Mood:
irritatedNow Playing: the late rerun of The Tonight Show
Topic: musings on radio
A response to Neanderpaul of 98.9KQRC re"F'ing Music Snobs"
Current mood: 
discontent
Category: Music
This is in response to a post 98.9 The Rock DJ Paul Marshall's recent posting on his My Space weblog, which you can read here:
From Paul's Blog...F&*!ing Music Snobs!!(4/21)
First of all...if you happen to read this, Paul, dont take this as hate mail or anything. You and Johnny Dare are the the two main reasons I listen to The Rock anymore--rather than the music--cause you both can put on a great, entertaining show. In fact your show reminds me more than anything of the Mighty Z-Rock from days past(in spite of your using Atomic Opera for voiceover music
!)
Maybe I am a bit of a "music snob," being a prog fan, but while Id like to hear Dream Theater or Neal Morse on radio I know that aint gonna happen. My beef is how restrictive active rock radio's format is. Maybe more people like 3DG, Breaking Benjamin, et al than Testament, etc but do have to hear the same artist(if not the very same song) EVERY 60-90 MINUTES?? At what point did 90% of music made between 1980-1994 become something that had to be rationed out or avoided all together? And could it be that the reason the overwhelming majority doesnt give a flying F about Converge, Lordi or Caradle of Filth(or for that matter many new bands) is because rock radio wont play them?
Radio to me quit reflecting the preference of its consumers over 15 years ago. Between things like computer automation making it more economical to fire DJ's and voicetrack(pre-record) whole shows, ownership laws loosened up so that the majority of america's radio station are owned by a small group of large corporations(such as The Rock being one the 8-plus stations in the Entercom group), and(as Paul mentioned) the tons of money spent on "market research,"focus groups and(as the media has quietly found out)PAYOLA, radio is about the bottom line-ad revenue-therefore the stations are made to be as inoffensive as possible so we wont switch the channel.
Sure there are alternatives if youre ready to spend monthly fees for XM or Sirius, or streaming internet radio(at least until royalty fee increases drive most of the edgy shows off). So why not just pry open that playlist a leetle more rather than calling us all dirty names?
I had such high hopes when 97.3 was The Max. I was actually pleasantly suprised to hear something I hadnt heard for years every once in a while, or something new..case in point--Lacuna Coil, whos coming here next Mon. Supposedly a song from their new album was one of last year's Top 20 songs on Active Rock radio...not that we'd hear them on The Rock! But then again The Max's ownership has issues so's thats another story.
And given Gene's prostitution of the KISS name for cash Ill take his word as a businessman but not on what good music is....
I go out and buy Kings X, DT and cds from other talented bands...but I still long for a day when radio will take a chance on new bands again and stop settling for the musical "least common denominator" and telling we the people thats what we really want....A guy can dream cant he?
 | Currently listening : Sola Scriptura By Neal Morse Release date: By 06 March, 2007  |
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