# Who listens to Talk Radio?



## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Just curious...how many of us listen at least once in a while to Talk Radio?

Are they all kinda rightwing? Are there any popular leftwing talk shows? (This might eliminate the CBC, since their numbers are mostly very low compared to private broadcasting).

Maybe there's a difference in what people care about from the East Coast to the West Coast?

Considering the Ontario accent, how can we provide subtitles for listeners in other parts of Canada?:smile:

Any takers?

:food-smiley-004:


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## Graham (Jan 26, 2007)

I listen to 640 AM most days, mostly because I can't stand the endless run of the same old music, no matter what the genre. I used to listen to Q107, or as it's referred to Dude-1-0-Zepelin. Seems every other song is either Zep. Probably wouldn't be so bad if the actually played more than 5 or 6 songs, considering the catalogue but it's the same old stuff.

I try listening to 900AM now that Roy Green is gone, but it tends to be almost a commercial for aging with the topics they have on so 640 is it until I hook up my iPod to play through in the car.

One thing about 640, if you're from The Hammer it let's you in on the extremely dysfunctional world of Toronto politics. Just makes me shake my head. The city that believes itself to be the centre of the universe but is always clamoring for more outside attention.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Graham said:


> One thing about 640, if you're from The Hammer it let's you in on the extremely dysfunctional world of Toronto politics. Just makes me shake my head. The city that believes itself to be the centre of the universe but is always clamoring for more outside attention.



...i'm no fan of the city of toronto. never have been. but i think you are completely wrong. 

-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> Just curious...how many of us listen at least once in a while to Talk Radio?
> Are they all kinda rightwing? Are there any popular leftwing talk shows? (This might eliminate the CBC, since their numbers are mostly very low compared to private broadcasting).
> Maybe there's a difference in what people care about from the East Coast to the West Coast?
> Considering the Ontario accent, how can we provide subtitles for listeners in other parts of Canada?:smile:
> ...


...i listen to am640 because i need to know how these people think. it is a cesspool of hate. and getting worse. (morning host) oakley used to use veiled language like "certain ethnicities", now he just calls them "blacks". same with former police tough guy craig bromell, although they finally booted him. and they never see their own hypocrisy. they will talk of violent crime in toronto being a "black" problem and yet, in areas where most of the crime is perpetrated by whites, no one ever mentions that it might be a "white problem".

i have been flooding their blogs with my observations. i don't know if it has any affect, but they seem to have seriously cut back on the self-promoting station ads advocating "brutally honest" hosts and "politically incorrect opinions welcome".

in any case, as i mentioned on another thread, they are a lightning rod for conservative white males with homophobic, racist and xenophobic views.

-dh


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

david henman said:


> ...i listen to am640 because i need to know how these people think. it is a cesspool of hate. and getting worse. (morning host) oakley used to use veiled language like "certain ethnicities", now he just calls them "blacks". same with former police tough guy craig bromell, although they finally booted him. and they never see their own hypocrisy. they will talk of violent crime in toronto being a "black" problem and yet, in areas where most of the crime is perpetrated by whites, no one ever mentions that it might be a "white problem".
> 
> i have been flooding their blogs with my observations. i don't know if it has any affect, but they seem to have seriously cut back on the self-promoting station ads advocating "brutally honest" hosts and "politically incorrect opinions welcome".
> 
> ...


Geez, I gotta check this out!

Is there a specific time slot, David? The morning show? Evenings? The only time I've ever tuned in was late at night to find out which ethnic group of space aliens was being abducted by Bigfoot...:smile:

:food-smiley-004:


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> Geez, I gotta check this out!
> Is there a specific time slot, David? The morning show? Evenings? The only time I've ever tuned in was late at night to find out which ethnic group of space aliens was being abducted by Bigfoot...:smile:
> :food-smiley-004:



...oakley is on am640 from 6-10 am. its too bad bromell is no longer there. his "tough guy" stance re the homeless, native indians, blacks etc was astounding.

charles adler (sub host roy green) is on from 2-4 pm. mister adler is one of those brilliant minds who disses "conspiracy theories" out of hand yet sees absolutely no irony or hypocrisy in labelling global warming a "liberal conspiracy".

you can also catch michael coren, of the "i'm not a homophobe, but.." variety, on cfrb 1010 afternoons from 3-4. coren is absolutely obsessed with gay folk.

john moore is on cfrb from 4-7 pm, i believe. although defintely left wing, he will not hesitate to out idiots of any political persuasion. conversely, he has no problem giving due credit to any political side.

-dh


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## Geek (Jun 5, 2007)

I listened to NW98 until they fired my hero, Rafe Mair.

Now the station he's at can't be received in the Valley


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## RIFF WRATH (Jan 22, 2007)

Geez....talk radio, might as well listen to CBC ...LOL
personally, I'd rather listen to music, and I find every classic rock station, which I prefer, has to have totally opinionated idiots yapping away about nonsense, with forced laughter in the mornings. I usually do the morning drive in silence. One of my buddies drives truck and listens to 640 and some of the stuff he repeats, and by the way takes for gospel (god love him) , is so much BS.
to each his own I guess
Cheers
RIFF


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## Graham (Jan 26, 2007)

david henman said:


> ...i'm no fan of the city of toronto. never have been. but i think you are completely wrong.
> 
> -dh


About their politicians or their need for attention?


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I did not know there was am radio anymore


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## Graham (Jan 26, 2007)

GuitarsCanada said:


> I did not know there was am radio anymore


I'm finding radio in general harder and harder to listen too. Far too much advertising, everything is "sponsored" the weather, the traffic, the the "hosts" that really believe you want to know everything about them and what they do.

I know the grass is always greener but the thought of internet or satellite radio has me sniffing around.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I have been with Sirius for almost 2 years now. I will never go back


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

GuitarsCanada said:


> I have been with Sirius for almost 2 years now. I will never go back


I plan on getting serious soon. Right now I download a lot of Sirius stuff from torrent sites, like Howard Stern and a lot of the shows from his channels.


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## Graham (Jan 26, 2007)

GuitarsCanada said:


> I have been with Sirius for almost 2 years now. I will never go back


For the vehicle or at home?


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

*Got one of those BBM radio poll logbooks...*

My family got picked by BBM to fill out a log of our radio listening habits.

It's interesting in that there are 3 of us old enough for the poll, the wife, oldest daughter and of course myself. Of the 3 I'm the only one that listened to any radio that week!

The wife listens to Beatles and Great Big Sea CD's in her car to and from work. The daughter d/l's off the 'Net straight into her MP3 player. 

This seems to be a trend. I have a radio announcer friend who tells me that the suits have finally caught on to the fact that they have little or no younger folks in the pipe for their next generation of listeners.

Wonder how it's gonna all shake out...

:food-smiley-004:


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

I just find it impossible to listen to the radio with all the commercials. I have 8 stations preset on my radio. Driving into work in the morning, I can scan through all of those presets and hear nothing but ads. If I am looking for music, I can actually make the 20 minute drive to work and only hear one song that whole time some days.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

In 2005/2006 I was on mat leave. Prior to that I was becoming increasingly fed up with the quality of radio, too much talk too little music. When there was music it was all the same old same old. When that happens I switch to cd's. Anyway, upon my return to work I was somewhat excited as I thought maybe radio would be a new listening experience after being away from it a year.. Imagine my dissapointment on turning it on again and hearing the same old tired crap issuing forth! The same songs, the same stupid jokes. My husband has Sirus radio and I SO love it! Whatever your mood it's there, with little interference from dj's. It's worth the subscription price.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Graham said:


> For the vehicle or at home?


Both, I actually have two recievers. Marnie has one in her car and I have a Stiletto which can be used anywhere. We also have the home unit that you put your radio in and use as a boombox. You can also listen over the internet as a subscriber.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

torndownunit said:


> I just find it impossible to listen to the radio with all the commercials. I have 8 stations preset on my radio. Driving into work in the morning, I can scan through all of those presets and hear nothing but ads. If I am looking for music, I can actually make the 20 minute drive to work and only hear one song that whole time some days.


Of course, TDU! The morning and afternoon work drive hour is prime time for ads. The stations can charge more money for them. 

Nobody at the stations ever thinks that we have alternatives and that too much can kill their market.

Anyhow, all you need is a good Foghat CD, IMHO!

:food-smiley-004:


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## djem (Sep 14, 2006)

david henman said:


> ...i listen to am640 because i need to know how these people think. it is a cesspool of hate. and getting worse. (morning host) oakley used to use veiled language like "certain ethnicities", now he just calls them "blacks". same with former police tough guy craig bromell, although they finally booted him. and they never see their own hypocrisy. they will talk of violent crime in toronto being a "black" problem and yet, in areas where most of the crime is perpetrated by whites, no one ever mentions that it might be a "white problem".
> 
> i have been flooding their blogs with my observations. i don't know if it has any affect, but they seem to have seriously cut back on the self-promoting station ads advocating "brutally honest" hosts and "politically incorrect opinions welcome".
> 
> ...



Agree with your take on Bromell. Not someone who I hold in high regard. Everytime I hear or see this guy, I am overwhelmed by the feeling of extreme corruption.


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## djem (Sep 14, 2006)

I listen to CBC Radio 1. Sometimes 680 AM.

Rarely listen to music on the radio with the exception of JazzFM 91.1, CBC Radio 2 94.1 or Classical 96.3. I am a little wary of Classical 96.3 since Moses Znaimer bought them out. I hope they don't change things too much. I had great email dialogue with their music director Mike Duncan - nice guy, btw.

My Q10 'Zeppelin' & 97.7 days are over. I really can't bear listening to them anymore and if I want to listen to rock, I have to be in control of the content.

I swear, everytime I tune in to Q, all I hear is Harlequin's 'Innocence' or 'Thinking of You' (good guitar solo btw) or Zeppelin's 'The Ocean'. It was good back in 1980, but not now.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Graham said:


> About their politicians or their need for attention?


...how are they different from the politicians in any other major city?

-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Graham said:


> I'm finding radio in general harder and harder to listen too. Far too much advertising, everything is "sponsored" the weather, the traffic, the the "hosts" that really believe you want to know everything about them and what they do.
> 
> I know the grass is always greener but the thought of internet or satellite radio has me sniffing around.


...mainstream radio died a long time ago. that smell is just its rotting corpse.

you will find great joy on internet OR satellite radio.

-dh


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Wild Bill said:


> I have a radio announcer friend who tells me that the suits have finally caught on to the fact that they have little or no younger folks in the pipe for their next generation of listeners.



...and the older folk are leaving in droves.

-dh


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## Graham (Jan 26, 2007)

david henman said:


> ...mainstream radio died a long time ago. that smell is just its rotting corpse.
> 
> you will find great joy on internet OR satellite radio.
> 
> -dh


I was wondering if someone here, and perhaps you David, would know how the stations go about their programming.
I did send an email to one of the stations, but it was ignored, more than likely because of the sarcasm in the question.
Why would a station, such as Q that bills itself as a classic rock station play the same stuff over and over? Why not work through the various catalogs of the classic rock artists?

As for satellite radio, until they disallowed Canadian registrations, Pandora was excellent listening and fine tuning. There are others such as Last FM and Live 365. Loading 400+ songs onto an iPod and playing it in the vehicle is also looking real good.


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## Wild Bill (May 3, 2006)

Graham said:


> I was wondering if someone here, and perhaps you David, would know how the stations go about their programming.
> I did send an email to one of the stations, but it was ignored, more than likely because of the sarcasm in the question.
> Why would a station, such as Q that bills itself as a classic rock station play the same stuff over and over? Why not work through the various catalogs of the classic rock artists?
> 
> As for satellite radio, until they disallowed Canadian registrations, Pandora was excellent listening and fine tuning. There are others such as Last FM and Live 365. Loading 400+ songs onto an iPod and playing it in the vehicle is also looking real good.


Yeah, I loved Pandora too! Great library!

For years now stations don't pick their own music. They buy playlists from 3rd party companies, on CD's for their computers. Every song has a "number", or rating for popularity with a particular age group/demographic. Rarely does a DJ pick his own stuff, or is even allowed!

There are some exceptions. Q107 has Andy Frost on weekends who has a fabulous knowledge of early rock vinyl. He pulls his own records and when I listen to his show I actually hear much of the stuff that I used to listen to when I was a young pup!

The main problem with this system as regards to classic rock is that during those Golden Years when FM radio first came into its own (1965-1975) nobody kept any data. Everyone at the stations was too stoned!:smile: DJ's played whatever they liked. It was WKRP, with Johny Fever!

So it would seem the suits turned to classic AM radio, because they kept the stats! AM radio had been around for so long it already was running on much tighter and more formal systems. Today's classic rock is actually classic AM rock! That's why you get mostly top 40 hit singles and little of the great album stuff. In those days none of my crowd would be caught dead with a 45 single! Most bands and artists never issued one! All their stuff was on albums.

Radio stations are run by "suits" with degrees in business and accounting. They trust numbers and don't really have a feel for anything else. Besides, they tend to be young guys that never listened to much rock anyway! Numbers provide them with comfort. They no doubt are aware of their shrinking market but they just can't bring themselves to run things any other way...

Just an old guy's perspective...

:food-smiley-004:


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## Guest (Sep 14, 2007)

" Loading 400+ songs onto an iPod"
Only 400? Wow.... That's hardly scraping the surface of the music I wanna carry with me! LOL


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...wild bill pretty much nailed it.

why stations like q107 think that people want to hear the same six tired classic rocks songs, day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade is a mystery to me.

i am aware, of course, that mainstream "white" audiences are deathly afraid of anything that is new and/or different, unless they are reassured/soothed, by condescending marketers, that other people _just like them _listen to it, too.

in any case, for those of us still capable of enjoying music, mainstream radio, like the music industry itself, has been a bad joke for a very long time. the revolution came and went and, in spite of the fact that it completely gutted both industries, they are still engaged in fervent denial.

-dh


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## Graham (Jan 26, 2007)

ClintonHammond said:


> " Loading 400+ songs onto an iPod"
> Only 400? Wow.... That's hardly scraping the surface of the music I wanna carry with me! LOL


Yeah me too. I just replaced my daughters iPod so she "gave" me hers. It's just 2 gigs and while I have so many other things in the hopper it will do.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Never,... ever.


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## Mr. David Severson (Feb 3, 2006)

I listen to QR77 talk radio in Calgary( slightly right wing). Other stations across the country brodcast QR at certian times, oddly I hear quite a few of Ontario callers in a agreance with our Alberta views..:sport-smiley-002:


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

Mr. David Severson said:


> I listen to QR77 talk radio in Calgary( slightly right wing). Other stations across the country brodcast QR at certian times, oddly I hear quite a few of Ontario callers in a agreance with our Alberta views..:sport-smiley-002:



...what are your "alberta views"?

-dh


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## stratovani (Jul 1, 2007)

Well, I see that things in Canada are pretty much the same as here in the US. Depressing, isn't it?! Here in Central Massachusetts some of our local radio stations are owned by this giant conglomerate called Clear Channel Communications, who own stations all over the US. They have an extremely limited playlist of "safe" songs which they play every day, only mixing up the times they play them. You know, turkeys like "Macarthur Park", or Celine Dion's "All By Myself" (the part where she screams makes me wish for a root canal without anesthetic)! On the talk channels, it's nothing but the vomit of Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck ("Kill all the Iraquis, before they come over here and kill us all!", or, "George W. Bush is the greatest President we've ever had!") Even the sports talk is just one argument after another. I'm at the point now that the car radio is never on, and the only music I listen to is the sweet sounds of my beautiful Stratocaster.


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