Detroit Radio

[vlad the impaler]

Flipping through the dial this afternoon and I landed on Magic 105. They've already transitioned into non-stop Christmas music.... Bob Segar- Little Drummer Boy, Jose Feliciano- Feliz Navidad, Nat King Cole- The Christmas Song, etc. On air talent at 105: You have my sympathies. No one deserves the hell you face for the next seven weeks.

[frank - up in grand blanc]

Flipping through the dial this afternoon and I landed on Magic 105. They've already transitioned into non-stop Christmas music.... Bob Segar- Little Drummer Boy, Jose Feliciano- Feliz Navidad, Nat King Cole- The Christmas Song, etc. On air talent at 105: You have my sympathies. No one deserves the hell you face for the next seven weeks.

Oh Lawd, protects me. Shit, just replay my thoughts from last year on this one. Certain hymns at midnight service and then an hour or two of mainstream stuff on Christmas day and then I'm absolutely done. Period.

Some years ago a Detroit station underwent a format change (aside: what greater rebuke is there than to have one of your heavy-rotation radio stations undergo a format change? W4 circa 1980, anyone?) and the gimmick leading up to the formal kick-off was a computerizd voice counting down from something like 100,000, and then maybe three straight days of Garth Brooks' "firends in low places." I'm not a Garth Brooks country kind of guy, but I'll admit that for those few days I kept checking back in to see what was going to finally appear when regular broadcasting resumed/commenced. All of that Garth Brooks should have been a tip-off.

[Mulligan]

Jay Towers is co-anchoring tbe Fox 2 morning news with Cam Carmen. There was a story about the snow out east, and Jay said he hosts an afternoon radio show in Philly (from here) every day and that's all anyone is talking about on that show. Does that guy ever leave a broadcast booth?

[The Conscience]

Drew and Mike sound like they need a vacation.

Bob Dutko is driving me nuts. I don't think he's had an original thought... ever.

Sports talk is boring the hell out of me lately. Does Ndamakong Suh regret his behavior? Hell no, next topic please.

There's no difference between 94.7 and 106.7. Classic rock is classic rock. 93.5 out of Brighton also plays nothing but classic rock. How many times do I have to hear the same songs over and over?

Rock format sucks. Has for the last five years. New bands are lame. The old bands are lame. Rock is lame.

Country is worse though. What happened to country? How did the music of Johnny, Merle, Hank, etc. become Taylor Swift and Sugarland? And Kenny Chesney owes Jimmy Buffet an apology for stealing his schtick.

I wish I had satelite radio so I could listen to Howard Stern 24 hours a day or Salt Lake City news and weather but my truck has been paid off since 1999.

[Andy]

I wish I had satelite radio so I could listen to Howard Stern 24 hours a day or Salt Lake City news and weather but my truck has been paid off since 1999.

My latest VW lease car doesn't have satellite radio (First World Problems), I miss it and I'm compensating by listening to more podcasts. I can't go back to Drew and Mike, I'm still not over the Mike in the Morning debacle. What a horrible, horrible show that was. Horrible.

[The Conscience]

I can't go back to Drew and Mike, I'm still not over the Mike in the Morning debacle. What a horrible, horrible show that was. Horrible.

I suspect everyone involved knew the show was horrible. Mike was obviously out of his element trying to be the lead man. I'd bet when Lane called and asked to return, Clark's reaction was "Hell Yes!"

I have no doubt they give it their best, but 5 hours of talking current events, pop culture, and sports day in and day out can't be easy. Plus always trying to be funny must be a heavy anchor. I couldn't do it for a day.

My beef right now is with the classic rock format. My radio dial gets three fulltime classic rock stations, and also add the classic rock songs in irregularly rotation on another five or so stations. My classic rock meter is starting to peak.

Classic rock bands I'm done with:

Led Zeppelin
Jethro Tull
Deep Purple
The Doors
Bob Seger (I'm probably going to take some heat on Seger but it what it is)
Pink Floyd
Fleetwood Mac
Aerosmith
All southern fried rock (Allman Bros, Skynard, etc).

Classic rock bands that I will still listen to once this phase passes:

The Who
Tom Petty
Clapton
Hendrix
Rolling Stones

[Mulligan]

I suspect everyone involved knew the show was horrible. Mike was obviously out of his element trying to be the lead man. I'd bet when Lane called and asked to return, Clark's reaction was "Hell Yes!"

I have no doubt they give it their best, but 5 hours of talking current events, pop culture, and sports day in and day out can't be easy. Plus always trying to be funny must be a heavy anchor. I couldn't do it for a day.

Mike has been taking on more and more of a Rush Limbaugh persona. He might be losing touch with the "Biiiitttcccchhhh" demographic of guys working in machine shops making $12 per hour.

[The Conscience]

Mike has been taking on more and more of a Rush Limbaugh persona. He might be losing touch with the "Biiiitttcccchhhh" demographic of guys working in machine shops making $12 per hour.

I've noticed this as well. Probably a couple of reasons why, like the lingering fallout over airwave content after the Janet Jackson SuperBowl debacle. Also, the guy is in his mid-fifties, so I'd think the endless potty talk and yelling bitch would get a bit redundant. Yeah it's his schtick but schtick gets old too.

[Doctor Detroit]

I can't go back to Drew and Mike, I'm still not over the Mike in the Morning debacle. What a horrible, horrible show that was. Horrible.

I suspect everyone involved knew the show was horrible. Mike was obviously out of his element trying to be the lead man. I'd bet when Lane called and asked to return, Clark's reaction was "Hell Yes!"

I have no doubt they give it their best, but 5 hours of talking current events, pop culture, and sports day in and day out can't be easy. Plus always trying to be funny must be a heavy anchor. I couldn't do it for a day.

My beef right now is with the classic rock format. My radio dial gets three fulltime classic rock stations, and also add the classic rock songs in irregularly rotation on another five or so stations. My classic rock meter is starting to peak.

Classic rock bands I'm done with:

Led Zeppelin
Jethro Tull
Deep Purple
The Doors
Bob Seger (I'm probably going to take some heat on Seger but it what it is)
Pink Floyd
Fleetwood Mac
Aerosmith
All southern fried rock (Allman Bros, Skynard, etc).

Classic rock bands that I will still listen to once this phase passes:

The Who
Tom Petty
Clapton
Hendrix
Rolling Stones

This convo is probably better suited for the music thread, but I would say I agree with the bands you are done with IN THE CONTEXT of classic rock radio format. That is to say, I will still listen to Jethro Tull's This Was album, but do I need to hear the songs "Bungle in the Jungle" or "Aqualung" for the 5 millionth time? Nay. Same with Floyd, I can still listen to Meddle or Animals beginning to end, but "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2"? Triple nay.

I will never be sick of Exile on Main Street. If the inclination is even slightly creeping up on me, I'll give it a break to make sure of that.

[frank - up in grand blanc]

Classic rock could be great, you know, if it were in its rightful place, which is to say that it filled a niche instead of dominating the genre's broadcast presence. I enjoy Aqualung, but hearing it once every 12 or 18 months is plenty, while encountering it every few days is just too damn much.

XM, if you can get it, isn't perfect, but it includes a load of variety. It also has the advantage over your own music collection loaded on an iPod in that it does better than serve up tracks that, however random they may be, were not necessarily selected before. It can be a grab-bag, and that is pretty cool.

After a break for a couple of years I'm back with XM and I have to say that I really, really enjoy it. For me a good Saturday is spent in the garage and in the driveway working on my projects, and with XM I can go six or eight hours and not grow bored with the music. There are maybe 10 stations that I really like, and then another six that good for short runs. Outside of some NPR programing and then Drew & Mike there's really nothing on standard radio that I know will keep my attention. Got that? 16 pretty damn good stations vs. a few scattered moments of brilliance and then long strectches of bullshit. And I'm counting both AM & FM.

Something else? I've discovered a lot of really cool older tunes that I'd not known existed via satellite. Ever heard of Atomic Rooster? Turn back the page, by Stephen Stills? Deeper tracks by WASP and Britny Fox? Glen Miller things that haven't been on the radio in 50 years? XM has 'em.

[gullycanyon]

All I remember about Atomic Rooster is that Carl Palmer was with them before he joined Emerson, Lake and.

Possible, that all parties were better off before that moment.

[gullycanyon]

I'm not a big fan of Led Zeppelin (although I like them just fine, it's more that I kinda lost interest mid-way through their run,) but here's a fine example of how, thanks to "classic rock" radio, we are "made to be sick of" some musical acts that don't truly deserve the scorn we begin to feel toward them, performers and bands who have gobs of really good tracks that "classic rock" radio never, ever plays and treats as though they are legally-forbidden to do so...
I give you a selection from the LZ LP that just never got the grooves worn out by the radio, or even by some of the most ardent LZ fans. I dug it up during a recent YouTube trip down Memory Lane, and it still sounds great, today.



All of the folks mentioned by The Conscience have similar tracks.
Well, maybe not all of them. Lynyrd Skynyrd has nothing, in its discography, that I wish to hear.

Another thing: performers, or bands, who hit it big at some point and whose pre-hitting it big material is treated as though it simply Is Not There.
Fleetwood Mac, before Buckingham & Nicks joined; shortly thereafter, "Rumors" was birthed.
Deep Purple, before "Machine Head." The LP before that one (Fireball) was pretty good, actually, but there ya go.
Pink Floyd has a pile-- not a huge pile, but a pile-- of good stuff from before "Dark Side Of The Moon." (I think this is a good time for me to point out that I believe "Another Brick In The Wall, Part II" could win a poll for "What one track do all of you wish was never played again, ever?")

The self-immolating characteristic of "Classic Rock" radio is that it seems to be aimed at a demographic group that is, unanimously & entirely, sick-beyond-redemption of the shit they keep playing.
All I need to hear is Robert Plant scrape out, "Hey hey mama," and my brain & hand act in concert to prevent my hearing anything further from that one.
And yes, I know the name of it.

[Doctor Detroit]

Now see, all you really did there is make my post again, only doing so in a manner that is TLDR. Right down to the Pink Floyd albums pre-DSOTM.

[frank - up in grand blanc]

Now see, all you really did there is make my post again, only doing so in a manner that is TLDR. Right down to the Pink Floyd albums pre-DSOTM.

What's with the "you people" comment, Doc? Why not just say Gully and then not drag me down with the undertow? Or, hey, wait a sec...

[The Conscience]

It's been so long since I've heard Out On The Tiles, I'd forgotten what a great jam it is. I remember an interview years ago where Plant was asked what 'out on the tiles' meant. He explained it's an old British expression for a night out on the town. There you go.

Like several have opined, there are many great tracks that never get played, and a handful of tired songs that get played over and over and over.

So I take back what I said (for the most part). I have nothing against Pink Floyd. But how about giving DSOTM a break and playing something off Meddle?

That said, I still wish to hear no songs ever again from the following classic rock bands:

REO Speedwagon
.38 Special
Styx
Foreigner
Moody Blues

One a different note, I recently traveled through the south and picked up a station out of either Jacksonville, FL, or Savannah, GA, that played nothing but '80s tunes, all those dumb songs and one hit wonders from the early days of MTV like 'Come on Eileen' and 'Melt with You' and 'Dont You Want Me'. Maybe because we don't have an '80s station in Detroit, it sounded fresh and fun, but the reality is I'd eventually get tired of hearing the same 80s songs over and over again.