The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: Carlos del Vaca on November 11, 2008, 08:18:29 pm
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I don't know. Maybe I would enjoy it more if I felt like I was doing a good job. But right now I spend a lot of my time worrying about how I am not. This is a general problem, not specific to radio stuff. It is also possible, based on talking to MDs at other stations, that I have an unrealistic expectation for what an MD should do.
I think you are on to something here, because I didn't do many of the things you mentioned. My MD activities, circa 1990-1992, were as follows:
- Listen to as much new music sent to the station as possible. We would have "listening parties" in the production room which were often great fun.
- As a result of the above, put CDs/albums "on the rack" and make non-binding recommendations as to what people should play.
- If I knew of new music that we should have, but didn't (from reading CMJ or whatever), call the label in question and ask they send us some shit.
- Compile the weekly chart to send to CMJ. I did this by going over the playlists of alternative-type shows. I decided myself what was a "new release" worthy of being reported and what was back catalog; otherwise Nine Inch Nails (specifically "Head Like a Hole") would have been our #1 artist for approximately forever.
- Schmooze with local club owners to do promo crap for each other. This is where a lot of the free shows came from--I was on the permanent guest list at the one really good rock club in Lancaster.
- Yap with record label reps who were pushing their stuff. Usually I had "office hours" in which a good ten to twelve of these mofos would call me. I mostly had a good relationship with people, but I also wasn't afraid to tell someone their crap hadn't caught on. This is where the rest of the free shows came from, but it often meant going to Philly.
- Spend way too much time policing "the rack" and trying to track down who fuck*ng stole the new Jane's Addiction et. al.
I didn't exploit free CDs quite as thoroughly as I might have, but some labels made a point of sending two copies of everything.
We were blessed with a sizeable library, so I didn't have people bothering me to buy back catalog. For the most part, DJs were happy to bring their own CDs if they wanted to play stuff we didn't have.
My recommendations were just that--recommendations, and no one was obligated to play anything. Our station actually had a number of classic rock shows, which always made me furious because there's any number of classic rock stations in central PA. Why have yet another show playing Led Zep and the Dead?!? But whatever. For the most part, the alternative DJs respected my opinion enough to at least check stuff out, and occasionally I'd be at the station, wander in the booth and say "Here, dude, play this." But I did not take it personally if someone wanted to do their own thing and play whatever the hell they wanted; IMO, that's the beauty of college radio. Two hours to rock out!!
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oh man, see. I would have been ALL OVER being MD in that era. When I don't want to listen to new bands, it is because I want to listen to bands from then, instead. Damn.
Back then, and through to the mid 90s, our station was apparently BIG SHIT and we interviewed Nirvana and Neutral Milk Hotel and a lot of other big names who I forget right now.
Yeah, I feel like the big difference here is that instead of direct record label people, I talk to "college radio" representatives from promotional companies. And our understanding has always been that if we piss them off and don't play their stuff, they will stop sending us CDs eventually. Apparently we do a much better job of keeping in touch with these people than a lot of other stations do.
Also, when they sound frustrated that we are not playing their stuff, I feel bad. This is their trick, they make you feel like you are their friend.
This one lady promoter went way overboard on this, and spent an obscene amount of time trying to meet up with me at CMJ, only to sit drinking coffee for 10 minutes and then leave. We're talking... the people there with me were convinced that she wanted to bone me, as there was no other explanation for how much time she was spending trying to meet me.
After meeting her and listening to her talk about music and what she does, our consensus is that she is actually just really bad at her job.
I compile the weekly playlists from our home-made open-source Playlist Tracker software. Each new release stays on the new release shelf for three months before being cycled out and put in the normal stacks. Each new release is assigned a number, so that, for instance, if you play The Vivian Girls you type in 167 along with the name of the artist/song/album/label in the appropriate slots, and so your play is grouped in with people who typed "Vivian Girls" or "The vvian girls" or whatever. I can also click on, say, made-up numbers on the charts, and see that one dickbag sophomore is making up new release numbers for old albums. The worst is people who decide that things they have are "new enough," and put "yes" or something similar in the slot where the number should go. I want to kill those people. Our policy is that you have to play 3 new releases an hour, taken from any of the hundreds of new releases in a variety of genres. Some genres have fewer because the directors of those genres don't do their jobs, or they don't get a lot of new releases, or whatever.
We also don't put things out on the shelves until they have a review sticker on them. the review sticker will describe the sound of the album, suggest tracks, and label which songs have cusses on them. a lot of the hassle in my job is that no one ever wants to do these reviews, so I have to review things, or coerce people into reviewing things.
The reason we don't have as great of a back catalog as some people would like is that popular stuff disappears over the years. So we have tens of thousands of CDs, but no (insert some kid's favorite popular indie band here.) Thus, this pissed off kid will email us implying that we in the executive staff (who have open meetings which this kid doesn't attend) are blowing our money on "frivolous" stuff. Inevitably the kid cites something which is essential to the operation of the station as an example.
Our rule is that you can't play things that would be heard on other radio stations in the STL area, except KDHX which is another free-form, community run radio station. Different people enforce this rule in different ways. You also are not allowed to repeat the same artist two weeks in a row. That is basically it other than not being on the air (obviously) intoxicated, not cussing on air, and other stuff where the reason the rule exists is "so the FCC or the school won't shut us down."
Theoretically it is also my job to monitor the music-selection aspects of these rules, but for the past few years our Personnel Director has done that.
I do think, though, that reading your post and talking to other MDs has made me think that I am going to try coming at this job with more of a fun attitude, and less of a "this is something I am doing to serve the needs of the station" attitude.
This week is our "Pledge Week." I am pretty sure it is going to be a colossal disappointment, and my roommate, who is the outgoing General Manager, is going to be crushed, as this is his pet project. I just do not imagine that the 15 listeners (personal best!) that listen to KWUR at once are going to call in and donate money. I think our best bet is probably just sticking to selling t-shirts and stuff.
On the bright side, we are going to have a "date auction" which I'm sure will end with all of us bidding on each other to save face.
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Is it just me, or does this thread title just begging to be a movie.
Oh, and it sounds like I would be bad at college radio.
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In my humble opinion, some of your rules seem a little draconian. Can't play the same artist two weeks in a row? WTF? I maintain that a GOOD show has a great deal of variety from week to week, but damn.
As far as playing a certain number of designated "new" tracks and reviewing albums--I don't think you can make people do that. People have to want to do that. There's a certain personality type that likes to review music (most of them work for Pitchfork Media). Not everyone is up for that. For a while, I did a weekly "top new releases" thing that I'd post in the DJ booth, giving my own little blurbs on what was new and awesome. Some people took to that. Some people ignored it and played "Head Like a Hole" again. So be it.
As far as charting, I'd encourage you to use your own discretion a lot more--it's one of the perks of the job, to be the station's ultimate music snob. Folks want to put old crap on the chart? Fine, let them do that, and then purge their stupid stuff. I compiled all my stuff manually, and while I did my best to go by what people were actually playing, I got to break all ties. So if I had ten bands with three plays each that were tied for 16-25 on the chart, guess which one of those ten got ranked at #16? The one I liked the best. And so on.
How big is your school, anyway? One thing we realized was that being in a school of less than 2000 students, we weren't going to be able to fill an entire programming schedule with gung-ho new music aficionados. Hence the existence of classic rock shows, despite the existence of local commercial classic rock stations.
We did have one guy (who in full disclosure was a fraternity brother of mine) who did a show that focused on obscure, deep-track stuff by the Grateful Dead and other artists. It was classic rock, yes, but it was a hell of a lot more interesting than regular ol' "Get the Led Out" type programming.
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In my college radio days, there'd be shows where I would play Ken Burns documentary soundtracks in one CD player and NIN instrumental tracks in another and mash up on the fly. Where we'd torment the undead corpse of JFK by touching his brains and making him taste ice cream. Emotionally abusing the talking chimp that was our board-op, Doctor Bologna, by making him betray his intellect and reduce him to a chattering wreck via offers of bananas.
Put on a ten-minute song if the bathroom was required, you know.
Suffice it to say, it was not a very tightly run ship. I had fun.
Like so much of my life, almost no one was paying attention and there's little left to show for it but I had fun.
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In my humble opinion, some of your rules seem a little draconian. Can't play the same artist two weeks in a row? WTF? I maintain that a GOOD show has a great deal of variety from week to week, but damn.
I mean, considering we how many CDs we have, and that the typical DJ has 1 1-hour show a week, it isn't that onerous. Especially considering how many people just bring in their iPod/laptop and plug it in.
The reason we need people to play a certain number of "new" things a week is that... that is why we get sent CDs. Why would people send us CDs if we didn't ever play them? I don't know, I find it hard to understand how having to pick 3 new songs to play off of a shelf with around 250 CDs on it is draconian or hard, at all.
I mean, I do use my discretion, in that only things that are actually new have numbers. If people put numbers on things that are old, it is because they are lying, and breaking the rules. We do get a lot of ties, and I definitely move things that I like around. Our school is around 3000 I think, we have something like 200 DJs.
I don't know, we try to operate on the idea that having a radio show is not your right, it is a priveledge. If you are willing to put in a tiny, tiny amount of effort you can keep it.
I figure, the student newspaper doesn't just publish any asshole's piece-- they have a certain standard to uphold. We do too, even if it is pretty low sometimes.
It is weird that we seem to be in this weird in-between zone, where half of college radio stations are ridiculously strict (WXYC, KSLU, the radio stations my friends work at at UChicago and Berkeley) and the other half let you do whatever the hell you want.
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Dan, I think you need to be more honest with the AR guys. Just tell them if you haven't played their shit it's because no one liked it. Send us something we like and we'll play it. There are tons of new releases put out all the time, but most of them suck. You're job as taste arbiter is to cut through all of that and find the stuff worthy of being on the radio.
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Paul is right. You seem to be confused about your role with respect to the free CDs. Just because PR people send you stuff does not obligate you to give it free publicity.
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The reason we need people to play a certain number of "new" things a week is that... that is why we get sent CDs. Why would people send us CDs if we didn't ever play them?
Make no mistake: the labels and promoters need you more than you need them. Granted, it's nice for a college radio station to have the newest in new, but at the end of the day, you're still a college radio station, a non-profit, for-kicks exercise.
The record label is for profit, it's their job. They need you to promote their shit so people buy the records and they can get paid. If you don't play releases 1, 2, and 3 on account of they suck, and they stop sending you product, they will get zero airplay from you on releases 4 through infinity. Ultimately that's not to their advantage. So if some promoter mofo threatens to pull the plug on you, call his bluff. Even if he follows through and cuts you off, in six months he'll probably be gone, and you can call his replacement and ask to get back on the mailing list.
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yeah, I mean, they do not threaten in that way. that is just our working theory, that on some level we need to keep them semi-happy. But mostly I have an innate desire to keep people from being annoyed with me.
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I can't be any clearer about this: your working theory is wrong.
It is not anybody's job to keep PR people happy. And if they are wasting any energy at all being annoyed with you, they are in the wrong field. In fact that's exactly the wrong way around: they are in fact paid to annoy people into paying attention. A thick skin when ignored is a basic job requirement for them.
Can you guess that I have gotten a ton of irritating email lately from PR people? You are correct. But that merely validates my point. Incidentally, if anyone in a vaguely animal related organization is lurking here: NO, I am NOT writing any more stories on Obama's puppy plans that you would be able to hitch your cause to, so BUZZ OFF.
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Yeah, actually, we have been discussing lately that we are getting that impression more and more. You are right.
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In my humble opinion, some of your rules seem a little draconian. Can't play the same artist two weeks in a row? WTF? I maintain that a GOOD show has a great deal of variety from week to week, but damn.
Hell of no shit.
And I was a jock at your station.
In my day (we all wore onions on our belts. Gimme five bees for a quarter, we'd say...) Well, it's actually hard to remember something that obscure through the fog of almost 25 years. But it seems like we had to play one new release an hour. No restriction on replaying the same artist from week to week. Our shows were either 2 or 3 hours long.
I was a jazz jock, so some of this might have been different for the other genres, especially as regards New Releases. Seems like peer pressure was the biggest factor in keeping lame-ass music off the air. Your fellow jocks would rank on you mercilessly if you played something lame, especially more than once.
Oh, and if the record companies don't like the free advertising you are giving them to an interested and motivated audience of 18 - 25 year olds, screw 'em.
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I feel like the big issue is that no one seems to give a shit about how good their show is. If we let people, they would just come in an put their iPods on random (i actually caught someone doing this.) There is no pressure to be good, your friends will tell you your show is good no matter what.
Except my roommate, who drunkenly told me that my show blows. But, other than him. Very few people seem to listen to each other's shows at all.
Again, I feel like having incredibly minor requirements for show quality is COMPLETELY REASONABLE. Again, the newspaper doesn't just publish any asshole's piece, they have standards. Same for the literary journal, political rag, whatever. Why should college radio be different?
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See... like... I dunno.
College radio isn't supposed to be about being professional or organized, though, is it?
I mean, if these people wanted to work at commerical radio stations, they could accept the horrible payscale of local radio in small towns and, like, do that.
Play the same fifteen songs over and over again, intern for Buzzsaw and the Woodchuck's morning zoo and throw condom balloons off bridges as WOODCHUCK'S EXTREME MORNING GOTCHA for Tuesday or whatever, hand out bumperstickers at local bars and get hit on by women with three teeth impressed that they "live inside the radio box".
Lord knows I have friends who've rolled down that path. That choice is before people if they want it.
It's like youth soccer... youth soccer ain't ABOUT being good, it's about going out there, getting some exercise, meeting kids from other elementary schools and going to Pizza Hut after games, keeping much more track of who's the best at the Pac-Man table than who won the soccer matches.
College radio's about dick swinging matches over who likes the most obscure music and who likes really popular music in the most ironic fashion and calling your friends while they're hungover and putting them on-air to fuck with them. It's about those two or three dudes who always wanted to be Dr. Demento bringing in their novelty records, that white guy who's way too selfconsciously into hiphop, those two guys with the late night metal show who will someday realize that they are fated to have a lot of sex with each other.
If they really really REALLY wanted to be professionals, like, they'd drop out of school and go do overnights at K-Frog The Heart of Country Music for Boise Idaho for a pittance.
You're... sounding a bit like that one youth soccer coach who keeps trophies for the years his seven-to-ten-year-old team won, you know, and talks about how he's the one dude who "takes it seriously"... when its really supposed to be about orange wedges and learning to not pick your nose in front of all your parents friends.
Or, anyway, that's what it sounds like to me.
Viva unprofessionalism, man. You'll all have to be professionals pretty soon, whether you want to or not.
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Fewer DJs and shows, man. Separate the wheat from the chaff. Too much variety can maybe be a bad thing, too.
...those two guys with the late night metal show who will someday realize that they are fated to have a lot of sex with each other.
Hot mic! Hot mic!
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Fewer DJs and shows, man. Separate the wheat from the chaff. Too much variety can maybe be a bad thing, too.
That may not be unreasonable. Our shows were all two hours.
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I was involved with my college station in the way that people with kidney failure are involved with dialysis machines. I was literally kicked out of school (I was reinstated on appeal after I promised to retake some of the classes I failed) because my grades suffered so much as a result of spending so much time in the air studio, at music meetings, producing promos no one would ever hear, or just goofing off in the jock lounge. It was my social hub (I met my wife there) and really my whole reason for being at Ohio University in the first place. For two years I was a jock and then Assistant Program Director and then finally Program Director in '99-'00.
For the first part of my reign, our MD was none other than a certain Achewood shouter-outer who now writes and edits for the Village Voice (http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-11-05/books/in-praise-of-achewood-the-great-outdoor-fight/). Our administration basically hinged on the idea of playing The Roots and Handsome Boy Modeling School as part of our 30-song rotation. We actually had to hold a special meeting to address concerns among the staff that we were taking the station's sound too far from "college rock," no matter what CMJ's charts said or how awesome the songs were on their own merit.
We tried our best to schedule 24/7 with students, using 2am-7am as one long training shift for n00bs. It was more likely that we'd get one guy who was really gung-ho about having the morning show five days a week, then a patchwork of two or three-hour shifts through the rest of the day until we got to Specialty Shows at 10pm and Midnight. We made an effort at news and sports shows as well, but those tend to work best when you have listener participation. As with most college stations, we struggled with the "listener" part of that equation.
I mentioned a 30-song rotation: Jocks were expected to play pre-selected songs according to a schedule I decided. Our Heavies got played 30 times a week, tops, if every shift was filled. Lights would get 10 spins or so, with Middle making up the rest. Rotation songs made up about a third of an hour, with the rest chosen from our huge library. I made suggestions on the schedule as to what types of songs should be played and when to take breaks for frontsells, backsells, sweepers, weather, station ID's, etc. but jocks were left to the honor system. We only asked that they obey the "Two Show Rule," where you couldn't play a non-rotation artist if that artist had been played on the previous show or the show before that. Again, honor system and I didn't raise a fuss if everyone wanted to play the latest and the greatest (I'm looking at you, Beck).
Don't worry about disappointing promoters or label reps. The only explanation I'd give was that we get a lot of music and their songs were #31 on a 30-song depth chart. Eventually reps got to know that we had a certain sound, and they stopped pushing nu-metal or whatever on us. It may have helped that we were slightly more organized than a "free-form" station where you just play whatever for an hour and then turn it over to a new jock - the 10 spins we could guarantee a Light rotator were probably more than they were getting from many stations best spins.
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Again:
WE HAVE THREE RULES! THREE!
I'm not saying "you need to be a professional disc jockey"
I'm not saying "you need to do a really good job"
I'm not even saying "if you break these rules, we will fire you," as a hell of a lot of people don't follow certain of them (especially the playing new releases one).
I'm saying that you have to follow THREE fuck*ng RULES. FOR ONE HOUR A WEEK.
Quite frankly, I totally get off on amateurism. I fuck*ng LOVE amateurism to a degree that makes me friends make fun of me a lot. But amateurism only works as an aesthetic if there is some special quality to what is being produced-- whether it's that you're a shitty guitarist who is just trying really hard to write meaningful songs, an elementary school kid who is just trying real hard to kick that ball where it needs to go, or whatever. Basically, I am saying that amateurism only works if you are enthused.
But if you're going to come into the radio station and play American Woman not just once, but every show? And not say anything about it, just put the song on without comment? Fuck you. You don't need to be on the radio. If you want to come in and have a really great show where you play classic rock songs, and you're really informative and make me look at them in a new light? I will love your show. I will love your show, and I will waive whatever rules you need me to waive so that you can keep doing that. But if you're gonna be the asshole who doesn't come to all dj's meetings, plays the same damn bands every week, and doesn't seem to put any thought or effort into his show? Screw you. You need to follow the damn minimum requirements.
I mean, you're right. It IS like elementary school soccer. And I am the kid saying "wait, guys, can you like... try to kick the ball around? Do you think you could try to score a goal? Hey, you, how about you be the goalie?" I don't really understand, again, where the difference is between college radio and college newspaper, lit. journal, whatever.
I dont' know. I always want to laugh at myself when I quote my dad in this way, but what is the point of doing something if you're going to do a shitty job?
The thing my roommate/our general manager always says is... "why are you doing a radio show if you hate it so much?"
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Well, I mean, the exact reason why I did not work on my college's newspaper... despite having been the head of my high school paper... is that the Daily Orange was a bunch of assholes basically trying to put out a professional paper that just happened to be about the SU campus and... it was a super triple drag and they were all uptight and insane and... I was in fuck*ng college for God's sake, those were not the years for "playing house" at being in a real world that was breathing down my neck to begin with.
Don't drive yourself so crazy trying to herd cats, man. Have fun with it.
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Don't drive yourself so crazy trying to herd cats, man. Have fun with it.
QFT. I went through the same sort of thing--"Why do we have classic rock shows? Every dumbass station around here plays classic rock!" But eventually I decided to let it go, just do the best show I possibly could, and to enjoy shows by people who had a similar aesthetic. That worked out pretty well.
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Apparently inev's school has a really fantastic college newspaper?
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I agree with Dan. College Radio could be the antidote to corporate radio and an amazing place if it were done right. But hey Dan, you don't have any real authority so it's best to just let it go.
You have a jock that plays American Woman every week? I hope it's at least the Guess Who version.
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He can alternate with the Butthole Surfers version and get around your rule that way.
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You have a jock that plays American Woman every week? I hope it's at least the Guess Who version.
Guess Who covered a Lenny Kravitz song?
::ducks::
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Well, I mean, the exact reason why I did not work on my college's newspaper... despite having been the head of my high school paper... is that the Daily Orange was a bunch of assholes basically trying to put out a professional paper that just happened to be about the SU campus and... it was a super triple drag and they were all uptight and insane and... I was in fuck*ng college for God's sake, those were not the years for "playing house" at being in a real world that was breathing down my neck to begin with.
Don't drive yourself so crazy trying to herd cats, man. Have fun with it.
I mean, this is what I am saying, man. I am not trying to make this a professional station. There are three rules. Three. People can do whatever they want if they follow those three rules. If they don't want to have to follow three rules, why should they have a radio show? How are they going to get an hour of music together every week if they can't follow three dang rules? It is not hard. At all. We have thousands of dang CDs. THOUSANDS.
A big part of it for me is... why am I having to go to argue with Student Union every semester about our budget if people are just going to come in and fuck around. Why should we have a radio station with all of the expensive equipment that it takes to have a radio station if it is just a place to fuck around? We shouldn't.
I am, quite frankly, incredibly upset by the whole attitude of "it doesn't matter, it isn't "real"." I do it because it matters to ME, and that is what MAKES it important. If you don't think it's important, if you aren't willing to spend even an iota of time working on it, why did you sign up to do it?
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Apparently inev's school has a really fantastic college newspaper?
I wrote for it too. (When I wasn't on the radio. I had plenty of time because I did very little studying.)
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I mean, this is what I am saying, man. I am not trying to make this a professional station. There are three rules. Three. People can do whatever they want if they follow those three rules. If they don't want to have to follow three rules, why should they have a radio show? How are they going to get an hour of music together every week if they can't follow three dang rules? It is not hard. At all. We have thousands of dang CDs. THOUSANDS.
A big part of it for me is... why am I having to go to argue with Student Union every semester about our budget if people are just going to come in and fuck around. Why should we have a radio station with all of the expensive equipment that it takes to have a radio station if it is just a place to fuck around? We shouldn't.
I am, quite frankly, incredibly upset by the whole attitude of "it doesn't matter, it isn't "real"." I do it because it matters to ME, and that is what MAKES it important. If you don't think it's important, if you aren't willing to spend even an iota of time working on it, why did you sign up to do it?
I think you're right in that if you're going to do it, then give a shit about it. Have fun with it, have an all Barry White show or whatever, just go all out. Break all the rules, but do it because you want to, not because you can't be arsed to give a damn.
You might consider longer shifts. Longer shifts = bigger commitment of time for DJ's = more committed/interested DJ's. Also means fewer slots and therefore more competition for slots.
Hell, fire a few motherfuckers to set an example. That might get somebody's attention. Even if you just fire 'em for the rest of the semester -- people will think you're badass (and a dick, but so what) If they really give a shit about having a show they'll straighten up -- a little. If they don't then screw 'em.
KWUR! The 50,000 Milli-watt Voice of the Midwest!
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I'm not saying "don't try"....
I'm saying "be realistic as you are dealing with a lot of nineteen year olds who have tests and getting high and sex and getting high and begging money off their folks and getting high to worry about" because you are totally doing a thing with college students. A lot of them probably have to work their way through school too, y'know.
The idea of whittling it down to people who full-on care by making shifts longer hence shrinking your jock pool to more committed folks sounds like it is rad.
Even those three simple rules are a lot to expect of hundreds of nineteen year olds.
Most kids college-age are having a hard enough time waking up on a schedule, dealing with the transition to adulthood and trying to figure out what kind of person they ultimately like having sex with.
It is a lot easier to find a few dozen people who can actually be responsible at that age than two hundred plus.
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I've got no experience in anything like this but I think I agree with the consensus of stop caring about people's dang old feelings. You're the music director, I'm pretty sure that entitles you to be the king of music snob jerks. It sounds douche-ish but if you don't act like the station is more important than people's feelings then all your idiot kidjs are going to assume that what they want is more important. Not sure if that made sense.
Try this: You are the Music Director, you've said there is also a Personnel Director. Why don't you worry about doing what must be done to make the music as awesome as possible and let the Personnel person worry about whether you upset anyone.
Longer shows sound rad by the way, people will care more and they'll have more freedom to do interesting things. Also Radio Plays. But now I'm just living in my own little dream world. I wish my uni had a radio station.
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We did a radio play about Hitler moving to Syracuse and trying to reform himself because he finally realized that espousing National Socialism isn't the best way to get laid on a Saturday night. Everyone was skeptical and he was finally forced to admit that he was installing showers in the rooms over the Student Union... but that it wasn't what we thought at all. He wasn't filling the showers with poison gas... he was filling them with white paint, so everyone could join the Aryan Race!
Yeah. It was a good thing that there weren't a lot of people listening to our show.
I... think I have a very different notion of college radio than 'Nev, basically.
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LFM-- actually, basically no one I know at this school has a job. It is kind of weird.
We are working on incentives to have longer shifts, but we need to strike a balance between having longer shifts and having everyone, including people we like, quit.
We actually have been firing people to make examples, but mostly this one group of guys who regularly got high in the station, and regularly missed their shows. The drug use in the station, especially, is a thing where the rule is that you get fired immediately. Missing your show regularly gets you suspended for one semester, and the people we had to suspend for that were really apologetic and felt bad. I told them that we understood, but rules are rules, etc, and they were understanding.
I mean, my main issue is people fuck*ng with the new-release tracking numbers. No matter how many ways we say it, they keep putting things in there that don't belong in there. I think I am going to start a system of 1 warning and then I start PUNISHMENT.
LFM and DOC--
Actually, radio plays are a thing we are really into. Or, rather, a thing that this one guy is putting an unbelievable amount of effort into, and we are all acting like having him write new, corny radio plays is a thing we want. Next semester it looks like we will have several hours of weird radio plays a week.
I would totally want the kind of stuff you did more than what this guy is doing, LFM. Yours sounds funny or at least weird, his plays are like... wouldn't it be hilarious if we satirized old radio plays, a form which our generation does not know enough about to understand the jokes.
I am playing guitar as a backing musician for it, though. One of the shows is about a superhero who is imbued with the power of funk music. All of his nemeses are various musical puns or jokes.
I hope it will turn out well. He is definitely way beyond where I'm willing to go in terms of wanting the people writing these shows to turn in scripts a long time in advance, pre-record the shows with backing music and editing and special effects... it is a little too much.
I would totally be more cool with your radio plays, because they sound funny and interesting. That is what I want on college radio. Not these weird corny really-long pre-recorded things, where this kid (who I guess is my friend, but is way too much sometimes) corners me in the station and makes me listen to them.
It's like... wow. I can tell you put a lot of time into this, it TOTALLY sounds like an old radio theater piece.
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Out of curiosity what kind of format are they going to be? I mean how long each episode is I guess.
An alternative station over here used to do quirky little radio plays (like the adventures of Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace Goooooaaaaaaaaaat) on Saturday mornings but they'd just do them in 5 minute chunks between songs.
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Holy crap.
That would be so much better than SKEETER AND THE MOOSE IN THE MORNING, Doc.
I hate morning shows so goddamned music.
Play some fuck*ng MUSIC, I definitely do not care what Adam Carolla has to say to a fuck*ng member of the Brady Bunch.
Okay, it is the morning drive, maybe there should be more DJ banter in-between songs, more news and traffic interstitally and so forth but...
If I wanted a fuck*ng talk show, I would be listening to AM.
AM talk radio in L.A. right now is rad as hell, when that's the mood, all the little KFI Bushies trying to reconceive themselves as the mythical libertarian to save their careers, it is fuck*ng hilarious.
I am listening to FM because I want to hear a fuck*ng rock song, you animals, not three douchebags trying to be a PG-13 version of Howard Stern.
Seriously.
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Seriously... who listens to non independent/college/satelite radio?
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Seriously... who listens to non independent/college/satelite radio?
Having trouble parsing there, but I think what you're asking is "Who listens to regular ol' FM radio anymore?"
The answer: lots and lots and lots and lots of people.
My Big Idea: Produce a car radio receiver that you can plug a mobile broadband card into and tap into the numerous online streams out there, of both terrestrial and internet-only stations.
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Books on tape, people. Books on tape.
("Tape" in the generic sense. Books on CD or on your Mp3 player are also acceptable. Thank you.)
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NPR! They have cool shows that interview people like... Chris Onstad!
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I listen to so much music when I drive. I feel like I would be much better at my radio job if I could drive here, because that is the perfect situation for me to listen to new stuff.
Over the summer I listened to the complete works of the Byrds, Beatles, the carter family, and a huge multi-disc compilation of country and folk music. Largely because I only drove like once a week, but when I did it was an hour to the nearest town, or almost 2 hours to Asheville.
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Having trouble parsing there, but I think what you're asking is "Who listens to regular ol' FM radio anymore?"
The answer: lots and lots and lots and lots of people.
My Big Idea: Produce a car radio receiver that you can plug a mobile broadband card into and tap into the numerous online streams out there, of both terrestrial and internet-only stations.
Only people dumb enough to have to parse that statement.
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Only people dumb enough to have to parse that statement.
Interestingly enough, I DO listen to FM radio. Not by choice, but I do. Every morning on the way to work, every afternoon on the way back. It's shit, and in the morning we're reduced to a syndicated morning show (Bob and Tom). During the day I have a reprieve, as I listen to Sirius online using an account a friend of mine lets me borrow. But we can't afford satellite radio in the car, and the wife and I don't agree on enough CDs at the same time to listen to them. So FM it is.
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95.7 FTW.
Also I forget the frequency, but there is this one weird eclectic station you can get in charlotte that is some college's radio station, most of the day it's like a random shuffle of pretty good stuff.
it was the first time I since middle school I heard a song on the radio that I liked and wanted to find. It was this song. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OKNAfTowygA) which is so good that I want to... i don't know. freak out on the road and pull over so i can write down the lyrics in order to look it up later?
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There was something about 95.7... like it doesn't come in clear in southwest Meck? Maybe something like that?
I think I've heard that college station... it definitely doesn't come in where I live. There's something weird about this area... 106.5 is supposed to be a blowtorch of a signal, but every couple of weeks its signal gets distorted from what sounds like a country station.
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I am listening to FM because I want to hear a fuck*ng rock song, you animals, not three douchebags trying to be a PG-13 version of Howard Stern.
If there's one thing about radio I H A T E right now its the pussyfooting around "adult" topics that they're all doing. If the new administration wants to show me Change™, they can get the fuck*ng FCC to ease up with the jackboots.