad storm. Some sort of 'okay, the world's still all right' thing, I'd guess. I occasionally listen to NPR at night if they're playing classical - and I'm pretty sure I caught a yodeling show last weekend - but I dislike jazz. Problem is, I also hate the news/politics, commercials, and DJs who ramble on and on about things. It all feels very intrusive to me. The boy likes college stations and I'll listen intermittently because I want to like radio; I try not to complain too much in the car. I don't mind listening to 'The Music of Ireland' or the polka show because it's interesting. But it all seems like too much effort when I can load up the internet radio stations and listen to either of those, or, even better, Iranian music, and not have to deal with it ending in an hour. I did college radio for a year; it was pretty much internet-only (this was...2001-2, I think) unless you were sitting outside the door with a good antenna. I did 'The Electric Retro-Future Lounge' and planned my shows to the second with massive Excel charts. (Lounge, experimental, and ambient.) I also had a Saturday night slot, so absolutely NO ONE ever heard it. I cared about my music. It all flowed. If I had something that didn't quite fit with anything else, it went on one side of a station ID. I was listening to the radio this weekend, to a 'modern rock' station playing a 'new song' from an album that came out last winter. Afterwards, the DJ said, 'God, I hate that song.' I was struck by that; I thought it was awful on a lot of levels. I like rock music. Big industrial fan. No idea what's out there anymore. But I have no idea how to find out about new music (that isn't that indie lo-fi crap) without putting forth serious effort, and that's ridiculous.
• I'm a classic rock fan, but the local CR station (Q107) is bland and predictable...always the same few tracks from each artist, stuff I've heard a million times before. Years ago I lived in Windsor, ON and there was a great station out of Detroit...WCSX, I think... that would play some great album tracks and little-known gems. God, I miss that station. Right now I listen to the local sports radio or channel surf. I find out about new cool stuff from Little Steven's Underground Garage on Sunday nights.
• 10 years radio free and like un- my aural life is filled with the sounds of my bountiful digital archive.
• Yeah, since CFNY bit the dust, it has been pretty well CBC 1 & 2 or university/college stations. I even did a show on the U of Guelph station CFNY for a while. Thanks for the WROXY and The Current links -- good stuff.
• I wouldn't want to go radio-free. It is still (!!!) my main source of news and info, thanks to the CBC, and I like the randomness of discovering new music on the air. No matter how big a digital archive or cd collection is, you are still limited by what you have in your own collection, and you lose the possibility of discovering stuff outside of your preferences. Mind you,that is a big reason why I avoid big commercial radio stations -- hey, lets listen to the same crap 30 songs over and over again!
• Rock n' Roll is dead, and I for one think Lenny Kravitz killed it. Don't get me wrong, it was coughin' up blood before... ;)
• fimbulvetr, you will not necessarily lose the possibility of discovering new artists. Actually, with sites like Pitchfork and eMusic along with meatspace friends my tastes have grown more broader and diverse than they ever were when I listened to the radio. For me, ditching radio was the best way for me to discover what is outside the mainstream.
• I listen to WNCW which is pretty eclectic; maybe more bluegrass than most people can take, though. I used to love WRNR in Annapolis but no idea if they're still around or any good. When I'm cleaning the house sometimes I listen to the oldies station but the ads quickly begin to set my teeth on edge - on long car trips I scan until I find oldies or classic rock stations so I can sing along badly at the top of my lungs. Radio has sucked for years - it always amazed me that there was no good radio in NYC; Baltimore had better. I think that's the crux of it: small markets are better for radio than large. The large ones are so saturated with huge corporate conglomerates that smaller, more independent stations haven't got a chance.
• Yeah, but there is something about the incompetence and unpredictability of college radio . . . and, it has the great advantage of being free. It is also much easier for lazy folk like me to listen to a radio station to discover something, rather than poke around on intarweeb sites. You can't replace a good DJ with a random button on a MP3 player any day.
• Indy 103FM in LA. Jonesy's Jukebox. Maybe now the world can forgive us for KROQ, the worts radio station in the world (and largely repsonsible for spawning Durst and his fellow cretins on the world)
• "worst radio station" also
• Baltimore had better 98 rock rules!
• I live in Seattle and therefore have the pleasure to be able to tune in to one of the best independent music stations in the country, KEXP. DJ Riz Rollins show at night alone is worth being glad I have a radio in my car. KEXP streams online too, by the way . . . And if I lived in New York, I'd be listening to WFMU! Otherwise, I stopped listening to the radio around 1985.
• WMFU here in the NYC area airs quite a vast array of musical genres. I give them a listen quite frequently. Next up, a radio station that for-the-life-of-me I cannot remember, but they have an amazing calypso show every few nights (40's ~ 50's calypso from the tents of Trinidad - - a style that I have grown quite fond of recently, and is in danger of "disappearing"). Granted, calypso probably doesn't fall under "rock radio," but I find that there are still some interesting and "underground" things to be discovered on radio. Lots of oldies stations still sputter (hell, I'm talkin' the origins of "rock 'n roll"). I have a few of those Freeplay radios, which I am fond of winding up and searching for something interesting to listen to. Yeah, NPR is a staple. College radio continues to prosper in certain areas. Overall however, I do agree the vast majority of what's on the airwaves nowadays is shite. Oh yeah, can't forget to give a shoutout to my OTR!!! Funny thing, when I'm staying in Indonesia, I listen to a radio station that plays some very obscure music from the US. I mean, they play stuff that many a college radio station in America doesn't even know of, heh! That's where "rock radio" is for me now. Oh yeah, I saw Britney Spears go into a Starbucks in Manhattan a few years back. From my office window, I screamed, "Britney, we love you!!!!! You little ugly fuck!!!" She turned and looked upward to see who was yelling. All my coworkers were on the floor laughing - - - the CEO was not to happy with me as he had been on a conference call with a client - - they heard it all (I kinda slunk into the back nether-regions of the office and hid for a few hours). People like her, they just drive big fucking sterling-silver railroad spikes into anything left worthwhile of radio.
• Little Steven's show rocks, I just can never remember to tune in.
• All his shows are archived.
• People like her, they just drive big fucking sterling-silver railroad spikes into anything left worthwhile of radio. I have heard this argument for years, and I dont buy it at all. All during the 60s and 70s, when rock was at its best, there was also bubblegum- "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies was the #1 song of 1969. There's nothing wrong with freedom of choice- bubblegum should be there for little kids until they grow out of it. The problem is when there's nothing good for them to hear when they do grow out of it. Britney beats the shit out of "nu metal" anyway.
• Britney beats the shit out of "nu metal" anyway. Thanks for that grand laugh!! I think you were missing my point. I'm all for freedom of choice, and there's nothing wrong with some bubblegum pop for the un-cultured kiddies out there. I'm speaking more in terms of the marketing cluster-fuck that commercial radio has become in the last decade; shoved down throats whether you like it or not. Granted, I was not yet alive to partake in the Archies lovely hit, but I wonder if it was spread as virally? The problem is when there's nothing good for them to hear when they do grow out of it There's plenty of great music in every nook 'n cranny of the world! Ears, use them!
• People who don't share your taste in music are uncultured? Anyway, pop has been around for a while...and so has marketing. The Monkees were a classic example of both, and yet they aren't remembered as the 60's version of the Backstreet Boys...which is what they were. Maybe the current crop of pop stars will get their respect in 30 years.
• marketing cluster-fuck a.k.a. TRL, et. al. And rocket, don't forget that the Monkees played their own instruments! . . Y'know, eventually.
• People who don't share your taste in music are uncultured? No, I never said that anyone who doesn't share my taste of music is un-cultured. I think you took my words and ran with them. I don't have anything against so-called bubblegum pop, but I do find it atrocious when the "stars" of today's "rock" scene don't even know how to play instruments or sing. When a musician is suddenly valued for their appearance over talents, then yes, this is completely un-cultured. Anyone can have the perfect voice with the proper plugins and software.
• I never realized how normal never listening to the radio really is. I don't normally turn the radio on, but I hear radio when I'm at the mall/haidresser's/whatever and NYC radio is definitely better than Houston radio, which is a wasteland of Clear Channel crap. At least there seems to be some format variation in the stations. I get new music through recommendations from friends and music blogs (particularly a couple whose proprietors I know). And I occasionally stream something from NPR. Otherwise, I don't miss it at all.
• I listen to CBC every once in a while. I occasionally turn to the corporate talk radio station but the constant ads annoy me. I tend to learn about new music from allmusic.com, Audioscrobbler, and No Depression magazine.
• Sugar, Sugar is an underappreciated gem of fabulous musicosity. Ooooooh, honey honey!
• doot do doot do doot doo . .
• You are my candy girl...
• I listen to The Current too, especially their afternoon show with Mary Lucia; engaging without being distracting, alt-y without being jarring. Maybe I'm just getting old. Despite being a relatively small market, Winnipeg has a lot of stations. Unfortunately, there is a disturbing amount of overlap in their playlists, and most of their DJs remind me of David Cross'(?) bit where one of the announcers is always called 'The Bear'. I can't listen to talk/news radio without paying complete and utter attention to it; Nora Jones ('Shmoozapalooza', anyone?) and the 'World Music' glut of the mid-to-late nineties turned me off of the CBC. Now they're trying too hard to appeal to everyone, and unless I'm mistaken, their smugness has blossomed tenfold - or maybe it's just more blatant. Besides, it's been years since one of their best programs in decades went off the air. And don't get me started on college radio.
• I highly recommend the daily talk show, Open Line with Fred Andrle, available as streaming audio and via archives. Very intelligent guests on very widely ranging subjects.
• I'm stuck listening to the "Most Fun, Most Variety!" station at work for 11 hours a day. (wage, not salary) Usually in the car, between NPR and 4 or 5 rock/pop stations on preset, I can find something I don't dispise.
• The Monkees had some excellent songs and were quite capable of playing if given the chance. A few things have happened, I think: a) as technology has progressed, the producer has become in many cases the artist, while the singer/performer is more of a tool he uses. Moby is highly respected, yet he doesn't even sing on his own songs that often. And of course, there are the superstar DJs, mash-uppers, etc. This is fine to me- I hate to quote Rush but "its really just a question of your honesty, yeah your honesty." b) Rock is dead b/c hiphop took over. Yeah, there's still some good rock, but your average rebellious kid is listening to Eminem now. ROck used to scare parents, now "artists" like Matchbox 20 go straight to VH1 and adult cotemparary on their first album. To me, rock is never going to be what it once was b/c it has been superceded in the "danger" stakes. There's no reason there can't still be great artists with great songs, but sociologically, things have evolved. and C) yeah, corporate radio sucks. (check out Tom Petty's "the Last DJ," one of the best rock albums of the last few years IMO)
• sugarmilktea, I think we largely agree, actually. I kind of mistakenly attributed some opinions to you that a lot of other people have-- people who get so angry at the very existence of boybands. My attitude, has always been, "its not intended for me, ignore and move on," Durst & Co. offend me so much more b/c they are pretenders to a genre that once contained real artists.
• Yo, the Beatles used to be bubblegum pop. Real artists are in every genre. I guess that the Beatles are music's Godwin Law
• I am a spoiled brat, as I live in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) and we have THREE public radio stations- one that's news/talk, one that's primarily classical, and one that's eclectic as all hell and passionately devoted to playing local bands. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/ Minnesota Public Radio rocks my world. I've given up completely on commercial radio.
• drjimmy11, whaddaya mean 98 Rock? EEEWWW. I still miss WAYE and WKTK. In a pinch I'd listen to the old Towson State station WCVT, or WJHU when I was closer to that. But since the early '80s the only good thing about 98 Rock was Lopez, and he's dead. The fact is, the reason ClearChannel could make such a mess of commercial radio is that it was pretty bad already. Now that I have DSL I like shoutcast or live365, while I wait for WXBH. (Contributions are tax-deductible!)
• There was a collection of decent indie stations submitted to a Mark Morford column. (SF Gate) WUMB (all folk) is a treat to listen to.
• Rock isn't dead...and it hasn't been superceded by anything. No matter where you live, I'll bet that any local nightclub featuring live music has a rock band playing (unless you're rural, in which case it'll be a country band). Kids are still buying electric guitars, basses and drums and getting together in basements and garages...and every now and then a band like Jet or Black Crowes emerges to prove that *real* rock 'n' roll is still here. Keep the faith...
• Durst & Co. offend me so much more b/c they are pretenders to a genre that once contained real artists. Martin Scorcese's (sp?) The Blues series had a great line - something about how back then it had to come from you and now the technology does all the work. Too true, IMHO *cranks up distortion pedal* I guess that the Beatles are music's Godwin Law Brilliant. ))!
• I am with rocket. There is just as much quality music now as there ever was. There is also as much quality rock as there ever was. It is always there. It is not always popular. Dig for stuff. Talk to people. Find out what is out there.
• I rarely listen to music while driving, as I find it distracts me from, um, the driving. But, then, I'm a freak. (...and I'm driving my race car to work these days.) But, yeah, radio is worthless for me, as I'm a musician and a prog rock fan.
• And yet i seem to remember a time when I could turn on the radio and listen for hours. And enjoy it. But maybe that's just something I saw on television.
• I started in on college radio as a grad student... never listened to it much as an undergrad, but damn. At that time I was stuck in classic rock hell. A local station was actually the first in the US to go to an all-classic rock format, back in the day (so they claim, anyway). They have pretty extensive archives, some really rare stuff, but sadly these days they don't delve into them much. Now when they play Aerosmith it's always Mama Kin, never Lord of the Thighs, and how many times can you hear the usual shit before Bob Seger makes you want to slit your wrists? My music taste has definitely changed for the better since I changed the channel. I am lucky to have a really good college radio station though, here in East Lansing, and given the opportunity I will brag about it at any moment, because damn, it's good. (Don't believe me? See for yourself. Remember that they train new DJs in the summer though, so judge by the content and not by the commentators...) Station format changes at 7 PM to talk, then again at 8 PM to a different show each weekday, then at midnight to stuff they can't play during the day. They're also the first station in Michigan to go high-definition, period. Beat ClearChannel to the punch on that one. Also have been voted the #1 college station in the state for 4 out of the last 5 years. Sure, I hear the occasional crap song (can I help it if I think radiohead is largely whiny shit?) but I also hear a lot that I wouldn't otherwise have been exposed to. Having said that, I am a little sick of the Postal Service-type self-important whining music, and badly drawn boy often makes me want to shut the radio off, but then they play some Me First & the Gimme Gimmes and all is right with the world. I dread moving out of the area because I'll have to find a new station. Listening to my college station is like installing an AdBlock extension on my radio. I mean, once you've gone commercial free, you can't go back, can you?
• Yeee haw, now we're talking! ♫ Country roads, take me home to the place where I belong! West Virginia, mountain momma... ♪♪♪ *nods to caution live frogs*
• clf: I've tried listening to 89-Impact when in EL (3 days a week) but I am damn glad I have a cd player in my car; this station may be voted best college radio in Michigan (which probably ain't saying much), however, WIDR in Kalamazoo, WCBN in Ann Arbor, and the low-watt station at Henry Ford CC in Dearborn play consistently more interesting playlists. My vote goes to WCBN, which features freeform programming about 80-90 percent of the time. You may hear music you don't want to hear on CBN, but when that happens, it is Diamanda Galas, not badly drawn boy (whoever the f that is).
• Hey, I like badly drawn boy :)
• WhOOOoo! YEAH! YEAH!! WooOOOAOW!! /MFATGG
• See, now you had me go searching for torrents. But I couldn't find one that wouldn't take a day to download. So now I am saddened. Of course, that's been true of every torrent I've gone looking for. /noob