Todays Raido Stations suck

Wdhsvbgod, where can one go out nowadays for a night of cosy etc. live jazz in TO? I used to swing by George's from time to time (many yrs ago), plus another place on the waterfront whose name I can't recall now. I wonder if old haunts have been joined or replaced by the new (maybe the Silver Dollar does jazz nowadays?;-) Fond memories... Anyways, I've always felt it would be uplifting if more metropoles celebrated summer &/or winter with a Jazz festival. Montreux & Montreal can do it, so too even little Ville de Quebec; why not (name-your-city)?

The perception that today's radio stations are a sorry substitute for the broadcasting of yesteryear is probably correct. A number of factors have come into play:
1. fewer and fewer independent local and regional stations, as the broadcast giants consolidate their holdings;
2. use of "formulas" for broadcasting -- top 40, etc. -- that are pretty much the same across the country;
3. heavily compressed broadcast signals;
4. focus on profitability rather than quality;
5. the virtual demise of good classical and jazz programming.

If this seems like a gloomy outlook, then consider what we have to look forward to following yesterday's ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (known inside the Washington, DC, beltway as a "captive agency"). The ruling by the FCC will permit a new wave of consolidation among newspaper, TV, and radio companies, which will place even more power in the hands of a few media giants. Newspapers will now be able to own TV and radio stations in the same city, and the broadcast networks will be able to own even more stations at the local and national level.

Consider, for example, that the radio group called Clear Channel now owns more than 1200 radio stations in the U.S. -- let me say that again: 1200 stations, and growing!!! Or consider that Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns Fox News Channel and the Fox TV network, as well as 35 TV stations plus 20th Century Fox movie and TV studio. Nationwide, a single owner will be allowed to own stations that reach as much as 45% of TV households (up from 35%).

So, if your perception is that radio stations are becoming more and more homogenous in their broadcast content, you have only more of the same to look forward to....

The AM signal is going to piggyback on the FM signal. I can see a con coming here.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/883723.asp?0si=-&cp1=1

Speaking of days gone by radio, does anyone remember Beaker Street with Clyde Clifford on KAAY-AM, Little Rock?

He was a real ground-breaker in playing "subversive" music and had the balls to put on stuff that no one else would touch on commercial radio. And as might interest you, Ron, one of the "standards" for Cliff was Captain Beyond's "Dancing Madly Backwards".

Oh, and I greatly miss album rock!

Anytime anyone keeps talking about 'the good old days' I expect another of to sound like our parents. It is true that the so-called alternative stations of the late 60's and 70's don't seem to be as much 'out there'. Of course, one must measure this against what was 'there' when these stations first appeared. It was all pop AM-crap and normal FM was dominated by Jazz, classic and elevator music. How many of us discovered rock on the AM dial? How many kids today discover their own music--as opposed to their parents' music--now, on FM?

Remember there is one purpose to radio: to sell advertising. Or, to be more specific to sell things. The powers that be have realized that alternative radio does not attract the advertising dollars that the average humm-drum crap can. I live in a major metropolitan area and I drive the passengers in my car crazy as whenever a Dj comes back on, I push the button and find more music.

EVEN A PIECE OF A SONG IS WORTH MORE THAN A COMMERCIAL

That is my justification if I bug someone too much. No, it is not a "guy thing with the remote". I just hate commercials. I do pause to hear the news, though.

So, I am obviously not the target audience. Why should a radio station play my music when I just keep changing channels? I do suspect, though, that there will be some alternative web based stations that many of us will listen to...and it would be much harder to change channels. So folks, lets get a list together of favorite stations that are streamed to the computers and have some fun. DSL can be wonderful, allthough one can get decent music on a regular telephone lines. I was in France a while ago and I was able to listen to my home-station on my friend's computer.

I agree with most of you in this thread on most of the points raised. I grew up near Detroit in the 70's and early 80's. At its peak, Detroit had 4 AOR stations (FM, of course) and the pickin's were good for someone with that taste (for AOR, that is). By the time all that "new romantic" crap of the early 80's started, I had abandoned radio entirely.

It wasn't until university that I rediscovered it on campus. As many of you have pointed out, college/university radio has always been a great source of "new music". Unfortunately, at that time, the university radio station had about a 5 watt transmitter and could only be heard on campus (heaven forbid you go across the street---you'll lose the signal for sure!)

but I digress...

Radio became so non-user friendly that I never even owned a tuner until just a few months ago. I am using it to educate myself in a new-found love of jazz. There is a pretty decent (member supported) jazz station in Toronto (near home) that I have been listening to a lot lately. I don't have a large (or small, for that matter) collection of jazz, especially old stuff, so this station is a boon to my burgeoning appetite for jazz.

Maybe the reason that this station seems so good to me is that it is member-supported, like PBS. Or maybe it's that I can hear BBC world service news every now and again.

Rockinroni, yes, they s---. But I wonder if it's radio itself or the listener. I find, with age, one simply becomes more discriminating. So when one looks, a lot more appears to blow now than ever before. Perhaps the personal age of innocence has an expiry date. Of course once one knows where one's preferences lie, one looks less elsewhere, and when one does, then with... benign ambivalence(?).

Slightly off-topic, but sometime ago I looked for some web radio stations to see what the hype was about. For classical I found a few were sometimes ok (kuni, wpr, wgbh, kccu, kosu, ksui,cbc r2, bbc r3). Most, I notice are college efforts. In the brief aside, I used this list, perhaps a usable site for finding interesting (web) radio for rock too. As bandwidth increases, one may hope that good stns in all areas will emerge with decent quality. For now, w/o question (since I don't have a tuner anyways), it's still LPs and CDs for me.

Yes, they do suck. There is very limited dynamic range on most stations these days. Most pop recordings in the first place are poorly recorded with limited dynamic range. Everything just sounds LOUD.

Corporate radio of today is absolutely terrible. Besides satelite radio(which I'm not really familiar with) one must stick with public radio and college stations. College radio is now and always has been the only real breath of fresh air on the airwaves.These stations have always been my main source for mew music and artists that would never, never be heard on big radio. Cheers, Lee

try: www.widr.org you should be able to listen online. They play a wide mix of music which can be very bad to very very good. As I write this they are playing something french with piano and harmonica and bass and a lazy trombone just stepped in, part of their usual eclectic mix which keeps me listening with great pleasure.

Nothing like a college readio station that is always trying to find new music, it is almost the only thing I listen to.

good luck

Phil

When I was living in the Central Valley of California (near Modesto) a few yrs. back a new country radio station came on the air called K-Ranch. For about 2-wks w/o commercials every country songs you could image this station played! There were so many great songs played that I never heard before. Not many great staions around my new hometown except for PBS. Radio isn't what it used to be! Way too commercialized/repetition. Luckily, there is a wonderful audio shop nearby which plays wonderful records(mostly)and CD's in a relaxed and friendly environment.

When I was young, WMMR used to play 6 aldums in their entirety with no commercials on Sunday nights. They called it the Sunday Night Six Pack. I spent every Sunday night glued to the radio listening to it. Nobody does this anymore. Todays radio does suck. And XM radio ins't much better. There is pumping in the music and this very low level high pitch whine because of the compression. And, don't try to listen to classical because it sounds horrible when the music gets complex. They sould have put the D/A converter in the head unit and used the same method as the new digital FM receivers. There would have been no need for compression then.

I don't XFM and Sirius and I don't net radio b/c my lame internet connection. I do know they are pretty cool, though, far beyond radio programming.

Personally, b/c I am a major study-nerd, I rely on friends and their friends and so on, who are throughout the country being very hip. Often, I find them accidentally, including late night MTV and guitar mags. Other ways are to make friends with people at cool music stores (that's always a goldmine), go to club shows, find a particular music mag that suits you.

ok, peace and have a good day,

Ohlala, "if you cannot find good rock bands,blame yourself, b/c they're there".

what is b/c?
Where do you find them. How do you hear them, XFM and Sirius?
That is partly what this thread is about sharing you cool raido stations and telling others how to get them.

peace and have a good day eh!
Ron,

Bitch, bitch, bitch about the obvious...at least there is XFM and Sirius and million net-broadcast stations, which are pretty cool. And, if you cannot find good rock bands, blame yourself, b/c they're there.

Have a miserable day,

I can't muster up any fond memories of radio stations from the past. Where I grew up the ones off campus always sucked. The whole thing was pretty much just a smaller version of the same malignant oligarchy that we're stuck with today. Unfortunately, the old, "Most people wouldn't know good music if it bit them in the ass." quote (from F.Z.) still holds true.

Twin Cities radio just as bad. 1 & 1/2 hour repeat on Plop 40 all sHIT stations. Total dumbing down by media conglomerates buying up too many stations in one market area.

CD Company Executives complaining of poor CD sales: Guess what? For sHIT tunes on the airways net NO SALES! Want to increase your sales? Encourage variety beyond the negative themed ghetto rap, whiny strung out druggie grunge crap, and teenage make whoppie nonsense.

They suck, they blow, whatever. I envy those locations that have some good tunes, especially late at night.

When I was back home last summer I was introduced to a public access station there. It was killer and had been in operation for quite some time. There were plans of making it streaming on the net. This is in Lincoln, Nebraska. If anyone knows of an active link to this jewel please post it.