Having lost my job a few months ago, I’ve been listening to the radio a lot more than previously. I kinda like this classic rock station, but the lack of variety is astonishing. There is no reason why any song on a classic rock station should be heard more than once in two days, let alone every day.
I hear “Sympathy For The Devil” and “Live And Let Die” pretty much every day! C’mon! You have like 40 years worth of rock to choose from!!! Why the same shit over and over? I like a lot of these songs, but goddamn, there’s a lot more I like too that you won’t ever play! And I’m not even talking about obscure stuff, I mean OTHER hit Rolling Stones tunes! I think I’ve heard “Sympathy” 40 times in the last month, but I don’t recall hearing “Hang Fire” or “Gimme Shelter”! Which means maybe you played them once or twice in the past two months. And for Christ’s sake, if you look it up you’ll find that The Who had one or two other fairly popular songs than “Squeezebox” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again!”!!!
Is this a result of ClearChannel buying the station, or was it always like this and I just listen more now being unemployed?
And yes, I have changed the channel, smartass. The rant festering inside me still needed escape. This was a enjoyable station once.
My mom drives me to school in the mornings, and I have the same complaint about the station she listens to. Not only do they repeat songs over and over and over and over again, but they have the exact same annoying commercial on at the exact same time every day.
Most Oldies and Classic Rock stations have moved to smaller, less diverse playlists over the last 10 years since it actually improves ratings. You’ll notice any “Deep Cuts” shows or “Get the Led Out” type things always run at midnight when no ones listening anyway.
I have noticed that smaller market Oldies/Classic Rock stations usuallly are much better than large market ones. From here in the DC area, I can get the Oldies station in King George VA (east of Fredricksburg) and it’s soo much more diverse and interesting than the one in DC. I guess there’s less pressure for ratings.
I mentioned this in another thread, I think, but I have started the Boston Challenge. I get three classic rock stations on the radio in my car. Can I get home from work–an eight minute drive in the mid-to-late afternoon–without finding a song by Boston on one of them? I’ve done this several times, and I’ve never failed to find one.
I find this inexplicable, since, IMO of course, Boston sucks, has always sucked, and will suck until the end of time.
Fortunately, we have two good college radio stations around here.
Radio stations decide what they want to play based upon what people want to hear.
People want to hear what the radio stations play.
Sounds like a closed circle, huh? Nay nay nay! For the kind recording studios step in and say “here’s what you should play! This is what people want to hear.” And it comes as a complete shock (a shock I say!) to everyone that the song they’ve recommended is one they just produced. The radio stations tear up and say “thank you for figuring this complex equation out for me. However can I repay you?”
The recording industry compassionately pats the radio stations on the back and say “just playing a song people will enjoy is payment enough for me.”
It’s been this way since the dawn of time when homo erectus explained to the neandertals that lemurs enjoyed their particular brand of bananas.
Pop rock turns to classics turns to Oldies and the beat goes on…
A couple of years ago the local News and Observer ran an article by a guy who had participated in a poll done by the local classic rock station on its programming. He wanted them to expand their playlist, but the setup made that impossible. The station played various songs for people to rate on the scale of 1 (don’t recognize it) to 4 (would sing along to it in my car). You can probably guess which group of songs got heavy rotation, and which songs were blacklisted.
On our oldies station (It’s preset #4 on my radio - I don’t know which station it is) they are CONSTANTLY playing Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. I HATE Gary Puckett!! I recognize his crappy songs within 2 notes, and my hand is changing the station in microseconds. GAH!!
Which is why I listed to the elevator music station when the NPR transmitter is down (They’ve been doing work at that station for months)
Radio in Calgary is almost completely unlistenable due to this whole phenomenon. We used to have two “classic rock” stations in town with playlists so small and similar that I found the same song playing at the same time on both stations about once per week–and I only listen to the radio while driving, never at home.
Since then, one of the stations has changed to a rap and hip-hop format, because, as everyone knows, Calgary is so heavily populated by African-Americans living in the projects. The remaining rock station, now boldly advertising itself as “Calgary’s best rock,” has shrunk it’s playlist even further, to the point where it has become difficult to hear songs that are more than six months old. When they do, it’s like Revtim said; they apparently only have two singles by Zeppelin, two by the Stones, and two by the Who in their entire classic rock collection (oh, and two Bon Jovi hits. You know, for the Gen Xers out there who grew up in the 80s).
So these days, we have two hip-hop stations (see above commentary), two “lite favourites” stations, one top 40 station. and one rock station. It is a complete wasteland, devoid of variety, devoid of interest. I’d sacrifice my first born for a station that had a policy of not repeating a song during any 24-hour period.
We used to do the same thing in Billings, Montana. But our game was that before switching to the next station you had to guess “CCR, Stones or Zepplin”? If you were right, the next person who was wrong had to buy you a beer.
I now live in a town with two different NPR stations, two college stations and a new rock/heavy metal station. I haven’t heard CCR for years.
with regards to the narrow scope of the OP, I have to disagree. Sympathy for the Devil is one of only 3 stones songs i like (with Paint it Black and Girl I miss you,) so I would be quite happy with that, considering that if I heard any other stones song I would change the channel.
But in general, it’s richly ironic that classic rock has almost 20 times as long a timespan to choose from, yet plays a set list only slightly more varied than contemporary stations.
Baltimore’s 100.7 “The Bay” promotes themselves as having the largest music library in the area. Then why why WHY must I hear “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Low Spark of High-heeled Boys” at least once a day?
And they also brag about playing songs “you won’t hear anywhere else.” They’re lying!
They can’t even be bothered to play the real version of “I’m Your Captain/Closer to Home”. (Being a young’n, I had to call them and bring this up in order to learn the truth. I don’t care if there were two single versions released. The longer one is undeniably better, and they never play it.) It’s not a length issue, because the aforementioned Traffic song is longer!
Ah, Dread Pirate Jimbo , you have no idea how much I sympathize with you. I cannot stand "Calgary’s best rock"TM (Blarghh!) I do have trouble deciding which is the worst aspect of this awful station. Is it:
The horrible, juvenile morning show wackyness made up entirely of the idiot Gerry Forbes, making fun of gay people and novelty songs about diarrhea, or:
The terrible playlist composed of the half dozen token classic rock songs, new Sum 41 crap and most bizarrely, a handfull of one hit wonders from 5-7 years ago. “Bandidos” by the Refreshments? “Flagpole sitta” by Harvey danger? Why? Why? And why these songs played daily? Why?
Or perhaps, most annoying, the awful commercials with cougars, bar stars, and the odd meathead going on about how great it is. The commercial always seems to end with some trashy ho going on about how sexy the aforementioned Forbes is.:rolleyes:
I do confess to missing Rock 97 though. Repetetive? Yeah - April Wine and Streetheart every hour. Cheesy '70’s Canadian Rock? of course, see above. But they always seemed to know just how cheesy it was, and had fun doing it. Ah well, I expect one of the two new hip hop stations to ge down in flames anyday. I’ll be shocked if they both exist in their present form three months from now.
But it’s interesting to note that this isn’t a local phenomenon, I always assumed that Calgary’s radio situation was uniquely awful.
I’ve got a rule that any band named after a geographical location SUCKS*- Asia, Europe, Alabama, Chicago, Kansas, Utah Saints, Manhattan Transfer, the Oak Ridge Boys, ummm… John Denver…
*[sub]known exceptions to this rule are California Guitar Trio and the Ohio Players.[/sub]
There’s a new station around here that has been advertising on TV. “Finally,” the exuberant announcer says, “a station that plays YOUR kind of music!” This comment is sandwiched in between clips of Creed and that damn “Drops of Jupiter” song.
My thoughts: “Oh, happy day! I’ve been looking high and low for a station that plays Creed, and we finally have one! And those long, lonely stretches of seconds to minutes when I haven’t been able to find “Drops of Jupiter” on the radio somewhere are now a thing of the past! How I have waited for this moment!”
I can’t disagree with your list. I’d make a general exception for bluegrass bands, though.
As someone who has tried to find a good radio station in Calgary, I feel for you.
I think the problem is good o’l payola, (only it’s not called that anymore, nuh-uh). I’ve heard tales from people who travelled east in our fair country and had radio stations every .3Mhz, with content ranging from elevator to electronica to anime soundtracks. I must visit this nirvana before I die.
Suddenly I have this urge to hear “Stranded In The Jungle”.
As to the OP - yes, ClearChannel bears a major responsibility for all the revolting repetition. ClearChannel is a pustulent wart on the butt of American radio (given its corporate immensity, it’s probably more like a giant festering tumor).
Hey, could you guys play “Free Bird”??? And then me and the gang would love to hear “Stairway To Heaven” again. Honest!
