Random Rant About FM Radio

Since I was a wee lad, I've notice a tremendously disturbing fact. Radio stations play the same songs over and over and over. This has been a big pet peeve of mine for years. I even went to the trouble to call local rock stations and say "What's the deal dooods?" 

I explain that while the Who is a great freakin' band, I know they released more than the three songs that you guys play constantly. The Who released about 18 albums right? and I mean 'Baba O'Riley', 'Who are You' and 'Magic Bus' are all great rock songs but man, mix it up a little. The same goes for every other band in the known universe. Queen? They did like 30 albums, and what do we hear? 'Another one Bites the Dust', 'We are the Champions', and 'Killer Queen'. 

The Allman Brothers...again..awesome! but really....how many times can one hear 'Ramblin' Man' ?

The Stones? 'Satisfaction', 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'...and God help me if I have to hear 'Hotel California' one more freakin' time I'm going to remove my ears with a cheese grater.

The standard response when one calls/emails a radio station regarding the play list is something like..'blah we have no control...a station director picks the songs...we try to play a big variety...aliens have turned our brains to Silly Putty and we are now incapable of changing anything including our minds..." I'm guessing the people who select these play lists know as much about music as I know about astro-physics. Which is very, very little....I'm sure these people don't know the difference between Buddy Guy and Guy Smiley. Sad.

I then tell them, trying to be helpful of course, that the Stones have released like 50 albums and they did in fact, do more than the three songs. Ironically I've been hung-up on more than once.

I even called pretending I was a student doing a paper on the operations of an FM radio station. Again, I'm not sure they were too interested in talking to me. 

I was once told by a friend who said he worked in radio (the story was later changed to 'he smoked pot in a  DJ booth with a DJ' at some point during college) that a station can only play songs that were released as singles. Whatever...

The good news is there are a few stations left out there that will mix it up. The links are on the side of my blog there. 90.5 the Night is a college station right here in central Jersey. Great stuff, and the best part, no commercials. Same goes for WXPN.org. The University of Pennsylvania. again, no commercials, great mix of music. And of course, least we forget. WDST. They're up in New York state, but you can get them on the 'net. Check 'em out.