One of the local stations I used to listen to (WBOS, 92.9 Boston) recently switched from a DJ format to prepackaged annoying music aimed at a younger audience.

/grumpy old man

There hasn't been a station like this in Cleveland (not counting the college stations) since... '99? Or so? When did WENZ switch?

/bring. it. back.

If you really like to hear great songs picked out by a person and you haven't got satellite, internet, or a community radio station as an alternative then you aren't really looking that hard.

/Death to corporate radio

Too bad Clear Channel and CBS have been firing half their DJs over the last couple months, or they could jump on the bandwagon too.

vonschiller: There hasn't been a station like this in Cleveland (not counting the college stations) since... '99? Or so? When did WENZ switch?

/bring. it. back.

IIRC, 92.3 WKRK is starting to move in that direction...last time I was there visiting the folks, they were in the middle of a "Smells Like the End" weekend special, where they had some of the old WENZ DJs on. It's just not the same as the old End, though.

Nowadays, I prefer the college music stations. WRUW 91.1 is pretty much all I listen to when I'm back visiting the ancestral homelands in NEOhio.

Wichita had a station like that until about two years ago, when the owner sold it to the Mexicans. Now it's 24/7 Nortena music.

The saddest part is that it's actually kind of an improvement, because the music the old DJs used to play sucked dog ass. You've got the power to play pretty much whatever you want, and you still choose Nickelback?

The Current, that is all. - Pops

The Onanist: The Current, that is all. - Pops

This.

I live in Dallas and love The Current and KCRW outta LA.

Record execs used to be able to fit a lot more cocaine into the LP record sleeves.

I'm all for actual DJs playing the music. But DO NOT....DO...NOT...speak over the song. Here in Chicago some of these DJs will speak for like 20 seconds over a song. It's beginning in the background and they're still carrying on with their irrelevant, pointless, nonsense.

If you're a DJ out there, nothing you say is important enough to interrupt anything. You could replace most of your speaking with Mr-T jibba-jabba and no one would know the difference. Stop talking over songs.

booooger!!!!

I worked like that when I was in radio, free to pick out whatever I wanted, or, more importantly, whatever the listeners wanted. I quit after they brought in the playlists and format schedules and the "clocks". I got busted twice by a new program director who told me the new format system was the way it was going to be.
Now that system has resulted in lower revenues and lowered professional standards where the DJ's are considered interchangeable (you used to have to know the music you were playing. The market where I live has a station that switched from adult contemporary - Manilow, BeeGees, Celine - to Contemporary Rock - Nine Inch Nails, Panic! At the Disco - and kept the same staff!), now they're going to try and go back to the form that worked for decades.
I'm hopin', but if management is still trying to control format, they'll probably screw this up as well.

Let's dig up Wolfman Jack and put him back in front of a mike!

KEXP! Now in New York! Not that it matters much since I hafta stream it, but it's just about the only station that doesn't make me all stabby.

Fark radio. Get one of those tape to deck things or an aux port. Plug mp3 player into deck.

Never have to listen to what someone else wants you to listen to. Don't think for a minute that the DJ's aren't controlled by someone else.

Sirius FTW, fark terrestrial radio.

Chris In The Morning On KBHR: Record execs used to be able to fit a lot more cocaine foot powder into the LP record sleeves.

/ftfy

What I want to know is: do DJs still know how to do this? It seems like it would be a dying art by now. They don't know anything about the music they play, or how to mix, or how to do a good radio show, or anything, it's all prepackaged. I hope it turns out alright.

I'm a dj so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

Wow, I feel kinda dirty after typing that.

It's a nice idea but no way are Program Directors going to actually let the DJs pick the music. They're all too power hungry (the pds, not the djs).

It'll never work...

radioparadise.com (^)

They actually think about how songs flow. Their taste isn't always good, but there is tons of variety. Beats any commercial radio.

Critch: Fark radio. Get one of those tape to deck things or an aux port. Plug mp3 player into deck.

Never have to listen to what someone else wants you to listen to. Don't think for a minute that the DJ's aren't controlled by someone else.

Not necessarily - I've worked at small, local stations where I could play whatever I wanted.

I love KPIG for doing this all along. Check them out at kpig.com (new window)

Bah, they'll still just play whatever the record companies tell them to play.

I was so excited when CBS brought KRock back (to NY, it was allllll talk for a year and a half) but then they just started playing linkin park again. Does anybody actually like that shiat?

Glad I've got a car with an Auxiliary jack for my ipod.

My favorite radio station growing up was WNCX in Cleveland, when they played classic rock, before the Howard Stern disaster. I was on night shift, and at 2:00 am when I was driving home, the had people call in requests to an engineer, he would record them, and they would announce their own into into the song. It was great. Lots of B-sides, and stuff you don't hear every day (or every week for that matter). It was the best radio ever. Short intro's, music, and the usual commercials. Not like the mouthy "dj's" they have now.

If you are in NY, and for some reason you don't have satellite radio already, WFUV is awesome.

I quit commercial radio when I couldn't pick what I wanted; trouble is, I can't stop doing it. Finally wrote software to pick things the way I would, so I can be as surprised by my picks as everyone else is...the result of that is my Live365 station, which you can get to through the "Click To Listen" link...

...here. (No, not a RickRoll. Thank God.)

Funny thing is, it put me back on the radio; my weekly FM show features all the stuff I add to the web station.

As for WRXP, I hope all the Boston and Van Halen listeners out there latch onto Cold War Kids and Arcade Fire the way they're programming it...but if you went in liking the latter, you've probably already rejected the former, so I dunno. At least there's different-sounding rock radio in New York again.

hubcity: As for WRXP, I hope all the Boston and Van Halen listeners out there latch onto Cold War Kids and Arcade Fire the way they're programming it...but if you went in liking the latter, you've probably already rejected the former, so I dunno. At least there's different-sounding rock radio in New York again.

My dad is the one who first told me about 101.9's format change, he's been raving about it since, so they've got him. Though he's gotten into The National and The Arcade Fire in the past few years anyway. While there are plenty of rock stations based on Long Island and Connecticut, Q104.3 was the only one that got a signal in NYC, and he hates most of the DJs there.

I think WRXP stands to take a lot of Q104.3's listeners, especially because let's face it, if you're white (and male?) of any age, and you're some place that has FM radio, the classic rock station is the only one that you'll find tolerable.

K-Rock also has terrible DJs to the point of unlistenability (that and the fact that they're basically W-RHCP). That one point when they changed back to music with nothing else but the call letter announcer was pretty damned good.

/XM in my car anyway
//listens to WFUV and WUSB sometimes, too

carmody: Wichita had a station like that until about two years ago, when the owner sold it to the Mexicans. Now it's 24/7 Nortena music.

The saddest part is that it's actually kind of an improvement, because the music the old DJs used to play sucked dog ass. You've got the power to play pretty much whatever you want, and you still choose Nickelback?

You know what's really funny? When you don't get the paper or pay attention to local news and get in your car for the first time after the changeover. I sat in the driveway for a while laughing my fool head off.

And yes, the station wasn't great, but every now and again, someone would throw caution to the winds and play something good.

I'm crotchety though, I didn't change the preset from KJHK (90.7) for several years after moving back after school. Even though it was, as near as I could tell, a god/punk station. Now the presets are three NPRs (two Wichita and one KC), the station that plays KU basketball and the frequency at which my iPod plays.

Radio? Oh, um... cool?

So what's the latest strategy to try to save vaudeville?

/What he said

Captain_Sissypants: Indie 103.1 Los Angeles

This.

I'm from Boston and I used to listen to FNX, but I started listening to Indie and now I'm hooked. Jonesy's Jukebox is gold, Jerry, gold!

Critch: Fark radio. Get one of those tape to deck things or an aux port. Plug mp3 player into deck.

This. I can't imagine listening to someone else's playlist anymore.

/now playing: "You Never Give Me Your Money" by The Beatles

Another vote for The Current here. I know it's been about 11 years, but I still miss Rev 105.

Also worth listening to.

Approves

I do hope this becomes a continuing trend; anything that helps put an end to the mainstream music industry.

As for "why listen to someone else's play list?", listening to other people's music is exactly how I got into a lot of the bands I currently listen to. It's alright to break out of your shell once in a while.

Critch: Never have to listen to what someone else wants you to listen to.

Lots of people like having a "curator" to help them along, since maybe they don't have the time to obsess over music and hang out at record stores all day like they used to.

I really like that RXP is going to have some NYC flavor. I've been an oldies PD, and the key to our kicking ass was to make sure the thousands of old goombahs who live in my area got more Dion and the Belmonts and less Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

I also hope they'll do some decent artist interviews and not just two-minute blurbs. Best half-hour of radio I ever took part in was an interview with Ray Charles, and I'm glad the suits I worked for at the time didn't get all hinky about blowing off the clocks.

Too late. I'm never going back to radio.

What I hate is the DJ's in the morning that blab blab blab while I'm trying to get up and around and on the way to work. I want music. Tons of driving music to get the day started, not to hear some dumbass chatter. The most I want to hear out of a DJ is the name of the song and the artist.

It's about farking time. Corporate radio (the only english speaking options that exist) in Phoenix SUCKS. The playlists are very limited to about 200 songs in the rotation, even on classic rock stations.

It's sad when you have to go to smaller markets just to get a decent radio stations.

93.9 The Mountain in Flagstaff, AZ FTW.

Next on the agenda: BAN, I mean farking BAN car dealership ads that yell at you between songs. Whoever thought that up should be beaten to death with one of his own limbs.

/can't listen to the radio anymore
//always have CDs in the car

zero point zero

i've been listening to the station in the article WRXP on and off. they're not doing anything revolutionary, sounds like 80% of what you'd hear on the other 2 rock stations- tired classic rock tracks (the usual from led zep, aerosmith) and tired alternative rock tracks (the usual from Pearl Jam and foo fighters) and then 20% of lesser heard songs (rarely anything you wouldnt have heard before).
there's a station 30 miles north of NY in Westchester 107.1 WXPK that has been doing it better for over 2 years, so this is a big 'meh' to me

No WOXY mentions yet... oh you want "real" radio.

I do like CD 101 when out Columbus way too.

nerium: KEXP! Now in New York! Not that it matters much since I hafta stream it, but it's just about the only station that doesn't make me all stabby.

It's too bad they kind of suck now.

/from seattle
//actually listens to kexp
///whine whine whine

Here's something I've been predicting for a while: iPods are the best thing to happen to music listening since the invention of the phonograph. They're also a hassle.

No, really. You have to buy, or somehow acquire, new tracks to put on them, and if you're not constantly running them on shuffle, you have to put thought into "programming" it for yourself. As entertainment is concerned, there's some value in the element of surprise, and iPods can't do that. Radio, incorrectly thinking that it had to compete with iPods, have also removed the element of surprise from their playlists, thus inadvertently handing victory to the iPod by making the difference between radio and iPods the difference between "stuff I know, but with commercials" and "stuff I know, without commercials." (The winner's an easy pick, but you wouldn't know it from Radio's behavior.)

For Radio to succeed, it has to surprise its listeners, which keeps them hanging out hoping for more surprises. WRXP is a baby step in that direction, but unlike almost everything else I've seen suggested in this thread...

- ...it's a commercial station, and probably has more resources available to it...

- ...you can get it in your car (in the NYC area.)

...meaning even if its ratings are lousy, more people will listen to it than any of the other alternatives mentioned. (Including mine, of course.) Even if it fails and goes off the air, it's building an audience for each of the smaller outlets with grass-roots followings that will rush in to fill in the vacuum. So the situation's full of win, from my point of view.

The Onanist: The Current, that is all. - Pops

I also love the Current, KEXP, KCRW, but also CBC Radio 3. Thank you Canucks! Great selection you have up there!

/Also BBC 1, 2, 3, & 6 have good music.

redstarr01: What I hate is the DJ's in the morning that blab blab blab while I'm trying to get up and around and on the way to work. I want music. Tons of driving music to get the day started, not to hear some dumbass chatter. The most I want to hear out of a DJ is the name of the song and the artist.

And when I want to hear the artist and title, none is given... so I don't know who I should look for when I want to legally obtain a copy of said track, and that irks me.

carmody: Wichita had a station like that until about two years ago, when the owner sold it to the Mexicans. Now it's 24/7 Nortena music.

The saddest part is that it's actually kind of an improvement, because the music the old DJs used to play sucked dog ass. You've got the power to play pretty much whatever you want, and you still choose Nickelback?

I seriously haven't listened to a music radio station for more than 5 minutes in a stretch since the Fly went off the air. Yeah, their choices were questionable sometimes but at least they gave a shiat.