Those bastards, they gutting the sould!

FTA: The Eagles, Christina Aguilera and Weezer are launching their own digital radio channels which will be distributed across the web via Clear Channel.

Can you change the channel. I hate the farking Eagles, man.

I blame pirates.

/rrrr

"Artist Personal Experience," "Premium Choice" - Clear Channel are spectacularly talented at devising strangely workmanlike yet completely meaningless corporate-speak labels.

Maybe computers come up with it all - could be the same computers they use as DJs.

hot like stevie nicks in 76

Stand back!

I would rather hear Stevie's playlist than the one created by some soulless marketing department formula that the Program Manager chose after he got a free lunch and some laughs from Ms. Tits McGee, the new star of sales for Suck&Blow Radio Consultants, which is not in any way directly affiliated with any artist, producer, or studio.

They really are the suck. I've never lived anywhere where Clearchannel didn't take the best station in town and turn it into something a dog wouldn't crap on. There was a decent alternative station here, and they took it, and changed it into the worst classic rock station imaginable...Not decent classic rock, but the kind of pop rock that people are embarrassed to admit they liked at the time?

It's like that 10.5 months out of the year. The other 1.5 months its wall to wall crap x-mas music. I only wish I was making that up. For the first few months after the format change I'd occasionally accidentally mash the button out of habit and be treated to some horrible x-mas ditty. Farkin music made me more homicidal than normal.

Arthur Figgis: "Artist Personal Experience," "Premium Choice" - Clear Channel are spectacularly talented at devising strangely workmanlike yet completely meaningless corporate-speak labels.

Maybe computers come up with it all - could be the same computers they use as DJs.

They should cut the bull and call it 'Real Artistic Personal Experience' for your ears.

As someone who got blown out in February after over 30 years in the biz, I'm really.....you know.

If you think Stevie will actually choose her own music to play, you are sorely mistaken.

my burned out neighbor (think Joe Dirt on 10+ more years of HEAVY drinking, but the same cars) claims he's been hired by a local classic radio station to DJ on the weekends. If his random nightly "concerts" are any indication, Stevie Nicks' mess would be listenable. *BONUS* he claims to know Stevie Nicks as he's a pool guy in Phoenix and worked on her pool. His now dead bird was named Stevie in her honor.

Is Gutting the Sould a band? If so, I'm old.

Earguy: Satellite rules.

Except for the extremely crappy sound quality. I just got a car with a 3 month trial of XM- I was excited at first, but after an hour or so of trying to listen to what sounds like a 64k stream at best, I went back to FM and CDs. Yikes.

I sold my sould to rock and rould.

Gaboo: Earguy: Satellite rules.

Except for the extremely crappy sound quality. I just got a car with a 3 month trial of XM- I was excited at first, but after an hour or so of trying to listen to what sounds like a 64k stream at best, I went back to FM and CDs. Yikes.

Why is it that I hear people biatching about sound quality on satellite? I get crystal clear sound on my receiver for all the music stations. Some of the talk stations do have reduced quality... but it's talk. Maybe I just don't listen to the very obscure music stations?

Clear channel has almost single-handedly sucked the life out of terrestrial radio.


/Stern fan
//Likes Bubba more

Satanicpuppy: They really are the suck. I've never lived anywhere where Clearchannel didn't take the best station in town and turn it into something a dog wouldn't crap on.

This.
In my area, they own most of the stations and have ruined what was already a piss-poor market to begin with.

SOULD

I really would like to know why you don't just proofread the headline once. Is it the rush to get it posted first? I mean, just, sould? And the "l" and "d" aren't even near each other. Not like "pwned" where you graze the "p" instead of the "o." OK, I'm good....

BoronCarbon: Maybe I just don't listen to the very obscure music stations?

I tried 90s on 9, Lithium, and Backspin... I would think those are as mainstream as you can get. There's just no high end whatsoever, and I'm not even one of those asshole audiophiles. It probably sounds fine with headphones or one of those portable do-hickeys, but the difference between satellite and old-school FM is night and day if your stereo is capable of producing a decent frequency range.

True story.

My parents owned radio stations when I was a kid. The last one they owned (before they got out of the business altogether) was a jazz station. And I don't mean 'jazz' as in the god-awful elevator music shiat that gets piped into bank lobbies.

I'm talking:

Ella Fitzgerald
Satchmo
Billie Holiday
Sarah Vaughan
Duke Ellington
Dave Brubeck

Basically anything that actually had soul to it, and was made before the days of digital signal processing. In some cases, the really rare tunes were actually played from vinyl (this was in the late 90s). Sure enough it was a hit in its hometown of Florida where the elderly population couldn't get enough of it. I forgot the actual statistic, but the station had actually set a ratings record in terms of listenership.

But once my parents were getting close to retirement age, they decided to offload it to ClearChannel, but were kept on by CC as 'management consultants'. The second this transaction happened, CC sent one of their pencil pushing dweebs in to oversee the station, and promptly destroyed the format by instead playing modern, overproduced jazz (Kenny G). His rationale was that while the station was successful, it would be even MORE profitable by grabbing the audience that 'modern' jazz would attract.

Like clockwork, ratings fell through the floor and the station's monthly ad billing is apparently a fraction of what it used to be.

The moral of the story, folks, is that large corporate decision making has its place.

Radio is not one of those places.

Don Henley must die.

I've had Sirius for a couple of years now. I can't imagine driving without it. I dread being stuck in a car listening to the crap on terrestrial.

/Bababooey bababooey
//I listen to the music too

BigDogDude: As someone who got blown out in February after over 30 years in the biz, I'm really.....you know.

If you think Stevie will actually choose her own music to play, you are sorely mistaken.

Yea you're probably right, which reminds us of a whole other level of suck that pervades the biz.

Stevie Nicks? Isn't that coont dead yet?

Satanicpuppy: They really are the suck. I've never lived anywhere where Clearchannel didn't take the best station in town and turn it into something a dog wouldn't crap on. There was a decent alternative station here, and they took it, and changed it into the worst classic rock station imaginable...Not decent classic rock, but the kind of pop rock that people are embarrassed to admit they liked at the time?

It's like that 10.5 months out of the year. The other 1.5 months its wall to wall crap x-mas music. I only wish I was making that up. For the first few months after the format change I'd occasionally accidentally mash the button out of habit and be treated to some horrible x-mas ditty. Farkin music made me more homicidal than normal.

The sad part about this whole sordid affair is that if you read the FCC's charter, terrestrial airwaves are considered a public property. When my father applied for his license, there was actually a stipulation in the licensure that the radio station would be operated for the 'public good'.

This is the reason why you hear those 'Emergency Broadcast Tests'.

In the end, I'm not at all worried about the state of music in general because good, honest art will continue to be made. But unless re-regulation happens, you can kiss your hopes of having listenable FM radio goodbye. Unless that happens, ClearChannel will continue to offer the public:

'The Pepsi Rock Hour sponsored by Doritos flavored Mountain Dew'

You know...If they really wanted to make money with their programing they'd bring back the people who used to program the stations before they took them over and...oh, - wait...yeah.

/Never mind
//Bounced from Cumulus in October

I ar haz greenlihgt!

Hilarity_N_Sues: What a.p.e. radio might look like.

i fell asleep on my side with my laptop near me. i woke up, not 1 minute ago. through hazy eyes, that looked like RAPE 'EM

i wish it said that

I agree that Clear Channel and Cumulus have made some very bad decisions and homogenized radio while condensing it, removing local talent and killing their industry by reducing the number of talented professionals through syndication via voice tracking shows across multiple markets.

All of us are partially to blame by buying the crap they pedal alongside the good stuff that is out there. Those among us who have refused to give money to the marketers, RIAA and their ilk by pirating rather than patronizing their businesses has only increased the crap they peddle that can turn a quick buck.

And I'm sure that the lack of music education in High Schools across country contributes to this because those poor kids don't have a clue how to find the good stuff that is out there.

I have no need to listen to the FM channels here in Omaha. I usually listen to:







online or my CDs in my car. Even the "left of the dial" stations in Omaha are horrible (except for the public radio station and that's when they play NPR shows).

/even the "college radio" station is starting to sound like a Clear Channel knock-off
//no hate for UNO's radio station...I just don't like listening to classical music all the time.

sarahelizabeth:
online or my CDs in my car. Even the "left of the dial" stations in Omaha are horrible (except for the public radio station and that's when they play NPR shows).

What does "left of the dial" mean?

Gaboo: BoronCarbon: Maybe I just don't listen to the very obscure music stations?

I tried 90s on 9, Lithium, and Backspin... I would think those are as mainstream as you can get. There's just no high end whatsoever, and I'm not even one of those asshole audiophiles. It probably sounds fine with headphones or one of those portable do-hickeys, but the difference between satellite and old-school FM is night and day if your stereo is capable of producing a decent frequency range.

Hmmm... you listen to most of the stations I do. Perhaps it was the receiver? Just do yourself a favor and see if a friend has a setup you can listen to. I had an old receiver (circa 2005) and it sounded fine, then I got a Sportster 5 and the quality improved markedly. Also my old system would drop the signal if I went under a bridge, new one has a buffer and unless I go through a tunnel, it keeps a constant stream. Also the antenna on the new system seems to have a wider range of reception.

However, this could all be in my head as well. I always listen to Sirius in the car and I keep my nav DVD in the player so I don't really have anything to compare it to. I guess YMMV.

What's that? The Internet, you say?

BigDogDude: As someone who got blown out in February after over 30 years in the biz, I'm really.....you know.

If you think Stevie will actually choose her own music to play, you are sorely mistaken.

As a guy who was blown out in January, I'm getting a kick out of your reply...but only a measly ten years for me.

The thing that I always tell people though is don't give up on radio yet. People will always use something they can get for free and that's radio. So long as Pepsi-Co want to influence you to buy their product, they will buy ad time to do so.

Radio's not dead, but Mark Mays sure did his hardest to drop kick the poor sucker in the nerds a few times. And help promote a pro-corporate right wing agenda through the use of their AM stations.

Seems like nothing's changed in the last three decades.

Sorry. Didn't mean to hot link that last image.

Satanicpuppy: They really are the suck. I've never lived anywhere where Clearchannel didn't take the best station in town and turn it into something a dog wouldn't crap on.


Does not approve

/link is steaming hot

It's cool. Most deejays are fat anyway.

88.5 and 91.1 (both college radios) in atlanta = the only 2 good stations since 99x got killed.

WFMU!

There have been recent, positive hearings on low power fm radio.