Is FM Rock Radio finally awakening from its stupor?

TorzJohnson

TorzJohnson

Joined
Aug 4, 2001
Messages
4,973
Today a local rock station was playing a "10 at 10" set, where they pick 10 songs from a given year and play them all in a row.

Today, they played "Mercury Blues" by David Lindley and "Hold On To Something" by Great Buildings back to back.

I doubt many people have heard of either of these artists one but oddly enough I owned both albums and actually saw Great Buildings live back then. The music is long forgotten but both artists were well worth listening to.

Two weeks ago I heard "Money" and "Flying" by Badfinger.

A year ago I heard "Life in the Air Age" and "Maid in Heaven" by Be Bop Deluxe.

So, is rock radio finding its way outside the box in your neck of the woods? I hope this trend continues.
 
Today, they played "Mercury Blues" by David Lindley...
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I've never heard anything from that album on the radio. Ever. A friend gave me the cassette years ago, back when I still had a Mercury. That version of Mercury Blues is great, and I love Pay the Man.
 
I live in L.A., so there's really not much to talk about as far as rock and roll radio is concerned. Since the '80's, we've consistently had one of the worst rock radio line-ups of any major market in the country. Things are especially bad now. We really only have four stations to choose from at this point. The first is one of those "Jack-FM" classic rock format stations with no DJs and a bit of an expanded playlist, albeit with a heavy emphasis on the '80s. Then we have KLOS which has been around forever. It too is generally thought of as a classic rock station but displays a willingness to also range into some of the safer more contemporary offerings. The playlist is not what I would call particularly inspired, and as far as the station's status as a SoCal icon is concerned, it's merely a shadow of its former self. We also now have an indie rock station which I'm not too familiar with. I suspect that for the true hardcore fan of the fairly obscure brand of rock which they offer, this station would be much appreciated. For me personally, however, their daily fare is just a bit too far outside the mainstream. Finally we have KROQ which, although more of a latecomer than KLOS, can also rightfully lay claim to being something of an icon in the L.A. market. They try very hard to be known as the cutting edge, "progressive" rock station. Sometimes too hard - and sadly for the listening audience, their desire to be innovative leads to many more misses than hits. Worse than that, their disproportionate influence on the locally based rock music industry often results in record industry execs becoming way too excited about crap that is then foisted off on the rest of the nation. So, for every instance in which they thankfully help build the early success of band like Nirvana, we end up being interminably subjected to (and in some cases subjecting the rest of the world to) three or four bands like Sugar Ray, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park (and for that, we apologize).
 
TorzJohnson said:
Today a local rock station was playing a "10 at 10" set, where they pick 10 songs from a given year and play them all in a row.

Today, they played "Mercury Blues" by David Lindley and "Hold On To Something" by Great Buildings back to back.

I doubt many people have heard of either of these artists one but oddly enough I owned both albums and actually saw Great Buildings live back then. The music is long forgotten but both artists were well worth listening to.

Two weeks ago I heard "Money" and "Flying" by Badfinger.

A year ago I heard "Life in the Air Age" and "Maid in Heaven" by Be Bop Deluxe. So, is rock radio finding its way outside the box in your neck of the woods? I hope this trend continues.
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I'm 45 years old, and I have never heard of those bands. :confused:

And I'm a die hard rock fan. (AC/DC, Megadeth, Deep Purple, ect.)
 
You might want to take a look at what's on offer in your area in terms of HD radio feeds. Basically they put a digital feed on each side of the main Analog asigned freq. - one of these is usually identical to whatever the analog is - just in digital radio format ( sounds better in most cases on the digi side) - what makes it real interesting is that the other "side" of the analog block is often not at all like the main format - for instance we have a 24/7 blues feed that is one side of a fairly un-inspired analog - a classical 24 hr. service that is one side of one of the local Public Radio talk stations - a bunch of religious feeds ( not my cup o whiskey - but). The point is that a lot more diverse programing is on offer on these various sideband digital feeds.There is also AM HD -although I'm a little puzzled as to what the point of this is (at least locally)?
Personally I am using the cheapest full featured tuner out there right now - the Sangean TX-1 - works great. As in any radio format - antenna does make a difference.
 
I live in near Raliegh in NC and 96rock plays rock from way back to released yesterday they have a pretty good variety and it's also only been like that for about a year but it's great if you have a wide range of what you like when it comes to rock
 
I don't think most terrestrial stations are going to have a choice but to dig deeper with their playlists. They're finally realizing that people can get more music at a better quality and without commercials elsewhere (p2p file sharing, satellite radio, and stores like iTunes), and mp3 players and portable satellite radio receivers are making radio in its current form archaic. People don't want to hear the same 200 songs over and over again, and the fact that oldies stations they can pass them off as the best of 60's, 70's, and 80's is an affront to their listeners' intelligence. They're great songs, but there are a lot more great songs that they aren't playing.

I'm majoring in radio production and I'd be lying if I said I was confident about what the future of radio holds. Digital music is the biggest hit to radio since television, and terrestrial radio is going to have to adapt or die.
 
Not during normal hours, late nights is a bit better, and sometimes you get an overnite guy that doesn't follow the play lists.

I don't hold much hope for regular radio, It seems like the same computer generated play lists, and thinly vialed syndicated programming.
 
Mike G said:
I'm 45 years old, and I have never heard of those bands. :confused:

And I'm a die hard rock fan. (AC/DC, Megadeth, Deep Purple, ect.)
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There's no shame in having mainstream tastes in music. :D If you're really a die hard rock fan, you owe it to yourself to dig into the genre a little deeper. There is a lot of great stuff out there that never gets played on the radio.

It's hard to believe you've never heard of Badfinger, who were practically the Beatles' kid brothers for a while. You've probably heard their music but don't know it's them. Big hits with "Day After Day" (with George Harrison playing absolutely perfect slide parts to embellish it), "No Matter What", "Baby Blue" and "Come and Get It".

David Lindley: Session player for many top artists over the years. Fairly well-known by people as weird as he is, his music is a mixture of many genres including rock, blues, reggae, cajun and whatever else he feels like.

Great Buildings: Power Pop band that put out one brilliant album before they broke up and two members became the Rembrandts and disgraced themselves by writing the "Friends" theme song. :(

Be Bop Deluxe: Art Rock band with the best damned guitar player nobody's ever heard of, Bill Nelson. These guys started out like a harder-rocking version of Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie (please tell me you've heard of Bowie ;)) and really evolved way beyond that. All albums are worth getting and the level of musicianship is very high here. Later, Bill did some producing and collaborations with artists from all over the world, while maintaining a well-received solo career that continues to this day.
 
We still have WMMS-101FM and WONE-97.5FM here in Northeast Ohio. They both do a pretty credible job of keeping classic rock on the radio. I really appreciate them when I get tired of the doofus talking heads on the AM stations, which is happening more and more often lately.
 
I don't think many have heard of David Lindley, but I bet everyone has heard David Lindley.

From Wikipedia:
He is well-known as a "lead guitarist for hire," particularly for West Coast rock musicians of the 1970s, having played with Jackson Browne (for which he is probably most known), Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Terry Reid, Graham Nash, Bob Dylan, and Rod Stewart.
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I listen whenever I'm online to KHYI, a station out of Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas area. It's what I like, and unfortunately... Chicago area has nothing close to it in quality. Just the same ol' Nashville cookie-cutter crap make believing it is country. Check it out... www.khyi.com
 
Torz, I used to listen to a station out of Buffalo called The Lake 107.7, they stream on the net as well. They play Vanilla Fudge,the Dead,Frank Zappa,Doobies, etc.Also a fair amount of tunes that are not the standard"if you play the Grateful Dead on the radio, Truckin' and Casey Jones are as deep into the catalog as you go." Check it out. I used to hear the station while driving in Southern Ontario, now I listen on the internet.
 
TorzJohnson said:
Today a local rock station was playing a "10 at 10" set, where they pick 10 songs from a given year and play them all in a row.

Today, they played "Mercury Blues" by David Lindley and "Hold On To Something" by Great Buildings back to back.

I doubt many people have heard of either of these artists one but oddly enough I owned both albums and actually saw Great Buildings live back then. The music is long forgotten but both artists were well worth listening to.

Two weeks ago I heard "Money" and "Flying" by Badfinger.

A year ago I heard "Life in the Air Age" and "Maid in Heaven" by Be Bop Deluxe.

So, is rock radio finding its way outside the box in your neck of the woods? I hope this trend continues.
Click to expand...
I have never heard of the first two groups/singers. I have seen many rock bands in my life. Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead, Stones, Rush, Neil Young, and many others. When were these groups out,that you mentioned?
 
Until they play the closet mix of Venus in Furs by the Velvet Undergroud, I would have to say that they are indeed NOT pulling out of a tailspin.
 
For the last year I have listened to one of the over 10,000 stations on the internet through services such as live365.com . I have odd taste in music and have found a lot of stations I like but not the perfect mix.
 
rick43t3 said:
I have never heard of the first two groups/singers. I have seen many rock bands in my life. Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead, Stones, Rush, Neil Young, and many others. When were these groups out,that you mentioned?
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Lindley was playing on everybody's albums from the early 70s I think, and still has a career today. Great Buildings lasted only one album in '81.

Coincidentally, I heard a country version of Mercury Blues just today, I think it was Alan Jackson. I'm not much of a country fan, but it was a pretty good version.
 
The only good stations are the college stations. The music is always varied, and generally of high quality. Very little contemporary stuff, which I like. Frinstance, on Tuesday, there's Blues from 6-7 and Metal from 7-9.

Tuesdays are good days.:cool:
 
TorzJohnson said:
Lindley was playing on everybody's albums from the early 70s I think, and still has a career today. Great Buildings lasted only one album in '81.

Coincidentally, I heard a country version of Mercury Blues just today, I think it was Alan Jackson. I'm not much of a country fan, but it was a pretty good version.
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I'll check them out.
 
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