Todays Raido Stations suck

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.

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!

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....

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.

The AM signal is going to piggyback on the FM signal. I can see a con coming here.
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