One of my other interests besides roadgeeking is a love for FM radio - primarily Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary, Soft AC/Standards, Urban/R&B, and Smooth Jazz stations. When I travel, I love to research in advance the FM stations in those destinations that I think I'll want to listen to - and then I'll enjoy listening to them. I'm obsessed with music and the different playlists that stations have. It's fun when I hear an obscure song on the radio that most stations hardly ever play anymore. I get such a kick out of that. I admit I don't really care about AM radio; FM is what I enjoy. I also have SiriusXM radio in my car for the time being, but I try to stay on top of what the FM stations are playing as well.
There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/
Does anyone else share this hobby?
too much talking on FM. also on satellite, except during the night hours. then it kicks ass. all music, no DJs, no commercials.
Satellite wins hands down for me - no need to retune every time you drive out of the transmitter's range. Only problem is finding rental cars that have it without having to pay extra.
I usually listen to XM except for the local traffic reports. XM has a traffic station, but its usefulness declined big-time when they combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta and ran the reports "on the 1s" (local station WNEW-FM also airs theirs "on the 1s"), and I was never as confident in their reports as I was in the local FM reports anyway.
One thing I really like about XM is being able to pick up the Nationals and Capitals games on the radio pretty much anywhere in North America except for the distant north. Yeah, sometimes it's the other team's feed, but at least I can hear the game.
My wife and I have fun thumbing through the FM band, because her mom's music (what she grew up with) fits right in between my dad's music and my sister's music (what I grew up with); more times than not, only one of us will know a song.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 25, 2013, 03:47:03 PM
hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta
:pan:
what a seemingly random mix. why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai?
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on April 25, 2013, 01:51:02 PM
There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/
Does anyone else share this hobby?
Yes! I've been a regular member of that place for at least 6 years or so! :)
I listen to FM mostly in the office at work. In my car I either play CDs or hook my phone into the auxiliary port of the stereo and stream Pandora internet radio. (Yes I have unlimited data.)
Been a satellite radio subscriber since 2005, haven't looked back at FM ever since. Too much talking, ads, and song repetition to go along with limited playlists.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on April 25, 2013, 05:28:59 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 25, 2013, 03:47:03 PM
hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta
:pan:
what a seemingly random mix. why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai?
The traffic/weather channel merges are bad. It was great when I could listen to just Tampa and not have to listen to Miami as well. FWIW, only Los Angeles and N.Y. retained their sole status.
I especially love hearing the jingles on different stations - especially from places away from home. I know most stations are owned by corporate conglomerates, so the individual stations don't often have much say in how they are programmed, but still... I enjoy staying in touch with what the stations are playing.
One of my dream jobs is to be the program director for an FM station. I absolutely love radio. The commercials can be annoying, but I just get a kick out of learning about all sorts of different stations - especially discovering formats like Rhythmic AC, Standards, or Smooth Jazz which are pretty rare anymore.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on April 25, 2013, 05:28:59 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 25, 2013, 03:47:03 PM
hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta
:pan:
what a seemingly random mix. why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai?
No kidding. Adding Baltimore, sure. A lot of people commute between the two, and on a longer-distance trip you'll pass the two within a reasonably short amount of time (unless you hit traffic). But beyond that, if they HAD to add a third, Philadelphia would have made more sense (for the same reason of being somewhat in a logical sequence).
But what had made XM's reports useful was the continuous loop. Didn't matter if you missed the FM reports–XM had one without waiting ten minutes. Not anymore.
I used to find XM reports more useful than FM when I'd travel because they used road numbers instead of local names nobody from outside the area knows. (That also shows a tension in the XM reports–unlike local FM reports, they need to serve more than the commuters.) But what eventually made me lose faith was simply a lot of strange wording and the like that gave me no confidence that the people who wrote the reports knew what they were talking about. (The reporters surely didn't–they were just reading off a screen in Northeast DC.)
Now that the sports-talk (and political-talk) stations have migrated here from AM to FM, I find I don't listen to them as often. Before I'd go "flip-flip-flip" on the FM, then switch over to AM and listen to one or two stations there before going back to FM. Since the talk stations are on FM now, they have two or three seconds to grab my attention before I flip past them.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 08:21:00 AM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on April 25, 2013, 05:28:59 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 25, 2013, 03:47:03 PM
hey combined DC with Baltimore and Atlanta
:pan:
what a seemingly random mix. why not throw in Seattle and perhaps Shanghai?
No kidding. Adding Baltimore, sure. A lot of people commute between the two, and on a longer-distance trip you'll pass the two within a reasonably short amount of time (unless you hit traffic). But beyond that, if they HAD to add a third, Philadelphia would have made more sense (for the same reason of being somewhat in a logical sequence).
I used to listen to the Philly reports all the time. Now, I rarely do. The tri-city reporting sucks, and Philly is pared with Boston and Pittsburgh. Even if I was traveling from one city to another, the 5 hour time distance makes the reports for the other cities useless. Philly-Balt-DC definitely would have made sense.
I'm an XM regular as well. The ironic thing for me is I find I switch stations more often on XM than I ever did on FM, just trying to find a song I want to listen to. Maybe it's because I know I will probably at least find music on every station. But I also think on the XM channels, the type of music any one station plays can greatly vary throughout the day. It still fits the channel's description...there's just a lot of variety that can be included in the description.
Quote from: Alex on April 25, 2013, 10:14:06 PMFWIW, only Los Angeles and N.Y. retained their sole status.
two cities for which the traffic report is made much shorter by listing the roads which
aren't congested.
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on April 25, 2013, 01:51:02 PM
One of my other interests besides roadgeeking is a love for FM radio - primarily Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary, Soft AC/Standards, Urban/R&B, and Smooth Jazz stations. When I travel, I love to research in advance the FM stations in those destinations that I think I'll want to listen to - and then I'll enjoy listening to them. I'm obsessed with music and the different playlists that stations have. It's fun when I hear an obscure song on the radio that most stations hardly ever play anymore. I get such a kick out of that. I admit I don't really care about AM radio; FM is what I enjoy. I also have SiriusXM radio in my car for the time being, but I try to stay on top of what the FM stations are playing as well.
There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/
Does anyone else share this hobby?
No static at all
I wish radio were better. They can not compare to XM as far as variety. The music playlists are the same 20 songs over and over no matter the genre of music. There is so much more available to play. And now the local flavor is gone. The music is programed and they have no local input. The same stations are everywhere. Here in Jacksonville we have Jack FM and there is Jack FM in a number of cities. They just put a little local flair in the announcements. Like "Broadcasting from a dumpy little shack on the other side of the ditch" ( In Jacksonville the Intercoastal Waterway is called the ditch by locals. There are people who live at the beach that have bumper stickers saying " we don't cross the ditch" [don't get me started on that].)
I hear promos for I heart radio... but I cant see having an app to listen to another crappy station from Omaha... Now if they start having good stations in different cities. I could see it being real completion for Pandora/XM. And from what I understand radio had an easier time with rights to play artists.
Radio needs to make some changes to remain viable. 20+ years ago AM went mainly to news/talk/sports and music moved to FM
I love XM, though I also listen to all-news WTOP Radio (D.C.), and sometimes over the net to all-news WCBS in New York and its sister, all-news KNX in L.A.
Wish XM would cut a deal with CBS to allow WCBS and KNX to be on their channels, and that Hubbard (owner of WTOP) would do the same.
Quote from: jwolfer on April 26, 2013, 12:21:07 PMThey can not compare to XM as far as variety. The music playlists are the same 20 songs over and over no matter the genre of music.
even XM has some variety issues, if you listen to a single station for long enough. for example, why does the Boneyard fixate so much on about 20 Led Zeppelin songs, out of their catalog of over 100? this includes staples like Black Dog, Kashmir and The Ocean, and also The Rover, a really nice obscure song that is probably a favorite of a particular Boneyard producer.
but why not Since I've Been Loving You, just as an example I pulled out of thin air of a great Zeppelin song that also fits Boneyard's format (heavy rock, not shy on songs over 7 minutes long). I get the idea that Zeppelin songs are expensive, so they sprung for 20 of them, figuring no one would notice that 80 are missing.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on April 26, 2013, 12:59:17 PM
Quote from: jwolfer on April 26, 2013, 12:21:07 PMThey can not compare to XM as far as variety. The music playlists are the same 20 songs over and over no matter the genre of music.
even XM has some variety issues, if you listen to a single station for long enough. for example, why does the Boneyard fixate so much on about 20 Led Zeppelin songs, out of their catalog of over 100? this includes staples like Black Dog, Kashmir and The Ocean, and also The Rover, a really nice obscure song that is probably a favorite of a particular Boneyard producer.
If I never, ever hear Black Dog again, that won't be soon enough.
AOR ran that track into the ground (along with a lot of other stuff recorded by Zeppelin) in the 1970's and early 1980's.
Quote from: jwolfer on April 26, 2013, 12:21:07 PM
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on April 25, 2013, 01:51:02 PM
One of my other interests besides roadgeeking is a love for FM radio - primarily Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary, Soft AC/Standards, Urban/R&B, and Smooth Jazz stations. When I travel, I love to research in advance the FM stations in those destinations that I think I'll want to listen to - and then I'll enjoy listening to them. I'm obsessed with music and the different playlists that stations have. It's fun when I hear an obscure song on the radio that most stations hardly ever play anymore. I get such a kick out of that. I admit I don't really care about AM radio; FM is what I enjoy. I also have SiriusXM radio in my car for the time being, but I try to stay on top of what the FM stations are playing as well.
There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/
Does anyone else share this hobby?
No static at all
One of more than a few Steely Dan tracks that have become, well, iconic.
Quote from: cpzilliacus on April 26, 2013, 01:36:37 PM
If I never, ever hear Black Dog again, that won't be soon enough.
AOR ran that track into the ground (along with a lot of other stuff recorded by Zeppelin) in the 1970's and early 1980's.
having grown up well past that era... I just can't imagine commercial radio playing so many good songs (not just Zeppelin, but other bands which survive as "classic rock", like the Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, etc etc) in such frequent rotation. I think the last song that got heavy airplay which I really enjoyed was Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", and that's just one song... Zeppelin has maybe 50 songs of that quality, and about 20 of them ended up being FM radio staples.
meanwhile, FM radio of the immediate present is fixated on vapid auto-tune crap. I don't think I've heard a single band break into regular programming with quality track after quality track since approximately Soundgarden's "Superunknown"... which is nowadays considered classic rock.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on April 26, 2013, 02:11:20 PM
Quote from: cpzilliacus on April 26, 2013, 01:36:37 PM
If I never, ever hear Black Dog again, that won't be soon enough.
AOR ran that track into the ground (along with a lot of other stuff recorded by Zeppelin) in the 1970's and early 1980's.
having grown up well past that era... I just can't imagine commercial radio playing so many good songs (not just Zeppelin, but other bands which survive as "classic rock", like the Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, etc etc) in such frequent rotation. I think the last song that got heavy airplay which I really enjoyed was Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", and that's just one song... Zeppelin has maybe 50 songs of that quality, and about 20 of them ended up being FM radio staples.
I once rather liked Led Zeppelin (and according to one story, the name of the band originated with the late Keith Moon, drummer of the Who (by far my favorite band of those that originated in the 1960's)). But after AOR on FM played LZ's tracks from the early and mid-1970's over and over and over again (sometimes the same two or three of their tracks
every hour), I got
really tired of their music (even though they were a very gifted band and much of their catalog was (and is) creative and fun).
While the Led Zeppelin tracks were being repeated into the ground, please consider that album-oriented radio (AOR) programmers (who I grew to dislike with a passion):
(1)
Never aired anything by Jimi Hendrix;
(2) Pink Floyd was limited to a few tracks from
The Wall and (rarely)
Dark Side of the Moon and
Wish You Were Here (I was never especially a fan of Pink Floyd, but they are definitely part of what I consider AOR);
(3) The Doors were rarely heard (perhaps because Jim Morrison died early in the 1970's);
(4) Even the Who (still recording studio albums then) got relatively little airplay; and
(5) Nothing - ever - by Elvis Presley (those
bastards).
Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones (also certain tracks by Mick and the boys were repeated far too much) were quite dominant, along with certain tracks by groups like Supertramp, Rush and Heart.
Even though MTV (which started in 1981) had a positive influence on radio (since it was not under the control of those damned AOR programmers), the excessive repetition continued for a while after that (for one thing, penetration by cable TV was pretty limited in most of the U.S. in the early 1980's), but some acts that would never have had a chance under AOR programming did make it thanks to videos on MTV (even the Who did a video or two on MTV).
Quote from: agentsteel53 on April 26, 2013, 02:11:20 PM
meanwhile, FM radio of the immediate present is fixated on vapid auto-tune crap. I don't think I've heard a single band break into regular programming with quality track after quality track since approximately Soundgarden's "Superunknown"... which is nowadays considered classic rock.
Sad.
EDIT: Added discussion about what aired on AOR in my much younger days.
How about a channel that plays rock and roll - all of it - from Bill Haley & His Comets all the way up to what comes out of the studios now (but no rap, please).
An expanded Jack FM - while flipping the middle finger to those demographic-obsessed radio programmers?
I got utterly sick of Led Zeppelin during my third year of college when one of the guys with whom I shared an apartment (living in University-run housing, so this guy was assigned to join the other three of us who knew each other) turned out to be utterly obsessed with their music and listened to it constantly. He never would have struck you as a Zeppelin fan, either; nerdy-looking soft-spoken guy from Chesapeake, Virginia, with a serious southern drawl, a father who drove a Vista Cruiser (seriously), and a brother they all called "Earl T.".....it sounds like a serious redneck stereotype, I know. This guy played Zeppelin so incessantly that I still have not listened to a single Zeppelin album all the way through even a single time since then, and this fall will be 20 years since I shared an apartment with that guy.
That's not to say I always turn off their music if it comes on the radio. That really depends on what song it is.
In terms of the radio, back in the mid-1990s initially MIX-101.5 was one of the better radio stations in Raleigh, but they branded themselves as "the best mix of the '70s, '80s, and '90s." Only thing was, they never played any of the bands you'd expect to hear from the 1970s–Zeppelin, Boston, the Eagles, the Stones, etc. A few of us complained and they promptly changed it to "the best mix of the '80s, '90s, and today." (What the heck does that even MEAN during the 1990s? How do "the '90s" differ from "today" when the time period is from August 1995 to May 1998?) Their playlist became the standard "MIX" crap–constant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song, and a few other things repeated endlessly ad nauseam. Ugh. The funny thing is, since then it seems like every damn radio station with "MIX-" in the name plays all that same stuff as though it were still up-to-date and popular. As I say, ugh.
I've taken a real liking to the E Street Radio channel on XM partly because I love Springsteen (on my iPod, 1,657 of a total 6,651 tracks are Springsteen, for 38.75 GB out of a total 86.10 GB) but also because they play some Springsteen-influenced or -related stuff. The occasional "Cover Me" show where they play other artists' covers of Springsteen songs can be a good way to find some new music.
^^ Never heard a MIX station like that. We have a station called "The Mix" - WTMX 101.9 FM here in Chicago, but they are mostly newer music (2000s and 2010s).
I find I listen to Sirius XM mostly when I'm out of the Chicago area. Sirius XM is on-par or slightly below, in some cases, to the local stations (AM and FM). This may sound a bit snobbish, but most radio away from Chicago sucks IMHO, and I can't stand most of the syndicated hosts. Give me the local ones instead!
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PMconstant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song
yep, that's basically what turned me off of radio in the mid-late 90s. that and Matchbox 20, who are just about the most terrible band ever.
sad, because Rob Thomas is really quite talented... the song he did with Santana is excellent. but his main project is miserable and angsty and somehow avoids spectacularly all that is cool about being miserable and angsty (see: Nirvana, who really were a great band, worthy of all the hype).
Quote
sad, because Rob Thomas is really quite talented... the song he did with Santana is excellent.
But overplayed even to this day. If I could never hear it again, I wouldn't complain. It's a good song, but I think I've heard it at least a thousand times (not exaggerating) since it came out in the late 90s.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
I got utterly sick of Led Zeppelin during my third year of college when one of the guys with whom I shared an apartment (living in University-run housing, so this guy was assigned to join the other three of us who knew each other) turned out to be utterly obsessed with their music and listened to it constantly. He never would have struck you as a Zeppelin fan, either; nerdy-looking soft-spoken guy from Chesapeake, Virginia, with a serious southern drawl, a father who drove a Vista Cruiser (seriously), and a brother they all called "Earl T.".....it sounds like a serious redneck stereotype, I know. This guy played Zeppelin so incessantly that I still have not listened to a single Zeppelin album all the way through even a single time since then, and this fall will be 20 years since I shared an apartment with that guy.
Nerds love Zeppelin. All those Tolkien-esque lyrics. Shit yeah.
No radio station can match the variety one can create with one's own library. A few thousand MP3's taken from all my favorite genres and a media player set on shuffle wins. No changing stations, no bad reception, no ads (well except a few of those old Bud Light "Real American Heroes"), no bills to pay and all the variety a randomizing algorithm can provide.
Digression:
How can such a shitty beer have such great commercials? Bud has been churning out great ads for their piss water for like 20 years now. They're not all winners, but if there's a hilarious light beer commercial, it'll be for Bud. Damn them.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
I got utterly sick of Led Zeppelin during my third year of college when one of the guys with whom I shared an apartment (living in University-run housing, so this guy was assigned to join the other three of us who knew each other) turned out to be utterly obsessed with their music and listened to it constantly. He never would have struck you as a Zeppelin fan, either; nerdy-looking soft-spoken guy from Chesapeake, Virginia, with a serious southern drawl, a father who drove a Vista Cruiser (seriously), and a brother they all called "Earl T.".....it sounds like a serious redneck stereotype, I know. This guy played Zeppelin so incessantly that I still have not listened to a single Zeppelin album all the way through even a single time since then, and this fall will be 20 years since I shared an apartment with that guy.
It was the AOR programmers that tired me (probably permanently) of Led Zeppelin, though I suspect that living with someone that hung-up on the band would do the trick as well.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
That's not to say I always turn off their music if it comes on the radio. That really depends on what song it is.
Black Dog will result in an immediate station change if I have command of the radio.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
In terms of the radio, back in the mid-1990s initially MIX-101.5 was one of the better radio stations in Raleigh, but they branded themselves as "the best mix of the '70s, '80s, and '90s." Only thing was, they never played any of the bands you'd expect to hear from the 1970s–Zeppelin, Boston, the Eagles, the Stones, etc. A few of us complained and they promptly changed it to "the best mix of the '80s, '90s, and today." (What the heck does that even MEAN during the 1990s? How do "the '90s" differ from "today" when the time period is from August 1995 to May 1998?) Their playlist became the standard "MIX" crap–constant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song, and a few other things repeated endlessly ad nauseam. Ugh. The funny thing is, since then it seems like every damn radio station with "MIX-" in the name plays all that same stuff as though it were still up-to-date and popular. As I say, ugh.
I never lived in North Carolina, so I cannot say for sure, but I think that station was once programmed by the same crowd that did the playlists for WRQX (Q-107) in the Washington, D.C. market. Would hear it on I-95 while crossing most of North Carolina in the days before satellite radio.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
I've taken a real liking to the E Street Radio channel on XM partly because I love Springsteen (on my iPod, 1,657 of a total 6,651 tracks are Springsteen, for 38.75 GB out of a total 86.10 GB) but also because they play some Springsteen-influenced or -related stuff. The occasional "Cover Me" show where they play other artists' covers of Springsteen songs can be a good way to find some new music.
Not that much of a Springsteen fan (I don't especially like "Born to Run," perhaps because of excessive airplay), but he recorded a track at about the same that is one of my
absolute favorite rock and roll standards of all time - Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).
Still on FM here.
Some DJs suck, but I love to hear knowledgable and interesting DJs.
I don't mind having to change channels as they get out of range. It lets me hear local radio on road trips and I like that. Forces me to discover new stuff, and I even like to hear the local ads and traffic reports. It's interesting.
And yes, XM does have the same repetition issues as public radio stations, so unless I can find a station that continuously airs those odd prog rock songs everyone's forgotten, I'm very unlikely to pay just to get better reception and less ads for something I'm only going to listen to in my car.
I also have a serious problem with certain car manufacturers phasing out AM/FM two years from now...
I like driving places and finding any local programming. "Community" (amateur) radio amuses me, when I can find such a station. Really obscure eclectic soundtracks, the local high school football game, the off-beat call-in show, etc. I am not as much a fan of the homogenization of FM/AM radio.
If on a good road trip, once an hour or so, I'll hit the scan button to find out what's out there. But these days I always have audio books and music CDs/mp3s as my back up.
Quote from: Dr Frankenstein on April 26, 2013, 09:22:46 PM
I also have a serious problem with certain car manufacturers phasing out AM/FM two years from now...
I do too. That really pisses me off. However, I think what will happen is that cars will still offer AM/FM - maybe not as a standard option but as something extra.
Listening to local radio is one of the most fun parts of driving through a new place, particularly if I can't get out of the car- it's a great way to glean information about the local culture, particularly if you can get a live church broadcast from a local church on a Sunday morning.
I never travel with CDs (used to), satellite radio, etc. I rely on FM stations, and if I can't find anything in the rock/alt genre, I'll take whatever's close (country, typically). Now, this upcoming trip may change that, since I'll be up in Northwest Territories - the radio selection is going to be sparse...
Quote from: Steve on April 27, 2013, 03:08:37 AM
I never travel with CDs (used to), satellite radio, etc. I rely on FM stations, and if I can't find anything in the rock/alt genre, I'll take whatever's close (country, typically). Now, this upcoming trip may change that, since I'll be up in Northwest Territories - the radio selection is going to be sparse...
Satellite radio apparently works pretty far north, according to this map (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f13/what-are-the-geographic-limits-of-sirius-xm-radio-reception-50700.html).
Quote from: cpzilliacus on April 27, 2013, 12:55:46 PMSatellite radio apparently works pretty far north, according to this map (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f13/what-are-the-geographic-limits-of-sirius-xm-radio-reception-50700.html).
A pity it doesn't go a few thousand miles further east :ded:
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 26, 2013, 05:25:00 PM
No radio station can match the variety one can create with one's own library. A few thousand MP3's taken from all my favorite genres and a media player set on shuffle wins. No changing stations, no bad reception, no ads (well except a few of those old Bud Light "Real American Heroes"), no bills to pay and all the variety a randomizing algorithm can provide.
Digression:
How can such a shitty beer have such great commercials? Bud has been churning out great ads for their piss water for like 20 years now. They're not all winners, but if there's a hilarious light beer commercial, it'll be for Bud. Damn them.
what about the Miller Lite radio spots with "Dick"? :-D
Anyways, over much of the past two weeks, I've been dubbing a shit ton of cassettes to my laptop, changing them over to MP3 files. Then they can either go onto a little player, should I decide to buy one. I also have the option to transfer that to CD-R discs. Why am I doing all of this? Simple: Durability and freeing up some shelf space. Some of the cassettes went back to 1987! Talk about "quality"! Ha ha! :-P
It was so fun to listen to all the old station IDs and airchecks I made from WTIC-FM 96.5 of Hartford, CT. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, they were
96 TIC-FM, the top-rated station in the Hartford/New Britain/Middletown radio market. The top-of-hour IDs were done by the late Ernie Anderson, a.k.a. the "Golden Throat" voice you always heard on ABC television in the 1980s. SIGH! Locally owned stations, before the era of CBS and Clear Channel owning almost everything. :-/
Quote from: cpzilliacus on April 27, 2013, 12:55:46 PM
Quote from: Steve on April 27, 2013, 03:08:37 AM
I never travel with CDs (used to), satellite radio, etc. I rely on FM stations, and if I can't find anything in the rock/alt genre, I'll take whatever's close (country, typically). Now, this upcoming trip may change that, since I'll be up in Northwest Territories - the radio selection is going to be sparse...
Satellite radio apparently works pretty far north, according to this map (http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f13/what-are-the-geographic-limits-of-sirius-xm-radio-reception-50700.html).
I've taken my XM-equipped car up to Cape Breton Island and the only problem I had there was that heavily-treed areas and mountains (in the Highlands) were more likely to interfere with the signal than is the case in the 48 states.
Car and Driver reported that the signal became intermittent about halfway up the Dempster Highway en route to Tuktoyaktuk.
Quote from: US81
....
If on a good road trip, once an hour or so, I'll hit the scan button to find out what's out there. But these days I always have audio books and music CDs/mp3s as my back up.
My Acura plays DVD-Audio discs. I have software to burn my own such discs and it's a great way to carry huge volumes of
uncompressed music on fewer discs. On average I can fit about six CDs worth of stuff on one DVD, meaning I have the equivalent of 36 CDs in there at a time. Obviously the number varies–more Beatles albums will fit on one DVD than Springsteen albums, for example, because the Beatles' albums are shorter.
I know some people talk about .mp3, but I don't like to use lossy compression if I don't need to do so. (If a concert bootleg is available only in .mp3, that's better than nothing, of course.)
I have found satellite radio to be good on long distance travels. You do not have to search for radio stations each time you enter a new market. Few years ago, I did a road trip from Indianapolis to Sault Ste. Marie, MI and was able to listen to the same station all the way. Then this past year going from Houston to Houma, then north to Texarkana and west to Dallas to head back to Houston, I had the same radio channel on the whole time.
The only drawbacks, are when traveling under long underpasses and tunnels, but its only a small price to pay. After all FM radio is sacrificed in the NYC tunnels, so all cannot be perfect. However, I am glad to hear the old WPLJ and WNEW air talent on stations like Deep Cuts as I was raised on those two stations living in North Jersey back in the 1980's. Veterans like Pat St. John, and Carol Miller have shows on the Sirus system and even Earl Bailey and Dan Near as well as old MTV talent (back when MTV actually played videos) like Alan Hunter and so on.
Locally, Sirus does not pay unless you like Howard Stern or gets a kick out of hearing women do lewd things on the radio. To me Howard Stern does not do anything for me, so I can afford not to subscribe.
Quote from: roadman65 on April 27, 2013, 03:05:50 PM
Locally, Sirus does not pay unless you like Howard Stern or gets a kick out of hearing women do lewd things on the radio. To me Howard Stern does not do anything for me, so I can afford not to subscribe.
Howard Stern was funny when he first started on Washington D.C.'s WWDC-FM (DC 101) in the early 1980's, but his routine (at least in my opinion) quickly became repetitive and boring, and I listened to something else.
I am a satisfied SiriusXM customer, but I don't see any need to pay extra to listen to Stern.
Quote from: jwolfer on April 26, 2013, 12:21:07 PM
I hear promos for I heart radio... but I cant see having an app to listen to another crappy station from Omaha...
You wouldn't believe how crappy the radio stations in Omaha are. I went through the trouble of getting XM radio installed in my car to avoid it, except now that it's broken and I'm looking for a new car, I'm cursed with having to listen to all the boring repetition again. And the one true rock station, instead of playing music at night, will repeat it's morning show, not that it's anything special.
Quote from: DandyDan on April 28, 2013, 05:26:24 PM
Quote from: jwolfer on April 26, 2013, 12:21:07 PM
I hear promos for I heart radio... but I cant see having an app to listen to another crappy station from Omaha...
You wouldn't believe how crappy the radio stations in Omaha are. I went through the trouble of getting XM radio installed in my car to avoid it, except now that it's broken and I'm looking for a new car, I'm cursed with having to listen to all the boring repetition again. And the one true rock station, instead of playing music at night, will repeat it's morning show, not that it's anything special.
Did your XM radio "break" by starting to "forget" that it is associated with a paid-up account?
If yes, you may be able to get the defective component replaced by SiriusXM at little or no cost.
Quote from: cpzilliacus on April 28, 2013, 09:56:24 PM
Quote from: DandyDan on April 28, 2013, 05:26:24 PM
Quote from: jwolfer on April 26, 2013, 12:21:07 PM
I hear promos for I heart radio... but I cant see having an app to listen to another crappy station from Omaha...
You wouldn't believe how crappy the radio stations in Omaha are. I went through the trouble of getting XM radio installed in my car to avoid it, except now that it's broken and I'm looking for a new car, I'm cursed with having to listen to all the boring repetition again. And the one true rock station, instead of playing music at night, will repeat it's morning show, not that it's anything special.
Did your XM radio "break" by starting to "forget" that it is associated with a paid-up account?
If yes, you may be able to get the defective component replaced by SiriusXM at little or no cost.
I had it "break" the connection with SiriusXM last week. I am up to date on payments so I made a call to customer service. They had to reset the connection. Once done, it was "unbroken" and reconnected to the service.
Quote from: Brandon on April 28, 2013, 10:10:56 PM
I had it "break" the connection with SiriusXM last week. I am up to date on payments so I made a call to customer service. They had to reset the connection. Once done, it was "unbroken" and reconnected to the service.
Mine started doing that every time I shut the engine off. It's an Alpine radio, which had worked flawlessly for well over a year. I could call them to reset, but it "forgot" the reset every time.
SiriusXM sent me different receiver part, which was swapped-out at no charge to me.
Now it works fine again.
Funny, the Sirius tuner in my car seems to forget that I don't have a subscription and work anyway. I wonder who is paying the bill?
Quote from: cpzilliacus on April 26, 2013, 09:07:33 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
I got utterly sick of Led Zeppelin during my third year of college when one of the guys with whom I shared an apartment (living in University-run housing, so this guy was assigned to join the other three of us who knew each other) turned out to be utterly obsessed with their music and listened to it constantly. He never would have struck you as a Zeppelin fan, either; nerdy-looking soft-spoken guy from Chesapeake, Virginia, with a serious southern drawl, a father who drove a Vista Cruiser (seriously), and a brother they all called "Earl T.".....it sounds like a serious redneck stereotype, I know. This guy played Zeppelin so incessantly that I still have not listened to a single Zeppelin album all the way through even a single time since then, and this fall will be 20 years since I shared an apartment with that guy.
It was the AOR programmers that tired me (probably permanently) of Led Zeppelin, though I suspect that living with someone that hung-up on the band would do the trick as well.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
That's not to say I always turn off their music if it comes on the radio. That really depends on what song it is.
Black Dog will result in an immediate station change if I have command of the radio.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
In terms of the radio, back in the mid-1990s initially MIX-101.5 was one of the better radio stations in Raleigh, but they branded themselves as "the best mix of the '70s, '80s, and '90s." Only thing was, they never played any of the bands you'd expect to hear from the 1970s–Zeppelin, Boston, the Eagles, the Stones, etc. A few of us complained and they promptly changed it to "the best mix of the '80s, '90s, and today." (What the heck does that even MEAN during the 1990s? How do "the '90s" differ from "today" when the time period is from August 1995 to May 1998?) Their playlist became the standard "MIX" crap–constant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song, and a few other things repeated endlessly ad nauseam. Ugh. The funny thing is, since then it seems like every damn radio station with "MIX-" in the name plays all that same stuff as though it were still up-to-date and popular. As I say, ugh.
I never lived in North Carolina, so I cannot say for sure, but I think that station was once programmed by the same crowd that did the playlists for WRQX (Q-107) in the Washington, D.C. market. Would hear it on I-95 while crossing most of North Carolina in the days before satellite radio.
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
I've taken a real liking to the E Street Radio channel on XM partly because I love Springsteen (on my iPod, 1,657 of a total 6,651 tracks are Springsteen, for 38.75 GB out of a total 86.10 GB) but also because they play some Springsteen-influenced or -related stuff. The occasional "Cover Me" show where they play other artists' covers of Springsteen songs can be a good way to find some new music.
Not that much of a Springsteen fan (I don't especially like "Born to Run," perhaps because of excessive airplay), but he recorded a track at about the same that is one of my absolute favorite rock and roll standards of all time - Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).
I understand being sick of "Born to Run" the song, but on the album "Born to Run", I never get sick of Backstreets and Thunder Road. (which just happen to have road references and metaphors)
Quote from: kendancy66 on April 29, 2013, 01:05:28 AM
I understand being sick of "Born to Run" the song, but on the album "Born to Run", I never get sick of Backstreets and Thunder Road. (which just happen to have road references and metaphors)
In 1983, Billy Idol released his Rebel Yell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Yell_%28album%29) disc, which included a track entitled "Blue Highway." One of my favorite "highway" songs.
Quote from: NJRoadfan on April 28, 2013, 11:27:08 PM
Funny, the Sirius tuner in my car seems to forget that I don't have a subscription and work anyway. I wonder who is paying the bill?
I had the same thing happen to me in my car. I had the radio swapped out when I bought it because some of the tuner buttons wouldn't work. I had free Sirius/XM for a little over 2 years! They recently sent me mail stating I have a 3-month free trial window, but I cannot get my radio to activate with either the original radio code or with the current radio's code.
Quote from: DandyDan on April 28, 2013, 05:26:24 PM
And the one true rock station, instead of playing music at night, will repeat it's morning show, not that it's anything special.
Morning shows are probably the worst thing about FM radio. Maybe one song is played every fifteen minutes, and the rest is generally two clowns trying to be funny by prattling on about dumb shit. The national "Bob and Tom" show is one of the worst offenders; it's 25% immature observations about things like breasts and 75% these guys guffawing about it. And pretty much every station has one of these, for some unknown reason. What is it about the morning time that makes programming executives think "Okay, people want
this kind of programming, not what we do the rest of the day"?
Since I have to listen to people talking, I end up putting it on Morning Edition so at least I learn something from it.
Quote from: Scott5114 on May 06, 2013, 01:53:34 PM
Quote from: DandyDan on April 28, 2013, 05:26:24 PM
And the one true rock station, instead of playing music at night, will repeat it's morning show, not that it's anything special.
Morning shows are probably the worst thing about FM radio. Maybe one song is played every fifteen minutes, and the rest is generally two clowns trying to be funny by prattling on about dumb shit. The national "Bob and Tom" show is one of the worst offenders; it's 25% immature observations about things like breasts and 75% these guys guffawing about it. And pretty much every station has one of these, for some unknown reason. What is it about the morning time that makes programming executives think "Okay, people want this kind of programming, not what we do the rest of the day"?
I've often wondered the same thing. As much as I enjoy listening to FM radio, I just want to hear music in the mornings - not talk. That's one of the times when I usually switch to SiriusXM (I have a temporary 6-month subscription that I paid $28 for).
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on April 25, 2013, 01:51:02 PM
There's a radio discussion forum that I actively participate in: http://www.radiodiscussions.com/smf/
Does anyone else share this hobby?
I just joined that one not too long ago.
Quote from: cpzilliacus on April 26, 2013, 03:34:28 PM
How about a channel that plays rock and roll - all of it - from Bill Haley & His Comets all the way up to what comes out of the studios now (but no rap, please).
An expanded Jack FM - while flipping the middle finger to those demographic-obsessed radio programmers?
This might come fairly close to your standards: www.kcdx.com
This is a little station out of Florence, Arizona that plays all kinds of stuff; I've heard everything from Little Richard to U2 on this station. Every now and then, they'll throw in a segue that will throw you into a tizzy: they'll play a slow, mellow Billy Joel or Chicago ballad one song, and the next might be something by AC/DC or Foghat. (Once I heard the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and the next song was "Turn Up the Radio" by the obscure 1980s hair metal band Autograph.)
I love radio! I also don't listen to CDs when traveling by myself. At the same time, I also hate what's happened to the medium with all of the consolidation that's led to corporatized playlists and automation. Bring back more live and local radio!
When I travel, I usually listen to a combination of four things: local FM radio stations, SiriusXM, some CDs I bring, and silence. I have a CD collection that contains well over 500 CDs, and I always have several of them on hand when I travel. Between radio markets of any significance, I'll usually listen to the CDs or my favorite SiriusXM stations: '80s on 8, '90s on 9, The Pulse, Z100/New York, WLTW/New York, Pop 2K, The Blend, Love, BPM, Electric Area, and Watercolors. As I enter radio markets and their suburban areas, I'll usually switch from SiriusXM to FM. Before I leave home, I always research the radio markets in advance to see what stations I will want to listen to... various formats, CHR (Top 40), Mainstream Adult Contemporary, Hot Adult Contemporary, Rhythmic Adult Contemporary, Variety Hits, Adult Hits, Classic Hits, Contemporary Christian, or Smooth Jazz (not like Smooth Jazz is around much anymore, but still).
When I'm close to home, I will usually switch back and forth between SiriusXM and FM. I don't like to lose touch with what my local market's stations are playing - even if they are corporate owned and don't have much local flavor (other than a few live DJs who have no say in what's being played).
I love SiriusXM and have been on a kick lately of listening to the electronic dance music stations (BPM and Electric Area), but the playlists on all the SiriusXM stations seem to be shrinking. I'm starting to hear many of the same songs again and again, so it's starting to have the same problem that FM is having. However, the good thing about SiriusXM is that they often play obscure songs/artists that no FM station will touch anymore.
Regarding FM radio, another thing I LOVE to do is stream radio stations from other locations. There are some incredible FM stations that play rare music that very few (if any) other FM stations will play. For instance, there's a Supersoft AC station out of Miami that I always stream at work: Easy 93.1 (www.easy93.com) . I particularly enjoy listening to soft music at work because it keeps me sane. Another station I just discovered is a classic pop/CHR station (focusing on a lot of pop hits from the '80s, '90s, and '00s) out of Reno NV. Here's their website: www.1063popfm.com
What formats or genres of music does everyone else like?
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on May 08, 2013, 10:00:08 AM
and silence
Actually, this is how we spend most of our time on long trips–no music at all, and very little conversation. We just don't seem to have a constant need for sound to keep us going. I know there are others out there who would go nuts like that, though.
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on May 08, 2013, 10:00:08 AMI particularly enjoy listening to soft music at work because it keeps me sane.
the problem with FM radio, which manifests itself extra jarringly for soft rock, is that the commercials are always extra loud and in-your-face. there's something unpleasant about following a block of songs, all with a particular volume and mood, with "J. D. PIGSHIT VOLVO TOYOTA FORD NISSAN STUDEBAKER FOREMAN GRILL WANTS TO SHOVE A BRAND NEW INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER INTO YOUR PIEHOLE RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!!!!!!"
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 08, 2013, 11:14:05 AM
J. D. PIGSHIT VOLVO TOYOTA FORD NISSAN STUDEBAKER FOREMAN GRILL WANTS TO SHOVE A BRAND NEW INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER INTO YOUR PIEHOLE RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!!!!!!
LOL very much hard
Quote from: kphoger on May 08, 2013, 10:52:21 AM
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on May 08, 2013, 10:00:08 AM
and silence
Actually, this is how we spend most of our time on long tripsno music at all, and very little conversation. We just don't seem to have a constant need for sound to keep us going. I know there are others out there who would go nuts like that, though.
Yep. Sometimes it is very nice to drive in silence and just enjoy the scenery of the roads while being able to just listen to yourself think. It's never a bad thing to simply be alone with your thoughts for a while. :)
The deaths of the following formats stand out:
Album-oriented rock: a mix of stuff from about 1966 to present, and not just the singles. Yes, mostly guitar-based and mostly white. Much of the great R+B/funk from the '70s had to be discovered independently. AOR seemed to die circa 1985-87 when the classic acts released a bunch of disappointing to terrible albums (Heart, Rush, Yes, Genesis) and late '80s tropes took over
Top 40 pop that had something for everyone. In the '70s, you'd have a ballad, followed by country, followed by Steely Dan, then a disco song, then Van Halen, then Skynyrd, ... If you didn't like the current song, you probably wouldn't mind the next one. Now there's much more of a monoculture of Woooo wooo party dance girl tonight mix jam. If you don't like the current song on Party 99 you probably won't like 99% of them.
Citation: Top 100 songs of 1978 (http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1978). There's a lot of disco. But there's also Clapton, Stones, Wings, Queen, Carly Simon...
I was born & raised in the days of old-school radio, when music was still heard widely on AM radio. I went to college for radio broadcasting and I could go on and on to what's wrong with radio today and what most of the big radio conglomerates should do if they want to improve their ratings and to make a boatload of money. This refers specifically to non-current music genres of today (AOR, Classic Hits, Oldies,...).
1) Bring back the personalities and give them the free rein of their shows & music playlists -- Why do people choose Letterman over Leno over Kimmel over Conan...? The same guests appear on all the late night shows over time talking up the same movies, shows or things going on in their lives. So why is one show better than the other? Because of the PERSONALITY and the little original creative things each of them do on their shows. It's not about the guests, it's about the show. If they bring your ratings down on a regular basis, then you get rid of them. Which brings me to my next point.
2) Be different than ALL your competitors -- whether they are in the same town or elsewhere. You don't need to force feed us the same Mix, Jack, Magic or Kool format & playlist down our throats every 50 miles along the interstate. It's nice to know that there is a McDonalds in every town if you want the same food every meal, but the restaurants that most people talk about in each town and spend more time at are the one-of-a-kinds who have a specialty that no other restaurant has -- whether it's the menu items, decor, presentation, or staff. If your station wants more "sit down" listeners than quick drive-thrus, you have to be different and creative, else you go out of business.
3) Play everything in your genre. If you are an oldies/classic hits station, for example and your range of music years goes 25 years wide, then play ALL the music from those years (FACT: According to Billboard, there were over 13,000 top 100 charted songs from 1955-1979. All of those songs were in a heavy rotation at one time or another on a top-40 station in your town at one time or another. Throw in a few thousand more songs that weren't Billboard hits, but rather regional or local hits only and you now have 15,000 songs to play with. Yet out of these 15,000 songs, they play only 300 of them???
4) Rotate the songs in and out of your playlist to avoid burnout. You can probably name 10 songs right off the top of your head that are played ad nauseum on your local stations (Brown Eyed Girl, Monday Monday, Jack & Diane,...) One way to avoid burning non-top 40 songs to a crisp is to give them a rest after a couple of months. One idea: Use the old Billboard charts as reference! If an Eagles song first hit the charts in the spring of 1977 for 13 weeks, then play it in a regular rotation for that long this spring, play it half as much in the summer & fall, then not at all over the winter. Now you have just avoided overplaying of the song while keeping the playlist always fresh and different from week to week!
5) Daypart your music -- Match the music with the time of day or where the person may be. Many of the stations I listened to back in the day would play certain hits during certain times of the day....Why? Because back in the day a top 40 chart would see Aerosmith and Debby Boone and Dolly Parton. Waking up to Aerosmith may not be the best time to play it, but then I don't want to be coming out of work on a Friday at 5PM either all hyped and then I turn my car on and hear "You Light Up My Life" to kick off my weekend. Match the music to the place where the majority of your listeners are: Bright, uptempo, not-too hard music in the morning, easier "boss will let you listen to it at work" music in the afternoon, harder more upbeat music in the evening and a slow transition back to the morning mood overnight.
6) EVERY station is your competition. Back in the day, one company owned, at most, ONE AM and ONE FM station. You did everything you could to get as much of that ratings pie as possible every day. Nowadays, these big conglomerates don't care as much -- just as long as the total ratings of all FIVE of their stations is bigger than the total of all FIVE of their conglomerate competitor's stations. Plus there is now usually one salesperson/promotions person/program director for most, if not all of their 5 stations, so they have to treat them equally and fairly. Plus, since they now handle five stations, they don't have time to be creative anymore, which goes back to point #1.
Never talk down to your audience Jack FM radio formats boast, "We play what WE want to play". But does that mean that's also what your listeners want to hear? --Nuff Said.
That are just some of the reasons why radio is such a toxic cesspool that it is. If there is a struggling radio station or two out there who would like me to put these ideas into motion, sign me up to a 4-year contract at $60,000 a year minimum and I will turn your station around. :D
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 01:34:09 PMWaking up to Aerosmith may not be the best time to play it, but then I don't want to be coming out of work on a Friday at 5PM either all hyped and then I turn my car on and hear "You Light Up My Life" to kick off my weekend. Match the music to the place where the majority of your listeners are: Bright, uptempo, not-too hard music in the morning, easier "boss will let you listen to it at work" music in the afternoon, harder more upbeat music in the evening and a slow transition back to the morning mood overnight.
interesting that I'd switch the two. I'd want some Aerosmith or what have you to get me going in the morning, and then on the drive home and when I'm ready to go out, some P-Funk.
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 01:34:09 PM
Never talk down to your audience Jack FM radio formats boast, "We play what WE want to play". But does that mean that's also what your listeners want to hear? --Nuff Said.
Actually, that's what draws me to stations like that. In my head, I used to imagine a DJ alone in a small building, pulling out his favorite records and playing tracks from them; the survival of his station depended on how many people wanted to hear the music he played. Hearing a slogan like "We play what WE want to play" takes me back to that kind of image. It lets me imagine I might actually hear a song that 624 other radio stations aren't already playing.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 08, 2013, 01:54:20 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 01:34:09 PMWaking up to Aerosmith may not be the best time to play it, but then I don't want to be coming out of work on a Friday at 5PM either all hyped and then I turn my car on and hear "You Light Up My Life" to kick off my weekend. Match the music to the place where the majority of your listeners are: Bright, uptempo, not-too hard music in the morning, easier "boss will let you listen to it at work" music in the afternoon, harder more upbeat music in the evening and a slow transition back to the morning mood overnight.
interesting that I'd switch the two. I'd want some Aerosmith or what have you to get me going in the morning, and then on the drive home and when I'm ready to go out, some P-Funk.
Likewise. If the music is quiet and soothing, then I'm never going to get out of bed. In fact, the more loud and obnoxious the music, the more likely I am to get up and turn the darned thing off. :)
Quote from: kphoger on May 08, 2013, 02:11:04 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 01:34:09 PM
Never talk down to your audience Jack FM radio formats boast, "We play what WE want to play". But does that mean that's also what your listeners want to hear? --Nuff Said.
Actually, that's what draws me to stations like that. In my head, I used to imagine a DJ alone in a small building, pulling out his favorite records and playing tracks from them; the survival of his station depended on how many people wanted to hear the music he played. Hearing a slogan like "We play what WE want to play" takes me back to that kind of image. It lets me imagine I might actually hear a song that 624 other radio stations aren't already playing.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 08, 2013, 01:54:20 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 01:34:09 PMWaking up to Aerosmith may not be the best time to play it, but then I don't want to be coming out of work on a Friday at 5PM either all hyped and then I turn my car on and hear "You Light Up My Life" to kick off my weekend. Match the music to the place where the majority of your listeners are: Bright, uptempo, not-too hard music in the morning, easier "boss will let you listen to it at work" music in the afternoon, harder more upbeat music in the evening and a slow transition back to the morning mood overnight.
interesting that I'd switch the two. I'd want some Aerosmith or what have you to get me going in the morning, and then on the drive home and when I'm ready to go out, some P-Funk.
Likewise. If the music is quiet and soothing, then I'm never going to get out of bed. In fact, the more loud and obnoxious the music, the more likely I am to get up and turn the darned thing off. :)
I was thinking of more the Classic Hits/Oldies format than an AOR/Hard Rock station which is more of a hard & heavy 24/7. The latter type of station doesn't need/can't do much day-parting. I'm talking formats that at one time used to play both ends of the tempo spectrum on a regular basis.
And besides, even back in the day, even your top 40 stations that played some "familiar, peppy" tunes didn't play much in AM drive -- most did traffic & weather every 15-20 minutes, 5-minute news & 2-minute sportscasts twice and hour, a couple of extended DJ patters per hour. Then add in about 8-10 minutes of commercials per hour and you already ate up close to 45 minutes of air time...Just enough time to get maybe 5-7 songs in per hour at most.
As far as the "We Play What WE want to play" moniker, I still consider "We" as the corporate suits in some far off home office who don't give a rat's arse as to the specific music that gave that particular city their own sound. No matter how you slice it, it's still the exact same 300 "safe songs" plus maybe 150 more that all Jack FM stations play from coast to coast out of how many THOUSANDS of equally good tracks from the exact same years??
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 04:24:32 PM
And besides, even back in the day, even your top 40 stations that played some "familiar, peppy" tunes didn't play much in AM drive -- most did traffic & weather every 15-20 minutes, 5-minute news & 2-minute sportscasts twice and hour, a couple of extended DJ patters per hour. Then add in about 8-10 minutes of commercials per hour and you already ate up close to 45 minutes of air time...Just enough time to get maybe 5-7 songs in per hour at most.
that sounds terrifying. I'd have installed a Victrola in my Hudson!
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 01:34:09 PM
5) Daypart your music -- Match the music with the time of day or where the person may be. Many of the stations I listened to back in the day would play certain hits during certain times of the day....Why? Because back in the day a top 40 chart would see Aerosmith and Debby Boone and Dolly Parton. Waking up to Aerosmith may not be the best time to play it, but then I don't want to be coming out of work on a Friday at 5PM either all hyped and then I turn my car on and hear "You Light Up My Life" to kick off my weekend. Match the music to the place where the majority of your listeners are: Bright, uptempo, not-too hard music in the morning, easier "boss will let you listen to it at work" music in the afternoon, harder more upbeat music in the evening and a slow transition back to the morning mood overnight.
Plenty of those who would be radio listeners (or were listeners back in the days before mp3 players) are working odd shifts or maybe using the radio to help be alert staying up at night. It was always nice to have different formats that could be sampled at any time of day and be "what was needed" - eg, classical for that brief nap you might get, hard rock for waking up after, interesting (not polarized political) news talk for the drive, etc. Still out there, harder to find in some markets, although streaming can often fill the gap.
Quote from: US81 on May 08, 2013, 05:19:13 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on May 08, 2013, 01:34:09 PM
5) Daypart your music -- Match the music with the time of day or where the person may be. Many of the stations I listened to back in the day would play certain hits during certain times of the day....Why? Because back in the day a top 40 chart would see Aerosmith and Debby Boone and Dolly Parton. Waking up to Aerosmith may not be the best time to play it, but then I don't want to be coming out of work on a Friday at 5PM either all hyped and then I turn my car on and hear "You Light Up My Life" to kick off my weekend. Match the music to the place where the majority of your listeners are: Bright, uptempo, not-too hard music in the morning, easier "boss will let you listen to it at work" music in the afternoon, harder more upbeat music in the evening and a slow transition back to the morning mood overnight.
Plenty of those who would be radio listeners (or were listeners back in the days before mp3 players) are working odd shifts or maybe using the radio to help be alert staying up at night. It was always nice to have different formats that could be sampled at any time of day and be "what was needed" - eg, classical for that brief nap you might get, hard rock for waking up after, interesting (not polarized political) news talk for the drive, etc. Still out there, harder to find in some markets, although streaming can often fill the gap.
For a while, public radio played techno in the evenings in central Kansas. I typically don't like techno, but it worked well for keeping me awake on the road after dark.
I personally agree with a lot of the points made about the narrow playlists, inability to tell one station in one city from another in another city, etc. I especially agree with the McDonald's analogy.
But if there was truly such a clamoring for stations with more diverse playlists of both songs and genres, wouldn't they already exist? If corporate radio thought such a thing would bring revenue and listeners, they'd have already done it in all the major markets.
I live in the second largest media market in the country, one of the music and entertainment centers of the world, with millions and millions of incredibly diverse listeners. Yet somehow, all of the Top 40/Classic Rock/Adult Hits/Alternative stations have the same small playlists you'll find on those stations in other cities. If this mythical 15,000-song playlist could succeed anywhere, it would be Los Angeles (there are shows like Morning Becomes Eclectic, but they are slivers of a public radio station's programming day).
I hear/read a lot of commentary about the blandness of radio, food and retail, every city looks/sounds the same, etc. But McDonald's, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and the Jack format exist, and succeed, for a reason. At the end of the day, the majority people want convenient, familiar, and quality control. Their two-shot non-fat latte will taste the same, no matter what neighborhood, city or state they're in. The lawn mower they saw in Tulsa will be available when they're ready to buy back home in Boise. People don't want to be surprised, or disappointed, so they don't want to take risks. They feel challenged enough by their jobs, their economic situation, their personal lives, and the fears and threats of the "real world." Hearing Mumford and Sons every fifth song is the 21st Century equivalent of gathering around the living room radio to listen to Jack Benny every week - it's comfort food.
Listening to music (really listening, not just hearing) requires the use of a certain part of our brains that gets "frozen" at a certain point - it's why most people's taste in music remains rooted in what they liked as adolescents or young adults - and with the amount of crap adults are bombarded with day to day, it's just too much of an investment of time and energy for most people.
I'm not saying any of this is good by any means, but it seems to be where we are today.
Driving on state highways (not interstates) from Rapid City to Pueblo yesterday, I tuned into a station from Sterling, CO and after awhile had a startling revelation. They had a live. local DJ playing music he liked, and not a satellite feed. How often do you find that? (I'm talking to you, Clone Channel).
Quote from: kurumi on May 08, 2013, 11:45:37 AM
The deaths of the following formats stand out:
Album-oriented rock: a mix of stuff from about 1966 to present, and not just the singles. Yes, mostly guitar-based and mostly white. Much of the great R+B/funk from the '70s had to be discovered independently. AOR seemed to die circa 1985-87 when the classic acts released a bunch of disappointing to terrible albums (Heart, Rush, Yes, Genesis) and late '80s tropes took over
Agreed -
to a point - as I asserted upthread, most AOR programmers played way, way, way too much Led Zeppelin. AOR after MTV made its debut in 1981 benefited greatly from the acts that made their way on the air with videos, and it resulted in less Led Zeppelin getting airplay.
Quote from: kurumi on May 08, 2013, 11:45:37 AM
Top 40 pop that had something for everyone. In the '70s, you'd have a ballad, followed by country, followed by Steely Dan, then a disco song, then Van Halen, then Skynyrd, ... If you didn't like the current song, you probably wouldn't mind the next one. Now there's much more of a monoculture of Woooo wooo party dance girl tonight mix jam. If you don't like the current song on Party 99 you probably won't like 99% of them.
Citation: Top 100 songs of 1978 (http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1978). There's a lot of disco. But there's also Clapton, Stones, Wings, Queen, Carly Simon...
I strongly agree. One of the early Top 40 blowtorch stations on FM was WPGC in the Washington and Baltimore media markets (tribute site here (http://www.amandfmmorningside.com/)). In its late 1960's through mid-1970's heyday, it played all of that stuff. Some people are astounded at how much "old-timey" R&B I know. That's because of WPGC.
WPGC had a daytime-only AM companion, but the emphasis was on getting listeners to tune to FM, and it was one of the earlier Top-40's to broadcast in stereo.
The station is still on the air, but it is now owned by CBS and "is an urban-leaning rhythmic-formatted station" (according to Wikipedia) with plenty of rap, which means I don't listen - ever (though that may be what its management desires).
Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on May 08, 2013, 08:44:00 PM
Driving on state highways (not interstates) from Rapid City to Pueblo yesterday, I tuned into a station from Sterling, CO and after awhile had a startling revelation. They had a live. local DJ playing music he liked, and not a satellite feed. How often do you find that? (I'm talking to you, Clone Channel).
Um, a lot of stations here in Chicagoland. It's either a local DJ playing the music or a local program director choosing the music. Even the Clear Channel ones buck the Clone Channel trend.
Quote from: Brandon on May 08, 2013, 11:39:55 PM
Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on May 08, 2013, 08:44:00 PM
Driving on state highways (not interstates) from Rapid City to Pueblo yesterday, I tuned into a station from Sterling, CO and after awhile had a startling revelation. They had a live. local DJ playing music he liked, and not a satellite feed. How often do you find that? (I'm talking to you, Clone Channel).
Um, a lot of stations here in Chicagoland. It's either a local DJ playing the music or a local program director choosing the music. Even the Clear Channel ones buck the Clone Channel trend.
Seems to be an urban vs. rural phenomenon, though then again, in rural areas the metro station often is much more powerful, so I'm picking up St. Louis over 100 miles away.
Quote from: Steve on May 09, 2013, 12:27:00 AM
Quote from: Brandon on May 08, 2013, 11:39:55 PM
Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on May 08, 2013, 08:44:00 PM
Driving on state highways (not interstates) from Rapid City to Pueblo yesterday, I tuned into a station from Sterling, CO and after awhile had a startling revelation. They had a live. local DJ playing music he liked, and not a satellite feed. How often do you find that? (I'm talking to you, Clone Channel).
Um, a lot of stations here in Chicagoland. It's either a local DJ playing the music or a local program director choosing the music. Even the Clear Channel ones buck the Clone Channel trend.
Seems to be an urban vs. rural phenomenon, though then again, in rural areas the metro station often is much more powerful, so I'm picking up St. Louis over 100 miles away.
Chicago, New York, L.A. will have most of their stations with live, local jocks. But once you leave those big markets, many of those "local" jocks (outside of morning or afternoon drive) are actually air personalities that either pre-record, or voice-track for multiple stations -- sometimes within the same building, sometimes voicetracking for several stations in several different cities, sometimes hours or days in advance not knowing what the mood of the city will be at the time. You could have had a severe storm come through flooding roads and toppling trees, and yet the pre-recorded, so-called "local" jock will still sound like everything's sunshine, ice cream and puppies.
They have recently gone as far as having people do traffic reports from a hub city doing reports for a city they are not even in!!! They rely solely on information from local sources over the internet, but can they really "personalize" the reports like actual locals can? I used to love helicopter traffic reports who would fly over the jams and could tell you first hand what best alternatives you should take. Most of these out-of-town traffic reporters may just name off a common alternative route not knowing if that alternate is any better. Most just say, 'avoid the area' or 'find another route' because they don't really know -- they are 150-200 miles away!
And as far as someone playing music they like, it is very rare that they can play anything and everything they like, since most of the big conglomerates provide their stations with a limited list of "safe songs". In other words, music that a) is politically correct, b) won't offend others and c) are tunes that some focus group hundreds, if not thousands of miles away think are all the songs a city they have never lived in want to hear over and over again.
Quote from: US81 on May 08, 2013, 05:19:13 PM
interesting (not polarized political) news talk for the drive
am I the only one who absolutely loathes talk? in any form? if the radio says "you are listening to ...", I mutter "no I'm not" and change the station.
satellite at late-night hours comes the closest to having a non-stop block of music with no interruption.
Quote from: thenetwork on May 09, 2013, 08:52:07 AM
They have recently gone as far as having people do traffic reports from a hub city doing reports for a city they are not even in!!! They rely solely on information from local sources over the internet, but can they really "personalize" the reports like actual locals can? I used to love helicopter traffic reports who would fly over the jams and could tell you first hand what best alternatives you should take. Most of these out-of-town traffic reporters may just name off a common alternative route not knowing if that alternate is any better. Most just say, 'avoid the area' or 'find another route' because they don't really know -- they are 150-200 miles away!
That is not a new innovation.
There are companies that sell or barter traffic reports to radio stations in exchange for a short commercial plug at the end of the report ("this traffic report is brought to you by ..."), and many of those radio station managers
don't care about the quality of those reports, and
don't care if the person reading the report is in a different metropolitan area.
The serious traffic reports (usually, but not always, on all-news or news-talk formatted stations) tend to come from a place that's local, and in some cases, from an in-house traffic reporting staff.
Song burnout is what I hate the most about most modern radio stations. I made a personal study about the station I tune the most often to, and I found a whopping 50 songs that are played at least once every two days, and the study covers only my working hours, when I can listen and take notes.
Add weekly (at least) players and you're already at 200 songs.
All of that is out of a tiny pool of only 1,779 songs that have played at least twice. I started collecting data in July 2011. That's terrible.
I posted a snapshot of the report at the time of writing this here: http://pastebin.com/bdaAisXW
Note that the first three entries were just introduced into the rotation this week, and that usually means very heavy play for a week or so, which makes my algorithm bump them at the top for a few days. I also noticed that some other songs that are high in the ranking received a lot of heavy play in the past (for a few months), then were almost completely pulled from the rotation, but it takes a while for them to sink in the list.
In fact, that station used to be pretty good until it got bought by a local broadcasting giant, and things went downhill from there. Steeply. They've been hemorraging listeners ever since and two announcers slammed the door over "disagreements with management", I.O.W, they could no longer have a say over what happens or what plays in their show. Oh, and they started playing Nickelback and Mumford & Sons heavily.
Regarding Sirius XM, I checked the prices lately and... just no. I will never pay this much for something I'll almost only listen to while in my car. It's not nearly worth it, even to get rid of the ads.
Quote from: Dr Frankenstein on May 09, 2013, 03:59:19 PM
Song burnout is what I hate the most about most modern radio stations. I made a personal study about the station I tune the most often to, and I found a whopping 50 songs that are played at least once every two days, and the study covers only my working hours, when I can listen and take notes.
* * *
Regarding Sirius XM, I checked the prices lately and... just no. I will never pay this much for something I'll almost only listen to while in my car. It's not nearly worth it, even to get rid of the ads.
As long as I've lived here (11 years), the Colorado Springs-Pueblo FM market has sucked big time. Smaller and larger markets have stations much more to my liking, since I'm not a "classic rock", as usually it's usually defined for radio format, nor a country fan. But recently, one station - locally owned and with live DJs - has adopted a format close to what I consider ideal. When I lived in the Twin Cities, I always listened to Cities 97 (KTCZ), and it has a nearly identical format sister station in Denver (KBCO), which is unfortunately outside my range of reception at home. (Here I have to somewhat eat my "Clone Channel" comment above, since these are both owned by that otherwise objectionable company).
But, like many stations playing new music, this local station seems to overplay certain music. Do I really need to hear "Sweater Weather" every hour? I don't know what financial incentives stations have to promote certain music, but when I hear something repeated so much I have visions of the "payola" scandal of the era before I was listening to radio.
Quote from: DTComposer on May 08, 2013, 06:09:45 PM
I hear/read a lot of commentary about the blandness of radio, food and retail, every city looks/sounds the same, etc. But McDonald's, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and the Jack format exist, and succeed, for a reason. At the end of the day, the majority people want convenient, familiar, and quality control. Their two-shot non-fat latte will taste the same, no matter what neighborhood, city or state they're in. The lawn mower they saw in Tulsa will be available when they're ready to buy back home in Boise. People don't want to be surprised, or disappointed, so they don't want to take risks. They feel challenged enough by their jobs, their economic situation, their personal lives, and the fears and threats of the "real world." Hearing Mumford and Sons every fifth song is the 21st Century equivalent of gathering around the living room radio to listen to Jack Benny every week - it's comfort food.
Listening to music (really listening, not just hearing) requires the use of a certain part of our brains that gets "frozen" at a certain point - it's why most people's taste in music remains rooted in what they liked as adolescents or young adults - and with the amount of crap adults are bombarded with day to day, it's just too much of an investment of time and energy for most people.
I'm not saying any of this is good by any means, but it seems to be where we are today.
I agree to an extent. It's also important that every area gets served by enough genres to offer an actual choice, not just fifty versions of the same genre, playing the same songs (which, sadly, is what we're headed for).
I don't care how good of a station it usually is, if a station has such a diverse range that it has the ability play a passionate, catchy tune, immediately followed by some computer-generated, auto-tuned crap that somehow passes as music these days, they're off my list.
More genres of stations are what we need, not a 10,000 song playlist radio station in every city.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 09, 2013, 01:02:27 PM
Quote from: US81 on May 08, 2013, 05:19:13 PM
interesting (not polarized political) news talk for the drive
am I the only one who absolutely loathes talk? in any form? if the radio says "you are listening to ...", I mutter "no I'm not" and change the station.
satellite at late-night hours comes the closest to having a non-stop block of music with no interruption.
Even though I enjoy listening to local broadcast radio, I, too, hate talk in any form. That said, three of my four videos last update had a station announcement between songs.
Quote from: Steve on May 09, 2013, 10:29:33 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on May 09, 2013, 01:02:27 PM
Quote from: US81 on May 08, 2013, 05:19:13 PM
interesting (not polarized political) news talk for the drive
am I the only one who absolutely loathes talk? in any form? if the radio says "you are listening to ...", I mutter "no I'm not" and change the station.
satellite at late-night hours comes the closest to having a non-stop block of music with no interruption.
Even though I enjoy listening to local broadcast radio, I, too, hate talk in any form. That said, three of my four videos last update had a station announcement between songs.
I don't mind talk if it's actually a talk show or weather report or traffic report or news broadcast, but I could do without the perky, peppy blather in between songs. I can only recall one radio host I've actually enjoyed listening to (fortunately he's currently a radio host on one of my favorite stations); all the others I'd rather just hit the play button.
And when did stations stop telling you what songs you're listening to, anyway?
I don't have a smart phone, so it doesn't help me that I can find out online.
Quote from: kphoger on May 11, 2013, 01:28:18 PM
And when did stations stop telling you what songs you're listening to, anyway?
I don't have a smart phone, so it doesn't help me that I can find out online.
Some do, some don't. I've noticed that for a long time. WDRV 97.1 FM, The Drive in Chicago is consistently good at telling what you just listened to, listing all of the songs in reverse order. Others aren't quite as good at it.
Whenever I go across Riverside-San Bernardino, their local radio market has much to offer (plus nearby Los Angeles-Orange county radio stations). Five of them came to mind: KCAL 96.7 (rock music), KGGI 99.5 (top 40 or hip-hop), KFRG 95.1 (country-folk music), KOLA 99.5 (oldies) and KATY 101.3 (easy listening or light hits). The AM stations have more information, such as traffic reports, which FM radio doesn't typically have (consult KFI 640, KFWB 980 and KNX 1070 for them).
The "Inland Empire" is part of the L.A. TV market, but the closer you get toward San Diego, you receive some TV channels and radio stations from there such as KFMB (the radio station on AM/FM and TV station, affiliated with CBS). For radio not automated with a live human voice, consult KCRW 89.9 and KVCR 91.7 both public stations.
Now for the Palm Springs area, KNWZ 94.3FM is a news-talk format, they have live local programming and some national syndicated radio programs (Coast to Coast AM at night). I don't find that FM station any bit "boring" and "plain". Now for the other FM radio stations like KDES 98.5 (oldies), KPSI 100.5 (top 40), KKUU 92.7 (hip-hop) and KEZN 103.1 (light hits), usually have limited lists of music to play, so it's likely you hear one song today and you will hear it again tomorrow. "The Jack" 95.9 became "the Oasis", also automated, under the local owner of KPLM 106.1 (country music) as well affiliated with CBS radio.
Many radio listeners in every area market wants new and different music, not narrowed down by corporate radio companies assigned what they can offer, which means the audience defects by subscribing to Sirius/XM or head over to the internet including music videos on youtube among other channels.
Quote from: Brandon on May 11, 2013, 10:13:26 PM
Quote from: kphoger on May 11, 2013, 01:28:18 PM
And when did stations stop telling you what songs you're listening to, anyway?
I don't have a smart phone, so it doesn't help me that I can find out online.
Some do, some don't. I've noticed that for a long time. WDRV 97.1 FM, The Drive in Chicago is consistently good at telling what you just listened to, listing all of the songs in reverse order. Others aren't quite as good at it.
One station in Philadelphia identifies title and artist at the end of each song. It can be informative, but also a bit annoying at times.
Most of why I generally dislike radio has been discussed already. The repetition has always been an annoyance, and to hear any song played more than once in an eight-hour span is downright
scary, given how much music exists out there, past and present. Every so often, I'll find something decent or local or different (there isn't a bluegrass station in Florida, for example), but that's usually because I won't bother to take my iPod with me on a 10-minute drive. But for a two-hour drive...no way.
Once in a while, I'll find myself hooked to NPR, or find a classic rock station that seems to find no over-played numbers, but that comes and goes. I do like one or two sports-talk shows down here in South Florida, but that's usually when they talk about things that have little to do with sports.
Quote from: Dr Frankenstein on May 09, 2013, 03:59:19 PM
Regarding Sirius XM, I checked the prices lately and... just no. I will never pay this much for something I'll almost only listen to while in my car. It's not nearly worth it, even to get rid of the ads.
XM offers a great mix of music, much of which can rarely be heard on radio stations (or even can't be played on radio), but delve into the pop/latest-hits stuff, and it's as repetitive - even more so in the case of XM's "The Pulse" - as radio at times. Eventually, they have to repeat their library. I had to hear The Pulse for four days straight at a job site, which claimed to be "hit music from the 2000s to today"; despite thirteen years of pop-oriented :rolleyes: music to choose from, they played roughly ten to twenty no less than
3-4 times a day, with a few older (the last 3-13 years) songs sprinkled in.
I can overlook and even ignore music I don't like. Art is subjective, and music is a truly magical thing, one of our greatest gifts to humanity. But the unyielding repetition of that pablum made me almost reach for a drill to put my ears out of my misery, because such behavior (for a service you pay for!) borders on brainwashing and propaganda.
formulanone, having listened to Sirius for a significant amount of time in a friend's car, I've come to the same conclusion. Different music, but it gets stale just as quickly, at least on most stations. Not worth paying so much for.
97.1 FM in Chicago is the best on that FM dial. All the other stations tend to play the same songs over and over again.
FM Radio has become such a bore. We had one holdout station (WCCC, yeah that one where Stern used to work) that was a holdout on the whole corporate focus group playlist thing. Now, they've mostly sold out. WHCN was totally corporatized back in 2002. 1995-2002 saw it transition from a heritage, play anything AOR station to the canned "River" format. The Jump the Shark moment is when they replaced the locally produced Picozzi and the Horn with Bob & Tom. WPLR, another classic rock station, though a lot better with the local on air talent (Lappy has been there since the 70's) is an acronym for "Play a Lotta Repeats". The problem with classic rock radio is they play a variety of artists, but only about 5 songs by that artist. God forbid we hear Achillies Last Stand once instead of Black Dog. God forbid we hear something off of Animals instead of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2. God forbid we hear Far Away Eyes once instead of Start Me Up. I mean, the songs that are played are great songs, but mix it up once in a while. That's why I did get SiriusXM, and listen to Deep Tracks, Jam On, E Street, and Grateful Dead radio. I had a rental car for 2 days without it, and ended up listening to sports talk because of the tons of commercials and boring songs on FM.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 26, 2013, 05:25:00 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PM
I got utterly sick of Led Zeppelin during my third year of college when one of the guys with whom I shared an apartment (living in University-run housing, so this guy was assigned to join the other three of us who knew each other) turned out to be utterly obsessed with their music and listened to it constantly. He never would have struck you as a Zeppelin fan, either; nerdy-looking soft-spoken guy from Chesapeake, Virginia, with a serious southern drawl, a father who drove a Vista Cruiser (seriously), and a brother they all called "Earl T.".....it sounds like a serious redneck stereotype, I know. This guy played Zeppelin so incessantly that I still have not listened to a single Zeppelin album all the way through even a single time since then, and this fall will be 20 years since I shared an apartment with that guy.
Nerds love Zeppelin. All those Tolkien-esque lyrics. Shit yeah.
No radio station can match the variety one can create with one's own library. A few thousand MP3's taken from all my favorite genres and a media player set on shuffle wins. No changing stations, no bad reception, no ads (well except a few of those old Bud Light "Real American Heroes"), no bills to pay and all the variety a randomizing algorithm can provide.
THAT is the very accurate description of my iPod - about to go over 5K files of sheer random bliss! A pot-potpourri of nearly every genre and artist other than hard punk, death metal, gangsta (c)rap and country less than about 30 years old from the 1960s through the present. I also have a bunch of 'playlists' on it that duplicate the entire boxful of 1970s and 1980s era cassette mix tapes (I called them 'Stuff' tapes) that I made for roadtripping, too.
:cool:
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 26, 2013, 05:25:00 PM
Digression:
How can such a shitty beer have such great commercials? Bud has been churning out great ads for their piss water for like 20 years now. They're not all winners, but if there's a hilarious light beer commercial, it'll be for Bud. Damn them.
I loved those old 'TASTES GREAT!/LESS FILLING!' Miller Lite beer ads - you couldn't get better advertising than having the crowd at a big game chanting it back and forth across the stands! (No, I don't drink it, I just liked those ads).
:-P
As for local radio, earlier this year I tuned into the local album rocker, still drawing very strong ratings even though they have not changed AT ALL since the mid-late 1980s, to look for stuff to add to the iPod and after a couple of weeks had identified all that I wanted that I didn't already have and quickly grew bored with their 200 or song playlist - which also has not changed at all over those 25 or so years.
Bring me back to the times of those *GREAT* top-40 AM blowtorches!
:-(
Mike
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on May 25, 2013, 11:03:43 AM
FM Radio has become such a bore. We had one holdout station (WCCC, yeah that one where Stern used to work) that was a holdout on the whole corporate focus group playlist thing. Now, they've mostly sold out. WHCN was totally corporatized back in 2002. 1995-2002 saw it transition from a heritage, play anything AOR station to the canned "River" format. The Jump the Shark moment is when they replaced the locally produced Picozzi and the Horn with Bob & Tom. WPLR, another classic rock station, though a lot better with the local on air talent (Lappy has been there since the 70's) is an acronym for "Play a Lotta Repeats". The problem with classic rock radio is they play a variety of artists, but only about 5 songs by that artist. God forbid we hear Achillies Last Stand once instead of Black Dog. God forbid we hear something off of Animals instead of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2. God forbid we hear Far Away Eyes once instead of Start Me Up. I mean, the songs that are played are great songs, but mix it up once in a while. That's why I did get SiriusXM, and listen to Deep Tracks, Jam On, E Street, and Grateful Dead radio. I had a rental car for 2 days without it, and ended up listening to sports talk because of the tons of commercials and boring songs on FM.
You forgot about how Clear Channel ruined both WKSS-FM 95.7 of Hartford/Meriden (Kiss 95.7) and WKCI-FM 101.3 of Hamden/New Haven (KC-101.3). They now have FOX Sports Radio on WPOP-AM 1410. The only things local on that station are (every other) New Britain Rock Cats minor league baseball game or CCSU Blue Devils basketball. Despite being only 10 miles from their transmitter, WUCS-FM 97.9 of Windsor Locks/Hartford (97.9-ESPN) has a shitty signal for me here in New Britain's south end.
Moving on, anybody who lives in the Hartford/New Britain/Middletown radio market knows what the call letters of Lite 100.5 really mean. WRCH-FM and CBS Radio cater to the [W]hite [R]ich [C]onnecticut [H]ousewife. :-D
Lastly...WCCC-FM? They've ruined it, got rid of Michael Picozzi (a good thing, most likely) and now simply call it ROCK 106.9. Huh? :no:
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on May 25, 2013, 11:03:43 AM
FM Radio has become such a bore. We had one holdout station (WCCC, yeah that one where Stern used to work) that was a holdout on the whole corporate focus group playlist thing. Now, they've mostly sold out. WHCN was totally corporatized back in 2002. 1995-2002 saw it transition from a heritage, play anything AOR station to the canned "River" format. The Jump the Shark moment is when they replaced the locally produced Picozzi and the Horn with Bob & Tom. WPLR, another classic rock station, though a lot better with the local on air talent (Lappy has been there since the 70's) is an acronym for "Play a Lotta Repeats". The problem with classic rock radio is they play a variety of artists, but only about 5 songs by that artist. God forbid we hear Achillies Last Stand once instead of Black Dog. God forbid we hear something off of Animals instead of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2. God forbid we hear Far Away Eyes once instead of Start Me Up. I mean, the songs that are played are great songs, but mix it up once in a while. That's why I did get SiriusXM, and listen to Deep Tracks, Jam On, E Street, and Grateful Dead radio. I had a rental car for 2 days without it, and ended up listening to sports talk because of the tons of commercials and boring songs on FM.
That's funny, I just found this thread because I was thinking about the great radio I've hunted out along drives, and I have my Boston-NY non-commercial lineup that pretty much covers the whole route, with lots in Connecticut:
WMBR (88.1) Boston, gets me to 495. Mostly music-geek DJs at the top of their game putting together well-researched, fun, amazing shows in lots of genres.
WCHC (88.1) Worcester, reaches from just west of 495 to just east of 84. College kids playing indie rock, for the most part, but with a lot of freedom to play around. Keeps me entertained for the 20 minutes it comes in.
WHUS (91.7) Storrs, decent eclectic college radio from UConn with a better-than average signal. Lasts until just after Hartford, overlapping with
WNHU (88.7) New Haven, an unlikely star of good music programming and smart DJs when I've tuned in, also with a fairly good signal. Lasts a ways into Fairfield County, which is an incredibly saturated radio area (you learn this if you use an iPod FM transmitter and need to find clear spots on the dial, which are rare there).
WPKN (89.5) Bridgeport, another great freeform outlet, formerly part of the University of Bridgeport no longer affiliated with anyone but itself, with creative music lovers running the show. Covers most of Fairfield County.
After that, take your pick from the Greater NY airwaves --
WNYU, WFUV, WFDU, WFMU, WNYE, WBGO, etc., etc.
FM radio is not a lush cultural wonderland, but there are islands of genius if you look carefully.
For me I'm a country and top 40 person,but just like 102.7 KIIS FM or 104.1 WAEB FM and 96.1 WCTO traffic reports usually comes in this is the case with WAEB FM mentioning delays on US-22 from Cedar Crest (PA-29) to MacArthur Road (PA-145) or I-78 from Summit Lawn (Exit 59-60) to PA-33 (exit 71). Also WAEB FM in some occasions use 22 and I knew you were trouble by Taylor Swift after a traffic report on all Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton or Stroudsburg Freeways.
Interstatefan78, the southern California KIIS-FM is on 102.7, the flagship station of the KIIS network. When I was in L.A-Orange county, I listened to KLSX 97.1, KYSR 98.5 and KROQ 106.5(?) which are rock genre stations. One neat sounding smooth station KWVE 94.7 ("the Wave") should relieve your traffic-rattled nerves on its' freeways. KCBS-FM 93.1 remains the flagship station of "the Jack", despite some of their affiliates were dropped, like in the Palm Springs area I've mentioned earlier.
Our FM stations in Montana are basically suffering the same pitfalls other stations elsewhere are having. Playing the same songs over and over and over day after day. It's just annoying to some extent. How many times do we have to listen to Katy Perry on a regular basis or listen to this garish pop crap that some stations shove down our throats? After watching thenetwork's response, I feel the same way. I'm not fond of Jack FM's slogan of "playing what we want". That's a bunch of pathetic bull shit. That's Jack's way of saying "don't like what we want to play, suck it, shut the radio off or turn the dial to another station you boneheads!" I can't really say what our flagship station is in Missoula anymore because a lot of the culture is changing. It used to be that KYLT 1340 AM, KLCY 930 AM, KGGL 93.3 FM, KYSS 95.1 (now 94.9), and KZOQ 101.1 FM were the mainstay stations. I'm not sure if I want to do that now.
Quote from: Mike D boy on July 19, 2013, 08:22:51 PM
Interstatefan78, the southern California KIIS-FM is on 102.7, the flagship station of the KIIS network. When I was in L.A-Orange county, I listened to KLSX 97.1, KYSR 98.5 and KROQ 106.5(?) which are rock genre stations. One neat sounding smooth station KWVE 94.7 ("the Wave") should relieve your traffic-rattled nerves on its' freeways. KCBS-FM 93.1 remains the flagship station of "the Jack", despite some of their affiliates were dropped, like in the Palm Springs area I've mentioned earlier.
You're right, but what about KHTS 93.3 San Diego it's the same league as KIIS FM 102.7,but in SD county KIIS FM can be heard in San Onfre which is close to the LA-OC region. Whereas in my area both WCTO 96.1 or WAEB FM 104.1 can be heard in Carbon County,Monroe County, and Berks County,Pennsylvania this might explain songs like We are Never Getting Back Together,22, I knew you were trouble being played thought the day.
I heard that the Kelly half of the Kelly & Kline morning radio show, Mike Kelly, recently passed away from some form of cancer. Areas they worked in included Providence, New York City and San Jose (maybe others, too?). I remember them while at WTIC-FM 96.5 of Hartford, back in the mid-90s, in between runs with morning man Gary Craig (1981-92, fired, went to rival WKSS-FM 95.7 for a time, then back to WTIC-FM from 1996 to present). They had a character named Captain Trivia. I really don't remember anything else from that time on their show.
One other radio note in Connecticut is for WBMW-FM 106.5 of Ledyard, part of the New London/Groton/Norwich market. Just recently, they upped their power to about 25,000 watts. Although there's a bit of noise with the stereo in quiet passages, I'm picking them up a lot better here in southern Hartford County.
I live in the Dallas Tx area. The stations here have gotten so bad that I stopped listening a long time ago. We only have one station left that plays my kind of music; 98.7 Classic Hits. However, it's playlist is far too narrow. Jack FM is ok I guess, but is too much rock. I like some rock, but all rock gets annoying very quickly.
Radio has gotten much worse recently because the playlist have moved forward in time, so they now longer cover the good periods in music. When I was younger, radio was much better
When I was in Orlando recently, I discovered Magic 107.7. It had an excellent variety of song types (Rock/Pop/Disco/Fast/Med/Slow) They played everything from Smashmouth to Peter Cetera. They even played the obscure 90's song "How Do You Talk to an Angel? Their playlist was quite similar to what's on my media player
Personal rule: no radio with a first name.
Quote from: Pete from Boston on July 21, 2013, 09:32:34 AM
Personal rule: no radio with a first name.
Jack left Chicago quite some time ago and was replaced with local talent.
For those of you not around here to listen to some of the best radio AM or FM, to quote the Tenth Doctor, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Quote from: agentsteel53 on April 26, 2013, 04:17:27 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on April 26, 2013, 03:47:05 PMconstant Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Blues Traveller's "Runaround," the Wallflowers' "One Headlight," that Celine Dion Titanic song
yep, that's basically what turned me off of radio in the mid-late 90s. that and Matchbox 20, who are just about the most terrible band ever.
sad, because Rob Thomas is really quite talented... the song he did with Santana is excellent. but his main project is miserable and angsty and somehow avoids spectacularly all that is cool about being miserable and angsty (see: Nirvana, who really were a great band, worthy of all the hype).
That is excatly what turned me off "top 40" radio in the mid-late 90's as well. I went to country, "classic rock" and talk radio. I am more on talk radio now.
Even for me there's one thing that 102.7 KIIS FM or 92.7 KTOM both stations do a Taylor Swift deep track this also applies to WSIX 97.9 Nashville or WTHZ 100.3 NYC/Newark and Wyckoff, NJ songs like I'm only me when I'm with you or a Perfectly good heart being played on CHR stations as a deep track perhaps they should belong in a Country radio station like WSIX,WCTO,KKGO and KTOM. If this happen I would be listening to variety station like WHCY 106.3 Blairstown/Phillipsburg,NJ or KBIG 104.3 Los Angeles, Garden Grove, and Carson, California
Quote from: Steve on August 10, 2013, 01:34:24 AM
Quote from: Interstatefan78 on August 10, 2013, 12:11:47 AM
.
Guys
Guys
He found the period key
The teacher asks her students if they can draw a picture of the most important thing in the world.
Little Susie draws a picture of a heart and says it's the most important thing because all you need is love.
Little Johnny draws a picture of a dollar sign because everybody wants money and always wants more of it.
Then little Tyrone goes up to the blackboard and draws a little dot.
The teacher is puzzled. "What's that, Tyrone?"
"It's a period." (He drew this: . )
"Why would you say a period is the most important thing in the world?"
"Well, I don't know, but this morning my sister was missing one, my mother was crying, my dad was cussing, and the man next door shot himself."
Quote from: 1995hoo on August 10, 2013, 09:16:14 AM
Quote from: Steve on August 10, 2013, 01:34:24 AM
Quote from: Interstatefan78 on August 10, 2013, 12:11:47 AM
.
Guys
Guys
He found the period key
The teacher asks her students if they can draw a picture of the most important thing in the world.
Little Susie draws a picture of a heart and says it's the most important thing because all you need is love.
Little Johnny draws a picture of a dollar sign because everybody wants money and always wants more of it.
Then little Tyrone goes up to the blackboard and draws a little dot.
The teacher is puzzled. "What's that, Tyrone?"
"It's a period." (He drew this: . )
"Why would you say a period is the most important thing in the world?"
"Well, I don't know, but this morning my sister was missing one, my mother was crying, my dad was cussing, and the man next door shot himself."
:-D :-D :clap:
So the radio station at the local college here recently switched over to a new studio, and I thought their "changeover" broadcast was really cool - https://soundcloud.com/wasu-news/beasleybigday-edited-mixdown
Does anyone else have links of some sort to either last broadcasts, studio switchovers, format changes, etc.? It would be cool to listen too.
Quote from: DSS5 on August 24, 2013, 02:17:52 PM
So the radio station at the local college here recently switched over to a new studio, and I thought their "changeover" broadcast was really cool - https://soundcloud.com/wasu-news/beasleybigday-edited-mixdown
Does anyone else have links of some sort to either last broadcasts, studio switchovers, format changes, etc.? It would be cool to listen too.
When I was a kid, I taped WHBY's (now 1150 AM, then 1230 AM - Appleton, WI) changeover from their old studio in the river valley to their then new facility on the city's west side (it was in the late 1970s), but I have no idea of where that tape is, if I even have it, and it was done off the air with fairly cheap equipment.
Mike
I miss WYNF (95ynf) in Tampa. :no:
Ah,... the good old days. Great rock and great jocks.
Quote from: Rushmeister on August 30, 2013, 12:18:54 PM
I miss WYNF (95ynf) in Tampa. :no:
Ah,... the good old days. Great rock and great jocks.
I remember when my dad's favorite radio station (93.1 WMQX), an oldies station, switched over to country in 2006. He was really pissed off about that. I kind of miss that station too, they played a lot of ELO.
Unfortunately, Sacramento, CA radio sux (http://markholtz.info/7o). KFBK has news/talk, but the quality of the news coverage has gone down. KXPR used to be classical music 24/7, but no classical music in the evening. We also had a dedicated DECENT Jazz music station a few years ago, but then they switched to something alternative. The rest of the stations are rock, rap, country, talk, or spanish -- none of which I'm interested in. I'm now relying on streaming radio and MP3s now.
It used to be that stations had their own playlists. Now, it's all satellite delivered, and at times, they have the same commerical running at the same time across multiple stations.
Any "oldies" or "classic rock" station that brag about still playing the greatest hits from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis -- but actually only play their hits from the 70's -- should lose their broadcast licenses!! (You kids get off my lawn!!!)
Quote from: thenetwork on September 09, 2013, 08:02:24 PM
Any "oldies" or "classic rock" station that brag about still playing the greatest hits from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis -- but actually only play their hits from the 70's -- should lose their broadcast licenses!! (You kids get off my lawn!!!)
"1970s hits from the Beatles" is a very small category indeed. I think "Let it Be" and "Long and Winding Road" are the only two singles from 1970 and they may have been released first in 1969.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on September 09, 2013, 08:12:19 PM
Quote from: thenetwork on September 09, 2013, 08:02:24 PM
Any "oldies" or "classic rock" station that brag about still playing the greatest hits from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis -- but actually only play their hits from the 70's -- should lose their broadcast licenses!! (You kids get off my lawn!!!)
"1970s hits from the Beatles" is a very small category indeed. I think "Let it Be" and "Long and Winding Road" are the only two singles from 1970 and they may have been released first in 1969.
Actually, I've heard multiple selections on the radio. "I've Got a Feeling" got covered by Pearl Jam. And the album ends in "Get Back" - how is that not a classic? But I'll grant, these are all on modern radio, not back in the day.
Quote from: Steve on September 09, 2013, 09:18:40 PM"Get Back"
thus the confusion. that's a 1969 single. Let it Be was substantially recorded before Abbey Road, but the band didn't like it, so they redid it after Abbey Road and actually it was released after the band had broken up.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on September 09, 2013, 09:21:59 PM
Quote from: Steve on September 09, 2013, 09:18:40 PM"Get Back"
thus the confusion. that's a 1969 single. Let it Be was substantially recorded before Abbey Road, but the band didn't like it, so they redid it after Abbey Road and actually it was released after the band had broken up.
I see what you're getting at - the album in 1970, but the songs in 1969.
"Classic rock" is really just crappy '70s hard rock.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on September 09, 2013, 09:21:59 PM
Quote from: Steve on September 09, 2013, 09:18:40 PM"Get Back"
thus the confusion. that's a 1969 single. Let it Be was substantially recorded before Abbey Road, but the band didn't like it, so they redid it after Abbey Road and actually it was released after the band had broken up.
Actually, Phil Spector redid it. :D
Here's a bit of trivia: There is one song on the album that was actually recorded in 1970, "I Me Mine". Lennon didn't play on the track, as he had more or less left the band in late 1969 and was busy at the time of recording.
Quote from: bugo on September 11, 2013, 02:20:39 AM
"Classic rock" is really just crappy '70s hard rock.
My idea of classic rock covers everything from Elvis to Pearl Jam including The Beatles, Led Zepplin and Rush.
On the topic of FM, has anyone listened to an FM station subchannel? A few years ago, HD-2 was rolled out as a great technological advancement, but I haven't seen any receivers that actually offer it. Stations still announce programming on their subchannel, but I wonder if anyone actually hears the programming. This kind of reminds me of the AM stereo rollout in the 1960s, which never actually took off. But then, at that time AM radio actually played music. Who needs to hear a talk radio bloviator in stereo?
Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on September 11, 2013, 11:20:17 AM
On the topic of FM, has anyone listened to an FM station subchannel? A few years ago, HD-2 was rolled out as a great technological advancement, but I haven't seen any receivers that actually offer it. Stations still announce programming on their subchannel, but I wonder if anyone actually hears the programming. This kind of reminds me of the AM stereo rollout in the 1960s, which never actually took off. But then, at that time AM radio actually played music. Who needs to hear a talk radio bloviator in stereo?
As the HD Radio website shows (http://www.hdradio.com/buyers-guide), you can upgrade to the new HD receivers at home, on the go and even in your car, at thousands of retailers/dealerships nationwide. The trick is where and when to find them, so ask around.
Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on September 11, 2013, 11:20:17 AM
On the topic of FM, has anyone listened to an FM station subchannel? A few years ago, HD-2 was rolled out as a great technological advancement, but I haven't seen any receivers that actually offer it.
I've had a handful of rental cars with HD Radio tuners, and those signals do sounds great...while they last. The problem is that they chop in and out, faltering back to the standard FM station. While you can definitely hear the difference in audio quality when they swap places, the timing between the signal swaps are almost nonexistent.
So it probably works better for receivers that aren't in a moving vehicle.
Quote from: formulanone on September 11, 2013, 12:08:57 PMSo it probably works better for receivers that aren't in a moving vehicle.
I think it's true, although that hasn't stopped automakers like Ford, Honda and BMW from offering HD Radio anyway, as a free alternative to satellite radio.
Quote from: DSS5 on August 24, 2013, 02:17:52 PM
So the radio station at the local college here recently switched over to a new studio, and I thought their "changeover" broadcast was really cool - https://soundcloud.com/wasu-news/beasleybigday-edited-mixdown
Does anyone else have links of some sort to either last broadcasts, studio switchovers, format changes, etc.? It would be cool to listen too.
http://formatchange.com/
You can thank me later. :) I should note that I am not involved with this site in any way, shape, or form. It's just a really cool website.
Quote from: Henry on September 17, 2013, 01:43:32 PMthat hasn't stopped automakers like Ford, Honda and BMW from offering HD Radio anyway, as a free alternative to satellite radio.
Free for the listener, perhaps, but certainly not for the radio manufacturer. iBiquity Digital Corporation, the company that holds all IP rights to HD Radio hardware, firmware and software, charges a royalty per chipset to HD Radio manufacturers. OTOH, SiriusXM and its corporate partners *pay* auto manufacturers to build satellite radios into their vehicles and subsidize the cost of the free subscription to SiriusXM that comes with a new car (usually three months, although some are a year).
What iBiquity doesn't comprehend, unfortunately, is the cost of a poorly engineered digital radio system that so many have simply given up on (post #117 is a good example of HD Radio's reception problems). The vast majority of US radio stations have stayed away from HD, mostly because it's monstrously expensive to implement and a constant headache to maintain, at a time when most stations have cut their engineering staffs down to the bare bone (and many don't have "resident" engineers; they use freelancers or consultants).
Quote from: A.J. Bertin on April 27, 2013, 12:49:21 AM
Quote from: Dr Frankenstein on April 26, 2013, 09:22:46 PM
I also have a serious problem with certain car manufacturers phasing out AM/FM two years from now...
I do too. That really pisses me off. However, I think what will happen is that cars will still offer AM/FM - maybe not as a standard option but as something extra.
Which car manufacturers are doing such? I know Ford recently dropped the 6-CD players from many of their models (a single-CD player can still be had though).
Man, how times have changed. Once upon a time,
all radios were optional; later on, getting FM was considered a luxury option (to the standard AM radio).
As for me, my '07 Mustang has Sirrius/XM (it came w/the car under a 6-month trial subscription, that I've since renewed) and I almost have it set to one of the stations when driving. For longer distances and/or there's nothing on the channels that interests me; then I'll just put a bunch of CDs in.
My '97 Crown Vic has an AM/FM cassette player (a dual media (cassette/CD) player wasn't yet available as an option when I ordered & bought it). For short trips, I'll either have the radio on or not at all. For long drives, I'll either use the cassette player (I still have some tapes in playble condition) or hook up a CD converter and play a CD or two... athough changing the CD usually involves stopping along the way to do so.
My last car had AM/FM with a single-CD player. The current one (on a base model none-the-less) came with AM/FM, SiriusXM (one year free, renewed twice so far), a single-CD player, an auxiliary port in the radio for an MP3 player, and a USB port in the glovebox for an MP3 player (controlled by the radio controls). I've used all but the auxiliary port in the radio - no point when there's a USB port in the glovebox. I use the radio with SiriusXM for short trips, CDs from time to time, and the MP3 player for long trips when I don't want to change stations or discs.