I hold to the “1960s Top 40 DJ” rule.
If the DJ says more in a hour than they did, there is a problem.
If there’s more than one of them, the problem is compounded.
I could listen to Alan Partridge all day.
More Rock, less talk. For example: I am a big fan of Greg Kihn–from the early days when he played free lunchtime concerts at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Park and up through his excellent solo effort “Mutiny”. I cannot stand him as KFOX’s morning host though. The whole shtick is just too stupid for me. (but obviously not for others, he’s been on for 6 years)
I guess after the free-form awesomeness of KSAN, anything else is a letdown.
You know what I hate? DJs who make a big production out of the fact that it’s either 5:00 PM or Friday. Shut the hell up! 5:00 and Friday are nothing to get excited about in my line of work, where odds are good that Friday is the first day of my work week, and quitting time isn’t until somewhere between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM.
When I lived in Los Angeles, I really enjoyed Mark and Brian on KLOS and Jamie and Danny on STAR. Mark and Brian because they were funny without being (too) obnoxious, and Jamie and Danny were just mean. Some people may not be amused by mean, but it cracked my shit up.
I’m going to cast my vote with the majority. Shut the fuck up and play the music. Give me news and weather 5 minutes before the hour, that’s OK, but otherwise just announce the songs and that’s it. If you can’t work 15 songs in in an hour (assuming around 3 minutes per tune on average), you’re talking too much.
Music, music, music. I don’t mind a traffic report, although they’re never in time to keep me out of the thick of it. But if traffic is moving normally, don’t spend two minutes talking about it. Back to the music, please.
And on the quarter hour when everybody plays their commercials? I’m switching to my Spanish-lesson CD.
Actually the jazz station is non-commercial, supposedly, so they are only plugging themselves, or else begging for money. If it sounds like a commercial break and annoys like a commercial break, it’s a commercial break.
I prefer talk in the mornings. The problem is that virtually all music station morning shows either have brainless couples prattering on about “Survivor” and “American Idol” or the worst frat boy stereotypes doing “shock radio” to distract you from the fact they can’t conduct an interesting conversation. Better morning shows can be done–I love C. Foster Kane in Spokane in the late 90’s–but they’re rare. I usually listen to sports talk (the shows in Seattle tend to be much less jerk-offy than east coast shows).
It’s all NPR for me in the mornings. But then my commute is only about 12 minutes. Just enough time to get some news and a human interest story.
here in Seattle we have 2 good choices,
90.3 KEXP is a non profit station that just rocks my socks right the hell off with their bizarre play list.
and KMTT 103.7 its “Adult alternative” and awhile back they sent out a survey to their listeners ( a couple surveys actually) about what they would rather hear in the morning…ever since they have been a music in the morning radio station and on those rare occasions where I am up that early I love it. talk radio makes me want to kill people, violent bloody murderous rage…yeah I hate mornings talk radio really sets me off quick.
Hey, Zambini57, you should try WREK. It really isn’t all that weird, the people running the station are. Although, in the morning, it might be jazz in the morning, but it’s the best jazz show I’ve ever heard. See if they have rotation that early and it will be kinda WRAS, only with more reggae and such.
Give me the news, traffic, the stupid news, then STFU and play the music.
When I want talk, I’ll find Limbaugh or Hannity, and even then I’m prone to go back to the music when they get boring.
ETA: Bob and Tom were good before they syndicated. Now they’re the same formulaic hacks as everyone else.
Thanks for the recommendation.
I checked out their website, www.wrek.org and their format is very similar to WRAS www.wras.org. Which means they have formats 100X superior to anything else on the radio, even if the student DJs are a little strange.
I love the 2 hour programs on WRAS. “Beatscape Lounge” (electronica), “Postscript” (drone and ambient), “The Blue Note” (jazz) plus the other shows that play industrial, greaser rock, surf rock, kraut rock (whatever that is, I haven’t listened to that show yet), classical and GOOD country. Plus all their regular rotation.
WREK comes in clearly where I live, about 20 miles south of the airport.
So now I have 3 presets on my radio.
88.1 NPR
88.5 WRAS
91.1 WREK
I like the Jack Diamond show on Mix 107.3 while at work. There’s not that much talking and the music is good.
Music, please. I detest Morning Zoo shows. I don’t even want news and weather–I get both of those online before I leave or during breaks. I don’t even bother trying the radio most days. I just stick to my CD-full of mp3s.
I hate the morning zoo format, but I want more local talk. Fayetteville, NC has only two local stations that I can get good reception on. One is a rock format and plays John Boy and Billy, would it be wrong to wish chronic laryngitis on John Boy? The other is a country pop station. WKML The morning drive guy, Don Chase makes me think of what it would be like if Andy Griffith had a radio show. If you don’t know who Andy Griffith is, you wouldn’t like this station. He does run a tight, super saccharine kind of morning show, but I get local news, weather, and sports scores in the 12 minutes it takes me to drive to work. I never really go into new country, but I listen to the station almost constantly now because it is reliable.
SSG Schwartz
If you want to hear more music, it’s because the Jocks aren’t interesting.
Here in Oz, we don’t tend to get the OTT Zoo type shows for the main part as breakfast shows, and shock jocks are pretty much kept for the evening listeners (I.e. teenagers) . In fact, it’s conservative AM talk radio that usually dominates the ratings of a morning.
For music stations, there was a move towards getting away from the traditional “jocks” and using professional stand up comedians. Usually these shows don;t last more than a few years as the strain of having to come up with 3-4 hours of material everyday usually burns most of them out.
The example of “more talk, less music” is easily “Get This” with Tony Martin (Look it up in Itunes.) Though even he seems to be making snide comments about being told to play more music, despite the fact that people who listen to Tony Martin, quite frankly, do not want to listen to what the station is offering. (This is the station, mind you, that actually thought that advertising the idea that their playlist was randomly selected by an orangutan would garner them more audience. I wish I was kidding about this.)
I’m inclined to disagree with you- every Commercial Music Radio Station in what might be considered a “metropolitan” area of this country that I’ve listened to has the “Rob, Kaz, and Jimbo For Breakfast”-style morning format. Not quite “Morning Zoo”, but certainly two or three over-hyped twats carrying on about crap and not playing enough music.
Talk radio doesn’t really count, IMHO- that’s for the elderly and the sort of people who write Letters To The Editor complaining about how the local Council is putting up the price of Dog Registration by $1.15.
Ironically, it tends to be Student Radio stations (IME) that have the “Less talk, more Music” approach- because the DJs aren’t getting paid, and they want to get the music for all these bands no-one’s ever heard of on the radio so they can “get them out there”…
I’d rather listen to a GOOD talk show. I had to get XM when I moved from Orlando so I could still listen to the Monsters. It turns out that Opie and Anthony are pretty funny too. When possible, I’ll schedule my life around being able to listen to Ron and Fez.
When I want to listen to music, I’ll put in a CD. I have clocks and windows.
I detest the Morning Zoo format with a hatred that borders on pathological. I was one of the earliest adopters of satellite radio just so I could get away from that format.
I suspect we Dopers are NOT, for the most part, the typical audience for that crap. This thread looks like it’s running 80/10 against it.