|
« Previous |
Ain't too proud to blog
| mail it
| Next »
Posted: 06.20.2002 Well I hate to say but pop ain't going solo
Todd just sent me this link about one of my biggest peeves these days...the radio. We're too poor to fork over the bucks for satellite radio, but we just can't subject ourselves to the constant crap that is the Tampa Bay airwaves. No, I do not want to hear Creed for the 337th time today, thankyouverymuch, Mr. DJ. Instead, we live off CDs and MP3s.
One station in town has what they call "Sunday School" on Sunday nights. We actually find ourselves purposely going out during this time just to hear decent music. They play all "old school" alternative music, before it even was alternative music, during the 3 hour program. All the best in new wave and retro from early Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, The Smiths, Violent Femmes, Jane's Addiction, The Pixies, etc. Beyond that, we're pretty much screwed. The show ends and we're back to six days and 21 hours of more Clear Channel "all Jimmy Eat World, Puddle of Mudd, Blink 182, and Linkin Park all the time" -- with playlists created specifically with 14-year old girls in mind. I also find it amusing that Tampa Bay has not one, but two self-proclaimed, "new rock alternatives". Unfortunately the "alternative" the other station is talking about includes piping out Ricky Martin and Eric Clapton over the airwaves. Yeah, I guess they didn't get the memo. "FM is creatively tired," said Lee Abrams, a veteran radio consultant now employed by the satellite radio company XM. "The attitude is, 'We're making money. Why change it?' "They make their money, they pay the bank, everybody is happy," Abrams continued. "And music is very low on the totem pole." You said it, brother! For more of the above article, visit CNN.com.  I know the feeling exactly. When I stayed at college last summer to work, the only station I could get in the office was an "alternative" station that I swear had a repeating playlist that lasted about 3 hours before cycling back. After about a week of hearing the same songs in the SAME ORDER, I finally gave up and just started bring my CDs to work. Now the only time I ever listen to the radio is when I forget CDs on car trips ... ¤ ¤ credit: ste | 06.20.02 at 03:46 PM | link- -this ¤ ¤ Problem is too, that ClearChannel owns some of XM as well, so there's always a danger of Bad Things occuring... ¤ ¤ credit: todd | 06.20.02 at 04:02 PM | link--this ¤ ¤Three words: Radio Free Virgin ¤ ¤ credit: Sekimori | 06.20.02 at 04:10 PM | link--this ¤ ¤Yup, that sounds like my same grumble and why I just leave the radio on NPR anymore. And usually it's CDs or MP3s in the car. Funny thing, you have Sunday School, we have Big Sonic Heaven in my area. I've been conspiring to get my computer to record it for months now, with some success. I wonder how many other radio markets have this kind of sliver of non-crap left? ¤ ¤ credit: l.m.orchard | 06.20.02 at 04:31 PM | link--this ¤ ¤You can't get RadioFreeVirgin in the car, though... ¤ ¤ credit: todd | 06.20.02 at 05:15 PM | link--this ¤ ¤yes, clear channel sucks big time. i hate local radio!!! i live off of cds' and tapes and am always in constant search of truly alternative radio. i guess i'm srewed. ¤ ¤ credit: kat | 06.20.02 at 05:24 PM | link--this ¤ ¤I cannot agree more. It is the same way here in St. Louis! CD's and Mp3's all the way, baby! ¤ ¤ credit: chris | 06.20.02 at 06:07 PM | link--this ¤ ¤We bought DirectTv for the movie channels . . . but we were pleasantly surprised by the music channels they came with. There are many different genre's . . . all commercial free 24/7 . . . and they really play a nice mix of music. You don't hear a lot of songs twice, which is so different from the local radio. The dish is always on at our house . . . half the time we watch, the other half we listen! One of my favorite channels is the "Singers and Standards" which plays all the crooner's classics. Very nice to listen to after a hard days work . . . or for a little romantic ambiance. At work . . . thank God for KaZaA and the CD Burner!! ¤ ¤ credit: jason | 06.20.02 at 06:42 PM | link--this ¤ ¤yanno, i've been listening to the oldies station lately (needed a change), and it's the same fuckin way... the same songs every freakin day. you'd think that with such a large collection of songs to choose from that they could go months without a repeat, but nooooooo... and yanno what i really really hate? when stations have their supposed "all request lunch" or something like that, and people call in and request the same shit they always play. why even bother requesting it? you know it's gonna be played in an hour regardless! or even worse... you call in to request a little-known song from a particular band, and they say "well, how about we play this (insert particular band's more popular song)?" no, you dumbass! i requested the less popular song! ¤ ¤ credit: mikey | 06.20.02 at 06:57 PM | link--this ¤ ¤Clear Channel is EVIL, positively evil. Bonneville isn't that far behind. Monopolies weren't a good idea in 1910, they still aren't today, but that is exactly what the big roll up companies have in some markets. I hate the idea that at 7PM sharp, the local DJ gets pre-empted by the national feed, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of what CC and their ilk are really doing- forcing the artists to pay the monopoly to play their records. See this Google search: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Clear+Channel+monopoly ¤ ¤ credit: Harry | 06.20.02 at 07:11 PM | link--this ¤ ¤I agree wholeheartedly - I haven't been listening to music radio for about five or six years now, since I was forced to at a job. A lot of the problem is summed up extremely well in this article: http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/03/14/payola/ Cheers, -this ¤ ¤89X out of Windsor, ONT playes the "Time Warp" every Sunday from 8-12. Its the only time I ever have the radio on. (Not that I like hearing the same 2 old Pixies songs over and over again every week either, but its a start.) XM was looking great until I found out it was owned by Clear Channel. They have a competitor out there, but I'll be damnned if I can remember the name. ¤ ¤ credit: Tam | 06.20.02 at 10:06 PM | link--this ¤ ¤Actually, XM is NOT owned by Clear Channel. Clear Channel IS an investor in the company, along with General Motors and DirectTV. But, it is a traded company, owned by shareholders. ¤ ¤ credit: GE | 06.20.02 at 11:12 PM | link--this ¤ ¤Q92 is the biggest station in my town, who boasts being "Sudbury's Greatest Rock Station". Uh... It's Sudbury's ONLY rock station. And daily, they proclaim to play "new" music from Linkin Park... The same damned song they've been playing for nearly a year now. Other than that we have Z103, which plays a constant loop of Britney Spears and Janet Jackson, and CKLU, the University station, which plays just about everything the other stations don't. So one hour, it could be industrial, the next, big band, the next, Hindu flute music, and after that, a talk show about the environment. I've given up on the radio. My car had a brain fart and lost all of it's radio presets. That was 2 weeks ago, and I have yet to reprogram them. ¤ ¤ credit: Veshka | 06.21.02 at 12:04 AM | link--this ¤ ¤Another possibility for alternative radio is to look up the local colleges and find out what frequencies their radio stations broadcast on. The downside to this is that the range on many college stations isn't always great and sometimes the mix is almost too much - my college station played anything from polka to techno to opera to hardcore, all within the space of about an hour ;) ¤ ¤ credit: ste | 06.21.02 at 12:06 AM | link--this ¤ ¤I guess we got it lucky up here in Lexington. We have not one, but two radio stations that play your kind of alternative. I think they only play Creed or Linkin Park once every 3 days. Otherwise, it's Violent Femmes, Depeche Mode, etc. We also have one of my new faves, an all 80's music station...rock, alternative, etc. ¤ ¤ credit: Sara | 06.21.02 at 01:27 PM | link--this ¤ ¤radio BAD. -this ¤ ¤
URLs that have pinged me for this entry:
All old ping links have been removed from this blog. Die spammers, die!
Psssssst...pass it on!
|
