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Broadcast Radio Going Away, Streaming and Podcast Subbing

I miss the old days of FM.
My partner got SiriusXM for her car because our local fm stations, for the most part, suck. Local college and public jazz stations are the exceptions.
IMHO, SiriusXM has some good to great dj’s. Little Steven’s underground garages
Plays some great tunes. He is an encyclopedia of musical knowledge.
When I traveled for work, using rental cars, some had SiriusXM.
I liked outlaw country with country singer Elizabeth Cook. She kept me company on many a long road trip.
 
I listened to Beaker Street because they were playing new stuff I couldn’t get on Top 40 Chicago radio - WLS and WCFL.

Now I listen to Roon Radio to find new stuff. It’s awesome.
 
Pio1980 said:
http://www.ominous-valve.com/xerf.html
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So, you know about XERF, COOL..! That was one crazy station. I loved it. I had grown up listening to it. I've done a lot of study about XERF and the other border blasters. XEG was pretty good too. Yeah, that "doctor" would replace men's testicles with goat glands to "improve" their virility lol. Kids today listen to the crap they call "radio" and haven't a clue what real radio is. I have a piece of audio in my collection.. one of Brinkley's spots advertising to "come to the Brinkley Hospital in Little Rock Arkansas before it's everlastingly too late". Oh, and someone was selling "Crazy Water Crystals". Just add water lol. It was DEHYDRATED WATER! Hilarious! Or "genuine simulated diamonds" for.. I think $3.95.. because people then didn't know what simulated meant lol. Young people today who have never heard it, have absolutely no clue how cool and entertaining radio used to be. And imagine; an AM station cranking out a quarter million watts! And imagine that monster signal bouncing off the Ionosphere. Reminds me of "The Russian Woodpecker" at Duga 3. I wish we still had boarder blasters like that. Or when Wolfman Jack had made a deal with some pharmaceutical company to make pills to help your sex life. Only thing.. if I remember correctly.. they were sugar pills or aspirin or something. Of course the Trade Commission had eventually shut them down for that one lol.
 
W9TR said:
I listened to Beaker Street because they were playing new stuff I couldn’t get on Top 40 Chicago radio - WLS and WCFL.

Now I listen to Roon Radio to find new stuff. It’s awesome.
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If I remember correctly, my co-host used to work for CFL.
 
hjames said:
So what are you doing Saturday's from Noon to 3PM? or Friday Night from 7-10 (corrected)?
One of the last of the old time FM DJs Weasel, is on the air from Towson, MD
and spins a long mix of multiple tracks segued together - often on a common theme ...
I feed the web-stream to a decent amp and a pair of Altec Valencias and settle in for a nice Saturday afternoon.

Weasel's Wild Weekend - https://wtmd.org/radio/ - you might like his stuff.

UPDATED Fri FEB 12! I'm usually busy Friday nights and apparently I got the time WRONG -
Weasel is on Fridays at 7PM not 9!
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I remember Weasel and WHFS well from my days of growing up in Columbia, MD. I've been on the other side of the country for several decades already (over half of my life at this point!) and so I'd kind of forgotten about that station and that DJ, but I remember that they were really great and played quality music. It seemed like there were certain things that were particularly popular on that station and I liked the fact that they seemed to have their own flavor.

As for radio in general and the corporate nature of it, with few local DJs on the big stations and every tighter playlists of more and more generic seeming music - I'd say that this thing has everything to do with a media consolidation bill that was passed way back in the 90s. It allowed for fewer companies to own far more of the media landscape and resulted in just a handful of corporate media conglomerates owning most of the radio stations in the nation. Since it's easier and cheaper for them to pre-record short voiceovers rather than having real DJs and in having the same playlists on many stations rather than having individual DJs (or program managers) choose the music to be played, that's what they end up doing... Sad, but that's the way that things go when huge monopolies are allowed to happen.

All of this though really only applies to commercial stations and if you're lucky enough to live in an area with some good independent (non-profit) stations, you can still often find great music (and thoughtful talk radio stuff). I'm fortunate to live in such an area and when I'm not listening to various news and shows on the local PBS affiliate, there are three different stations that program great music. If one isn't playing something I like, I go to the next and I can usually find something that I dig. All of them are the polar opposite of commercial stations in that what gets played is all over the map (volunteer DJs play the music that they love!). I like that I can often tune in and hear music that I've never heard before and near something about a new genre...
 
JesusChrysler said:
That's awesome Lavane.
Lol at work whenever Blue Oyster Cult comes on, I say hey what other 2 songs do you know by this band?

17+ albums since 1971 and they play 3 songs by them.

Sigh.


Matt
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No doubt... I'm a big BOC fan, but my favorite stuff is their first 3 LPs, none of which had anything like a hit on it. Even the more commercial successful later albums had good songs that weren't the couple that they always play. In another town an hour and a half or so away from me, I notice that there's a station there which plays a classic rock type format, but they play album tracks and not just singles by familiar artists... and I can't help asking myself why more don't do such a thing? On rare occasions where I was forced to listen to the typical classic rock radio for a day, it seemed that the playlist was small enough that you'd end up hearing some of the same songs after just a couple of hours. I don't remember it being quite like that when I was a kid, though there were plenty of stations with the same format. They mixed it up a bit more. I can't imagine being someone who tunes this kind of thing in every day. How many times in a lifetime can one hear Hotel California and not become homicidal..?
 
sberger said:
There is still a ton of great, broadcast radio. But it's not on the mega watt, corporate stations that are the loudest and clearest in whatever local area you live in. You have to start at the left of the dial and slowly move right in most cases. Most areas have at least one community, public, college, etc., station with at least a partial element of free form music programming. And, if you can't find it locally using your tuner/car radio, it's easy to find thousands of stations, world wide, online. Stations with real people playing real records(and cd's), who actually love music and dig deep to expose great artists of all genre's.

All you have to do is look.
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Yeah, you gotta look to find any pirates on AM or FM radio, since they have to maintain a low profile to avoid conflict with the FCC. But really as long as they're not reported, they can go on indefinitely to enjoy. For instance, for this past Christmas season a downtown business put up lights on the guy wires of its tower to represent a huge Christmas tree and put on an FM station on 87.9 to time the lights with Christmas music. But the signal could be heard in my car from over two miles away, well outside unlicensed legal limits. Of course, since there is online streaming some people my question if there is really any need for pirate radio.
 
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Successful Radio Broadcasters today present content via some sort of human messaging to the audience, which is absent from an iTunes Playlist being played while motoring. In other words, listening to radio, folks feel connected, not alone. This is the most powerful aspect of broadcasting today; and thus, the reason radio personalities are essential to both AM and FM media owners and the best of these personalities are paid a lot of money.
 
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WaynerN said:
Just like the old days when I was a kid. Hear a new song on the radio by this band called YES, the song is Roundabout, have the record at home in 2 days. That is what radio stations were for. Introduce the public to new music and promote it, repeat.
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:beerchug:
 
hjames said:
So what are you doing Saturday's from Noon to 3PM? or Friday Night from 7-10 (corrected)?
One of the last of the old time FM DJs Weasel, is on the air from Towson, MD
and spins a long mix of multiple tracks segued together - often on a common theme ...
I feed the web-stream to a decent amp and a pair of Altec Valencias and settle in for a nice Saturday afternoon.

Weasel's Wild Weekend - https://wtmd.org/radio/ - you might like his stuff.

UPDATED Fri FEB 12! I'm usually busy Friday nights and apparently I got the time WRONG -
Weasel is on Fridays at 7PM not 9!
Click to expand...
I tried it a while back. Too muck yakkity-yak, not enough music, and his voice just rubs me the wrong way with his high-pitched hoarse chalkiness.
It is a brilliant source of background information tho.
 
Shominy said:
Too muck yakkity-yak, not enough music,
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That is the reason I have never really listened to the radio much unless in the car (even in the “good ole’days) and then it was tapes 90% of the time. I like a couple local shows that are mostly music, DJ’s tell you what it was/is and that is it.
 
bruno80918 said:
I miss the old days of FM.
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It was a lot of fun, for sure.

I remember listening to a station out of Fort Campbell, KY (their tag line was “Not *even* affiliated with the military base of the same name”) late at night. Some song was playing and started skipping. This went on for about a minute. Finally the DJ comes on and says “sorry man, I dropped some peanut butter on the record”.

When they first started, WXRT in Chicago might play Led Zeppelin, jazz or classical music, depending on what the DJ felt like playing.

But I think what I miss really is just being young and part of something that was new and fun.
That is happening now for young people (it never stopped), but most of us in this thread don’t know who/what/where ‘it’ even is.

That’s a feature, not a bug, by the way.
 
kirk57 said:
That is happening now for young people (it never stopped), but most of us in this thread don’t know who/what/where ‘it’ even is.
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Yes and Yes, but some of us keep up with the times.

Matter of fact we are doing it here on AK :thumbsup:

Now, as mentioned, it is streaming services and following new and old artists one likes, Podcasts etc.
Edit: forgot YouTube channels, all the “kids” I know subscribe to many. I do also 90% music and audio related.
 
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GChief said:
That is the reason I have never really listened to the radio much unless in the car (even in the “good ole’days) and then it was tapes 90% of the time. I like a couple local shows that are mostly music, DJ’s tell you what it was/is and that is it.
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There's a jock I've listened to.. he has a show online and is an engineer for a large group of stations. If I were to mention his name, a lot of you radio guys here would know who I'm speaking of. But I can't and don't listen to his show simply because of too much talk. He'll play a song, then talk for literally ten or fifteen minutes.. maybe longer. GIVE ME A BREAK!
 
kirk57 said:
It was a lot of fun, for sure.


When they first started, WXRT in Chicago might play Led Zeppelin, jazz or classical music, depending on what the DJ felt like playing.
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There's a guy with an LPFM down the street from me. I can't listen to it. His format is all over the road. He'll come out of a Frank Sinatra tune, segue into Hair Metal, then into Doris Day, then Tchaikovsky or some such, then into Grunge followed by The Carpenters. It's that way 24/7. I like a station where the jock can play whatever he feels, within format, but that's crazy. That's like cruising down the highway at sixty.. then slam the car into reverse. Set aside an hour or two for each.
 
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