NM. Missed the “HD2” part. Oh, that’s kind of a fun playlist. I wonder if Amazon Alexa has it.
Apparently, Alexa does not have it, or if it does, I haven’t found the magic combination of words to make it play.
I was able to start it from the Alexa app, so it’s there…somewhere…
ETA: on the other hand, it was playing “Sympathy for the Devil”, so meh.
ETA2: found the magic combination, “Alexa, play WDRV the Drive”.
Yes, I can get that one. But that’s not the HD2 station Alley Dweller was talking about (I also missed that part on first read.) The HD2 station is the one with the interesting playlist. The regular one is the same old shit everybody plays.
Oops, sorry.:o
It’s okay. I missed it, too, with my first response to Alley Dweller’s post (hence my edit.)
I really wish it was available. I just checked with TuneIn radio (which is what Alexa streams the Drive through), and it seems its unavailable with TuneIn. It shows up as “Deep Tracks (unavailable)”. And all the alternate links I’ve found with a Google search that claim to have a stream don’t seem to work, either, on my computer. 
If anyone finds one, let me know.
I used to listen to any of the available classic rock stations here in Chicago. Used to, that is until I found out about the excellent MeTV-FM channel all the way down on the dial at 87.7. Lots of hits but also songs I’ve never heard or haven’t encountered in 30 years. They also have a yacht rock block on Saturday nights so bonus.
“Rock and Roll All Nite” seems to be the only Kiss song allowed on the radio anymore, back in the late '80s and '90s I heard some other ones like “Beth”.
Grand Funk’s version of “The Locomotion” is all I hear of them anymore, it’s been years and years since I heard “I’m Your Captain”… it’s been a while since I heard “Some Kind of Wonderful” as well.
Nazareth still gets played on Canadian radio, but only their cover of “This Flight Tonight”, since it’s good for partial credit in Canadian Content quotas. Joe Walsh’s recording of “Rocky Mountain Way” has also disappeared from Canadian radio, it’s the version by Triumph that gets played now, again for CanCon reasons.
It used to be available on the internet, but Hubbard Radio pulled the stream a couple of years ago because (get this) it was TOO popular.
To stream on the internet, you have to pay royalties on a per-listener basis plus you have to pay performer royalties (which don’t apply over-the-air). And it is nearly impossible to get advertisers for HD subchannels (since only six people in the whole country own HD radios), which means nearly no commercials (good for you, bad for them). The stream was so popular that they were losing a lot of money.
You need an HD radio to listen.
There are a bunch of other “hidden” HD subchannels in Chicago (gospel, 24 hour comedy, the Voice of Russia, jazz, smooth jazz, easy listening, WXRT’s “new music” channel, dance, Spanish ESPN, etc.) That is true of most other large cities, too. Here is a directory.
Thank you!
I downloaded their app and am listening on Bluetooth now.
This, this is exactly what radio should be like. Exactly!
I fucking love it!
Thanks again!
ETA: I picture Johnny Fever behind the desk. It’s that good.
Holy Market Differences! I wasn’t even aware that Triumph did a cover of of RMW until now, much less heard it on the radio. I imagine the mandatory CanCon is similar to the voluntary ZZ Top and Steve Miller habit on Texas stations, but enforced by law.
One thing that is similar, is that it’s been quite a long time since I’ve heard I’m Your Captian/Closer to Home on the radio. But we get hot and cold running Bachman-Turner Overdrive, they’re played more heavily than the Guess Who.
Baltimore’s 100.7 The Bay plays Bob Dylan occasionally, but Washington DC’s classic rock station Big 100.3 has lost him. Even after he won the Nobel Prize.
I pretty much stopped listening to classic rock a couple years back because I’d heard all the songs a thousand times or so already.
But while I was still listening, I think it had been quite some time since I’d heard anything by the Moody Blues.
Was it nationwide, or just Chicago? I don’t know. But “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide” used to be played all the time.
I remember that back in the 1990s, rock stations used to mix in some new songs along with their “classics.” For instance, you would hear “You Wreck Me,” “Cabin Down Below,” or “Walls” from Tom Petty’s Wildflowers or She’s the One Soundtrack albums. This must have been right about the time that these stations’ playlists became calcified. You occasionally still hear “You Wreck Me” from c. 1994, but absolutely nothing after that era.
To answer the OP with a specific example, I don’t hear Donnie Iris’s “Ah! Leah!” much on the radio anymore.
[quote=“bobot, post:54, topic:801201”]
Was it nationwide, or just Chicago? I don’t know. But “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide” used to be played all the time.
[/QUOTE]Very common to hear in Toronto (considering it’s Can-con and the lyrics mention Toronto).
Love that song!
[quote=“bobot, post:54, topic:801201”]
Was it nationwide, or just Chicago? I don’t know. But “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide” used to be played all the time.
[/QUOTE]The rock station, now classic rock station, here used to play this every Friday at 5 pm! For years. I still love it though.
This very problem addressed by this thread is what drove to me get Amazon Prime Unlimited music. If I have to hear the Scorpions or Satisfaction on the radio one more time, I’ll go insane and take you with me. This thread has been INVALUABLE to building me new playlists in order to remain sane and firmly stuck in the 1970s. lol
The one song from the early 80s that is (to me) notable for its absence is “She Sheila,” by The Producers. The video was everywhere in 1982-1983 and the group even played it on the MTV New Year’s show. I used to hear it on the 80s stations every so often, but now it’s just gone. True fact: I recorded every episode of VH1-C for over a year before I got to see the video again at decent quality. (The YT versions are awful.)
Unless you’re in northern Ohio, you are not going to hear any Utopia on the radio, or any Todd Rundgren other than *Hello Its Me *or Bang on The Drum. The band didn’t have much in the way of chart hits, but they were a popular concert draw and were played back in the day.