106.7 FM, one of the local Rock stations, has recently stated playing lots and lots of live versions of songs. It’s great if you like that sort of thing, but I don’t. There a couple of live tracks that I like, but for most of them I can’t stand the lousy stadium accousics, irrelevant banter, and (worst of all) when they let the audience sing the song. Oh, God how I hate the “audience participation” bits. I want to hear the song sung by competent artists, not a crowd of drunk amateurs. If I want the latter, I’ll go to the bar on karaoke night. I’ve been to concerts before; it’s quite an experience, but an audio recording of a concert that I did not attend is not something I care to hear.
I notice that this change comes only a couple of months after Doug FM appeared. Doug FM is one of those “no format” radio stations that play a huge variety of music. I kinda like it, and it’s nice to hear songs that I haven’t heard in ages. (If only to be reminded why I haven’t heard them in ages 
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I wonder if these two events are related. Is 106.7 using the live tracks as a cheap way of bulking up their playlist? Would your typical rock station have a bunch of live tracks from various concerts lying around gathering dust? Is anyone else noticing a similar change in their area, and if so do you like it or dislike it?