Thursday, June 29, 2006
Why the Radio Sucks
So my car is a piece of junk, no surprise there. But the difference between my car and my Dad's car that I'm driving right now is mine has a CD player and his does not. Unable to cope with all the thoughts in my head, I drown it out with music. The main problem in my drives that I've noticed is, to no one's shock, radio stations are terrible. There's one thing to overplay decent songs, then there's overplaying bad ones. Not that anyone needeth be told how bad the radio is, but let's analyze.
The Station: Hot 101
Core Audience: Parents who haven't realized they're not hip.
Sample Playlist: All-American Rejects "Dirty Little Secret," Fall Out Boy "Sugar, We're Going Down," Three Doors Down "Let Me Go," Beyonce "Check On It," Sean Paul "Temperature."
I enjoy hip-hop, I really do. I would take anything by Outkast over most rock music made today, DMX's early music is by far scarier than anything released by today's metal artists, Public Enemy was probably one of the most politically effective artists in the past 20 years, even the hip-hip coming out of the U.K. proves that it doesn't have to suck. 107.9 does nothing to help any of these claims. Much like KISS-FM, they have a short list of "blazin'" songs that they play at least once or twice every hour, each one more banal than the one before it. By the end of the hour you've heard enough about rims, sex and white tee-shirts than you probably would've cared to. Also, it averages playing about 3 songs before going to 5-6 minutes of commercials and for some reason, every time the DJ's come on and announce that you're listening to Z107.9 they also have to inclue that it's "Home of the Russ Parr morning show," which escapes me why they always do that considering that it's not as if Russ Parr is a huge DJ or that his morning show is world-renowned. Either way, it's sad that such a culture continues to be dumb-downed by some of the worst hip-hop music to be released in the past 10 or so years and for a station that has such a grasp on the black demographic is pretty bad too.
Welp, that's it. If you feel the same way leave a comment. If not, that's alright too. This won't change anything about the radio, but it's good to remind people why they should stick to their CD player/XM/Sirius.
The Station: Hot 101
Core Audience: Parents who haven't realized they're not hip.
Sample Playlist: All-American Rejects "Dirty Little Secret," Fall Out Boy "Sugar, We're Going Down," Three Doors Down "Let Me Go," Beyonce "Check On It," Sean Paul "Temperature."
Back in the day and by back in the day I mean prior to 2000, Kiss FM didn't exist in Northeast Ohio. So Hot 101 was the bees-nees. Though hesistant to jump on playing any sort of hip-hop outside of Will Smith until, let's say, 1999, they were the standard when it came to finding out was "phat" with the kids. With their mid-20-white-male-DJ's-who-all-sound-the-same they ruled my elementary-to-early high school music listening experience. Now tuning into it is like hearing soccer moms talk about good the new Staind song is, they clearly have missed the boat by a few years and judging by how at any given moment they will play the triad of bland rock "Nickleback-Three Doors Down-Staind," it shows where their tastes have ended and how out of touch they've become.
The Station(s): Kiss FM 95.9 (Youngstown), Kiss 96.5 FM (Cleveland)
Core Audience: 14 - 18 year old girls or anyone else that doesn't know better.
Sample Playlist: Panic! At The Disco "I Write Sins (Not Tragedies)," Fall Out Boy "A Little Less Sixteen Candles," Chamillionaire "Ridin' Dirty," Anything Pussycat Dolls releases within the week, The interchangable R'N'B Chick/Guy of the Moment (Cassie, Rihanna, Ciara, Christina Milian, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo)
Core Audience: 14 - 18 year old girls or anyone else that doesn't know better.
Sample Playlist: Panic! At The Disco "I Write Sins (Not Tragedies)," Fall Out Boy "A Little Less Sixteen Candles," Chamillionaire "Ridin' Dirty," Anything Pussycat Dolls releases within the week, The interchangable R'N'B Chick/Guy of the Moment (Cassie, Rihanna, Ciara, Christina Milian, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo)
When you want to point fingers at the devil that pulled the nail-in-the-coffin for radio, look no further than KISS-FM. Playing the same 10 or so, the station can only be listened to at a maximum of an hour at the most (and that's if you enjoy the music.) Since their inception, they basically took Hot 101's formula of playing the "hot" songs of the moment and backing them with twentysomething DJs except the DJs are a bit more annoying and the songs are played ad-nauseum. Most often played currently is the slew of 808 and hand claps hip-hop songs such as anything by Dem Franchise Boyz, Nelly, Chris Brown, Lil Jon, etc. etc. Often times they will jump on a trendy alternative artist such as Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Panic! At the Disco months after their successful has already been played out by other radio stations as sort of a way to play it safe and make sure what they're playing isn't too edgy and is hip with the kids.
The Station: Mix 106.5
Core Audience: Adults who don't want to hear "the rap music."
Sample Playlist: Phil Collins "Dance Into the Light," Nick Lachey "What's Left of Me," Goo Goo Dolls "Slide," Bon Jovi "Who Says You Can't Go Home," Kelly Clarkson "Since U Been Gone"
Core Audience: Adults who don't want to hear "the rap music."
Sample Playlist: Phil Collins "Dance Into the Light," Nick Lachey "What's Left of Me," Goo Goo Dolls "Slide," Bon Jovi "Who Says You Can't Go Home," Kelly Clarkson "Since U Been Gone"
Back in the day when I was 8 and Phil Collins was my favorite singer, this was the soundtrack to my childhood. Those were the days of Trapper Jack and adult-contemporary was the music to listen to. Nowadays, not-so-much. I'll give kudos to the station that it's never been ashamed of being adult-contemporary and embracing all the unhip mothers in their waist high jeans. It's music for those not ready to jump into the current stream of music but don't want to hear "Hang On Sloopy" for the 800th g-d time.
The Station: 88.1 WZIP (Akron)
Core Audience: College students
Sample Playlist: Kelis "Bossy," Anything Fall Out Boy/Panic! At The Disco, Chris Brown "Gimme That," Lil Jon "Snap Yo Fingers," Gnarls Barkley "Crazy," Red Hot Chilli Peppers "Dani California"
Core Audience: College students
Sample Playlist: Kelis "Bossy," Anything Fall Out Boy/Panic! At The Disco, Chris Brown "Gimme That," Lil Jon "Snap Yo Fingers," Gnarls Barkley "Crazy," Red Hot Chilli Peppers "Dani California"
I often give WZIP for being one of the few college campuses around to have a strong signal and usually if you catch the DJ, they play a good mix of music. Then of course there's the other DJ's such as one in the afternoon who plays nothing but terrible, terrible "snap" music or "crunk r'n'b." Night Rock is usually decent to listen to if you want to get away from WMMS barrage of playing non-stop Disturbed, Godsmack or Seether and whose tastes are more partial to indie-rock. Overall, it's a station that's good when it's consistent, but really bad when it's not.
The Station: 88.9 The Alternation
Core Audience: Indie-kids who want to listen to alot of faux-English, white singers sing about problems.
Sample Playlist: Keane "Is It Any Wonder," Angels and Airwaves "The Adventure," Fall Out Boy "A Little Less 16 Candles," Stone Sour "Through Glass," 311 "Frolic Room"
Core Audience: Indie-kids who want to listen to alot of faux-English, white singers sing about problems.
Sample Playlist: Keane "Is It Any Wonder," Angels and Airwaves "The Adventure," Fall Out Boy "A Little Less 16 Candles," Stone Sour "Through Glass," 311 "Frolic Room"
Originally I loved this station, mainly because it reminded me of the old days of 107.9 The End. I recall them playing a Dave Matthews Band followed by a Marilyn Manson song, the chances of this ever happening again are slim-to-nil, but it was a good moment that likened back to the days of radio stations playing a variety of music (even if it was within the genre.) Now the station has become more indie-centric playing mainly bands that sound like Interpol/The Killers or Sevendust/Godsmack. You find after awhile that meloncholy music is only good in small doses, even The Cure figured that out.
The Station: Z107.9
Core Audience: Black people between the ages of 10-30 years old, 16 year old white kids.
Sample Playlist: T.I. "What You Know," Yung Joc "It's Going Down," D4L "Laffy Taffy," Ne-Yo "When You're Mad," Bubba Sparxxx "Ms. New Booty"
Core Audience: Black people between the ages of 10-30 years old, 16 year old white kids.
Sample Playlist: T.I. "What You Know," Yung Joc "It's Going Down," D4L "Laffy Taffy," Ne-Yo "When You're Mad," Bubba Sparxxx "Ms. New Booty"
I enjoy hip-hop, I really do. I would take anything by Outkast over most rock music made today, DMX's early music is by far scarier than anything released by today's metal artists, Public Enemy was probably one of the most politically effective artists in the past 20 years, even the hip-hip coming out of the U.K. proves that it doesn't have to suck. 107.9 does nothing to help any of these claims. Much like KISS-FM, they have a short list of "blazin'" songs that they play at least once or twice every hour, each one more banal than the one before it. By the end of the hour you've heard enough about rims, sex and white tee-shirts than you probably would've cared to. Also, it averages playing about 3 songs before going to 5-6 minutes of commercials and for some reason, every time the DJ's come on and announce that you're listening to Z107.9 they also have to inclue that it's "Home of the Russ Parr morning show," which escapes me why they always do that considering that it's not as if Russ Parr is a huge DJ or that his morning show is world-renowned. Either way, it's sad that such a culture continues to be dumb-downed by some of the worst hip-hop music to be released in the past 10 or so years and for a station that has such a grasp on the black demographic is pretty bad too.
Welp, that's it. If you feel the same way leave a comment. If not, that's alright too. This won't change anything about the radio, but it's good to remind people why they should stick to their CD player/XM/Sirius.
posted by Andrew Gaug # 2:35 PM 
Comments:
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