It's official: New York City radio sucks!

Anybody have this problem with New York Radio or wherever you are in the country?

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2016-02-20 22:10 ]

I feel your pain, or I did when I lived there.

My biggest gripe with WFMU was the dj's who love to hear themselves speak on the tapes they make of their shows. The run on and on and on and fifteen minutes later, you get a song.

I remember more than once my coworker and myself screaming at the radio for them to shut up and play some music.

It really sucked when you waited that long and they played a crap track.

New York corporate radio is no worse than corporate radio anywhere else. It sucks wherever you go.

TG

Boy, do I feel your pain! I was a serious radio junkie when I lived in southern California and suffered from MAJOR culture shock in NYC. I live a bit north of the city now and get good reception on WFMU, which is great when it's a show I like (I love the Friday evening soul show and the Tuesday evening cylinder show), but it's often a lot of yakking, which doesn't interest me much. I've tried internet radio, but now I'm just out of the radio habit, unfortunately.

When we lived in Queens. We actually had better reception on WFMU than when we lived in Manhattan or Brooklyn. I still record Mr. Fine Wine's "Downtown Soulville" every Friday night. Sometimes on Sundays Dave the Spazz will have a great garage set but I try to edit out his rants. I use Total Recorder, it works well.

Jay

[ Edited by: SallyandJay on 2004-08-26 09:16 ]

this is a shot in the dark (whether ny has them), but seriously, have you looked around on AM stations? AM that plays music typically goes for an older demographic, and if you don't mind the nursing home and dr. scholl's ads, you can get some pretty decent, if static-y, music...

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=8305&forum=6

I feel your pain even here in Wisconsin, where I live it is VERY limited selection, you have country and more country. The one good station that is new is out of Green Bay I can get if I drive in a certain area but once I cross the invisible line I lose clear reception, Milwaukee has a number of decent stations along with Madison but too far away, I need to move. And the one good local station that used to have a decent morning show dumped the morning guys so they can pump in the feed of two yakking shitheads from Milw. that do nothing but talk and tell stupid jokes that they think are hilarious. I no longer listen to this station at all, even worse, I have a friend that is a DJ at this station, and he sucks ass on the radio, he is 21 and always sounds like he is forcing it, trying to sounds a certain way, it is painful to listen too. Imagine how it feels to if you live some areas where it is down right impossible to get any signal for any station. Yeah people complain about satellite radio and other forms of radio and I can nt imagine paying for radio no matter how many stations you get. They all suck more than they shine.

May the aloha spirit be with you in all that you do.

Toa

[ Edited by: Tiki-Toa on 2004-08-26 09:08 ]

Feelin' your pain in San Diego. F'n "Clear Channel" owns 90% of the market, so they tell us what we want to hear... Which is apparently the same 5 songs every hour (Sheryl Crow, Maroon 5, Matchbox Twenty, Dixie Chicks, Creed... Repeat).

Besides that, we have the Classic Rock stations - oh, yeah... they play the same 5 bands every hour (Beatles, Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, Hendrix... Repeat)

[ Edited by: MachTiki on 2004-08-26 16:30 ]

Yeah, I think commercial radio sucks no matter where you live. These days I mostly listen to the local college stations, NPR, and A's games.

Grandpa-mode on:

Commercial radio has sucked for the last 20 years, period. I actually remember when commercial radio DJs talked only about the music, didn't talk over songs, and sometimes even played entire album sides. Who remembers the Mighty Met?

Three solutions:

1. Satellite radio. There has been a discussion of the competing services here on TC. Sounds like they both have their good and bad points, but for my money their playlists are still too limited. But that FM transmitter method blows.

2. iPod with car radio input. I just did this (new car stereo with aux input and mp3 disk capability) and it's glorius. Use the iPod or burn an entire artist's catalog onto one cd. Download books on take and rip 'em. This is the most versatile setup and is not only great for the car, but for the home, work and portable systems, too. The Kloss portable, rechargeable speaker (iPal) rules.

3. Stop listening to commercially available sounds altogether and listen only to sounds you produce yourself. Wait, that didn't sound right....

On 2004-08-26 13:09, Tiki-bot wrote:
Who remembers the Mighty Met?

Are you referring to KMET in Los Angeles? I loved those upside-down billboards when I was a kid, but preferred the ROQ of the 80's.

Dude, it is the same here in Ft lauderdale/Miami area. We also have 1 classic rock station Big 105.9 and Oldies 102.7 Magic 102. Both of them play the same playlist day in and day out. Same 3 Led zep songs, and they play Money more times than you can shake a stick at. I don't know why the dj's can't experiment a little and play other songs from classic artists. That's why I just usually burn CD's and listen to my own favorites at work and in the car.

On 2004-08-26 14:02, cynfulcynner wrote:

Are you referring to KMET in Los Angeles? I loved those upside-down billboards when I was a kid, but preferred the ROQ of the 80's.

Yeah, but KROQ didn't really "happen" til the early 80s. I was referring to the golden age of 70s FM rawk stations. You know, the songs that are now "classic" rock (which I can't bear to hear any more of).

Actually I preferred the punk/new wave stylings of KNAC in Long Beach. Then they went all speed-metal or whatever and lost me. KROQ also had a lot of what made top 40 radio so annoying: Lame call-ins, talking over songs, etc.

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but the jocks on KMET always called Bruce Springsteen "The Boss" because he owned part of the station (or perhaps Metromedia, which owned KMET). So that's where his nickname came from, for what it's worth.

http://www.kexp.org

A good radio station. There's a live internet feed. I miss KEXP a ton.

Our newish station here in LA, Indie 103.1 (http://indie1031.fm/), is a small step (a very small step) above the other corporate stations (Indie is not independent--it's partially owned by Clear Channel). There seems to be a touch more variety in their playlists, especially during Jonesy's Jukebox. It's hosted every day by Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, who is the worst and yet most endearing and tolerable DJ I've ever heard (well, Jon in the Morning on KEXP beats him out on the endearing and tolerable counts, but Jon is an outstanding DJ). Jonesy gets the songs mixed up, answers his cell phone on the air, forgets which buttons he's supposed to push, and is constantly meandering through long, pointless tales that last for minutes before remembering where he is and that he's actually supposed to play some music every once in a while. I love him.

During commercial breaks on Indie, I bounce over to KLOS, a 70s rock station. The DJs there are, for some reason, always laughing. They're never saying anything remotely funny, but boy do they crack themselves up. Blech.

Thank god for mix CDs.

Critiki - Hundreds of tiki bars, Polynesian restaurants, and other sites of interest to the tiki traveller, collector or urban archaeologist

[ Edited by: Humuhumu on 2004-08-26 16:51 ]

I'm wondering if this is a big city thing. I'm in L.A. The oldies station must repeat itself once an hour. The happy morning talk people are awful. The other stations are all imitations of one another and has anyone noticed the proliferation of Bail bondsmen advertising on the "urban"stations?

Got off the point... When I drive between L.A. and San Francisco I hear more and better music on whatever stations I can pick up. The oldies stations play EVERYTHING! There are conspiracy theorist shows at night and all sorts of other eclectic, oddball shows. Did you ever actually listen to the religious programming? It's hysterical! Who'd think the sticks would have the hip radio.

Living near a college station in a city is your best bet as it's the only creative programming around.

Clear Channel is the devil.

Radio still exists? I thought they stopped broadcasting years ago! I haven't listening to the radio since I got a CD player in my car 5 years ago and I don't even have any stations programmed on the presets. Baltimore radio almost sucks as bad as the Orioles! The only decent music stations, which I'm exposed to when in the wife's car, are either college or the free-form WRNR broadcasting out of Annapolis.

The oldies station here WQSR is the lamest piece of shit you'll ever hear...how many times does someone need to hear "Tears of a Clown?" Baltimore's "classic rock" station switched formats recently and now it’s a putrid "smooth jazz" station! Commercial radio sucks!

It's odd to think that when I listen to the radio it's usually NPR - when did I get old?

Cool! I love all these posts.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2016-02-20 22:09 ]

Ya gotta go 'round the dial & keep looking for the good stuff!

I grew up in NYC (on Staten Island) in the '70s & early '80s & listened to WNEW & WPIX (back when it was Punk & New Wave). In the mid '80s I moved to Pasadena, Ca, & listened to KROQ (where I interned for a couple years), KPCC (Pasadena City College, when it was Swing/Big Band) & KNAC (before it went Hair Metal). Later in the '80s & '90s I lived in Hollywood & listened to KROQ (going downhill fast...), KXLU (Molotov Cocktail Hour! Surf Wave!) & KEDG (When J.J. Jackson was in charge). In the '90s I lived in San Diego & listened to 91X & KIOZ (when it had interesting Metal & Hard Rock). I moved to Chicago/Kankakee in the early '00s & listened to WVLI (Wonderful Oldies/Cheese Rock) & WXRT. I've now moved back to San Diego & I listen to 95.5, KPRI & KKJZ (I can get it along the I15 & I5 corridors).

Wherever you go, there's something listenable. Look for drop-in stations, College Radio, Pirates & Public Radio. Check the extreme left & right of your dial. Check out AM radio, Cable Radio & splitting the FM signal off of your TV antenna. Keep your ears & mind open, it's out there.

Same story here, I get all the Chicago stations plus some Hoosier ones and its all the same. "Get the led out", 5 bands rotated to death on every station. Last time I checked Jimi Hendrix made more than 2 songs... (Foxy Lady, Purple Haze)Corporate radio blows. Period, plain and simple. I do agree WXRT 93.1 is about the best of the corp's but Best bet for me is college of Dupage IL has an awesome jazz station and other NPR stations are mostly what I listen to. On Sunday nights they have a world music show and occasionaly get into exotica! I do the same thing with my Sony MD Player and a radio transmitter from Rad Shack. Works great no DJ's!

Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks - Lin Yutang

[ Edited by: Dimethios on 2004-08-26 23:13 ]

On 2004-08-26 18:12, donhonyc wrote:
...when are the Clear Channels and Viacoms of the world gonna realize that nobody likes what they're putting out. They SUCK!! REAL-BAD!!

Well, somebody likes it or it would just stop. There are as many different standards for what constitutes "good music" as there are people. A lot of people just aren't interested in actively listening to music. Most people seem to not really care what they hear, aside from basic proclaimations like "I hate Country", and Clear Channel caters mostly to this demographic.

I once heard a review of Dave Matthews' music as "music for people who don't like music". To them, DM and their "adult contemorary" brethren are just a pleasant sound playing in the background of their lives that doesn't require any active thought or input. It's innocuous and disposeable. It seems as though all mainstream entertainment has gone this route: Just give 'em something to fill their ear and eye holes for a few days or weeks, then move on. This has happend to movies, music, and video games. I think it's a systemic cultural thing and not something specific to the music industry. It's all the more annoying when you come from a time when this was not the norm and all those mediums were more adventurous and interesting.

I have to agree. It's gotten to the point that I don't listen to the radio anymore- just CDs. The problem is that you miss out on the limited amount of new music that comes out. I don't usually pick up on it for a while after it comes out (and then, mostly from commercials on TV). Now that I mention it, I don't watch commercial TV much anymore, either. I think all broadcasting pretty much sucks these days.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2017-04-30 19:39 ]

if y're in the nyc area & trying to find something decent on the dial, try wbgo 88.3. it's quite possibly the greatest jazz station in the u.s. they've been broadcasting out of newark for 25 yrs.

i can't say i love 100% of their playlists, but more often than not, i'm satisfied. & it's not "smooth jazz" schlock. it's good mainstream jazz (you know, coltrane, davis, monk, etc) w/ what seems to me to be an emphasis on the 40's thru the 70's.

& if you can pick it up, wprb 103.3 (princeton's station) has very eclectic programming, but it can be pretty hit or miss depending on the show/dj/etc.

It is true that New York radio sucks, but never fear i know downtown soulville has a podcast. The adress is wfmu.org/podcast/sv.xml

On 2004-08-26 01:37, TikiGardener wrote:
I feel your pain, or I did when I lived there.

My biggest gripe with WFMU was the dj's who love to hear themselves speak on the tapes they make of their shows. The run on and on and on and fifteen minutes later, you get a song.

I remember more than once my coworker and myself screaming at the radio for them to shut up and play some music.

It really sucked when you waited that long and they played a crap track.

New York corporate radio is no worse than corporate radio anywhere else. It sucks wherever you go. Amen brother here in San Antonio we have a collage radio station called KSYM and a jazz station called KRTU. Those stations are the best stations in the city. Most stations in San Antonio are just no good. 99.5 KISS boo hiss! Try programing a better station! Radio pirates try not to get busted and give corparate radio a run for thier money!

TG