The Spirit of the Radio

[Warmonger]

Well, that didn't go how I expected it to.

[Sicklecell666]

Well, that didn't go how I expected it to.

oopsie!

I forgot this thread was actually about something..



Nope, no radio here..

[androidlove]

I listen to All Comedy Radio in the car or the john.

I like to think about tunes I'm working on while driving.

[dystonia_ek]

I stopped listening to the radio when I quit dj'ing on it - I did a long-running noise show on community FM from 1986 to 2002 - migrated with me when I changed cities. Brave New Waves on CBC Radio was a constant back when Brent Bambury was hosting and they were still on the full 6-hour format - all that crazy shit from about 2am onward was loads of fun. The days of Whitehouse on government-sponsored stations are gone now though.

[vurt]

radio is for people who dont have a clue wht they want to listen to,otherwise theyd play a cd

[Warmonger]

It's also good for people who are too cheap/poor to own a substantial CD collection Having heard every CD I own probably 50 or more times, hearing new music in different genres than I usually listen to is a nice change. And since it's a public radio station, I get the added bonus of hearing grown men and women with jobs beg me for $10 (a month, that is) every couple of months.

Another nice thing about this particular station is the emphasis on the local music scene, which I would otherwise know nothing about.

[Ian Stone]

No radio here either. If we were to take a survey I'd bet that the radio industry has taken a beatin from the Web. The advertising dollars are now in Google and Amazon. Sweet justice. It's what they get for playing the same songs over and over again.

[Ian Stone]

Hey Sickle, did you crawl back into your deep, dark ambient crevice under the toilet?

[Morgaxx]

I got to Toronto in 95, and tuned into the Edge. Six months later I tuned out. All I heard was Wheezer(which I really liked), Garbage(also good), Blur/Oasis (whatever happened with that lot?), that Gwen Stefani band and NIN. All decent listening, but it was the same songs every 1.5 hours. "Retro Nooner" was the only variety, and that was an hour a day (not even what the station was about (its called the Edge?). That did it for contempory radio for me. Personally I find more variety in stations that are not one big commercial for this months releases. I know all radio is a commercial but this was ridiculous. As others said in another thread "Brave New Waves" (and "Night Lines" for the weekends) was the best choice in Canadian radio, in my honest opinion.
These days I enjoy web broadcasts due to a general lack of advertising and some nice genre specific choice.

[Morgaxx]

To pricklecell666 and ZZ...keep it up fellas...my moneys on ZZ

a test of the quick reply...

[Steven West]

radio is for people who dont have a clue wht they want to listen to,otherwise theyd play a cd

Not so true my good man... Many RARE songs can still be educational, yet unobtainable for the masses - as these 'golden oldie stations' have been given some rare gems that are only archived at the station.

And the DJ's are obtainable via e-mail and offer more insight to the rare birds than All Music Guide et al.

If Royskopp really wants to credit the original writers that did 'Blue On Blue' that they blatenly sampled on their Melody AM cd - get in touch with Brian Peroff at AM740. He's a walking encyclopedia of those rare gems.

[vurt]

It's also good for people who are too cheap/poor to own a substantial CD collection Having heard every CD I own probably 50 or more times, hearing new music in different genres than I usually listen to is a nice change. And since it's a public radio station, I get the added bonus of hearing grown men and women with jobs beg me for $10 (a month, that is) every couple of months.

Another nice thing about this particular station is the emphasis on the local music scene, which I would otherwise know nothing about.

well radio over here genrally isnt like that,no actual stations devoted to anything really cept oldies or new top 40 stuff
there is the odd show for aquired tastes i suppose but not enough to have me tuned in at 4 am on athursday mornin.

[Peel]

I really liked 102.1 back in my early high school days, but sometime in the early 90s they switched to a more market-aware format -- still decent music as far as current pop music goes, but not much that was outside the mainstream. A couple of times in the past few years I've flipped it on & I usually hear something like Sum41, Nickleback, (new) U2, etc... "Commercial alternative."
Better than your average Clear Channel station for sure, but still a world away from your typical university or public station...

[Glassback]

It's also good for people who are too cheap/poor to own a substantial CD collection Having heard every CD I own probably 50 or more times, hearing new music in different genres than I usually listen to is a nice change. And since it's a public radio station, I get the added bonus of hearing grown men and women with jobs beg me for $10 (a month, that is) every couple of months.

Another nice thing about this particular station is the emphasis on the local music scene, which I would otherwise know nothing about.

well radio over here genrally isnt like that,no actual stations devoted to anything really cept oldies or new top 40 stuff
there is the odd show for aquired tastes i suppose but not enough to have me tuned in at 4 am on athursday mornin.

Classic fm, Jazz fm, Silk fm (soul), miriads of pirates, dozens of community stations (and you should know as you did a show on one of them!), people (like me) who specialise in playing unsigned acts whenever I'm on air...
and that's just off the top of my head.

There are plenty of specialist stations in this country - just surf that dial, see what you find.

But for the most part, I have to agree that mainstream radio in this country is shite.
There's a reason for that - it's called the Radio Authority.

Little known facts dept, pt 5,763.97:
The reason there's not enough variety as there could be on British Radio is that the Radio Authority are jobsworths who take the letter of their "guidelines" too literally.
The guidelines state that each city should have a variety of music available over the airwaves.
The radio authority interpret this to mean there can be only ONE type of a particular station in any city.
For instance, we can't open a dance station in Manchester because Galaxy claim to be Manchesters Number One Dance Station. Although I personally fail to see what's dance about Galaxy's general output.
And we can't open a soul station because of Silk. etc etc.
So we have to be clever and describe our musical policy as Indie and Dance or some other weird concoction, just to get a license. That description (Indie and Dance) has caused us a few problems, too.
It's OK written down, but you try saying it out loud.
No - we don't specialise in Indian Dance!


For people who can't decide which CD to play?
Well, I for one owe a large percentage of my music collection to the likes of John Peel and other lesser DJ's who whack good tunes on that I just have to seek out.
So I may well not have a lot of the stuff I have got if it weren't for certain radio presenters.
And a lot of bands that we like now wouldn't have got their break were it not for radio.

[Glassback]

dozens of community [radio] stations (and you should know as you did a show on one of them!)

*ahem*
The vurt radio show.
*ahem*

5 grand should secure a copy for you.
And if you want an unedited 'warts and all' version, that should be at least doubled.