Two events spark this item. The first is the arrival of John Tisinger (jradio) who is looking to make a career in the radio field. The second was a comment from kewy in party today; she was listening to a London pop radio station via the Internet. So: do you prefer noncommercial NPR or student radio stations, or do you believe the free market provides for all our radio needs? What are our radio needs, anyway? Should we have socialist radio, as they do in Canada and much of Europe? And, how will Internet radio change everything? And feel free to tell us about your favorite radio programs.145 responses total.
I prefer NPR over anything else. Only noncommercial stations play a wide variety of music anymore. If it wasn't for WDET Liz Copeland's Show, I never would have started listening to jazz, techno, ambient, bluegrass, and other kinds of music. I also like WCBN's (U of M Ann Arbor) radio shows, but I can only receive them in the car.
I tend to think college radio does the best job of serving my needs. In this area that would WCBN (electic from world music to punk) and WEUM (jazz & NPR news). I don't think socialist is the right call here but maybe publicaly supported non-profit (ala the Grex model), that way neither the goverment nor the corperation control the agenda. Having said that I have to admit I'm a pretty big fan of NPR though IMO they are getting somewhat conservative for my taste, still I like their in depth news coverage better than any other electronic media source I can think of.
i'm facinated by radio. somehow it's just exciting to me.. if someone, somewhere plays the song that *i* want to hear. simple pleasures, ya know? i haven't listened to much college radio in ann arbor, was never really able to find anything that excited me.. right now, ann arbor and detroit don't have a very diverse set of radio stations... you have your modern rock, classic rock, r&b/rap, and some classical. and everything pretty much has it's own station. when i'm in a new place, i like sifting thru the radio stations, i tend to like stations that have a variety of music, much of which is not even mentioned in the above station types. and about internet radio.. it's greg:) i downloaded it 2 days ago... been addicted ever since.. i was just very excited that i could get the radio station that i listened to while in england, thru my computer (btw, above, where it says greg, it's meant to say great)
Kewy, please tell us some more about the Internet Radio stuff. Where did you get the software; how do you operate it; where do you find the programming sources? I'd also like to encourage jradio to discuss his academic program.
Ken, I hope you want to hear the truth, because that's what you're about to get! It's like this. College radio started out as a medium for students who wanted to become disc jockeys. About the time that I declared my major, our radio station decided they wanted to cut down on the number of student disc jockeys, because most of them were playing rap and alternative "music." They figured the best way to do this was to change to a public radio format. As a result, it is very difficult to get a shift, because the station is required to run a certain number of hours of NPR programming. If I had gone to a broadcasting school, I would have been on the air doingsomething instead of sitting on my butt while someone in New York or Washington is doing what I could have been doing. Well, you asked, and I answered. The fact is that this program has gotten more and more conservative in the running of this radio station. They need to be more hands-on so that they can get more people interested in the program. Thanks for asking. Happy to assist.
let's see... first off, i use real audio, which you can download from http://www.realaudio.com, but what really got me into internet radio is a program... or something called webstereo... i actually stumbled upon it somewhere, the site that you can download it from should be http://www.igsnet.com. (sorry i'm not too technical about this, i'm not the world's most knowledged person when it comes to computer programs and such) it's easy to use, webstereo comes with a set of stations already in memory, so you don't have to search for them, and it automatically opens up real audio.. like i said, it's simple, straight forward.. check it out:)
Katy, I've heard about net radio, and it sounds pretty interesting. Is net radio supposed to be actual radio station programming transferred to the net or more of a unique entity? I'm somewhat interested in shortwave radio, for instance, as I'd enjoy hearing programming in foreign countries. Would what you're discussing be merely shortwave radio, accessible via the net, or would it be entirely new stations?
John- In answer to your question posted earlier in another area of the music conference: I've only done college radio, myself. I did my own show a number of years ago, and occasionally I co-host with some friends on their college radio shows. I'm thinking about doing my own show again at the local college radio station, sometime in the near future. I've noticed a trend in larger public universities around here to offer two public radio stations. One is typically devoted to classical music, graduate school programming, news/sports, and national public radio. The other is the "college radio" you described as missing out on: freeform and specialty shows that introduce students to radio station operations. An example of this is the University of Michigan's set-up: WCBN (college) and WUOM (classical, etc.). I feel the trend is probably being echoed in other places. Perhaps your university will offer this, in time. You might consider trying to petition your school to move in that direction. Since such a set-up involves two physical stations, it will undoubtedly be a budgetary issue. Perhaps a possible avenues of establishment might be as an extra-curricular school organization? I would consider examining another school that already has two stations for ideas. Of course, there's always the possibility of going to another school, perhaps even a vocationally focused one.
hmmmm... i am a moody person,m so it depends. NPR is a definate for Car Talk, and GArrison Keillor. Tre Kewl! But i also listen to other radios. I don't like near a twon or a institute with a college radio stationt aht is free form! My advise from my frineds that do radio, get used to late nights, starting out you are usually stuck on third shift music making. Get used to the lack of pay! unless your BIG, its not much money, eps. since (at least down here in GA) they would like to see that all their DJ's have at least a BA. go figure!
mark, it really depends, there are a lot of stations out there that are specifically for net radio, but then there are some (like the one in the uk, virgin radio, that are the actual radio broadcast.
In general, I am losing my patience with radio. Music radio (with the exception of stations like WCBN) is, I find, either overly repetetive or tasteless. Some things, like Car Talk, Prarie Home Companion, and the Bone Conduction Music Show, I listen to semi-religiously, but I have given up on being able to do what I used to be able to--turn on the radio, 'channel surf', and find something good within a few minutes. Incidentally, does anyone know of any recent radio dramas of any sort? All I've been able to find are the occasional repeats of things like the Shadow...
Have you noticed that people no longer seem to listen to disc jockeys anymore, except that guy that gets you going in the morning. I have a tape of some DJ'S from the mid 50's up to the early 60's, and people listened to the "rock jocks" not just to that 99 in a row.
Ack, I have a pile of things to say and little time to say them; Let me start digging myself out. John, you have my sympathies on the situation with your college station. Maybe you should transfer up here to Michigan? Michigan State in East Lansing, where I work, also has two FM stations, and an AM station. The older FM station and the AM station, both with call letters WKAR, are pretty venerable. The AM operation is now all NPR and local talk, and the FM operation is NPR and classical music. The vast majority of the staff are full-time MSU employees; there may be students doing off-air internships. The student FM station, WDBM-FM, went on the air six (?) years ago, and as far as I can tell all of the on-air staff are students. WDBM isn't as freeform as the Ann Arbor station WCBN; it gets some criticism for being a by-the-playlist CMJ/Gavin station, at least somewhat. But it also does some MSU sports coverage, and it has a weekly schedule of specialty shows. Tuesday nights is "Progressive Torch and Twang," the alt-country and folk show which is my fave. There's also a jazz show, a blues show, and an 80's-oldies show; the fifth weeknight is either reggae or rap, I forget which. Before WDBM went on the air, students majoring in broadcasting got experience on four dorky AM carrier stations, which could only be received in the campus dorms and which almost no one listened to. In contrast, WDBM is almost a powerhouse, with clear reception 30 miles from East Lansing.
Hey, I was a DJ for a couple months on one of those AM carrier stations! The playlist was even more rigid than MTV, for some bizarre reason.
Payola. :) I found out today that one can get a Real Audio feed of the CBC-FM stereo network. CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which has a Windsor station which comes in pretty well here in Ann Arbor. CBC is usually what I am referring to when I half-seriously mention Socialist Radio; there are a few things I wanted to say about CBC, but they will have to wait for a few hours. I gotta get this Real Audio stuff set up.
RE #15 Would the BBC be "Socialist Radio" as well?
Is payola illegal?
RE #17 Not only is payola illegal, but it has ruined a number of promising careers in radio (the best known being Alan Freed, who coined the term "rock and roll").
OK, the next question is: *why* is payola illegal? Should it be?
The record companies cannot give an incentive to play a *specific* record or artist, but they can give gifts to deejays, and radio stations. There was an interesting report on the record biz on Primetime live last Wednesday.
Payola: Why should it be illegal to go to the person who chooses the music for a radio station and say: "Here's the record I am promoting. I want you to do me the service of playing it X times on your station, and the fee for this service is Y dollars, so there you are." Why is this different than any other form of commercial promotion? There's an argument -- dammit, I can't recall where I read it, years ago -- that payola was instrumental in the rise of rock & roll. The big record labels of the time didn't understand rock & roll, and (so the argument goes) they had radio pretty well sewn up for their benefit. Payola was a way for the rock'n'roll indies to break into the field. Omni: darn, I wish I'd known about that PrimeTime Live segment on the record business. Any summary you can offer would be appreciated.
Socialist Radio, #1: There's this myth that in good ol' America, land of the free, radio is governed by The Free Market. T'aint so. The theory of free markets requires that it be easy for a business to enter the market. Is it easy to enter the radio business? No, you need a government license to broadcast, and the number of such licenses is strictly limited. Compare this with the record business; the independent record industry is constantly being reinvented. Usually each cycle ends with the indies being devoured by the large companies, but there are always another cycle of indie record companies gearing up to satisfy the wants of miniscule audiences. Another issue in commercial radio: who is the customer? Perhaps commercial radio can be best thought of as "audience farming." The business of radio is to grow an audience which can be sold to advertisers. So you aren't the customer; you're the product!
Actually, it was Turning Point, and I believe that you can buy a video for 19.95 plus shipping. check http://www.abc.com for more info. They followed a band, Love in Reverse from basement to recording thier first CD, which flopped. Interesting look into the record biz.
I've been listening to the Sunday night lineup on the 'River' 93.9fm from
Windsor, Ontario. It starts at 6pm with imho the best hour of radio in the
area, but I can't remember the name of the show. Ann Delise and Thom Jurek
play a great assortment of stuff not heard anywhere else. This is followed
by the House of Blues show, hosted by Elwood Blues, brother of Jake. Each
week another facet of blues, with interviews of both historic and modern
figures.
I quit listening to NPR news back in the late 70's - early 80's
when EVERY newscast spent most of the time reporting on Nicaragua and El
Salvadore. I'm sure something was happening somewhere else in the world.
Shortwave provides a lot of my info now-a-days. I hear the news
and club top 10 from BBC, (Did you know the Bee Gees are currently #5),
Radio Neatherlands has commentary about the Arts, and tho I don't know any
Spanish, listening to a soccer game from Mexico is really exciting.
Bill: Ann Delisi is the best. I've caught that show, "Tunes From the
Missing Channel", on the 93.9 FM Windsor station, too. She and
her co-host do a fine job.
Me and a couple of friends are trying to put together a radio-drama type thing. I know someone who knows someone who knows someone at WUOM, and there's an infinitesimal chance we might get it performed, but first we have to make the damn thing. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience in this area?
Well, it's fairly straightforward. Helps to have a sound person, who will use a few things to punctuate the portrayed activities...
Continue on Sunday Night on 93.fm at 9pm with Acousitic Cafe,
produced right here in Ann Arbor, hosted by Rob Rhinehart. A very
good folk/accoustic show. or at 10pm, halfway thru the above show,
you can switch over to WIQB,102.9fm here in Ann Arbor for Blues
Delux. Of course after that it's Dr. Demento at 11pm. (Dr. Demento
also has a real-audio net feed on the Web at sometime).
I started in radio as a discjockey for our AM carrier
current station in Wadworth Wall at Michigan Tech-no-logical
University, WRS (pronounced WoRSe), but established as Wadsworth
Radio Systems. This is up in Houghton, Michigan, the very Upper
part of the Upper Pennisula. With two local stations that did
not satisfy the listening habits of the student population, this
station was actually listened to. Not much else on the radio,
even hard to get AM radio on the nighttime skip in the dorm. I
was not only a disc jockey, I raised half the budget by selling
commercial time to the local businesses. The Pizzarea finally
got to their market, the student, via a few ads, runing in the
evening around 9pm-11pm, when they were getting hungry. A tremendous
boost in sales followed. Believe you me, it was hard to sell ads
on a station that the local merchants could not hear, not under-
stand the fact that I was competting with the other local staions
(WHDF, pronounced WipH-DiF, and WMPL (pronounced WiMPLe). Yes,
we sold time, just like the University supported newspaper sold
ad space, except we could not get the money that a full-page ad
bought by Busweiser could bring in--we did not sell anything
alcohol tothe mostly 18 to 21 year old audience, though we could
sell for the local bars (good food at both The Library Bar and
Spanky's). The college supported/budgeted station, more NPR
like, classical music and such, WGGL (pronounced WiGGle) was on
FM and low power in it's beginning years. Later they got permission
for more power, put the new antena up on a local high and got great
reception troughout the area, expect the college campus, where the
shadow of that hill kept out the signal--really served the college, eh?
Egads, maybe more later.
When I was at Whitman, we had a great student radio station that ran 24 hours a day in about 1 (2?) hour block formats. Students had permission to play any kind of music they wanted to, or just talk (for one student had a talk radio show for a small time). Hot Poop, Walla Walla's locally-owned music store, sponsored the station a little bit. The owners got a time slot, so "The Heavy Metal Sledgehammer Show" was always on the schedule. I had a show-- for a day. I played mostly Depeche Mode, with b sides and alternate mixes. When my friend finally showed up (he got the time slot for me and all), we mixed in requests, some speed metal, some Jim Croce, a public service announcement and a plug for KWCW t-shirts, among other things. We don't have much in the Tri-Cities. We have a classic rock station, a best of rock station, a popular rock station, a pop/adult contemporary station, a dance club/urban music station that comes in weakly from Walla Walla, a Spanish radio station, a Christian pop music station..ah, did I say not much? Well, I should mean not a whole lot worth listening to. There is a old-time Christian music station, and then the rest of the dial is country, save NPR.
Not sure how I missed this item the first time around but I could spend days complaining about the Detroit-area radio market. I'll be merciful, though, and try to stick to the things I really like and a few of the things I just can't stand.. Just about all of the things I like are college radio stations. Of the five radio-station presets in my car, 4 are devoted to college stations WUOM for NPR, and WCBN, WEMU, and WDET for their excellent specialty musical programming, particularly WEMU's "Stan and Evy's All-Star Rhythm Revue" and WCBN's "Down Home Show". Unfortunately these shows are only on for a couple of hours per week and the rest of the time I wind up hoping to catch some sort of NPR programming because if I don't my options are generally limited to the obligatory college-radio Unlistenable Jazz Hour, the classical stations' Music to Mar Guardrails By (hey, I do like some clasical music but the selections on the radio are generally pretty far from my tasts and make pretty soporific driving music..), or the astonishingly uncreative and predictable muddle that is Detroit's commercial radio scene.. Having spent a reasonable amount of time travelling this summer I'm at a loss to explain why our radio stations suck so much worse than those in other major metropolitan areas but take it from me when I assure you that they do.. I understand that my tastes are too far out of the mainstream to make a good match with any money-making station but can anyone tell me why we can't do better than 4 or 5 identical- sounding "alternative" stations who're too timid to put anything out of the ordinary on their playlists, a couple of "classic rock" stations that sound as if they're run by a gigantic underground marketing computer located somewhere beneath the Nevada desert, and a couple of "Lite Rock" abominations that exist only so offices can be stuck with some sort of least-common-denominator station guaranteed to crush what's left of the worker's spirits? Surely there'd be at least *some* market share in a station (in any format) that sounded just a little original..
Hey, try checking out the AM band sometime.
Well, I don't know much about other metropolitan areas, but when I was in Maine for a week this summer Detroit's stations seemed incredibly varied by comparison. Of course, that could just be because we only got two stations up there, but..
re #31: I've tried checking out the AM band and all I ever seem to pick up are baseball games and self-help/advice shows..
Maybe it's time to try again. AM has about 100 possable stations on a bad day, lots more on a good clear night. Slowly scan from the bottom, 530, to the top, 1710, and see all the stuff you can get. A middle of the winter forecast for showers and a high of 75 usually makes me stop to see just where I've landed!
Oh, but most AM stations don't do stereo. :/
You got a problem with mono, buddy?
Yea..You gotta problem with mono, buddy? You tell 'em scott! 'sides, radio's supposed to be fuzzy.
I couldn't care less about stereo when I'm in the car, which is where I do 99% of my radio listening, but either my car's got an extremely lousy AM tuner or I'm surrounded by a perpetual field of localized sunspot/solar flare activity. Having just switched cars, I'm leaning towards the former hypothesis because I've discovered that I can now pick up one or two all-news stations (one's from Chicago, don't recall where the other originates) which are decent diversion except when they're giving me extremely irrelevant traffic reports about conditions on the Kennedy (*not* the part of I-94 I'm worried about..)
I like listening to ethnic music in my car, so AM around Detroit is pretty fun.
Eh, I'm one of those silly people that has a mild interest in car audio-- but then, I guess radio was never meant to sound really great. All we have on the AM band here is oldies and talk shows, anyways. (I'm from a small city, remember?)
My cars used to have audio, but I removed that from them. It was rather fun to do, I might add :) If you have to destroy a car audio system, bassing it to death is probably the best way. I can't complain too much about Detroit radio. There are five stations on the dial that can play rock music when they feel like it. I eternally mourn the demise of 98.7, but 97.1 pretty much fills the void it left.. just in time, too, since the Planet has turned from bad to worse and plays good music only 20% of the time now. I mainly flip between just three stations and a tape now, with occasional meanders to WIQB or the pLanet and even less meanders to a classic rock or pop station. Used to listen to AM radio, then I got into high school.
I have to agree with Mike's assessment of Detroit radio; Lansing is essentially the same. Arabella & I always look forward to our East Coast trips so we can listen to some less annoying radio. What makes Michigan radio so annoying? In the 1970s I was convinced that the problem was the belief that local heros Bob Seger and Ted Nugent were the apotheosis of rock & roll. More recently, I have no ideas.
When I travel abroad, I listen to the Underground Network, which seems to have good taste in music, or did last time I listened. They play mainstream type rock, but the underground refers to the radio stations. for some strange reason they don't exist in Michigan. Ah well.
RE #43 You probably haven't heard the fundamentalist minister in Adrian who is spreading right-wing propaganda on FM radio and considers the FCC as interfering with his First Amendment rights.
No, but that wasn't what I was talking about. I hear plenty of people spreading left wing propoganda, though that's not always on the radio. I'm talking about a specific network of radio stations that play music that call themselves the underground network, and it has no outlets in southeastern MI.
That would, I suppose, explain the fact that I haven't heard of them...
I was fairly excited about moving to this area, actually, several years ago, just for the radio. I came from a small suburban town that coughed up nothing better than the usual prefab standbys, you see, so this was heaven, compared to that. Recently, I've begun to reasses that. I called into a big local station, the other day. My first time calling them, actually. My favorite DJ was spinning the tunes. I was busy doing some things around the house, and I thought it would be fun to hear something cool, but I didn't feel like going and getting it out, myself. Even though what I was asking for was a real stretch -- a fairly obscure musician released only through her own label -- I was assured that I would be able to hear it on the radio. Two years ago, I had been pulling up to a dime store, listening to the same station, and I *had* heard it, on that radio station, as a matter-of-fact. Someone had even called in to request it, then. My favorite DJ was working that morning, as well, and mentioned how interesting it was to receive such a request. I was absolutely delighted to know that I lived in a city where I could experience such unexpected delights on the airwaves. Apparently, however, this was only a fleeting pleasure. For while even though the DJ seemed intrigued by the request that I made, as she had been, before, she didn't play it. And, not only did she *not* play it, but I think she even played the same thing, some banal popular "alternative" anthem of one sort or another, twice, within a few hours. Okay, maybe she was having a bad day. Maybe she forgot. Or, maybe, just maybe, it isn't quite the same radio station it used to be, and maybe I'll be far better off listening to college radio, if I want to be pleasantly surprised, anymore.
I think WCBN is the only way to go for pleasant surprises. Problem being, I'm so used to their being surprising that they can't surprise me anymore.
But you can't say that they're *less* surprizing then when you listen to your cd or tape players. Even if you do have a general idea of what could be next, you're never sure until it's actually on. Besides, I have found that WCBN is an amazing station to quilt to.
Stations always play certain songs on regular rotation... it's not entirely up to the disgresion of the DJs, either. The station management mandates that certain songs be played, and leaves some room for requests. I've been told that my requests would be played before, and occasionally they would be, with a long delay. There's usually quite a backlog.
re 43: Of the things the Detroit area radio audience seems
to hate are 1) out of town syndications; 2) automation. Syndications
that are all morning (Imus & Stern survive in the market, but do not
do well), or format-syndications, like a satellite delivered music
service are hard to find on our radio dial. These do, unfortunatly
make economic sense for small-town radio.
I took a trip out to Phoenix, Arizona a few years back, had
all weekend to listen to the radio. I could hear a real difference
in the rock radio station--confidence. It was not insecure like
WCSX, that had to pat itself on the back about every other song,
(or slam the competition); and just played the tunes. YOu could
hear 3 or 4 tunes in a row, as one set of music, with the confidence
that the audience did not forget who they tuned into. The commercial
breaks where not the mega-breaks we hear at :50 past the hour, two
three ads, then back to the music. And Phoenix is now as big of
a radio market as Detroit.
Unfortunately, I listened for five hours, until the end of her shift, and did not hear my request. I've worked radio, myself, and it didn't take that long to get around to a request...
There's a fierce war for morning listeners in Detroit... when the ratings came in touting WRIF as the winner of the past round, WRIF said "cool, thanks for making us #1, Detroit." WKRK, 97.1, which recently switched formats to alt rock radio, and plays Howard Stern in the mornings against Drew & Mike on WRIF, has launched an anti-WRIF campaign. It's disgusting, you can't here two comercials without something trashing Arthur P or Drew & Mike. I happen to like 97.1 for the music, but the commercials make me change the station, anywhere.
Nothing worse than a radio station making me sound like a fool for listening to anyother station I like.
It makes *them* sound like fools. It's stupid. It's like children insulting each other.
That's what the result is also. They sound like fools for
tearing someone down, instead of building themselfs up.
Now that WWBR, 102.7fm "The Bear" has gone to 'Classic Rock
that Rocks' talking about 'why listen to that wimply classic rock
station'; can you hear the reaaction by WCSX?
When WCSX was slamming Star 97 for playing hits of the 70's;
I assumed that WCSX was losing big time in the ratings race. (The
little guy calls the insult to try to get up to the level of the
big guy. If the big guy ignores, he won't raise the other to his
playing field.)
news flash: CBC Stereo, now renamed CBC Radio Two, is ending -- today -- the weekend late night show NIGHTLINES, which has been a favorite of mine for yhears. Host David Wisdom is moving to a new show RADIOSONIC. There will be a new late-night show, whose name I forget. Wisdom sounds like he's practically crying in the last broadcast. Off to listen to the last hour. I'm in shock.
Tell us a little bit about David Wisdom, Ken...
currently, and for the last couple hours or so, i've been listening to blues on wdet, 101.9. this is the first time i've ever heard this particular show, so i'm not sure what it's called. mighty enjoyable, though.
You're probably listening to the Coachman! Cool dude...
While I wait to get back to my essay about the glories of CBC late night radio, I thought I would mention that arabella & I have started waking up to WQRS, the commercial classical station in Detroit. We have found NPR's Morning Edition an unsuitable start to the day; too often we wake up to the news of the latest killings somewhere in the world.
when i'm up late (or early, depending on one's perspective) enough to catch it, i love wqrs's "sousalarm," a john philip sousa march played sometime between 7:00 and 7:30am.
It's at 7:20 and this morning was "Washington Post". I love that march.
Wow...I'm never up quite *that* late, and wake up earlier than that during the week anyway. Oh well...
BTW, what Sousa march is also known as the theme from "Monty Python's Flying Circus?"
I forget the title, but the military band played it immediately before Bill Clinton was sworn in as President. Some people found this an omen. :)
the "liberty bell march."
Thank you, void. I just love hearing that song as the "Monty Python" intro with the last note replaced by the squish of the bare foot coming down.
I assume that represents a change from Sousa's version...:)
Indeed...:)
Getting back to the demise of CBC Radio's NIGHTLINES, the Friday & Saturday late night show (response #57): CBC Radio 2 shows still have DJs whose personalities color the shows; it also sounded like host David Wisdom had a big role in picking the music. NIGHTLINES had a loose structure. From midnight until around 0200, the show played noisy rock, what might have been categorized as "alternative." Until around 3 or 4, the energy level slowed down, and Wisdom would play lots of midtempo rock, some folk and folk rock, and world music. (As you can guess, this was generally my favorite part of the show.) Then as the show wound down towards 5 am, the program would play some quiet jazz, some new age and ambient stuff, some quiet classical. Of course, the schedule could get thrown out at any time. Wisdom has a taste for kitschy old MOR songs. There was also, every two months or so, "Covers Weekend," when every song played on Friday and Saturday night would be a pop or rock cover. "Guilty Pleasures" was another recurring theme. The show also had these quirky call-in tapes where callers from around Canada (and the border USA states) would ramble on about topics which Wisdom had picked, and then request songs, which would follow.
Nightlines is no more? Damn, that's too bad.
A good deal of CBC "Nightlines" rock personality seems to have been carried over to David Wisdom's new show, RADIOSONIC, which is on between 7 pm and 11 pm (I think) on Friday and Saturday nights. RADIOSONIC doesn't seem to have the jazz/folk/world music/ambient touches which Nightlines had, though. Leslie and I were driving back from Detroit last Saturday night; we tuned in CBC, listened to the music for a while, and we said, "Yup, this sounds like a David Wisdom show!" RADIOSONIC has a second host, Leora Kornfeld (?), and there seems to be a bit of friction between their styles.
The best radio station I've ever heard is in Tampa (WMNF 88.5). Unfortunately, I am *just* out of range, as I am 2 1/2 hours north of Tampa now, in Gainesville. I can still hear 88.5, but it's not clear at all, due to two local religious stations on either side of 88.5, which bleed over. There is actually one spot in Gainesville where I can pick up 88.5 almost crystal clear, but unfortunately, its somewhere in the first three car lengths of a left turn lane near the downtown Gainesville area. Needless to say, the only times I am able to hang out and listen to WMNF is verry, very late at night, or very, very early in the morning. WMNF is a community sponsered radio station. Now, when I say community sponsered, I mean 100%. Truly every penny (supposedly) they get is from listeners. They have week long pledge drives twice a year. Its not, obviously, a college radio station, but college radio is the closest thing I've heard to WMNF anywhere. They also have live internet "broadcasts". Which is great for WMNF fans who are out of the Tampa area. Being a community radio station, WMNF must satisfy a wide range of tastes, in music and other programming. They divide the programming day up into one and two hour slots, where the hosts of each show come in and have pretty much free reign on what they play. There is everything from the heavy metal show to the opera show to various jazz shows to various classic rock shows to the polka hourto celtic shows to international music to folk music toa late night hip hop show to blues shows. Plus a lot more kinds of music. In addition, there there is much social and political discussion, news, and speeches, throughout (most tending to lean to the progressive left). There is also (which I think I miss most of all) Pacifica programming each morning, with Alan Watts' speeches on Toaism and Buddism being my favorite. I invite everyone to check out 88.5 online at http://wmnf.org/ You'll be amazed!!! ;->
Also Pacifica evening news is on the web in real audio, I think that's www,pacifica.org, though I will have to double check that URL.
Er,.....that's Taoism, I mean. ;->
Today's news: Detroit's commercial classical music station, WQRS, is being converted to some rock format, as yet unannounced. This addresses the desperate shortage of rock radio in the Detroit area. (*ahem*) It's another demonstration of the need to manage the limited resource of the radio spectrum on socialist principles. WQRS was making a tidy profit and had the #12 audience share in Detroit. In a free market, WQRS would have gone on being a profitable classical station for some time. But radio is an oligopoly with government licensing needed to play in the game, and it's run on the absurd premise that delivering desirable buyers to advertisers is radio's highest goal. (Remember, in commercial radio, you are not the customer: you are the product being sold.) WQRS listeners were well-educated and wealthy, but they aren't young enough. The NPR station in Detroit, WDET, programs mostly jazz, folk and world music; the NPR station in Ann Arbor, WUOM, dumped its morning and afternoon classical programming about a year ago. So neither of them is likely to pick up the void in classical music programming. This echoes changes in Philadelphia; I believe that Philadelphia's commercial classical station had the same owner as the Detroit station, and they just dumped classical music at the same time that the major NPR station in the area was dumping classical music.
This is indeed a sad day in radio. Let us play Mozart's Requiem for the dead. 'qrs had a spot saying they were going on 35 yrs of classical. I'm going to miss them.
Gee, I dunno. I kinda like the RRR (Really Repetitive Radio) stations. I mean, since they play the same stuff over and over (I listen to WIQB, mostly for their little sound-clip thingys "Gee, I always thought this was a crack house) it becomes a little bit like having a CD on random mode in your player. And ocationally they play something that surprizes me, like once I tuned in to "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson! I bounced my head off the roof!
So basically your theory is that you'll appreciate the good stuff a lot more if it's buried by hours and hours of repetetive dreck? Hmm. You may be right for a career in modern radio programming (or would be if 96% of commercial radio programming wasn't done by a Zenith PC XT clone with a bad randomizer sitting in a closet in Dubuque, IA.) I'm appalled to find out that I was incorrect in my firm belief regarding the impossibility of the radio choices in the Detroit market getting worse. Sigh..
(I heard Crimson's "People" on the radio once...)
So when is WQRS going nonclassical? I better listen while I can, because I surely *won't* be listening *at all* when it goes rock...
The unconfirmed rumor is that the WQRS change will be near the end of November.
Do you know what I'll miss most when WQRS changes format? The Sousa march at 7:15 am. One of the cab drivers I had been riding with at that time listened religiously to his morning dose of Sousa.
re: 80 -Yeah, that's basically it. Of course, I forgot to mention that happens to be one of the (very) few channels that Ghoti will recieve clearly?
Sounds like, in the Detroit market, classical will become the "new alternative". My, how times change, eh?
wqrs is changing formats? AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <has a fit> damn. *damn.* (all other expletives deleted) it's the only -- and i mean *only* -- station i listen to in my cab, where i spend almost 60 hours a week driving and listening to wqrs. cabs don't have cd players or tape decks in them, either, and now all that's going to be left for me to listen to is country or rap (neither of which i can stand), bad rock, or whacked-out extremist talk show hosts. i took some extra time off work this week, which must be why i've missed any announcements about wqrs changing formats. damn. this is really upsetting. sorry for throwing a fit in the middle of the music conference. and i thought quitting smoking was going to be tough. so, is there anything those of us who would like to preserve classical radio in the detroit area can do?
Void, in the Ann Arbor area, you should be able to get a marginal signal out of WKAR-FM in East Lansing, 90.5, which plays mostly classical music outside of the morning and evening NPR news blocks. WUOM in Ann Arbor, 91.7, still broadcasts classical music after about 7 or 8 pm, and on through the evening until the morning NPR news show. It's nationally syndicated programming now, rather than the local DJs, but it's still classical music at night. You may also be able to get a marginal signal out of CBC Radio 2 from Windsor, 89.9, which is predominantly classical.
Yeah, my dad just turned on wqrs this eavening. he recieved an awfull shock... Stone Temple Pilots. My question is thus: are they switching to rock only, or just some? BTW: I just heard another cool song mixed in with the usual dreck on wiqb. I think it's by the Proclamers, called "Ten Thousand Miles" or some such.
Instead of crying in our beer, and all that, we should write letters to the station, the owners, anyone who will listen to bring our WQRS back to classical. Enough letters and they will listen. Stand UP and be counted. Who is with me?
Arr! D'ye have an address for me (E-mail or Otherwise?)
I like WIQB and WPLT, both of which WQRS now seems to be trying to clone. I listen to them quite a bit. I also listened to WQRS occasionally. Why do we need yet another station like the ones already there?
Here is the address: WQRS 28588 Northwestern Hwy Suite 200 Southfield MI 48034 (248) 355-1051 Flood em with letters. Get that alternative shit off WQRS!
<krj offers omni a lance to tilt at the windmills with.>
I checked out the new format of "The Edge<at>105<dot>1" just a few minutes ago. It appears that they are retaining the original WQRS call letters for the time being at least (a fairly normal practice when a radio station changes format and/or call letters). Could not accurately identify what I was listening to, though, as there were apparently no disc jockeys speaking during the brief time I had the radio on this particular station.
Heretic
You could also address letters to stations that might pick
up what was a profitable format (not just highly profitable).
I don't know if that litejazz station could be/or would want
to be presuaded into doing more orchesteral things in the evening.
That is, a station with a sucessfull daytime format, just
might be open to a compatable evening format when their current
evenings are in the dumper.
Re#89: Yeah, I know that song. It was on the radio a while back, and I think it's on the Benny and Joon soundtrack. Having never listened to WQRS much, I don't really care one way or another about the change of format. On the one hand, I do object to genero-alternative stations, which seem to be taking over the world; if, on the other hand, this new format turns out better than the mostly crappy alternative radio we got around here before, I really can't complain.
I still say if you write letter and/or start a petition drive, someone has to take notice of that.
Music item:101 , which is linked to Agora, now hosts the discussion spawned by the demise of WQRS. (Might as well put it all in one place...)
If like what a radio station is doing now send them a letter of support. It may well work better than a letter of protest after a change.
Agreed. Positive reinforcement is always good.
Recently discovered, thanks to pthomas: 96.3's new format is now "20 Years of Alternative Classics." Which seems to be Peter Gabriel, The Cars, Sheryl Crow, Foo Fighters, just to mention what I heard tonight. Leslie says that any station playing Squeeze (which we heard another time) has potential.
Yeah, I heard their new slogan this morning. Is it really a format change or just hype?
I think it's just an excuse to extend their Flashback parts of the schedule throughout the day. What sucks about it is that now only 89X plays a lot of new alternative music.
And playing "new alternative music" is a *good* thing...? :)
better than many of the, umm, alternatives..
If you had a choice between "new alternative music" or the lastest Backstreet Boys/NSYNC/Britney Spears tune, you betcha that I'll pick the "alternative" music. I wouldn't mind the older stuff if I didn't have to hear Gary Numan's "Cars" every frickin day.
ugh.. that *is* a terrible song
Let's see... choice between Backstreet Boys or, say, Matchbox 20... I think I'd just pull my own head off and have done with it.
usually, I try to find a radio show I like on the CWU college radio station, and then listen or request music I like. It depends. I surf on the radio more than I do on the tube. But every now and again, college or high school vocational radio will be a great alternative (no pun intended).
<agrees with the plug for college radio>
and while were plugging college radio... MSU has a splendiferously wonderful college radio station. You can listen to them using real audio. The webpage is http://wdbm.msu.edu It really is a great radio station, I listen to it all the time at work. Other than that, Ive just in general become so sick of most new radio. When in the car or at home, I usually listen to 94.7, the local classic rock station.
resp:112 I forgot to mention that I mentioned high school vocational radio because my hometown had one at the vocational school. It was fairly comparable to college radio, and for the Tri-Cities, it's the only station of its kind since there is no university that has one there. The closest college radio station is 45 mins away in Walla Walla-- KWCW for Whitman College, and the transmitter is more or less limited to that area. However, it is a free-format station, which offers listeners quite a variety of music. You can listen to the station via RealPlayer G2 at http://www.whitman.edu/student_orgs/kwcw
I'm glad 96.3 went back to their old format, but they're hyping it quite a bit. It's at the point where I expect to hear, "*We're* the *best* station because *we* play cool stuff. Nyah Nyah Pbbbttt!!!" =) And I *like* Gary Numan's "Cars"...
I like the song too, but there is too much of a good thing. I've heard a lot of good songs played to death to the point where I never want to hear them again. Gary Numan's "Cars" is a good example of that. I switched to Alice, just so I can hear some different stuff. It's great to hear early 80s Genesis again.
(are you sure it isn't the Coal Chamber version? Gary Numan remade "Cars" with them, and we played it a lot over the summer at the college radio station.)
I like the Coal Chamber version, but the Planet never played it.
Yeah, I liked that version too. I'm really picky when it comes to covers, so I was impressed.
What does it mean, "96.3 went back to their old format"? What was the old format, and what was the new format?
Old format: Smiths, New Order, Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, some "newer alternative" New format: Same, but with crappy new alternative thrown in New new format: Station director got bitch-slapped and went back to the old format
96.3 has had so many formats over the years. It was jams for the longest of long times, then changed to "the planet" back in 93 or so, ever since then, they've been slightly modifying the type of stuff on their playlist, but recently the rule seems to be, we can't play anything that's come out in the last 2 years or so.
I've almost given up on radio, since I much prefer to listen to my tapes and CDs. The radio stations don't keep my interest as much as they used to.
In the past couple of weeks I've caught the tail end of the "Big Sonic Heaven" show on (I think) 88.7 (aka CIMX / 89X) and enjoyed it. The show's on on Sunday nights and plays a lot of a particular type of music I enjoy, though I'm not sure I can currently think of a good name for the category..
"Big Sonic Heaven" is a good show. So is the Midnight to 5AM slot on WDET. Unfortunately, both are at times where it's hard for me to listen to the radio.
All they ever seem to play on "Big Sonic Heaven" is Dead Can Dance. I have nothing against DCD, but I do like some variety...
Yeah, I've noticed a lot of stuff I like on WDET late at night, too, but it never seems to be there when I tune in deliberately. Is the programming you speak of on every night during that time slot or just certain nights of the week?
Gnat - you need to listen to Big Sonic Heaven more often. They play quite a variety, not just DCD. =)
I like the Liz Copeland show that airs on Sun-Thurday (or Mon-Fri) midnight-5AM. She plays stuff that interests her. If it's someone's birthday, like Elvis or Mick Jagger, she'll devote an hour to their music.
Big sonic Heaven is on 96.3. I try to catch the late morning/early afternoon shows on WCBN in Ann Arbor. Its mostly a variety of middle eastern music, at 1, theres a show with music from francophone countries. I got into the shows because I helped out there one Sunday, the DJs are really cool, and have so much knowledge about their specialty music. If youre in the area, Id really recommend giving them a listen. Oh yeah, 88.3 on the dial.
They also do webcasts - www.wcbn.org is their main page. I just found this out myself, so I haven't yet had occasion to check it out, but it's good to know....I've been going into withdrawl.
We heard a nice program out of Kalamazoo as we drove back from Chicago tonight. The Sunday Blues Show, on WRKR, 107.7 FM. A few acoustic blues numbers, lots of electric blues. The best electric number, with loads of shimmering guitar, came just before we lost the station around Chelsea, and I'll probably never figure out who it was. birdy or anyone else, do you know what this station usually plays?
I would suspect it being a RocKeR.
resp:132 has a happier ending. A google search turned up the show's web page, http://www.sunday-blues.com . E-mail with the program's host gave me a short list of songs which my favorite could have been, all by Robert Ward; from amazon.com I was able to determine that the song I wanted was "Your Love Is Amazing," from the album FEAR NO EVIL. Which I now have. Yay. This is so much easier then when I was a kid.
Salon continues it's muckraking series on why pop radio is so bad. Basically the problem is that radio playlists are now controlled through corruption and legalized bribery. And as the stations are agglomerated into larger corporations with fewer owners, even the local program director, who used to choose the songs to be played, is being stripped of his autonomy. http://www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2001/04/03/payola2/index.html
(( Clear Channel Communications now owns 1200 radio stations, according to the article. ))
That includes the old WIQB, now WWWW (W4) 102.9fm Ann Arbor
and WKQL, Kool107, 107.1fm, Ann Arbor.
Do they own Detroit stations?
Salon continues its muckraking series with a slashing attack on Clear Channel Communications, the corporation which controls 60% of rock radio in the USA, they say, and which is using blacklist tactics to stop artists and labels from doing promotional work with Clear Channel's competitors. http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/04/30/clear_channel/index.html A quote from the end of the article: "There is some evidence that consolidation economics has damaged radio's popularity.... In just the past seven years radio listening has declined nearly 15 percent, according to Arbitron. One in three listeners between the ages of 12 and 24 recently told Arbitron they were listening to less radio specifically because of the commercial overload."
This seems pretty directly relevant as to why we need more low power fm broadcasters as per the pirate radio item in this springs agora item.
News item: The Los Angeles Times says it has internal paperwork from an independent promotion agency proving that this agency routinely makes illegal payments to radio stations for airplay. "Experts say the newly disclosed bank data could threaten the licenses of numerous stations. "'This document destroys the notion that the new payola is any different from the old payola,' said Peter Hart, an analyst for the New York-based media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting. "'What you have here is a smoking gun... An appropriate government investigation could blow this whole industry wide open.'" http://www.latimes.com/print/20010529/t000044865.html The web site says this was a front page story.
With the growing consolidation of music-producing and broadcasting companies it may eventually wind up being a moot point -- it doesn't seem too hard to imagine a near future where you tune into the local station of the Vivendi Radio Network, which only plays that company's stable of artists. Still, anything that shakes up the currently dismal state of commercial radio has at least the potential to do good..
Is anyone else into NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" show? (:
RE #142 I listen to "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" just about every week.
What time on which station(s)?
RE #144 11:00 am Saturdays on WEMU (89.1 FM) and 3:00 pm Saturdays on WUOM (91.7 FM).
You have several choices: