I agree about XRT. They are like the other stations now i.e. have their own format ( still wider than most ) but repeat the same songs every day / every other day or so. On top of that, they DO have WAY too many commercials.
As far as "9" goes, their variety is sometimes "TOO" wide for my tastes, but what the heck. Just because i don't like it doesn't mean that somebody else didn't request it. So long as they don't stick with the same specific type of music multiple songs in a row ( one "disco" or "country" tune is enough per batch ), it's not that bad. When you have Kelly Clarkson followed by a disco tune followed by a country tune, it's time to change the station. While diversity in music is great, you've got to draw the line somewhere in terms of "taste" and developing a sense of musical flow. Doing it for "shock value" and to display just how diverse your programing is gets kind of old real fast.
One thing that I have noticed is that they are already beginning to play certain bands on a very regular basis. For an example, you can hear "The Darkness" at least twice a day now. Two different songs, but that's still at least one song by them too many times per day and about 4 or 5 times too often per week. Even if both songs are "decent", do you really want to hear them both every day of the week??? After all, how many other MILLIONS of songs by millions of other bands are there that they could be playing? I'd rather here some of the good but lesser commercialized songs by well known bands, let alone good tunes from bands that never really made it big. This is one area where satellite radio really whips "The 9's" ass....
Along those same lines, has anybody else noticed that they don't play much music from the punk / new wave era of 77 - 85 or so i.e. not even the "commercial stuff" that made it onto the radio? I'm talking about "mellow" stuff like Elvis Costello, Devo, early Talking Heads, Gary Numan, XTC, Nick Lowe, English Beat, etc... I'm not expecting to hear the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks ( although they were the greatest "rockin' pop" band ever with phenomenally catchy hooks and rhythms ), Sham 69, etc... As such, this station does offer diversity, but it is still drastically lacking in some areas. It's good, but it could be better. Sean
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As far as "9" goes, their variety is sometimes "TOO" wide for my tastes, but what the heck. Just because i don't like it doesn't mean that somebody else didn't request it. So long as they don't stick with the same specific type of music multiple songs in a row ( one "disco" or "country" tune is enough per batch ), it's not that bad. When you have Kelly Clarkson followed by a disco tune followed by a country tune, it's time to change the station. While diversity in music is great, you've got to draw the line somewhere in terms of "taste" and developing a sense of musical flow. Doing it for "shock value" and to display just how diverse your programing is gets kind of old real fast.
One thing that I have noticed is that they are already beginning to play certain bands on a very regular basis. For an example, you can hear "The Darkness" at least twice a day now. Two different songs, but that's still at least one song by them too many times per day and about 4 or 5 times too often per week. Even if both songs are "decent", do you really want to hear them both every day of the week??? After all, how many other MILLIONS of songs by millions of other bands are there that they could be playing? I'd rather here some of the good but lesser commercialized songs by well known bands, let alone good tunes from bands that never really made it big. This is one area where satellite radio really whips "The 9's" ass....
Along those same lines, has anybody else noticed that they don't play much music from the punk / new wave era of 77 - 85 or so i.e. not even the "commercial stuff" that made it onto the radio? I'm talking about "mellow" stuff like Elvis Costello, Devo, early Talking Heads, Gary Numan, XTC, Nick Lowe, English Beat, etc... I'm not expecting to hear the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks ( although they were the greatest "rockin' pop" band ever with phenomenally catchy hooks and rhythms ), Sham 69, etc... As such, this station does offer diversity, but it is still drastically lacking in some areas. It's good, but it could be better. Sean
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