Does anybody remember when Alternative went off the air right across North America?

[Bill Ashton]

Thanks @init4fun ! AM here has really become terrible, reception wise, a lot of hash and interference, even as powerful as WBZ-AM is, reception is noisy...not like "back in the day." Though, even back then, WRKO-AM was only available during daylight, seem like after sunset they went "low power" or something.

 

[init4fun]

Thanks @init4fun ! AM here has really become terrible, reception wise, a lot of hash and interference, even as powerful as WBZ-AM is, reception is noisy...not like "back in the day." Though, even back then, WRKO-AM was only available during daylight, seem like after sunset they went "low power" or something.

Hi Bill, I think your 100% right WRKO did dial back their power at night, and I think WEEI and others did too. My family's house was less than 2 miles from WRKO's antennas and they could be heard through guitar amps, as well as the end of cycle buzzer in the clothes dryer! I figured the buzzer would have no problem acting as a (poor quality) speaker, but I kinda always wondered what was in the circuit acting as a diode detector

 

[Bill Ashton]

@init4fun , one time years ago I had borrowed a friend's '75 Fender Telecaster, and only in our living room did I pick up the local FM station on it! (104.5 MHz). Some time later he had me change one of the pots for him, said it was noisy...must have been the one, for never got radio on it (at my house) after that...

But thats vere from topic at hand, sorry guys...

 

[drp1003]

Aren't college radio stations still alternative?

SIDEBAR: Grunge music is heavier than heavy metal music. Heavy metal music from bands like Led Zep, Sabbath and all the rest of the British metal bands like Priest and Maiden, had a musical quality about them. Heck, even Metallica had a tunefulness to them. Listen to Number of the Beast, and then listen to Nirvana Nevermind or Dirt by Alice in Chains.

Grunge music is heavier than heavy metal music.

Have you ever noticed that before? If you didn't before, you do now!

 

[painttoad]

i've never considered zeppelin heavy metal. i barely consider sabbath heavy metal.

but don't ty to tell me that grunge is heavier than slayer or megadeth,testament,anthrax,etc.

 

[drbranch]

In the 90s, it was WBCN that started playing more alternative music when it had previously been all straight rock and roll from the 60s and 70s. During the 90s they also started simulcasting Howard Stern. But if you really wanted to listen to something alternative, you tuned into WZBC out of Boston College. It, unfortunately, was not a great signal but they had this one show called "No Commercial Potential" and one time I was driving through Harvard Square in an old 1976 Maverick (anemic, I know) and heard the station playing "Kerosene" by Big Black from the album Atomizer and I was spellbound!

 

[Bill Ashton]

Back in the day, "The New Yardbirds" and Black Sabbath were THE heavy metal! Now, get off my lawn, you damn kids!

 

[drbranch]

Aren't college radio stations still alternative?

SIDEBAR: Grunge music is heavier than heavy metal music. Heavy metal music from bands like Led Zep, Sabbath and all the rest of the British metal bands like Priest and Maiden, had a musical quality about them. Heck, even Metallica had a tunefulness to them. Listen to Number of the Beast, and then listen to Nirvana Nevermind or Dirt by Alice in Chains.

Grunge music is heavier than heavy metal music.

Have you ever noticed that before? If you didn't before, you do now!

College radio stations are dying because they are being taken over by NPR with a corporate/political edge. I found this out in Duluth with the students being pushed out of DJing and the new station managing honchos only allowing digital songs that they consider "acceptable." No more bringing in your records to play what you want.

I did recently find an exception: WWSP in Stevens Point, WI which seems to be college DJ driven and a throw back to the older days.

 

[drp1003]

i've never considered zeppelin heavy metal. i barely consider sabbath heavy metal.

but don't ty to tell me that grunge is heavier than slayer or megadeth,testament,anthrax,etc.

Dead and Bloated by STP is heavier than South of Heaven.

 

[painttoad]

.

Dead and Bloated by STP is heavier than South of Heaven.

dead and bloated is a lame over played song.

where the river goes is the gem off of core but neither are even nearly as heavy as slayer on their worst day

 

[painttoad]

Dead and Bloated by STP is heavier than South of Heaven.

by the way, if you wouldn't mind sharing whatever you are smoking, i would appreciate it as it must be much better than what i've got

 

[sKiZo]

Still got a good one here ... WYCE ... "an independent, community radio station serving the communities of Grand Rapids and West Michigan ". They play a bit of everything, depending on which volunteer DJ is sitting in the big chair, with a big emphasis on world and local bands.

https://grcmc.org/wyce/listen

 

[drbranch]

Interesting perspective on WBCN in Boston.

WBCN and The American Revolution

The incredible, true story of how a radio station, politics, and rock and roll changed everything.

theamericanrevolution.fm

Maybe the remaining independent radio stations will be the catalysts needed.
If we are talking about them, other people are too.

And I was a DJ for Arizona State University radio (KASR) in the early days of its formation. I started during their 2nd year. Mostly punk and reggae.

 

[Natasha Bell]

It was late November or early December 2006, when WRNO (New Orleans) started doing weird stuff. They played a single Led Zepplin song 24 hours a day for days on end. I remember it very vividly, as I was in the Army and had just finished my AIT at Fort Rucker and was at home in Biloxi (Mississippi) on leave before being deployed to Afghanistan. It was about at that time that there was a massive shift in what radio stations played I think. All the stations I had grown up with, WQID (Biloxi) or WTKO (TK102 Gulfport), for example, had suddenly changed formats. Few now played Rock (or alternative)...

 

[drbranch]

Last comment on WBCN in Boston.
This is the official introduction to Fat Boy Slim's "Rockefeller Skank."

 

[BilboBaggins]

My wife thinks I believe in conspiracies. Maybe I do. I don't know. It is just that I had a flash one day, that maybe this is the establishment wielding its clout to try to change listening habits. I hope I'm wrong.

I think it happened around 2004. That was around the period I was flying out to San Francisco and Sacramento quite a bit. I found it fascinating because right across North American, and up to another country to the north and on the other side of the continent, the music suddenly changed. I'm noticing the same sort of thing happening in video and television content. You don't see that on the French stations. Imagine 9 1/2 weeks coming out now? Do you think it would have all those scenes that made it famous at the time? Could she keep her hat on? Hell, it might never have been made.

 

[BilboBaggins]

We do have an independent station here that isn't bad, but there is still a lot of repetition. It is also the lowest power station and I have a hard time getting it in the house. No problem on the car radio. In fact I can listen to it all the way to Casselman on the way to Montreal. It is nothing like X101 FM used to be like.

 

[E2]

There's alternative, then there is corporate alternative. It's no longer a love of a music genre, it's music as a money maker.

It's ALWAYS been about making money. People thought they had to produce quality when ultimately they realized they (People that only look at money were employed for this) could produce slick nonsense and sell it to the evermore clueless. The modern age of instant media is a boon for this now. Folks have more information in a small box in their hands than all the libraries in the world and know less than they did before......

It's like this......

 

[Danddd]

If you're adventurous check out Radio Garden. They have OTA radio stations from just about everywhere in the world. Right now, I'm listening to J1 from Tokyo

I do have a set of stations bookmarked on Radio Garden. Right now listening to 103.3 Duluth The North. Interesting to pull in a station from Africa and hearing American pop music.

 

[Bob in WI]

you can't expect anything run by fat fifties white guys to be cutting edge

no, thats not what they are paid to do - their color, weight or age notwithstanding.
They are paid to make money for the station owners & we are all familiar w the formats that generate the most ad revenues.
Business is business.