I don't listen to the radio anymore.

[Har]

Here in the Philly area we just lost one of the two remaining rock radio stations that had bothered playing anything new at all, good or bad (versus, say, classic-rawk-only stations): in advance of Howard Stern leaving the station and going to satillite radio next month, they decided to over-compensate and get rid of music for the most part altogether, going to the format of all talk/lame Stern wannabes instead who mostly spend all their time doing stuff like making crank phonecalls on the air, making endlessly witty comments to each other like "dude, you, like, totally suck" and giggling amongst themselves. If you want music on that station now, you're screwed until later in the evening...though during football season you'll usually get that only instead of music for the duration of the game.

So as far as "terrestrial radio" is concerned whilst driving in the car, about all I'm bothering to try to listen to anymore is the one remaining non-all-classic-rawk station (which I honestly don't find very interesting most of the time), the one decent NPR station (which still tends to play more folky/bluesy/earthy-crunchy stuff than I prefer), and the local all-news station. And honestly, these days I find myself enjoying the all-news station more.

When not in the car, my wife and I tend to listen to various streaming online stations like SomaFM, Stillstream, and angeldustrial.com. To help make it even more "radio-ish" throughout the house, I recently got one of those LineX USB FM transmitters that lets you blast your computer's audio to any FM radio throughout the house within a 30+ foot radius, so you don't have to be near the computer to listen...works great. It's great fun to listen to angeldustrial, Drone Zone or Groove Salad whilst, say, in the kitchen.

[danielmm]

LineX USB FM transmitters

I'm going to have to check one of these out....

Satelite radio should hold some promiss to maybe???maybe not...

dano

[Har]

LineX USB FM transmitters

I'm going to have to check one of these out....

Here's the one I got: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/mp3/6f4e/

[zircon]

Eh. I don't fault the radio stations. They play what's popular. They don't dictate what people listen to, people choose whether or not to like something. I'm sure at some point or another all of you have run into people where you play some electronic tracks and they just don't dig it. Their tastes might mature over time, but you can't force it, just as one cannot force Bones to listen to bubblegum pop.

In the meantime, we have satellite and internet radio. We're set.

[sqook]

Eh. I don't fault the radio stations. They play what's popular. They don't dictate what people listen to, people choose whether or not to like something.

Unfortunately, this is not true. Radio stations don't play what people want to hear, they play what the bigwigs at the top of the food chain tell them to. Clear Channel, which owns >80% of commercial radio stations in the US (last time I checked) has a number of very strict rules regarding what stations can and cannot play... and guess who's buying the hottest spots on these playlists?
Usually, the playlists boil down to tracks that are "approved" for use on the air, with certain tracks being required to have so many plays per day or week, encouraging more mediocrity and repetitiveness. Some stations don't even have that much control.... they use radio automation software and what goes out on the air is completely out of their hands. For awhile, I was developing an open-source radio automation suite, so I became familiar with the tools that other radio stations use and how their playlists are basically given to them from the top down.

I used to work in a college radio station which was independent, but gave us a taste of the commercial radio world around us. We weren't controlled by CC, but we'd see the playlists once in awhile and get word of tracks that were "unapproved" for various asinine reasons... (you should have seen the giant blacklist of songs they released right after 9/11. God forbid that someone should hear "Rock the Casbah" or "New York, New York" and be brought to tears by being reminded about current events).

Anyways, I don't mean to be cynical, but the whole industry is basically being monopolized and sold to the highest bidder. Most people aren't aware of this because of general apathy, but they do seem to notice the astonishing lack of quality on the radio and never question why it exists. Part of this is because commercial radio stations do a good enough job of not letting people catch wind of it, but for the most part, people are content just mindlessly switching the channel to other CC controlled stations. Do some googling if you want to find out more...

I'm sure at some point or another all of you have run into people where you play some electronic tracks and they just don't dig it.

Americans just don't get electronic music. I think it's the lack of words that confuses them. That and the fact that they're too attached to rock-n-roll.

[BONES]

Eh. I don't fault the radio stations. They play what's popular. They don't dictate what people listen to, people choose whether or not to like something. I'm sure at some point or another all of you have run into people where you play some electronic tracks and they just don't dig it. Their tastes might mature over time, but you can't force it, just as one cannot force Bones to listen to bubblegum pop.

Brilliantly thought-out. Just one problem - if all tha tpeople are exposed to is what they hear on the radio, and for the majority of people that is the case, then how are they supposed to hear a full range of styles so that they are able to objectively decide that what they consume from the radio is really the best stuff out there for them?
If it weren't for 2JJ in the late 70's and early 80's, a government-run alternative music station, I would still only have about a dozen albums in my collection and I would think that people who really loved music were a bit strange.
I have no idea how young poeple today find out about any kind of alternative music in Sydney, now that JJ has become JJJ, gone national and now just plays Top 40 hits a month before the're in the Top 40 and calls itself a youth network. you can say that they find stuff on the 'net but you'd have to agree that if you didn't know what your were looking for you could spend a lifetime on the 'net and not really find much of interest. I've certainly never found much worth listening to that I didn't already know about.
And don't knock bubblegum pop, teh first LP I ever owned was 20 Power Hits which featured Yummy Yummy Yummy and Hay Ride. All classic stuff.

[Warmonger]

I already wrote my thoughts on the topic a while ago right here.

[bongo_x]

I think what confuses people is the assumption that the stations are trying to play the best of something or something that someone wants. It's not true. They figured out a while back that what they really need to play is whatever makes the least people change the station. It sounds like a subtle distinction but it's not. They are not trying to find good new songs or play anyones favorite old songs, they just trying to fill time with something that doesn't offend the largest number of people ENOUGH to change the station. It's OK if you don't like it as long as less people HATE it. They're not trying to be your favorite station, they don't have to, there's no competition. They are just trying to have a station that's inoffensive enough that it's the one some people hate the least and will put it on even though it's not what they really want and won't bother to turn it off.

So it's not your imagination that it all seems generic, and you're not just that much cooler than everyone else, it's generic by design. It' supposed to be generic to the most generic person out there.

Billy

[zircon]

Some good points, I admit. However..

"how are they supposed to hear a full range of styles so that they are able to objectively decide that what they consume from the radio is really the best stuff out there for them? "

This I sort of disagree with. If this is the case, then how does any young person get into making electronic music or some other genre that's not dominating the radio currently? I know I personally used to listen to all pop music. But one day, someone gave me a link to a site that had a lot of video game arrangements on it, and I decided to give it a shot. Once I got into that, I began listening to more and more stuff and eventually expanded my tastes significantly.

I've done the same thing to other people. I'll link them to that same site and say "this is really great music", and they'll go to it, download a few tracks, but then not really change their opinion. That's the difference. You have to WANT to expand your tastes and broaden your horizons. Some people don't want to.

[danielmm]

I think that we all can agree that the internet has saved independent thought and expression. Asides from some of the sick shit you can find on the internet, music has benefited from it for sure....

dano

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Broadcast radio sucks around here - the last good rock station got turned into a Hispanic-language station to pull in more money (it IS a business, I guess). There's one last classic rock station (my clock-radio has it set as my alarm), and the good edgy indie station is in Berkeley and doesn't reach down here damn it all. Electronic music? Maybe the late-night New-Age show that sometimes pops up randomly, but other than that.. forget it.

I don't own a TV either, I watch DVDs on the computer if I want some mindless entertainment (or surf KVR lol). If I want to watch football etc. I go out to the pub, it's more fun than sitting at home watching it.

So, where do I learn about new music? Right here, or streamed down from someplace (Digitally Imported ROCKS by the way). The last 5 CDs I've bought were based on hearing about them HERE (scary)!

I just load up my MP3 player and listen to tunes to/from work on the bus and train (finally car-free again, hooray), that way I don't have to tolerate the predigested pop pandered to the populace over the airwaves.

Commercial radio and TV have a purpose, for sure - to keep the happily mindless sheep quietly in line. But it's not for me.

[BONES]

If this is the case, then how does any young person get into making electronic music or some other genre that's not dominating the radio currently?

That's kind of my point, they don't. Especially given the equally poor state of live musi caround here [Sydney]. That's the biggest part of the problem - alternative scenes have become more and more marginalised, eithe rthat or they've become main-stream.
20 years ago there were half-a-dozen top-notch import record stores in Sydney and they were all doing OK. Hell, I even opened a Goth/Industrial store and we did alright for a while. Then, within a few years of JJJ going national, they were all closed down except two, well before the 'net would have had any negative impact. Now there is only one and they are a shadow of their former glory. That's even more alarming when you consider that the big chains are so much more specialised than they were then, too. You cannot get anything from a suburban music store that is not Top 20 over here.

I know I personally used to listen to all pop music. But one day, someone gave me a link to a site that had a lot of video game arrangements on it, and I decided to give it a shot. Once I got into that, I began listening to more and more stuff and eventually expanded my tastes significantly.

You have to WANT to expand your tastes and broaden your horizons. Some people don't want to.

I never did. I jusr assumed that music was what I heard on the radio and that was it. It never even occurred to me that alternatives might exist. But then again, in the 70's there probably weren't too many alternatives until punk so maybe that accounts for my attitude back then.

I think that we all can agree that the internet has saved independent thought and expression. Asides from some of the sick shit you can find on the internet, music has benefited from it for sure....

I couldn't agree less. The internet has not done one single thing for me, music-wise, that I couldn't once get through magazines like Industrial Nation, which was once easy to buy and is now all but invisible over here. The 'net has just replaced older things with somethig infinitely less coherent and ultimately far less useful. I've not found one new artist that I like on the 'net. Ever.

I don't own a TV either, I watch DVDs on the computer if I want some mindless entertainment

That's just dumb. There are some incredibly good TV shows. I'd rather watch an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street or Law & Order than 90% of films I've seen in the past 10 years.

[Z3R0T0N1N]

if any of you can pick up CBC radio one, or two i think... god i can never get them straight, the only one i know for sure is CBC radio 3
anyway.....
check out a show called brave new waves. They have been on since the late seventies, as far as i know, and it's great listening.
In canada we are lucky enough to have a public broadcasting company that still gets its money from the state.
of course, if steven "heil" harper gets elected, he will put an end to anything like that, but that is another story.
Radio 3 just got going as a full time station, and that will be quite good, as far as i know. Lots of good music.
These things can be picked up online, and through radio canada international ( i think. someone correct me if i am wrong)
Just some ideas.

[Hovmod]

When I was a teenager it didn't even occur to me to listen to the radio. When I went to th states as an exchange student I was shocked to learn that *everybody* were listening to top40 radio shite, and I didn't meet one person who owned more than ten LPs or cassettes. (I had a couple hundred LPs, loads of copied tapes and my collection was by no means concidered big by the people I hung out with)

I still don't concider radio interesting as a source of music. It's good for news, because they spend more time talking about stuff than they do on tv.

[advaya]

And don't knock bubblegum pop, the first LP I ever owned was 20 Power Hits which featured Yummy Yummy Yummy and Hay Ride. All classic stuff.

From outa nowhere!