? about commerical radio.

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simple_gifts

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How much worse can it get?

"Classic Rock" station in NH CT seems to play War Pigs 3 times a day; I surf by it when driving to work and hear it 2 times a week and I don't even listen to the station. There are other "good songs" on that album; they must have purchased a 10 song tape loop or are being fed from above; Jet airliner and Hotel CA, now on the despised list. Anyone remember Bad Co's "Seagull"; I'd like to hear that once in a while. I have a stack of records they could just "dig into" a bit beyond the title track and I would be a fan for life....

Pop stations have morning antics that appeal to only the idiotic and DJs rant and rave over Spears/Lohan/Hilton or some other person ready to flame out.

Taylor Swift, heard the Romeo song enough, NEXT. I started to dislike HER, but decided to focus my anger @ the true culprits. I don't know who the Jonas Bros are; hoping a whale might swallow the both of them.

Presets in the car are set to WNPR, Connecticut College Radio, and WMNR (fine arts radio) and a for profit classical station. I send money to all who ask and would drive out to the station and do a GC oil change on the house if asked.

Sorry...

Rant over.
 
stick to college radio. haven't heard it much in australia though, but were i studied, it was the only one.
 
One of my local stations plays pretty much nothing but three (almost identical) songs by Nickelback, two songs by Natasha Bedingfield, some '80s OMD and a-ha songs. ***?
 
There are only a few ownership groups (nassau, citadel, etc) and they mean to corner predefined music types with one station of each type in each "market", defined by arbitron ratings.

They love the limited spectrum of the FM band, keeping newbies and different voices from slipping in.

Music is defined at "listening parties" at hotel ballrooms with narrowly defined (age/race/income/gender) demographics.

Up here we have "frank" (classic rock) and "wolf" (country) that takes this naming thing to an extreme.

For independence, nonprofits tend to cluster in the 88-92 mhz section on the left of the FM dial.

Here's a radio nerd website that might confuse or explain things:

http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html
 
Commercial radio is garbage. The Top 40 stations play rotating selection of about 20 songs, 2 or 3 songs that were popular last year, and 4 or 5 songs from 15 years ago.

Classic rock stations have a selection of about 200-300 songs, usually they never play any other songs or "deep cuts". I don't mind classic rock at all, but I have come to despise so many classic rock songs that get played over and over.

Even satellite radio (XM/Sirius) is chopping away at their playlists to make it more like commercial radio.

Locally, I listen to the NPR stations (one news, one modern rock), college stations, and the occasional listen to the hard rock/alternative station. 95% of commercial radio is garbage.
 
Most free radio stations are owned by just a few networks.
Cost cutting is the word everywhere even free radio.
Many carry syndicated programs and preprogrammed play lists.
Overnight, they generally air satellite downloaded music with local commercials dubbed in by the computer.
XM/Sirius may not have commercials, but they do interrupt music to promote themselves endlessly.
Any wonder i-pods are popular?
 
I rearely listen to analog FM anymore since they overly compress the audio and it sounds like a C****PY AM station with an old transmitter. Digital (IBOC) is not much btter.

I listen to the local mom and pop (locally owned, non-network) adult contemporary stations on AM. This station has a "dumb criminal" segment that is really funny.

There is also a good AM classical station on 1660. I am not exactly sure where it comes from, (maybe KC?) but I have have heard from OK to Minn.

(Ahh, here it is: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KXTR&service=AM&status=L&hours=D )

BTW, IMHO, AM stereo always sounded better than FM stereo.
 
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Commercial radio playlists are determined almost exclusively by a half dozen or so market research companies in NYC or LA.

Increasingly, even ownership of a lot of stations is becoming concentrated in the hands of a few conglomerates; Clear Channel being probably the largest of 'em.
 
"I am not exactly sure where it comes from, (maybe KC?) but I have have heard from OK to Minn."

I remember traveling along I40 in the 60s and 70s and sometimes having fun listening to an Oklahoma City station that reached waaaaaay out there, where people from all over the midwest were calling. KOMA ?
 
XM Satellite radio used to be the place to enjoy radio free of the commercial FM lackluster experience. However, since the XM/Sirius merger, there's little to get excited about: reduced playlists, more repetitive spins, more DJ talk...aggrrhh...the saving grace is the talk radio. If you like talk radio, there's a ton of it. Thankfully, MLB is on XM/Sirius

So...internet radio or my own MP3 player it is. Slacker is an interesting service, too.
 
"Gee wisz, they should reach out. Their antenna is at 1600 feet and they put out 94,000 watts ERP:"

I remember heading east on I40 I could pick it up in Arizona, but sometimes it'd skip zone for awhile.
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
How much worse can it get?




I have a huge stash of music that I've collected for about 30+ years. If I do listen to anything, it's "Pandora" off the internet. I know it's not perfect, but it lets you request songs you love and block songs you hate.
Yea, I've also heard all the rants about compressed signal sounding [censored].
 
Here in NE Ohio we have a classic rock station whose call letters should be WPOR for "we play only Rush" and another should be called WPOP for "we play only The Police."

When I had my cd changer it would play through frequency of 89.1 After the player broke I removed it and started listening to the station more. A college station that plays classical and npr.

Even after I replace the GM radio (cassette doesn't work any longer) I'll program the college station into the new radio. Good stuff.
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Out in deep flyover country, we now have more variety with the consolidation ownership. In the past, the individual station owners all competed for audience share of a few popular formats. In the past, have been places where 5 of the 6 AM stations Icould tune it were playing Rush Linbagh. Now the same group owns all of the stations, the strongest one is given Rush, and the rest each are playing a different format giving people more choice.

Yes, there is a problem with play lists. I listen to a lot of internet radio. I am able to find stations playing what I like. Chicago Swings plays stuff I like, but I get tired of hearing Elmer's Tune a dozen times a day.
 
Originally Posted By: dwendt44
I used to listen to KOMA late at night while on guard duty in New Mexico. 1964-5.


You were in a one year long coma?
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