Things Radio Stations Do That Annoy You

[satellite]

May 20, 2010 19:04:21 GMT -4 @littleediebeale said:

This may not count, but I have to bitch : I had a subscription to XM Radio only to listen to their New Wave Channel ("Fred") and their playlist was amazing. Then they got bought out by Sirius who changed the playlist entirely (to include playing at least ONE New Order song an hour, possibly once every HALF hour) and, to make it worse, added in DJs—including the odious and ubiquitous "Madison" who knew NOTHING about New Wave music -- and pretty much made fun of every song she (or the computer) played.

I lasted six months after the Sirius takeover before canceling the subscription. Even their 90s alternative channel (which used to be "Ethel") turned to shit, too.

Sirius has it's own New Wave/ Classic Alternative channel First Wave, is that the same thing? It's channel 22. They do have the problem of playing mostly the same hits by various artists, so you'd think that New Order only wrote Blue Monday and Regret, but it's still better than most stuff on commercial radio IMO. They have a great Dark Wave program Sunday nights at 10 EST.

I think I've seen people complain about Madison on the First Wave Facebook page. I usually listen on the weekends, so I always get the English accent guy.

[dwanollah]

May 20, 2010 19:04:21 GMT -4 @littleediebeale said:

This may not count, but I have to bitch : I had a subscription to XM Radio only to listen to their New Wave Channel ("Fred") and their playlist was amazing. Then they got bought out by Sirius who changed the playlist entirely (to include playing at least ONE New Order song an hour, possibly once every HALF hour) and, to make it worse, added in DJs—including the odious and ubiquitous "Madison" who knew NOTHING about New Wave music -- and pretty much made fun of every song she (or the computer) played.

I lasted six months after the Sirius takeover before canceling the subscription. Even their 90s alternative channel (which used to be "Ethel") turned to shit, too.

I KNOW! I miss Fred. That was the bestest station ever. Hell, I miss XM. Sirius blows. The only station that I can tolerate with DJs is the 80s one, because it's all the original MTV VJs (except JJ Flintstone, RIP).

Also, cosigning the "no commercials with sirens/horns honking/screechy brakes/car crash sounds" comment. That's actually pretty freaky when you're driving... and potentially dangerous.

I hate interviews with typical hot chicks. It's radio. I can't see how "soooooo hot!!" they are, and they sound like 16 year old dipshits and aren't remotely interesting interviews.

[kateln]

May 20, 2010 19:04:21 GMT -4 @littleediebeale said:

This may not count, but I have to bitch : I had a subscription to XM Radio only to listen to their New Wave Channel ("Fred") and their playlist was amazing. Then they got bought out by Sirius who changed the playlist entirely (to include playing at least ONE New Order song an hour, possibly once every HALF hour) and, to make it worse, added in DJs—including the odious and ubiquitous "Madison" who knew NOTHING about New Wave music -- and pretty much made fun of every song she (or the computer) played.

I lasted six months after the Sirius takeover before canceling the subscription. Even their 90s alternative channel (which used to be "Ethel") turned to shit, too.

Are you me? They also had "Lucy" which was modern alternative rock, and was wonderful...then the Sirius takeover occured...and I left. Blech.

I go with Yahoo Radio now, which has commercials...but introduces me to some damn good music.

I don't really listen to the radio anymore (usually my iPod or a CD in the car), but DC 101 cracks me up while playing "new" music that I've had for a year or so (thanks to Yahoo Radio). Plus, while I don't MIND Elliot in the Morning, I want to smack that Flounder guy upside the head.

[alpierce]

I had Sirius for a long while, ever since Howard stern moved to sirius. I gave it up last year mainly because I am unemployed (recently got a part time job though). I don't miss the radio at all. They have limited playlists, even Sirius does this, and I just can't stand hearing the same song every 45 minutes. Radio is not what it used to be. Except for traffic or weather, my car radio barely gets turned on. I find myself appreciating the quiet more. Plus if I have to listen to one more singer using some voice processing because they basically can't sing, I think I'll lose my mind.

[Deleted]

If you're looking for variety Pandora seems to work pretty well. You just have to make sure to tell that fucker you don't like certain songs or artists and eventually it's gets the message.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2010 11:11:18 GMT -4 satellite said:

Sirius has it's own New Wave/ Classic Alternative channel First Wave, is that the same thing? It's channel 22. They do have the problem of playing mostly the same hits by various artists, so you'd think that New Order only wrote Blue Monday and Regret, but it's still better than most stuff on commercial radio IMO. They have a great Dark Wave program Sunday nights at 10 EST.

I think I've seen people complain about Madison on the First Wave Facebook page. I usually listen on the weekends, so I always get the English accent guy.

Yes, when the merger occurred, XM's "Fred" became Sirius' New Wave channel on 22. I even called to complain about their limited, recycled playlist and all they told me was, "Oh, well, just make requests!" Grrr. Yeah, well, here's a request: I don't need to hear "Under the Milky Way" every hour!

I liked the English guy, too. But I mostly listened to XM in my car during the times when Madison was on. In fact, the final straw for me and Sirius was the day she announced Bob Geldof had a new album coming out in February of this year after they played a Boomtown Rats song. I went home, all excited, only to find out that there was no new Bob Geldof album and that she either made it up or was the most uniformed idiot on the radio.

Fred was awesome—great songs, no DJs. RIP, Fred.

May 21, 2010 23:47:13 GMT -4 kateln said:

Are you me? They also had "Lucy" which was modern alternative rock, and was wonderful...then the Sirius takeover occured...and I left. Blech.

Yes! Lucy was great, too!

May 22, 2010 8:17:40 GMT -4 @highondegrassi said:

If you're looking for variety Pandora seems to work pretty well. You just have to make sure to tell that fucker you don't like certain songs or artists and eventually it's gets the message.

I do enjoy Pandora—I listen to it on my phone. The Peter Gabriel channel is pretty good.

[kanding]

May 19, 2010 18:45:25 GMT -4 Mutagen said:

One of my local DJs is THE WORST about talking over songs. I know all radio DJs talk over at least a little bit of the music and I'm used to it, but this guy is blabbing right up to the very nanosecond the person starts singing. If you ever see me in my car yelling "Shut up! SHUT UP!" it's probably because of this.

This is very, very common here. It's difficult to find a station that doesn't do this. In fact, you're lucky if all they do is talk over the music. The DJs yak over the singing too. Aaaaand, they'll just randomly cut a song off wherever to play the news or start another song.

I really hate radio stations here. Some play great music, but they go out of their way to ruin it.

[divasahm]

Remember my rant about my favorite radio station on the previous page? I forgot to mention that they moved their signal to a tower northwest of town and now many of the musicians and fans of the station (who tend to live south) are having great trouble picking up the signal. We can't get it at all in the house. Boo.

It's like that old Woody Allen joke about the two old ladies complaining about a certain restaurant--"The food there is HORRIBLE!" "Yes, and the portions are too small!"

[comfortablynumb]

May 21, 2010 13:50:35 GMT -4 @stalemate said:

May 20, 2010 13:05:02 GMT -4 comfortablynumb said:

The radio station I listen to has a "Totally 80's Weekend". Hate. I can handle the "Retro Lunch" during the week, but that weekend shit is more than I can handle. Don't get me wrong. I have no problems with 80's/Early 90s music. But if I wanted to hear it all the time, I would listen to an 80s station. Problem is here, there aren't a lot of stations I really want to listen to. I've got to break down and get satellite radio.

Are you listening to WXLO? I like their morning show, mostly because it feels pretty off the cuff and not very professional. The female host has been around as long as I've listened to the show but they've gone through a lot of male hosts. First it was Frank and Jen then it was Zito and Jen then they brought in a third guy and another named Steve (WHO IS STUPID) and now the guy has left and there is Jen and Steve (who again is NOT funny) and their "production manager" Tim. The show is a mess, but I like it for some reason.

There is another station WSRS (its a very soft easy listening station where you'll never hear anything offensive cause it's a "listen at work" station), and the morning DJs nearly put me to sleep. The woman, Jackie talks in this soft monotone, but you can hear the spit in her mouth swishing around. It grosses me out.

That is just gross.

Nope, I'm in Texas so I don't get the stations you are talking about. I do love Pandora, but I can't listen to it at work. I don't turn on the radio until after 10, because I can't stomach listening to Kidd Kraddick in the Morning anymore. I used to listen to it all the time, but now it just makes me all stabby.

[ratscabies]

There is a technology called "time compression", which was invented for the purpose of squeezing a bit of audio into a space that was shorter, primarily, I think for replacing dialog in movies.

Audio guys use it to edit together bits of different takes of a song.

Radio stations use it to make the songs a few seconds shorter, so they can squeeze in more comercials. Using it in commercials would be better, and they may do that as well, but I don't do much repeat listening to commercials to notice.

If you use time compression to make an audio clip more than, say, 10% shorter, there are very nasty artifacts created in the bass region that sound like a cassette being played that had once been eaten by the deck in your car.

The corporate monolith radio industry in Cleveland is now doing this to songs. A while back I heard "Bennie and the Jets" on the radio that sounded like it was being blendered. Man was I pissed.

TrafficChick used to work in radio, for the biggest, monolithiest evil corporate radio conglomerate in the world, so I have to minimize my loathing for the industry, lest she think I mean her, but if it were up to me, there would be NO radio in my car. Just an input for my iPod, which has music I want to hear, and NPR podcasts that I download at iTunes. Commercials be damned, and in tune, without artifacts.

I never listened to WMMS in its heyday, but sweet Baby Jesus, do I miss it now....