The Death of Radio

Maybe I am way behind the times, but I still listen to the radio. In Sacramento there is a great Smooth Jazz station (94.7), an Oldies/Goodies (92.1) and an awesome Alternative Rock (106.5) that I regularly tune into. When in the Bay Area I listened to a great Smooth Jazz station (103.7) which had early morning shows hosted by Ramsey Lewis...so neat.

This week, the SF Jazz Station 103.7 went top 40 and tomorrow, the Alternative Rock 106.5 will no longer exist. I guess the prediction...death of free radio...may becoming reality????

Since I travel all over Northern California for my job, I need constant music (besides CDs) so wonder if XM or Serius is the best way to go? What are the advantages or disadvantages of each...besides having to pay...ARGH!!!

Man, I can't stand when you turn on your favorite station and SURPRIZE! Here's some crap!

Silly question, but do you have an iphone or ipod touch? There are several free apps for iphone that are music related, such as AOL Radio that can tune in any station in the US. There's also a Pandora app, plus several radio stations all over the world have their own apps. (Such as LA's Indie103.1 They were taken off the air so they started their own wireless/internet station). I just plug mine into my car stereo. You can also play them through your computer via itunes.

My cousin has satellite radio for her car. When we take road trips I notice that they only play about 40 songs then rotate them. Sometimes they'll throw in a new song. We are constantly hitting the search to find an alternative. Can't remember which service, but that was really annoying. Probably not so much for short drives. Other than that they have an amazing assortment of music stations and talk radio. Hard to run out of things to listen to.

Radio died in about 1995 I think. :)

I have Sirius it is so much better than radio. I can stay in my own little 1985 nuwave heaven for as long as I want, I can listen to Sinatra all day long, I can listen to Real Jazz instead of Candy Ass Jazz.
I call my wife's smooth jazz Candy Ass and she calls real jazz Scary Ass jazz. Go figure!?

Radio gives you jazz stations that play Santana & Phil Collins and hard rock stations that play Smashing Pumpkins & Sublime. This is a big reason radio has died for me.

On Sirius the main stations I listen to are Soul Town, Chill, 1st Wave, Real Jazz and Sinatra.

THERE ARE NO COMMERCIALS!!!

I listen to the radio so I hear new songs to download, but the commercials are a pain in the butt. Seems that the "Big-Ass Block of Rock" has been replaced by the "Big-Ass Block of Commercials" We had toyed with the idea of satellite radio for long trips but our Toy(ota) has an MP3 compatible CD player (about 200 songs) and an aux jack to plug the MP3 player into so I can't see paying for radio.

I have a new car with a fabulous Bose stereo and even a hard drive to download to, so shouldn't be a big problem accessing music. I don't listen to sports or talk radio and yes the commercials suck (but that is how free radio stays in business). No iPhone, but have the iPod and can listen to that or mp3. I do agree about Candy Ass Jazz...I never liked the mix of 70's soul music with Jazz. I do listen to XMChill on Direct TV at home and it is wonderful.

I want to stay up with all the new songs/artists, so assume that satellite radio provides this to the listener? I like to hear about the traffic issues too, which I hear is an option. Maybe I should check with my car dealership and see if I can get some kind of a free subscription to try it out.

Thanks for all the help.

Not sure if this would help in the car situation, but I have found myself listening to a lot of Luxuriamusic.com and I think it's a great resource for all sorts of vintage/eclectic music. It's a member supported volunteer site, so I like to support them as I do the other stations in my area, even though they are in California (ah the power of the internet!)

I am lucky to live in an area where there is some decent non-commercial radio (WXPN for recent stuff, WRTI for jazz) and even a Sounds of Your Life AM station that I listen to in the car when I want to feel like an old lady! I rarely turn the dial out of the noncom end of the pool because I feel like I hear enough new crap out when I'm shopping, pumping gas.

in the four or five years of having satellite radio I have never been unhappy with what i heard.
Every 15 or 20 minutes I was disappointed with regular radio.

Vamp, should you go satellite get a portable style receiver. That way you can bring it with you. House, car, work, hotel.

I do not have satellite stuff yet so to hear real jazz (and real blues on weekend), I listen to K-JZZ. You can hear great music but...

I really feel guilty for saying this but....

pledge drives are more annoying than commercials.

Yea, yea, they are necessary and to have more pure music broadcast and for the station to have any integrity, the pledge drives are necessary but...

OK. got that off my chest

[ Edited by: King Bushwich the 33rd 2009-05-25 15:12 ]

"...pledge drives are more annoying than commercials.Yea, yea, they are necessary and to have more pure music broadcast and for the station to have any integrity, the pledge drives are necessary but..."

They're especially necessary for the radio staff who've had cushie jobs for years.

Here in Seattle on the indie/alternative KEXP the gawdawful John In The Morning who does the M-F AM show makes (as of 3 years ago) $90,000 a year. (The year he got that raise they made it retroactive and he was paid $125,000.) That $90,000 + a year comes from...You the listeners!

Public radio could employ new broadcast grads for 3 year stints at low wages and they'd always have more people applying than they could hire.

Anyway...

I get XM/Sirius over the Direct TV and really like it. The old country station plays an endless variety of music and I am always hearing cuts I've never heard before.

The variety of stations is great (and we only get a few). If I were on the road regularly I think it'd be well worth the money.

And better than getting rid of the commercials: Getting rid of the BLAH BLAH BLAH Heads who all now believe we tune into the radio to find out what they watched on TV last night.

Luckily here in Santa Cruz we have KZSC 88.1 the local collage radio station that plays a little of EVERYTHING depending on just who is spinning the tunes and the DJ's rotate every day so it's never boring and no commercials. This is also the home of KPIG 107.5 (the old KFAT) who staved off corporate buyouts for decades and when they finally were, management fought to keep the eclectic format the same and most sponsor adds are for local, non corporate businesses. They also were the very first radio station to stream live on the net, kpig.com, pretty kewl...

Radio in Los Angeles is dead. With indie 103 dying this past February, everything else is crap and even indie toward the end was crap. The major stations in L.A. - KLOS, Jack FM and this new one that had potential for about three weeks The SOUND, All play waaay too much Supertramp That's Right SUPERTRAMP IN 2009!!! and they play Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA like it was released yesterday :roll:. KROQ the Rock of the 80's/90's is still non stop with the Rock of the 80's & 90's? I don't know if they've gone 15 years without playing at least one Rage Against the Machine song every 90 minutes (and I like Rage Against the Machine) Didn't Kurt Cobain die in 1994? Not according to their play lists and coming up next we got The Offspring! :o

It's very sad.

Yeah yeah yeah, mainstream country music sucks. But y'know what sucks even more? Mainstream country radio.

They'll play a fairly crappy song titled Johnny Cash but they won't actually play any songs by Johnny Cash. Then after the fairly crappy music the on air "personalities" come on and talk for 7 minutes about American Idol or make such pointless jokes and laugh so much that they must be stoned. Then 6 minutes of commercials. Then 2 minutes of explosion sounds and song clip crammed station promos with a "Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!!!" type announcer telling you how amazing the station is and how much music they play. Then Rascal Flatts.

Yeah, that's all old news. So here's why I'm venting...

Shooter Jennings is coming to the Seattle area and this weekend 100.7 The Wolf (Seattle's biggest and worst country radio station) is giving away tickets to Shooter's show. Nothing unusual with all that except The Wolf never friggin ever plays Shooter Jennings' music and never ever would.

What's even funnier is the station is making a big deal about giving away the tickets all weekend with these loud exploding voice promos that say something along the lines "Shooter Jennings has authorized 100.7 The Wolf to make this weekend super cool!!!"

Why "super cool"? because the Shooter Jennings promo is also tied to a Wendy's new coffee Frosty promo.

Huh?

I wonder if anyone at 100.7 The Wolf has ever heard any Shooter Jennings songs.

Sample Shooter Jennings lyric:

He spread us all along the highway, cuffed us all and turned us away
And started pokin’ round the truck for cake
And we all stood there high as a kite, and he found it alright
And don’t y’all make light of the number one dope dog in the state
That mutt found the joint in my pocket that was buried and locked up
In the back of the trailer underneath the guitars and the piano seat
And off we went to jail all locked up in a cell
Charged with possession of that sweet leaf

OK, maybe the tie in with a fast food joint makes sense.

But hey, 100.7 The Wolf! Yuh know what would be ha-ha-hee-larry-ass??? When your station is giving away tickets to a particular artist wouldn't it be somethin' else if you actually played some of that artist's music?

What's that? You would but if you did you wouldn't be able to play a Rascal Flatts song that hour and your listeners might change the station if they hear something new and unfamiliar?

Oh, sorry. For a moment I forgot that you suck rocks.

UPDATE! After 6 or more hellacious hours of Seattle's worst country music station, 100.7 The Wolf, (during which they didn't play a single Shooter Jennings song) I winned me some Shooter Jennings tickets. On air I corrected them about what day the show they're giving away tickets to is achulky happening.

If it weren't for all the morons in the world how would the rest of us feel so dang smart?

(below the line)

woofmutt

[ Edited by: woofmutt 2009-06-13 23:03 ]