# Radio



## wnpgguy (Dec 21, 2007)

I had the chance to listen to the radio at work today for maybe.... 4 hours.. ya.. 4 hours.. and that was that.. I COULD NOT STAND IT.

Seriously what has happened?

EVERYTHING SOUNDED EXACLTY THE SAME. I couldn't stand listening to it. Screaming generic rock is apparently in and I have no idea why.

Do any of you have to listen to the radio or do you for enjoyment becuase frankly I have lost all hope and have huge doubts about todays popular music scene.


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## satch09 (Jul 26, 2008)

I stopped listening to the radio a long time ago, I used to go on to try and hear new bands and new songs, and keep up with things, but you're right it started being too bland, instead of hearing a variety of new and fresh songs and bands, you'll listen to the radio for 3 hours and literally hear the same song 3-4 times...

I'm in agreeance with the whole metal screaming thing, I'm not a fan, the only reason though is that I like to understand what he/she is saying, and I usually can't pick out more than one or two words when its screamed, although the music itself is usually pretty good...oh well everything has it's place...


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

I live in the GTA and I used to listen to the radio on the way to work. Now i can't do it at all. We have Satellite radio, but it's like information overload & some days and I just hop from channel to channel "looking for something" But I'm with you, what is with the radio these days? Do that mean I'm getting old? I can't take the classic Rock stations either.. It's like for the most part Classic defines 60's & 70's. It was few and far between, but there was some good stuff in the 80's & 90's.....


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## wnpgguy (Dec 21, 2007)

I'm 21, basically the target audience and I don't like it. I used to be a driver for NAPA autoparts and would listen to the radio ALLL day. I don't know how I did it. I actually remember leaving work and laying on my horn I hated that job so much. 

But/ anyway, I think very recently the music scene has changed to some sort of Monolithic dumpster. Radio music is expected to just me "on" in the forground rather than listened to and enjoyed.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

I pretty much only listen to talk radio now. 
I've become my dad.


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## Dude5152 (Oct 28, 2007)

Everything played on the radio today is either overplayed or sounds the same as the song before it. The record companys have taken over radio stations and force them to play media-infused crap.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

it's not really the music scene, it's corporate radio. That and the loudness wars, everything is compressed to hell so of course it all sounds bland and the same -- any subtlety that may have survived overproduction at the studio where it was recorded gets squished out on the radio. Then interspersed every 8~12 minutes with *NEW!! NO PAYMENTS TIL JANUARY 2009!!!!! BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!!!! *(Restrictions may apply. As with any dietary supplement, always discuss with your physician first. Side effects may include dizziness, vomiting, haemorrhoids, rash and death)

it's like being accosted by a usenet troll in ALL CAPS. Awful. Can't do it.

I do listen to thoughtful podcasts--Nature (although they've recently developed some gag-inducing and unnecessary jingles and ads), Science, Cell, Australian ABC Ockham's Razor (which is brilliant), NPR Science Friday (although Ira Flatow is kinda annoying, his guests are always great), a few from the BBC -- and to audiobooks though. Music I can generally find on my own without the need for radio.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

devnulljp said:


> Side effects may include dizziness, vomiting, haemorrhoids, rash and death


And "results may vary" ...so assuring

Great post BTW....LMAO

Dave


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

I listen to a few CBC programs. I will stream net stuff or NPR out of Detroit. Other than that the pod never stops 


*'cause I hate ads*


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## Hamm Guitars (Jan 12, 2007)

I drive a fair bit and listen to the radio in the car. I have a CD MP3 player, but it just gets too repetitive listening to the same stuff over and over again...


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## new_chicagoan (Aug 4, 2008)

I pretty much agree with the comments so far... I listen to CBC1 for news and stuff. For tunes I stream somafm.com exclusively, several hours a day, usually. Main-stream radio is a wasteland...


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

If I'm listening to the radio--it's probably the news or sports stations, or seeing if they have anything cool on CKUA.

Mainstream radio has bored me for years.

There's one woman at work who sometimes plays a radio--it's on a classic rock station, so a lot of stuff they play is stuff I grew up on, but the problem is they play the same songs every day--over & over & over... 

I am so sick of those songs now.


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

shoretyus said:


> I listen to a few CBC programs. I will stream net stuff or NPR out of Detroit. Other than that the pod never stops
> 
> 
> *'cause I hate ads*


Bingo - my reason for not listening. And when its not ads, its "jokes" from the "hilarious radio personalities". No thanks.


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## wnpgguy (Dec 21, 2007)

YA.. the morning mixure they have is much to loud for me. The over laughter at their own jokes. (I guess they have to laugh as you can't hear laughter of listeners).


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

Diablo said:


> I pretty much only listen to talk radio now.
> I've become my dad.


+1 same! {made longer to meet the 10 character minimum post limit }


//me to be fair though, I enjoy this show http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php and I used to enjoy an am station that had a show all on "what I found yard-saling" and his only rules was it had to be pre-1920 I believe. Even had an edison and victrola he had to hand crank on air to play the oooooold old vinyl or cylinders  that was a really good show too bad it was cut when the station moved  oh and this show too http://www.denissnowdon.com/blog/?page_id=184 >_> I should probably stop while I am ahead >_>


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

The only radio I ever listen to even half-heartedly is classic rock, such as rock101 in Vancouver. When I listen to any of the contemporary stuff, even the 'rock' stations, it all seems so homogenized and the same (I kinda sound like my Dad here LOL!), and I get bored pretty quickly. Nobody ever takes chances with song structure or different sounds much any more, which is mainly the fault of BIG MUSIC, and their efforts to make everybody sound like the flavour of the week.
-Mikey


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Internet Radio. It's like the precorporate FM stations of the late 60s and early 70s. It's were I first heard of bands like Umphree's Magee, The Breakfast, Moe, Col. Bruce Hampton, Phish, Garaj Mahal, for example and where I still get to hear lots of Zappa, Hendrix (That is not Haze, Foxy, Watchtower), Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers, etc, etc. A lot of live extended version plays.


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## gramatica (Dec 3, 2007)

Diablo said:


> I've become my dad.


Word! :smile:


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Robert1950 said:


> Internet Radio. It's like the precorporate FM stations of the late 60s and early 70s. It's were I first heard of bands like Umphree's Magee, The Breakfast, Moe, Col. Bruce Hampton, Phish, Garaj Mahal, for example and where I still get to hear lots of Zappa, Hendrix (That is not Haze, Foxy, Watchtower), Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers, etc, etc. A lot of live extended version plays.


Links please! (pretty please??)
I used to use pandora before it got blocked for US only, and can'tr be bothered trying to run through a US proxy just for some music, but it was a pretty good idea.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

bagpipe said:


> Bingo - my reason for not listening. And when its not ads, its "jokes" from the "hilarious radio personalities". No thanks.


It seems like it's 2-4 minutes of commercials, then a few minutes of jokes, then more commercials, then the DJ's talk about some news or sports event--making jokes about it, then more commericals, then the news/weather/traffic report, then more commercials, then more jokes, another commercial break, then after some more jokes--finally a song! Except wait--that song sucks. And all the stations seem to synchronize these things--so you can't catch a song on one station when the others aren't playing a song.

One place I worked was about a 20-25 minute drive during which I checked it out, the main rock stations played 1 or 2 songs during that time.

That's why I listen to a news or sports station most of the time. Or play my own music.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

devnulljp said:


> Links please! (pretty please??)
> I used to use pandora before it got blocked for US only, and can'tr be bothered trying to run through a US proxy just for some music, but it was a pretty good idea.


This a link to 'Jam' station - they have a number of others (they do have commercials on the free stations):

http://radioio.com/channel/player?voxID=31

If you have iTunes, check under Radio.


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## Michelle (Aug 21, 2006)

Well, I've fallen in love with radio all over again. I listen to Big John 98.9FM, it rocks man. Sure there are annoying commercials and they do get into repetitive cycles but the end result is that they play some great stuff, I even hear Mahogany Rush from time to time. I especially like 'Psychedelic Sunday'.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Michelle said:


> Well, I've fallen in love with radio all over again. I listen to Big John 98.9FM, it rocks man. Sure there are annoying commercials and they do get into repetitive cycles but the end result is that they play some great stuff, I even hear Mahogany Rush from time to time. I especially like 'Psychedelic Sunday'.


Mahogany Rush??!!! Be still my beating heart!

Yeah, radio sucks, big time! For an old guy like me, classic rock stations suck even more!

The classic rock they play has few or no cuts that I used to listen to back in the late 60's and 70's. A few friends from the radio industry explained it to me. It seems that DJs haven't picked their own music for 40 years or so. The station buys playlists from companies that have researched the "numbers" for every tune, so that supposedly you will have a better chance of pleasing your listeners. The idea of course is that if they tune in your ratings improve and you can sell more ads.

The problem with classic rock is that way back then was the very beginning of rock music on FM radio. There WERE NO logs kept of what was played! Everybody was too stoned!:smile:

So these playlist companies garnered their data from classic AM radio! They know all about the numbers for Elton John's "Crocodile Rock". Not so much for Captain Beyond's "Frozen Over". Captain Beefheart is not even in the mix.

This is why we tend to hear only the AM Top 40 hits of any particular artist. If it's Crowbar, it's "Oh What a Feeling". Never any of the album tracks. 

Maybe that's why I never get a good dose of Foghat. Too few Top 40 hits. Or Ramjam. Or Pat Travers. Or Mahogany Rush! When's the last time anyone heard "Apricot Brandy".

That period from '65-'70 has next to no representation at all! The Ugly Ducklings, Kensington Market, Perth County Conspiracy...

Maybe it's censorship 'cuz of the psychedelia. Ned Flanders runs the show today and he says "Just Say NO!"

Well, you get the idea. If there's any bitter consolation, my sources also tell me that the "suits" appear to have shot themselves in the foot with this "numbers" approach to the business. For years they have been watching mostly the 24-40 demographic brackets as the one where most of the consumer buying has been going on. Turns out that if you look at the young teenage demographic you see that all their new blood has disappeared. The kids don't listen to the radio at all!

I was surprised when I heard this. For decades it was natural for kids to get hooked on first AM radio and then hopefully FM. Not anymore! A check with my own kids and their friends confirmed it. Not one of them listens to the radio for their music! It's all downloading into players. Many of them have never TOUCHED a CD, let alone bought one!

This trend has hit hard and the radio suits were blissfully blindsided. They are all scrambling to attract a rapidly shrinking market. The next 5-10 years are going to show dramatic changes.

Me, I've still got a zillion pieces of vinyl! I've got a decent turntable and an old Bogen stereo 30 watt receiver, all tubes. I only use CDs in my van.

As for the Internet, here's a fun link! 7-10 pm weekdays!

http://www.imagefm.ca/


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## Tarl (Feb 4, 2006)

I listen to the local classic rock station all the time. It's pretty good but misses the mark on a few things like what Wild Bill posted above. On sunday afternoons the local "rock" station (K Rock) has a 6 hour show called Flashback , which is just great. Old obscure Pink Floyd, live cuts etc.....and I have heard The Ugly Ducklings (we actually cover "Nothing") Kensington Market and The Kings on there frequently.


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## gurianguy (Nov 20, 2007)

Hi All,

Commercial radio has deteriorated so much, I rarely listen to it. I agree with Zontar about CKUA. It is a publically funded station out of Edmonton, although they have programs from Calgary and Vancouver as well. It is available on the net, and they usually publish up to date play lists for each program. Try Wide Cut Country or Dead Ends and Detours on Saturday mornings. Great music. Sometimes they (some of the other programs) delve a bit too deep for me in to what everyone calls " World Music". Since when does Anglo Saxon Rock not qualify as part of the world, or part of music. Oh well. (now that was a great tune).


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Welcome to radio wasteland. Thinking seriously of getting SIRIUS satellite radio for the vehicular transport unit. Meanwhile it's cds everywhere.

Peace, Mooh.


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## MrDaner (Mar 20, 2008)

*No Repeat Work Day*

The worst part is that this crappy 'Light Mix' station plays through the P.A. at my office all day long and there is nothing I can do about it. Futhermore, this whole "No Repeat Work Day" is the biggest scam ever. Sure between 8 and 5 they don't repeat a song but its the same play list every day. On top of that I am guaranteed to hear Celine Dion for the second time everyday between 5:00 and 5:15pm since the 'work day' is officially over and they can start repeating. uke:


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## Luke98 (Mar 4, 2007)

Diablo said:


> I pretty much only listen to talk radio now.
> I've become my dad.


Yeah thats not too bad for you, I'm 16 and thats beginning to happen.
I do love vinyl cafe :smilie_flagge17:


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

MrDaner said:


> Futhermore, this whole "No Repeat Work Day" is the biggest scam ever. Sure between 8 and 5 they don't repeat a song but its the same play list every day.


And in the same order usually.

As for not having a choice--in high school I worked for a while as a busboy--and the restaurant played Supertramp's Breakfast in America album over & over. It was years later before I could listen to anything on that album again.


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## hoser (Feb 2, 2006)

aside from cbc I listen to my ipod in the car.
I haven't really listened to commercial radio in 20 years. Radio here in Newfoundland has always been horrible.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

hoser said:


> Radio here in Newfoundland has always been horrible.


There's radio in Nfld. !!!!! 


:wink:


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

Robert1950 said:


> There's radio in Nfld. !!!!!
> 
> 
> :wink:


Ya, I think alexander Graham Bell built it.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Diablo said:


> Ya, I think alexander Graham Bell built it.


Nope! It was Marconi! They're still using his station he built on Signal Hill...:smile:


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

Ahh you beat me to it, but radio was actually invented by Tesla..


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## wnpgguy (Dec 21, 2007)

looks like I have nothing to complain about anymore. My radio/stereo was stolen out of my car yesterday. *CUUUUURSSEES!!!*

Back to good old singin in the car by myself.


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## RIFF WRATH (Jan 22, 2007)

I listen to PUKE 107 (Q107, Toronto) in the truck in the am. It's on low until they actually get past the BS and play a song........on the way home it's Kim Mitchel and I enjoy his insight........at home in the "studio (aka Shop) it's on low, Fri nites are ho-hum, but on Sat & Sunday its enjoyable...actually can't tune in much thats any better...........as it is there are spots in the shop that as you pass it cuts the signal........................


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

RIFF WRATH said:


> I listen to PUKE 107 (Q107, Toronto) in the truck in the am. It's on low until they actually get past the BS and play a song........on the way home it's Kim Mitchel and I enjoy his insight........at home in the "studio (aka Shop) it's on low, Fri nites are ho-hum, but on Sat & Sunday its enjoyable...actually can't tune in much thats any better...........as it is there are spots in the shop that as you pass it cuts the signal........................


Q one oh Zeppelin! Weekdays that's all they seem to play. I too like the weekends, especially with Andy Frost playing some of the stuff I actually listened to as a young hippy, instead of all those AM top 40 hits that masquerade as "classic rock".

:food-smiley-004:


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

I have sattelite (for tv) and I checked out a really great Winnipeg Station while we were at the cottage, Power something.. I even remember what we heard as I was making dinner

Neil Young- Down by the River
Janes addicition - Been caught Stealing
Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles
Eddie Veder - Big Hard Sun
Door - Rider of the Storm

The DJ was really annoying, but the mix was great! I'm definately going to check it out again.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

Paul said:


> I seem to recall CILQ-107.1 in Toronto known as IQ of 7.
> 
> I get a kick out of The Mighty Q playing The Police these days. Back when Regatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta came out, the only radio that would touch The Police was _CFNY - The Spirit of Radio_. Pete and Geets was my favourite morning show in the 80's.


For me, this thing you talk of "music radio" died for me when _CFNY - The Spirit of Radio_ became _CFNY - The Edge_. The lost every ounce of integrity quality and interest. The opened the new show with some bs about playing todays great songs and opened with a mix of micheal bolton and companey from ten years before :|


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## djdeacon (Jul 8, 2008)

I have to do an hour a week in the accounting office, and I absolutely DREAD it. They listen to "the" big commercial FM station in Toronto, and it's all shite. The music, the on-air "personalities", the ads...how do you qualify to write ad copy for radio, anyway? I'm pretty sure my cat could do a better job. 

I do listen to "Little Steven's Underground Garage", but I listen to it via internet streaming, 'cos it's broadcast past my bedtime here in Toronto.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Paul said:


> I seem to recall CILQ-107.1 in Toronto known as IQ of 7.
> 
> I get a kick out of The Mighty Q playing The Police these days. Back when Regatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta came out, the only radio that would touch The Police was _CFNY - The Spirit of Radio_. Pete and Geets was my favourite morning show in the 80's.


Pete and Geets, eh? Maybe you know the answer to something from that show that has puzzled me for years.

Was that sound really from Lardette's shoe scraping? It really sounded like she did something else to my ears!


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

I probably have not turned on my car radio in years...driving is my "thinking" time.

But I do remember the days when we had no television. My dad and I listened to Superman, Gunsmoke, Inner Sanctum, and LSU Tiger football games.


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