Radio (Gah!...Gah!)

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TragicWhiteKnight: We have a TV thread, we have a music thread, so this one should fill in some gaps.

Simple enough topic: do you listen to the radio? What are your pet peeves? And what features and presentation drives you wild with delight?

This is cunningly disguised market research for my revamped show starting next term; so any advice you can give about playlisting, additional content, overall attitude etc. , will all be accepted freely (and without payment).

 

[Pecker]

Little on the radio will piss me off more than the DJ talking over the beginning or end of a song. DJ's don't get paid by the word and listeners don't tune in to hear your voice, just the music. :-X

Pecker

(Cole's Law: thinly sliced cabbage.)

 

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gigantikok: I listen to all 80's stations, and when I can't listen to that, I usually go for talk radio.

Gotta love that 80's! :

 

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awellhungboi: I can't say there's anything about American radio that drives me 'wild with delight.' The only radio station I listen to is WCPE

www.theclassicalstation.org

which is a very good station, and amazingly, local. Although some of their announcers talk too much these days for my tastes. Their morning announcer, however, is first-rate--one of your countrymen, TWK, and he is quite personable and witty. Although his name escapes me.

The UNC student station, WXYC, is pretty good, although I haven't listened to it in years. The most annoying thing about college dj's is their propensity to babble endlessly, enamored by the novelty of being on the radio, I suppose--or joke around with their pals drinking with them in the studio. Although you're a very witty guy, TWK, so I imagine it would be enjoyable to listen to you talk for a while.

I abhor, however, slickness and attitude--which characterizes much of American radio.

(This is the longest post I have ever written.)

 

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Longhornjok: Well, here in Southern California, KROQ has fun "flashback" lunches during the week and they tend to play a lot of newer progressive/alternative/whatever groups before most mass-market stations, but I listen to KCRW more often. It's the flagship NPR station in Los Angeles, so I can get some news, some p-o-v stuff, but also Harry Shearer's hysterical Le Show, Ira Glass's This American Life (home to David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, among others), the political discourse of Left, Right, and Center, and great music shows like Morning Becomes Eclectic, Metropolis, New Ground, and The Open Road.

www.kroq.com

www.kcrw.com

 

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sammygirly: I'm not particularly fond of any song less than 10 years old being called "Classic Rock".

Pearl Jam and Nirvana are NOT classic rock

 

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wvalady1968: [quote author=sammygirly link=board=99;num=1064173267;start=0#5 date=09/21/03 at 16:29:57]I'm not particularly fond of any song less than 10 years old being called "Classic Rock".

[/quote]


You're SO right!!

 

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Longhornjok: Well, actually "Nevermind" and "Ten" were released in 1991, so they've come of age if 10 years is the cut-off.

 

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7x6andchg: Oh my God!

I LOOOOVE the radio. I listen to the radio far more than I watch TV.

I like NPR (National Public Radio for our foreign friends), I like WBIZ (Z-100 out of Eau Claire) for Top 40, and WIAL (I-94, one of those adult contemporary stations) out of Eau Claire...I like to listen to the radio on the way into work, at work, on the way home.....

I could prattle on and on, but to answer TWK's question - the one thing that bothers me about American radio is the consolidation of the whole medium...it certainly doesn't help to keep things creative or different.

7x6&C

 

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AnonyMs: It's funny - NPR became PRI (Public Radio International) a few years back, but we all still call it NPR.  

 

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longtimelurker: What I really hate is when stations play 'fun' songs - songs which should be consigned to the musical equivalent of the compost heap.

The most recent one that I can think of is 'The fast food song', can't remember who by - it made me cringe so much that I had to either turn the radio off or change stations whenever it came on. I actually did permanently change my morning alarm clock station because they seemed to play it every single damned morning!

 

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TragicWhiteKnight: But...but...my radio-show consists entirely of 'fun' songs. Although pure crap like 'The Fast Food Song', 'The Macarena' and whatever wannabe summer anthem that gets repeated airplay, we'd never touch with a vinyl bargepole. Though I have played the Chipmunks...

My pet peeves on student radio are:

* People doing a show that consists of such "wide-ranging" music as Britney Spears and Nirvana and having the gall to call themselves 'eclectic'. No, they are people who cannot produce a consist show and lack the rudimentary musical knowledge to explore truly different genres and should not be allowed near a CD player, let alone any kind of radio bandwidth.

* People who play the Beatles outside of classic rock shows. If you like the Beatles, you hear enough of them as it is and probably own the CDs. I heard them played on a hip-hop show, ferrchrissakes...

 

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longtimelurker: Hmm, there is a fine balance between Eugh! 'fun' and honestly funny 'fun'. Bearing in mind your target audience, the Chipmunks can count as nostalgia, so you can pass it. But if I hear reports of Bob the Builder or the Tellytubby theme gracing the Cambridge airwaves I may have to catch the first flight to Stansted with a big mallet!

Fully agree with you about genre-crossing. People will listen to a show because they like that style of music - playing a mish-mash of everything wont get you true fans. That's why I tend to listen to Virgin (when I can get reception :-/), as they always play the type of music that I like (that's indie/rock for those that can't get it - although it is available on-line - highly reccomended!).

 

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7x6andchg: I did not know that, Nony...I still make my (albeit small) pledge checks out to WPR in Madison...you mean it goes into the hands of some foreign conglomerate?

7x6&C