JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: stormie on March 1, 2007, 11:27 AM
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Ya know, this one just gets to me and I need to just let it out.
There was this great local station that I'd been listening to on my commutes for the last year or so. It played a mix of 70s, 80s, 90s and aughts; hardly ever repeated a song; played stuff I hadn't heard in forever; didn't have a stupid morning show; and didn't have any DJs. It was almost perfect. Well, beginning yesterday afternoon on my drive home, the station began just playing this computerized voice that would utter a countdown in hours, minutes and seconds. I began to sense something bad was going to occur and, according to the computerized voice, it was going to occur in sixteen hours, 28 minutes, and so-and-so seconds. Uh oh.
So, this morning, as I drive in to work, the computerized voice is still counting down, but it's down to just a couple hours. When I get into the office, I do a little search on the Web to see if there's any info, and it seems as if the station is changing formats to "something fresh and exciting that will appeal to the greater Bay Area." Uh oh.
I checked again just a few minutes ago, and the station has changed formats...to modern country. Guess I need to reprogram my presets.
But this is just the last in a string of sudden format changes by local stations. All stations that I have listened to. And most of these format changes are to stuff that I can't understand would have a big audience here. I mean, this isn't exactly "modern country" uh...country around here. And the previous format change I remember was from popular rock to Romantic Spanish music. Talk about a niche market.
Basically, it's just a very rude thing to happen.
So, it's back to sports talk radio for me...and CDs.
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I know what you mean, that's happened a bunch of times near me. I've seen a few stations go through several different formats. It all reminds me of the movie "Airheads"...
I hate the radio and have for years. The only things that keep me tuning in are Opie & Anthony and the legendary local college station 98.5 WSOU at Seton Hall. If WSOU ever ditches it's underground Metal format (which it almost did a few years ago) i'll drop radio completely...
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Satellite Radio... Once you own it you'll never want to listen to regular radio ever again.
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We lost our great talk station in Seattle to a stupid country station.
No more Tom Leykis. ???
Satellite radio looks more and more appealing all the time.
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Hmm, recurring theme here. Good rock/alternative stations converting to country. *Place retching emoticon here*
When I lived in Iowa that happened alot. Soon I didn't have any access to any good music except for Alternative Nation on MTV... and that was when that was good... when they actually had Headbangers Ball with Adam Curry.
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I remember an AM station called Zrock when I lived in Vegas went off the air in 94 I believe. It kept saying Zrock is dead, but KOMP still sucks for days and days on end over and over and over again. God I miss a station that plays non mainstream stuff. I don't have satellite radio, but my local FM metal station sucks sweet ass. Yes I'm talking to you 93x! I'm sick of the same ol STP/Alice in Chains songs over and over again.
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Heavens, I hate when stations change their format, though one was pretty entertaining, in the switch anyway.
They aired 24 hours of "Channel 107.1, Tina speaking, just-a-moment! Channel 107.1, Tina speaking, just-a-moment! Channel 107.1, Tina speaking, just-a-moment! Channel 107.1, Tina speaking, just-a-moment! " inter spliced with calls of people saying that it was either hilarious or hated it. I was entertained. Then it changed to country. :(
Kevin
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Whoa, it's funny that a lot of you say that your stations converted to country, because here in Los Angeles County, the opposite occurred. There are no longer any country stations on the radio. They were all converted... I never listened to any of them, though, so the conversions didn't bother me.
As stated, satellite radio is a good alternative, or you could browse online for stations in other states that stream their music.
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Satelite... Satelite... I'm telling you guys, it's outstanding. I got my Sirius pretty much strictly for Howard Stern's move, but I gotta say that I now flip around to a lot of other stuff (and Stern's been the best he's ever been on Satelite, so it's not his fault). I browse and listen to a lot of different channels... One of my favorites I was surprised to get was the comedy channel. To me this was worth the purchase by itself really being a huge stand-up fan, but that's just gravy with all the other great stuff I didn't know about that I'm finding...
And of course I have Stern which is why I wanted the thing in the first place too... Either way though, I cannot stand flipping to the regular channels on my radio now. The second they hit one of their 15 minute commercial breaks or you hear the same old dribble... I just am that much more thankful I converted.
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I checked again just a few minutes ago, and the station has changed formats...to modern country.
The funny thing is that less than two years ago that station switched to the "whatever" format from country because country wasn't working.
But I hear, ya... It was out of the blue. No indication at all. Weren't they even running promotions for an upcoming concert? Maybe the station continues on HD radio.
Guess I need to reprogram my presets.
I was driving to work and tuned in to the station in anticipation of what came on at the end of the countdown. Nothing against country, but I changed the preset once I realized the change was real.
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Ughhh, tell me about it! However, when the formats change out here in CA, 9 times out of 10, they change to a spanish speaking station. :-X
Funny thing is, this happened to my wife's favorite station, LA's only country station more than a year ago. Ultimately she got the last laugh on me though. The Classical station I listen to recently changed formats to a country station. :P
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Here in San Antonio, a long time POP station changed to a new format for radio: play everything w/o any DJs. Originally, a station in Austin changed to become BOB FM. It had a simple slogan, "We play whatever we want to play." And they do, from rap to rock to pop to oldies to 70s music to 80s to current music. Similar to your experience, you rarely if ever here something repeated.
Well, a couple of months ago, the SA station also changed to JACK FM, a "cousin" of BOB FM. According to several news stories, this may be a future trend as it allows a station to save money on local gimicks and DJs, and play music fo everyone to listen to.
But the more and more radio becomes monopolized by Clear Channel or constant format changes, satelitte radio seems more appealing. Fortunately, my local rock statio has been there since before the stone age. They've never let me down!
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Yeah, it seems like these changes happen in waves. I guess companies buy up stations, consolidate, move crud around, and then do a lot of "market research" to ruin stations. Well sometimes there's some improvement, like the local "first name" station here, Dave FM, improved on the classic rock format of the previous station. They just play more now catering to more tastes and eras.
But then there's the old rock stalwart here called 96 rock, which had been around since 1974. They retained the same basic rock attitude all that time, until late last year, BAM - suddenly it was no more and now an angry young man station is in its place called Project 9.6.1. True I don't really want to hear the same Lynyrd Skynyrd and Pink Floyd songs that 96 rock would play over and over, but now that they're gone and I kinda miss the old school rock ways.
I don't think anything went country though. Of course there's always been a glut of country here.
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Last year, here in NYC, we lost CBS FM which was an oldies station (50s, 60s, 70s) that had been around for at least 20 years. I loved this station and listed for at least 2 hours a day. There were lots of ads, but I really enjoyed the music, and the playlist was very wide opm. Then, BAM!, one day iot was gone. It seems that the DJs didn't even know until a day or so before. Famous guys like Cousin Brucie we dropped cold.
It was replaced by Jack FM which at the beginning was very, very lame. But over the last few months Jack has been pretty interesting. Not great. But decent enough to keep programmed. In fact, I heard Bowie's Ashes to Ashes once. That alone made me reconsider the station.
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That story came around as soon as Stern left. IT was part of the big Testicle Radio fallout at the time because stations were vying for what they thought was the best chance to eat up any audience Stern was leaving behind...
Ironically, Cousin Brucie (I believe... I'm not familiar with who he is) went to Sirius... At least I believe that's what happened. ???
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The funny thing is that less than two years ago that station switched to the "whatever" format from country because country wasn't working.
Yeah, that is sorta funny. I just wish they'd pick a format and stick with it. Coincidentally, 104.9, which switched formats to Musica Latina or something, switched back to their "new rock alternative" format just a few days ago. I'd have never caught this change if I wasn't searching stations to reprogram my preset for that station that just went country.
Satelite... Satelite... I'm telling you guys, it's outstanding.
Yeah, I hear ya, Jesse. And I do believe it's in my future...eventually. Right now, I just can't wrap my mind around paying $12 a month to listen to the radio, no matter how outstanding it is. I'm actually afraid to listen or read more about it just because I don't want to want it even more. If that makes sense.
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I was reluctant too, and the concept of the price to listen to radio was on my mind too (I'm pretty poor in the grand scheme of things), but I really was happy after I got it. Dunno if that influences you or not, but after getting it and weighing what i pay to what I get out of it in terms of entertainment, it was a good buy to me and I don't have a lot to spend extra on stuff.
It will get you... don't deny it. :)