I like to listen to the morning show on my way to work. I usually have to endure the crap rock that I am force fed between the humorous banter of the DJ's, but occasionally they play some artists that I like. The only problem with this is that they only play the SAME SONGS by those artist and nothing else. This morning the DJ says, "here's some Kid Rock" and I say to myself, "I bet its Cowboy". Sure enough its Cowboy. Then they play some Stone Temple Pilots. Of course it is Interstate Love Song. If they play Blind Melon, its No Rain, Zeppelin, Rock and Roll.
C'mon, play something different from those artists once in a while!

End rant.

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Ah, the curse of station playlists.

Am I wrong - I have the perception that playlists have grown ever shorter over the years? Surely it wasn't like this when I was a kid (when dinosaurs ruled the earth)?

Still. If only there was some sort of device where we could choose music for ourselves to suit our own tastes. The music could be stored on a kind of disc type object, or even digitally, and then played through a special machine in the car.

Wishful thinking, I know.

...And yet, once we've got through laughing at my sparkling humour, the truth is even when compiling my own listening selection I still seem to repeatedly play the same very few albums in the car (the upbeat, loud ones I can still hear nicely with my foot hard to the floor). I'm probably at least as unadventurous as any radio station.

Damn: there seems to be a nascent FM DJ lurking somewhere at the back of my soul. The horror, the horror!

Cheers - C

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It seems the DJ's have their favorites! If I could only envision one of these devices you speak of. It may eleviate the frustration of hearing the same songs over and over. Or maybe not. I seem to load my Ipod with the same stuff and I can only get through 30 seconds of a song before I am skipping to find something I actually want to listen to.

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I am positive that the playlists have gone shorter just as the genres have gotten tighter.

When I was a kid, post-dinosaur but pre-MTV, we listened to 95.5 WIFC. You would hear Abba, followed by Zep, than Orleans, followed by KISS which would lead to the Eagles, possibly Joe Walsh after that, than 10cc and maybe some Deep Purple.

It was a real mixed bag, all rock from poppy to "heavy." The beauty was that all of us would hear something we liked, while possibly having to endure a few every hour we didnt'. No way you'd hear today's musicians from that far across the spectrum on the same channel. Katy Perry doesn't follow Hollywood Undead these days.

The local "classic rock" channel doesn't repeat enough to bother me in most cases. However, everytime I hear them say "next up a track from KISS!" I know it will be "Lick It Up" or "rock and roll all nite." but maybe I'm just a little more tuned in to hear that

to me the radio DJ's are more annoying than the short play lists so I avoid radio all together now. also there aren't any good classic rock or oldies stations in DFW Texas anymore. unfortunately my old top 2 favorites are Spanish stations now, along with all the good AM blues and jazz stations. I really really miss the Oasis smooth jazz station
but an mp3 player solved it for me

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FM radio is, unfortunately, no longer a place where you can hear new artists, aside from the lame Top 40 stuff that passes for new music these days. The stations around here are terrible -- I swear the local classic rock station in Buffalo hasn't changed its extremely limited playlist one iota in the last 20 years. It's a shame, especially considering the literally thousands of songs and hundreds of bands that would fit perfectly well within that format.

As for 'New Rock,' I primarily discover new bands through the Internet, satellite radio (primarily the stations Sirius XMU, Alt. Nation and Underground Garage) and even television commercials from time to time.

I've pretty much given up on listening to the FM stations these days. My car stereo is usually tuned to satellite radio (or CDs) for music and the AM dial for talk.

as far as being introduced to new music, the Last Fm online radio thing is really great for that. you search an artist and they suggest tons of other artists similar. i have found loads of bands i had never heard of that are really really awesome. http://www.last.fm/listen that's what i listen to at home all the time. the only thing that sucks is you get the same short commercial all day

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I usually use friends for exposure to new bands, but even then I have a hard time getting into anything right off the bat. If I listen to something long enough it grows on me, but I hardly ever find anything that catches me right away.

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ehh I am a bit of a hermit. also all the friends I do have are like the fellas on "The Big Bang Theory" I am the average joe in the group so this forum and last fm are my new music tool.

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Hmmm. You may be onto something there.

I gave up on fm long ago. Got a little ipod with a thousand of my favorite songs and I'm good to go.

They are MY favorites. And if I want to listen to Hocus Pocus 5 times in a row I do it!

Get XM / Sirris radio it eliminates all the BS

Back when the effects of man was going to bring on another ice age, and we listened to Rock and Roll on the AM radio, amost every song was a new hit. Now, with so many years of so many bands and so many artists with so many songs, it would be simple (you'd think) to have a station that played a certain type of music and not just the hits of thst style. Here in So Cal a 'New Station' came on the air, a couple years ago, boasting to play the B side songs of classic rock and not the same old hits. At first is was great, many nearly unheard songs from the regular popular bands and some less heard groups. Since then, they have evolved to playing the same 50 or so classic hits day in and day out. Maybe it's because we have that station on at work all day but where did the less played songs go? Granted they play 3 in a row on Thursdays, have actual LP album side days where they'll play a whole LP sides, play common topic sets and do a pretty good job of mixing things up. But the hits get too much air time and they didn't stick to their original theme. But like everything else, money talks and your average 'Jonhn Q Public' doesn't apreciate the music tallent or the musicians skill to play real music in a song that doesn't get everyone tapping their toe to the tune. The fear of losing listeners to a song that doesn't apeal, over rides the effort to mantain a set of listeners who's itch is scratched by them playing Santana's, 'Song Of The Wind', Joe Satriani's 'You Saved My Life' or the hundreds of other songs appriciated by those with an ear for music instead of keeping the mindless masses tapping to the beat and blindly forced to listen to the comercials inbetween sets.

Rant over.
ERIK

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ERIK

2004 PRS Santana SE
2011 PRS Santana SE
Fender G-DEC 3 Thirty
Fender G-DEC 3 Fifteen
Marshall MG DFX 15
and alot to learn

in the end its all up the the big man in the leather office chair here in dfw texas
Clear Channel Communications owns most of the radio stations. so whatever they like or are paid to like at the moment is what gets force fed to the population it seems nowadays radio isn't about the music like it used to be

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I used to work in radio. Here's what I think:

Radio is not a music delivery system. It is an advertising delivery system.

Playlists are shorter because of the way they are derived: consultants bring 100 or 200 people into a theater and play songs for them, 10 seconds of each song, and ask the crowd to write down if they A) know it and B) like it. Anything that scores low in either category is a possible cause of the dreaded "tune out" and will be dropped from a given pre-packaged format. (note that a record that scores high in "like it" and low in "know it" doesn't get play-listed, either.) Top 10 markets drive the charts, everyplace else slowly follows. In a bottom 100 market like my town, I once heard a PD says, "Our rule is, when it's Top FIve, we better add it."

There was never a time when the radio was devoted to anything but keeping you tuned in to listen to commercials. I know there are lots of movies that depict 60's radio guys as being "in it for the music" and lot of deejays certainly do love the music. But mostly, they love being on the radio. They may have used different techniques, but their goal was the same. And not every new song was a hit... every new song you heard was from a label that was willing to pay for air space, and was therefore a hit.

Off topic: The effects of man may still bring on another Ice Age. Global warming is not incompatible with that in any way. The problem with an Ice Age is there's no warning: one day it gets real cold, and it just never warms back up.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

I got so tired of being force fed the same mass produced generic mush every day while driving that I broke down and bought the whole Sirus System with the car radio kit, the home stereo hook up kit,and the boom box.Now I have a constant source of good music at my beck and call everywhere I go.For just $3 a month I have full access to great music on my computer with LASTFM,another commercial-free source of great music.
My cousin was once the host for a popular A:M station morning show,he quit because the station master had to read and approve every set list my cousin came up with and even on air requests,believe me he was pretty anal about his music too and needless to say there were a lot of heated arguments.
The day is coming that music radio will fall off completely in its popularity as more and more desirable options for music listening appear.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.