There is NO EXCUSE for this lack of variety on a "classic rock" station!

The BBQ Pit
21

FCM- “Woman, o-oh woomaaan, have you got Puckett on your mi-i-i-ind, on your mind?” :smiley:

Ender - your analysis may be relevant to radio formats that play songs that have just been released. However, we’re talking Classic Rock here; they’ll only play new music if it’s by a band that’s been around for 20+ years (Stones, Petty, U2), and even that’s not to be expected.

Revtim - who knows what the deal is with “Live and Let Die”? Alien Brainwashing HQ must’ve sent the message to all Classic Rock stations, because lately I’ve heard it a bunch of times locally (I listen to the same CR station Neurotik mentioned), after having not heard it in years. Once or twice was OK, but after that…sheesh.

Yeah, with 40 years of rock n’ roll history to mine, they’ll move songs into heavy rotation that they haven’t played in forever, and last month’s heavy-rotation song will drop out. Go figure.

Of course, there are many things I can’t figure out about the Classic Rock format. For instance, why isn’t Elvis a classic-rock artist? Why is Hendrix pretty much the only black artist/group from the 1960s that is ‘classic’ - what happened to James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, et al.? How (and why) do they decide a certain version of a song is the canonical classic-rock version, refusing to play all others, even for variety? (E.g. “Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Gladys Knight and the Pips, rather than CCR; the version of “For What It’s Worth” from Four-Way Street (where it’s called “America’s Children,” but it’s the same basic song, just done live and up-tempo) rather than the standard one; even BS&T’s version of “Sympathy for the Devil” as an occasional alternative to Mick Jagger’s. (David Clayton-Thomas is a much more convincing Satan than Mick Jagger is, anyway.))

Classic rock: it’s the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s, dried up and mummified.

22

WARW is already playing Tears For Fears songs. :rolleyes:

Music from a Molly Ringwald movie is NOT classic rock!!!

WBIG (formerly Oldies, now “Big” hits) shifted its decades at the same time WARW did. Now, in the DC area:
[ul]
[li]WBIG plays 60’s and 70’s[/li][li]WARW plays 70’s and 80’s[/li][li]WRQX plays 80’s, 90’s, and today (this was their motto before 2000, which made no sense since “today” was the 90’s)[/li][li]104.1 (whatever their name) now plays the same things as WRQX, just in a different order[/li][/ul]

And Beatles songs are valid on any of these stations. sheesh

23

Would one of those stations be 100.3 by any chance? I’ve listened to that many times and have yet to hear a Boston song. Hear at least one Def Leppard song a day, though, which makes me happy.

Reassure me people: Rush did release songs other than that godawful “Tom Sawyer” drek, right? I mean, they used to be popular and it can’t be because of that whiny, ear-bleeding waste of sound waves.

24

Be glad you still have a classic rock station. The one here in Columbia changed to a 60s-today rock format. The time I tuned in and heard Creed playing I almost flipped, and not just because I heard Creed playing, although that’s traumatic enough most days.

25

SpazCat: IIRC, Rush has put out two dozen albums, give or take. The one album of theirs that I have does not include “Tom Sawyer.” Off the top of my head, I can think of a half dozen other singles that charted in The Great White North.

the grim spectre of red death: Although I recognize that the listenership for hip-hop is far broader than African-American ganstas, I also recognize where the sound comes from. I find it hard to believe that, in a city of 800,000, where three quarters of the people are white, many of whom are full-blown rednecks (regrettably, the stereotype didn’t evolve in a vacuum), there is enough support for two hip-hop stations. Personally, I love soul and the blues, but find hip-hop limited and uninventive. There is no soul station in Calgary, no blues station, no R&B station, no 80s station, no 50s rock ‘n’ roll station–all markets that haven’t been tapped while we have two freakin’ hip-hop stations running the same Jay-Z tune fifteen times a day. My point is that Calgary radio has gone after a market I don’t believe is really there and shunned a whole mess of alternatives which have at least as good a shot at making it.

BTW, CJAY-92, our “classic rock” station, claims to play rock from the 60s to today, but the new stuff absolutely dominates their air time. Nickelback–bleah. Sum 41–bleah. Puddle of Mud–bleah.

26

I also had the same thing happen to me two years ago in my market. One evening I picked up the phone and was invited to participate in a survey for a local “alternative-rock” station in my town for $50. Not having anything to do that evening and having a lot of built-up hostility toward the pinheads who program radio music formats, I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to vent my opinion and earn $50 in the process. Unfortunately, upon my arrival, I discovered was just there to turn my dial from one to four depending on how I liked a particular song. And to make matters worse, the radio station still hardly–if ever–plays the songs I rated at or near a “4”.

As for the “classic rock” station in my town, they’re playing late 80’s “hair metal” now. I’m just counting the days before they start playing Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

27

Actually, Rock 101 (our classic rock station here) has their “Get the Led Out” segment on at 7 PM weeknights.

SpazCat, I’ll echo what Dread Pirate Jimbo siad, and tell you that Rush has released dozens more songs than just “Tom Sawyer.”

F_X

28

(First time poster to SDMB). I agree that radio stations basically play the same songs over and over! I like classic rock, metal, some alternative; the best station in New Mexico is Radio Free Santa Fe, which plays a little of everything. Albuquerque’s hard rock station, owned by Clear Channel, absolutely sucks. 90% of the songs are either by Godsmack (barf!) or Ozzy, and even Ozzy gets old when you hear him every other song! And there’s a commercial between each song, I kid you not. The DJ’s can be funny sometimes but they’re really crude and their humor tends to revolve around bodily functions. There are several classic rock stations, but again it’s the same 10 songs played over and over. I’m a big Deep Purple fan, but the radio never plays anything by them besides “Smoke on the Water.” The only Rush song ever played is “Tom Sawyer,” which is arguably one of their weaker works (I think someone else on this thread said something to that effect.) Anyway, thank goodness for car CD players! LOL

29

Not so. As I said near the end of my sarcastic diatribe, this scenario has always been going on. Back when oldies were fresh from their LP jacket sleeves the recording industry was still telling the radio stations what’s popular with the youngins and what pop music to play. Beach Boys, Monkees, Beatles, Elvis…
The youth grew older and pop turned to classic. New pop hit the stage with Floyd, Petty, Stones, Boston…
Next generation came on the scene, pop again turned to classic, classic turned to oldies, the cycle continued. Brittney, N*Sync, Eminem…

So what do classic rock stations play? Why, the popular songs. How do we know what the popular songs were? Well, the ones with the most airplay from the '60s and '70s of course. What ones are those? Whatever the recording industry told us they would be. The beat goes on…

30

Nevermind the fact that Hip Hop music has abandoned it’s roots and begun to cater specifically to a suburban audience ($$$), I thought it was funny that he called them African Americans when he’s talking about Canadians. Will the ridiculousness that is this term never cease? But seriously Jimbo, do they actually use that term in Canada? And no offense man. I love your user name.

31

When I started listening to classic rock, in 1992, they were playing “Centerfold” by J Geils Band regularly, from 1982, and nothing earlier than some mid-60’s Stones and Beatles stuff. That was KCFX in Kansas City, a popular large market midwestern station, so they probably know what they’re doing. So back then, ten years ago was good enough for the classic rock label.

There are two things stations could do. One, they could simply ignore all music made in the late 80’s and early 90’s and not play it on the classic rock stations ever (no song older than 1 year ever gets much play on the popular music stations, at least the poplular country stations dip 5-6 years back alot.) Two, they could integrate those songs into their formats. Or, I guess, third option is to have an entirely new station format that focuses on rock from Ozzy to Poison to Pearl Jam.

Now I think it ruins a station to start playing rock that’s too new…though there really hasn’t been a rock album released worthy of the name since grunge went out, pop-punk hybrid crap like they chuck out today doesn’t count. But they could easily throw in some Metallica, GNR, ease it into the playlist. That would make the playlist longer. Only it seems they’ve just stopped playing the Beatles and Stones, and the earliest 70’s stuff you hear is that monotonous crap like Boston and Bad Company.

32

astorian explained it to me a long, long time ago:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=9411&highlight=Classic+Rock

Also, I am in full suport of the rant. When I was living in The Wasteland, I had two stations to chose from–an FM Top-40 Country station an AM Dean Martin and Herb Albert sation. Moving to a Big City excited me because I missed radio–rock radio–badly (don’t get me wrong–I actually came to enjoy? tolerate? C&W/Dean/Herb/et al.). The local classic rock station here (96.7? It’s preset #3 on my radio, whatever it is, out of either E-City, Kill Devil Hills, or Manteo) plays about a dozen songs, so by now I’ve heard them all dozens and dozens of times and I’m back to having to listen to CD’s in the car, anyway.

Truly, a rant I feel every day.

33

Our Clear Channel “classic rock” station WLAY 105.5 “The Big Dog” has a serious jones for Bob Seger and Styx. You are certain to a song by both every hour, sometimes two within the same hour. I’m not even counting those stupid “Twofer Tuesday” things.

I used to be a regular listener when their format was broader, about 10 years ago. When they began to narrow their playlist, I used to call and request songs and artists I liked that they used to play hoping they would bring them back into rotation. No luck. Hell, they used to play Stevie Wonder’s “You Haven’t Done Nothing” mixed in with all the “redneck rock” favorites (Skynyrd, Led Zep, ZZ Top, KISS, Boston, Journey, Molly Hatchet, and of course “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle). I loved hearing something like “Martian Boogie” by Brownsville Station or Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” or “Fearless” thrown into the mix, instead of “Smoking In The Boys’ Room”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Money” (edited), and “Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2”. I was actually suprised to here them play “Hold Your Head Up” by Argent and the Gregg Allman solo version of “Midnight Rider”, that’s what passed for variety with them these days.

I try to listen to the station every few months to see if they have altered their format any. It has reached the point now where even after months of not listening, I can almost guess the exact song they are going to play next.

34

I concur with Revtim’s OP completely. I’m incredulous that the playlist is so limited.

At home, I never listen to the radio anymore. I have DirectTV (hooked into my Surround Sound system) and they have specialized music channels. Soon after I got the system about a year ago, I tuned to the Classic Hits channel, expecting to hear a clone of what our local Classic Hits radio station plays.

I was wrong. Delightfully wrong. I am astounded at the depth and variety of what gets played. And as a bonus, there are no advertisements or inane DJ chatter. I love it.

And if I want a little more specialization, I can turn to the 60s channel, or the 70s channel, or the 80s channel, or the Dance Mix channel, or the Alternative Rock channel, and on and on. On a cold winter night, curled up with a good book, a fire in the fireplace, and the Classical channel in the background. Pure heaven.

It’s made me look at those Best Buy ads of the satellite radio receivers. Some day soon…

35

It used to be that the station I ranted about would play an almost-currently-popular song and say “It Doesn’t Have To Be Old To Be Classic!” But of course that would be beyond their playlist of 12 songs now, so they stopped.

36

You poor, deluded man.

I maintain that the way to create a wildly successful and profitable radio station is to have a format that exactly mirrors the top 40 playlist from 15 years prior. Songs that were in heavy rotation on, say, December 16, 1987, would be in heavy rotation on my hypothetical radio station today. Odds are that the majority of the coveted 25- to 54-year-old segment of the population will LOVE that station.

37

Maybe someone with radio station experience can answer this for me:

do they also have to play the same songs at the same times?

Because you know, since I started working the hours I am now, I have noticed that every morning the same song is playing when I hit the same stretch of road, every day! Same thing coming home (unless I work late enough to catch the “Big Hair Bash”, which is always lots of fun). This can’t be a coincidence…

38

Also Alabama.

The Boston phenomenon may stem from the fact that they have a new single (or album cut or however they describe it now.) out which is getting reasonable airplay.

That said, this weekend I heard a “classic rock block” of Boston while driving in the car, and an hour later I heard another block of Boston. That’s just weird.

-Myron

39

Be grateful if your classic rock station actually plays older music that was actually considered good. A recent format change gave us a classic rock station. They keep playing crap that I was blissfully ignorant to. It seems their favourite song is one called Brandy(You’re a fine girl).

40

" … what a good wife, you would be;
But my life, my love and my lady
Is the sea …"