Huh…that seems odd, don’t they have a broadcast tower in Montreal? Every time they do a station ID it’s always
“WBTZ. Monteal, Plattsburg, Burlongton.”
But I guess with large buildings and such the signal isn’t always going to be at its best. But yeah, I wish they had a webcast, but my WAG is that the FCC doesn’t like webcasts, and makes it super hard to get the licensing to do so if you are already a regular station, something to do with being able to broadcast outside your normal listening area, or something.
The most important thing to remember about commercial radio is that it is dependent on advertiser revenues.
And advertisers are only (pretty much) going to spend money on stations/day parts where the station can demonstrate that it captures an audience for them.
Therefore, most (pretty much) stations broadcast what will get and keep the most people for about 5-10 minutes (because that’s about how long people will listen before changing the channel because most listen to the radio in their cars).
And to make it easier for the stations, a lot hire consultants to tell them what to play, in what order, and at what point each hour to hold listeners’ attention long enough to hear ads. Which is really what commerical radio is in the business of doing: providing an audience for advertisers.
And, yeah, I’ll also echo the statement that most radio listeners are hacks that won’t listen to anything they don’t recognize or that someone else hasn’t already told them they like. Therefore, good stations flounder with bad ratings, don’t get revenue, and go under or change formats.
Off the top of my head, I can think of three broadcast stations that do webcasts: WWCD, KEXP, and WNRN. I notice that all three of those are independently-owned and eclectic–perhaps that has something to do with it?
DAVE FM. It’s slightly better than that septic tank of music they call CHYM FM, but they still manage to torture me daily with assorted nerve-grating crap.
38 Special
My local rock station, 94.9 Zeta just changed into Latin Dance. Now there are only 2 tolerable stations to listen to - both Classic Rock. No place to hear new rock.
All my Miami friends have been calling me with this news, but I heard 93.1 just switched over from dance music to “rock of the '90s and today.” That might be able to fill the South Florida rock void somewhat, but I always listened to 90.5 WVUM (college radio/alternative/indie music) down there anyway.
It’s actually “Plattsburgh, Burlington, Montreal.” Been listening too much lately, have I? I actually don’t know how it works, but it’s extremely finicky, much more than any other FM station around here.
I love KCRW, in the L.A. area, and they do webcast, but they only play music during most of the weekends and evenings, and then weekday mornings from 9 to 12. The rest of the time on weekdays is given over to news and current affairs, but I like most of that, too.
Only slightly better. I used to listen to a no-repeat workday station until one day I was in the copy room and glanced at the clock. “Ooo!” I thought, “It’s time for Melissa Etheridge!” I trotted back to my desk and there she was. Stations with no-repeat workdays just have a longer cycle than those that don’t.
Soft rock is Satan’s music. While all the James Dobsons and Jerry Falwells are up in arms about Marilyn Manson and Eminem, Michael Bolton, Whitney Houston and Phil Collins sneak in and take over the world. shudder
Not the FCC but rather the CAG (Commercial Actors’ Guild). The has CAG claimed that, because webcasts allowed commercial stations to reach a much wider audience, their members should be paid more. To combat this, many stations simply dropped their streaming audio.
Today, large broadcasting companies - such as Clear Channel - have replaced commercials in their streaming audio with PSAs and/or music clips. The (Clear Channel owned) Dallas station I mentioned earlier uses PSAs and clips of “Superfreak”. Commercials are sometimes heard on stations owned by smaller companies but I’m not sure if that’s because they don’t give a damn about the CAG or if it’s a techical probelm.
It doesn’t really bother me. My two favorite radio stations, Corvalis’ **KFLY **and Portland’s KUFO, are almost indistinguishable from one another and are constantly playing the same songs over and over and over again. Yeah, I get a little tired of hearing Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pearl Jam and the same three AC/DC songs after a while but if I were to listen to my own music collection, what would I be doing? Listening to Tool, A Perfect Circle, the Chili Peppers, and the same three Bush songs over and over.
I’ve tried listening to three different radio stations at work (got a boombox in the kitchen, which is cool) but I gave up on all of them. The two country stations both seem to have a Kenny Chesney/Shania Twain/Toby Keith fetish. Over and over again. Meanwhile, Trace Adkins had a great song out, called Rough and Ready, which made it into the Top 10 but somehow managed to get played locally maybe once every two or three days.
Then there was the “classic rock” station, proudly and frequently proclaiming that they play "FOUR DECADES OF ROCK AND ROLL!!!. Yet, with that much material to choose from, they have a ridiculously small playlist. Every single day, over the course of an eight-hour workday, I would hear AC/DC, Boston, Led Zeppelin and Lynrd Skynrd at least four times each. T. Rex’s Bang A Gong (Get It On) every single day! Ozzy Osbourne at least twice a day. And I’d really like to know why Ozzy is playable, but not Judas Priest? Why no Iron Maiden? Why the hell is Cinderella still getting airplay?
Thankfully, the boombox had a CD player. I brought in a stack of my own discs. But the CD player sucked. I had never heard a CD skip before this boombox. And half the time, it wouldn’t recognize the discs. “No disc” my ass! There was also the problem of having to change the CD every 30 or 40 minutes.
That was recently remedied. The chef brought in a great big, new boombox, and I noticed that it said “MP3” on it. Hot damn! I went home and made a couple MP3 CDs. Did you know that you can get Rush’s first sixteen studio albums onto one CD, in MP3 format? Now all I have to do is put the CD in when I get to work, and push “play”. I don’t have to touch it again until I take the disc out at the end of my shift
I’ve never voluntarily listened to the radio, and before coming to college I rarely was in places where it was on. Now I wish just once I could eat my breakfast without listening to overly-perky people talking to each other and thinking they’re funny, country music, or stupid radio commercials. And I’m terribly sick of a lot of songs, even though I still don’t know what they’re called or who sings them or anything (I don’t listen to much mainstream music).
You like variety? Be careful what you wish for. Here in Portland we have KBOO, (www.kboo.fm if you want to check them out on the web) the best radio station I can’t listen to. I support them and give them money but whenever I tune them in they are playing one of the fringe shows in the rotation. I really have to be in the right mood to try Klezmer music or the Indian World report.
For mindless tunes I listen to 94.7, an alternative rock station. The DJs have some freedom in what they choose (since last summer when they changed to this format) so I get a few songs I’ve never heard before in between Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins.
