Radio Grievance

Hurdy Gurdy Man

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Don't know bout the classic rock stations in YOUR town,but here in Boston,there are a couple of rock radio grievances I have to air and maybe they're somewhat relatable to you.Firstly,WAY too much Tom Petty...second,why so much Night Ranger "Sister Chrtistian" and lastly,is it me or is "Nothing Else Matters" just about the most overrated "classic" rock tune ever?I understand it's about a man trying to survive some of life's most agonizing occusrances,but is just SO depressing and uninspired in my opinion...and just how many frigen songs exactly has John Mellencamp written about his hometown of Seymore,Indiana?My GOD "Pink Houses","Jack and Diane","Cherry Bomb",For a man who claims he comes from an extremely humble community,he sure has a lot to say on the matter for someone from such beginings.....AND TOO MUCH KANSAS "WAYWARD SON"!!
 

Powerage

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In the UK we have natioanl radio station Planet Rock. They do an excellent job in my opinion. One thing that stands out for me though is they seem to play Metallica's The Unforgiven all the time.
 

Speed King

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I live in Northern Illinois, we only have one classic rock radio station. They play Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, and other "hair spray" rock almost constantly. They also play Journey way too much. They will play good bands along with the "tripe". But only about 3 or 4 of the band's most popular songs. I only listen to the radio on my way to and from work, but in that time (every day), they manage to play a Def Leppard, a Bon Jovi, and at least one Journey song, it's a 20 min drive each way. Would it kill them to play some non house wife music for me on the way to and from work?
 
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Old Dude

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It doesn't much matter where you live in the US. There are a handful of consulting companies that do all the programming for classic rock (or sometimes called "classic hits") radio stations. It's the same for every other music genre as well. They pick the songs by starting with a relatively small collection of former hit records from the era in question. Then they bring a few hundred people in their target demographic into an auditorium. Each test subject gets an electronic voting button. They play a little snippet of each record, and ask the group if (1) they recognize the song and (2) if they like the song. The results of that testing determines what songs get placed into heavy rotation. At least, that's the theory. Record companies that are still selling old recordings from their old catalog are not above offering incentives to get their catalog songs more airplay. An act whose record label went out of business, and whose old records are no longer being sold, won't get their old recordings played. Try lurking in radio industry forums sometimes. The suits who run radio make no secret of these practices, and in fact defend them as the best way to give the radio listening public what they want to hear.
 

Roxi

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The suits are clueless. Why do they think music radio is half dead, what with Pandora, iHeart Radio, Spotify, and all the other streaming services that let you create your own playlists? From tons of different genres, artists, original songs, remixes, live versions, etc.?

Classic Rock and/or Classic Hits stations just suck because they play the same 3 songs of the same 10 artists over and over again. If a DJ, oh, I'm sorry, a "radio personality" 'goes off the reservation' and plays something not on the approved list, they can get fired, so they don't do it.

It's all the same day in day out night after night. There's a song title in there somewhere. ;)
 

Hurdy Gurdy Man

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Maybe instead of having some sort of pre-arranged format,they should model themselves after the college based stations where the DJ gets to play things he's really in the mood for and feels should satisfy his listening audience.When they format things only with almighty doilar in mind,they stoop to the level of all those nitwit TV commercial producers who disgustingly utilize some really great old tunes just to peddle vartious wares and services..........
 

Romulus

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I think it should be an abstract mind which chooses the songs to play, that way the listener is more often left guessing whats next than predicting the same song (probably on the same time as well....), yet keeping the choices within the context of the title of the show.
 

Old Dude

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Maybe instead of having some sort of pre-arranged format,they should model themselves after the college based stations where the DJ gets to play things he's really in the mood for and feels should satisfy his listening audience.When they format things only with almighty doilar in mind,they stoop to the level of all those nitwit TV commercial producers who disgustingly utilize some really great old tunes just to peddle vartious wares and services..........

I think it should be an abstract mind which chooses the songs to play, that way the listener is more often left guessing whats next than predicting the same song (probably on the same time as well....), yet keeping the choices within the context of the title of the show.

The suits will swear on a stack of Arbitron ratings books (which is more important to them than the Bible) that the "college station" format won't attract a mass audience. And all they care about is as big a mass audience as they can attract. They sell commercial time to other suits from the advertising industry. The advertising suits just want raw numbers of "listeners" in their key demographic. To them, "listeners" are people who have the radio turned on, even if it's only for background noise and they aren't paying any attention to it. Consider that we are here in the Classic Rock Forum because we seriously into classic rock. We're not typical or even average radio listeners. We care about music. So we're not the audience they radio suits want to reach. Hell, I'm 67 years old. I not only listen to classic rock, I play classic rock on guitar! But I'm older than the target market, so no radio suit gives a damn if I tune them in or not. I don't count. I don't matter.

Radio suits also believe that serious music fans, if they hear even one shitty song, will change the station because they're actually paying attention. They don't want that. They also think that casual listeners get confused if they hear a song that they don't know or aren't expecting to hear. Now, in the UK, radio shows might have titles. Here in the US, they don't. Over here, stations are just non-stop juke boxes, and the "personalities" change every few hours, but they're never any different. On most stations, only the morning drive-time DJs are actually live. The rest of the day, the programming is voice-tracked. That means one voice person gets into a studio with a list of the songs that were programmed. He'll say something between each set of three songs. So, he'll record all those little snippets of words at once, without sitting idle while the songs play. He'll also record any live read commercials, though those are very, very rare. One guy might cut the voice tracks for a dozen stations, or they'll even use the same voice cuts in multiple markets. Back at the stations, the songs, between song comments, commercials, and other content are assembled onto a hard drive, and each one plays in correct sequence. Since one company might own several stations, one technician will run the classic rock station, the current hits station, the oldies station, the country station, and even the syndicated talk station.

Bottom line, broadcast radio is not only worse than you imagine, it's worse than you can imagine!
 

Arkie

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I dare any of you to tell me that Keep On Loving You by REO Speedwagon is NOT classic rock!
No , Riding the Storm out , Keep Pushin' or Back on the Road Again is REO classic rock. That song you "dared" is nothing but fodder for "the corporate playlist" baaaabaaaaBAAA
Dont get me started on this Radio BS. I suppose its what you make of it though , eh . 'vomitus'
 
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