RC's thread on music got me thinking about radio stations. I guess they're not as much of a thing anymore what with YouTube and Spotify, but back in the day we probably all grew up listening to something, and it probably helped form our musical tastes.
In Orange TX as a kid in the 70s my family and I listened to a weird easy listening station. They would play everything from Mantovanni to Sergio Mendes to the Beatles to Steely Dan, pop-country and yacht rock, and even the softer stuff from Elvis Costello. It wasn't until I got older that I realized how crazy eclectic they were. This is before every format got narrowed and market researched to death.
As a teenager in the Philadelphia area, I listened to 2 album-oriented classic rock stations. One was WMMR, I forget the other one's call letters, but I ended up liking it better. They would sometimes play entire album sides (lazy DJs, I guess!)
In Dallas I found the public radio station KERA. At that time in the late 80s they would play just about anything (except rap or metal, naturally), all mixed together. Folk, alternative rock, deep cut classic rock, classic country, blues, I even heard jazz and classical there occasionally. That's where I first heard Miles Davis' avant-garde stuff, Camper van Beethoven, pre-DSotM Pink Floyd, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Dale Gilmour and the Flatlanders, Tom Waits, and more of my all-time favorites. That's how I really developed my eclectic music tastes. I checked, they've changed to NPR talk now. :bluesad:
I only listen to sports talk radio or NPR news now. I have music on my phone to listen to if I want to hear music.
I grew up listening to one of the greatest and last indie radio stations in the world, 97-X. True story, my (ex-) uncle by marriage wanted to buy the station in the 1980s but the owners wouldn't sell, and later when they were desperate to sell he was no longer buying. Great station, run almost purely out of love for music, and good music it was.
I used to listen to NPR but it seemed to shift from intelligent and interesting programming to an amalgamation of heavy-handed leftism that was too overt for me: though never as bad as right-wing talk radio, which is a poison.
Nowadays I'm, like you said, about going to YouTube and playing only what interests me, which is both better and worse than the days of radio (gaga).
I used to listen to WLS out of Chicago as a kid. WIDR in the 80's from Kalamazoo used to play punk in the 80's (it was a collage station.)
When I came to SA on holiday with my folks, the now long lost Springbok Radio (carelessly archived as most of its' recordings were wiped) was always a favourite.
This is the radio station one of the guys I play D&D with DJ's on. Ok, it isn't my favourite station as when I was growing up radio stations didn't really play my kind of music (hell, Iron Maiden had the only number one song that wasn't put on rotation by the countries biggest radio station).
https://www.sonicasylumradio.com/ (https://www.sonicasylumradio.com/)
This was the first rock station that I really got to hear, although by the time it started my music collection was large enough that I'd listen to my stuff. They tend to play more middle-of-the-road stuff which generally makes them acceptable to listen to at work.
https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/player/ (https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/player/)
This is the station I listen to when I am over visiting Kristi's family. I found them ok to listen to for a few days but that their playlist was too limited for extended listening to.
https://www.radio.net/s/kber (https://www.radio.net/s/kber)
I miss Dr. Demento on WIDR ("Wider Kalamazoo!") from way back when. :bluesad:
Quote from: Rev. Powell on June 27, 2023, 06:34:52 PM
RC's thread on music got me thinking about radio stations. I guess they're not as much of a thing anymore what with YouTube and Spotify, but back in the day we probably all grew up listening to something, and it probably helped form our musical tastes.
In Orange TX as a kid in the 70s my family and I listened to a weird easy listening station. They would play everything from Mantovanni to Sergio Mendes to the Beatles to Steely Dan, pop-country and yacht rock, and even the softer stuff from Elvis Costello. It wasn't until I got older that I realized how crazy eclectic they were. This is before every format got narrowed and market researched to death.
As a teenager in the Philadelphia area, I listened to 2 album-oriented classic rock stations. One was WMMR, I forget the other one's call letters, but I ended up liking it better. They would sometimes play entire album sides (lazy DJs, I guess!)
WMMR is great. Pierre Robert is still on there. Was the other one 102.9? MGK? I don't know if it was 'current' music when you lived here but currently it's a 'classic rock' station and has been since I was a kid in the 80s.
As a kid, I listened to y100 in Philly. WDRE. They played mostly alternative type rock that was popular at the time (this was the mid-90s.) Lot of Nirvana, the grunge scene, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Barenaked Ladies. Plus some of that mid-90s punk/pop-punk: Green Day, Rancid, Reel Big Fish.
They also played some of the 80s alternative stuff.
Our college station would do little blocks of music dedicated to certain genres. They would do 2 hours of like, 80s New Wave, 70s R&B, etc.
Not radio related, but I grew up with MTV. Yo MTV Raps and Headbangers Ball were big shows in my home, and my aunt (she's more like a sister, we're 5 years apart) got me into Parliament Funkadelic and Talking Heads and B-52s through watching MTV together.
Quote from: HappyGilmore on June 28, 2023, 12:56:23 PM
Quote from: Rev. Powell on June 27, 2023, 06:34:52 PM
RC's thread on music got me thinking about radio stations. I guess they're not as much of a thing anymore what with YouTube and Spotify, but back in the day we probably all grew up listening to something, and it probably helped form our musical tastes.
In Orange TX as a kid in the 70s my family and I listened to a weird easy listening station. They would play everything from Mantovanni to Sergio Mendes to the Beatles to Steely Dan, pop-country and yacht rock, and even the softer stuff from Elvis Costello. It wasn't until I got older that I realized how crazy eclectic they were. This is before every format got narrowed and market researched to death.
As a teenager in the Philadelphia area, I listened to 2 album-oriented classic rock stations. One was WMMR, I forget the other one's call letters, but I ended up liking it better. They would sometimes play entire album sides (lazy DJs, I guess!)
WMMR is great. Pierre Robert is still on there. Was the other one 102.9? MGK? I don't know if it was 'current' music when you lived here but currently it's a 'classic rock' station and has been since I was a kid in the 80s.
Maybe, I don't remember the call letters.
Pierre Robert is still on? I remember him from "the psychedelic psupper" (I think that was the name). He briefly moved to the U of Penn station (which I listened to later when I got older).
Pierre does a daily show from 10:30 to about 3pm.
He also does a yearly Thanksgiving broadcast wherein he plays Alice's Restaurant around 3 times within a 5 hour period.
I havent' listened to radio in quite a few years. Growing up in the New York metro area, we had quite a few great stations, most of which have now changed formats (some more than once) or disappeared entirely.
When I first started getting into rock music in the early 80s, my go-to's were WAPP (103.5) and WNEW (102.7) a little later. I think WAPP changed to a Spanish language station at some point and that's why I switched to 'NEW. Both of those are long gone now.
For a very long time after that, my go-to was WSOU (89.5), the campus station at Seton Hall University, because of its famed all-hard rock and metal format, which was right up my alley. Eventually I moved far enough North in Northern New Jersey where I couldn't pick up its signal anymore, and that was the end of that. from then on, I listened to CDs in the car, or to the local AM radio station when they were broadcasting Yankees baseball.
Northern New Jersey has its own classic-rock station which is still going strong, WDHA FM (105.5) but again, I live in an area where picking up its signal is hit or miss. I'm actually right on the border with New York State so I actually get the rock station from Poughkeepsie, NY (WPDH-FM) better than 'DHA.
My car currently has 5 stations that I browse, plus a 6th for whenever my mom is the car with me:
Two local stations (WWOZ and WTUL) with WTUL being the college station that plays everything; from indie rock to ambient space music
A classics station (WTIX)
An Alternative station that I usually keep on (Alt 92.3)
Classic rock station (Bayou 95.7)
The bonus station is a smooth jazz station that sometimes you can hear, other times you hear is feedback (I'm guessing the station is from outside the city)
Growing up I used to listen to the modern music station when I was in bed, this was before I started to use my iPod to fall asleep to music. Another station that I listened to heavily was a rock station that played more eras of rock than Bayou did (Bayou at this time was mainly the 80's hair/glam station with a bit of Led Zeppelin, Oozy, and other 80's hard rock bands), but that station isn't around anymore. Thankfully Bayou plays more eras of rock than just 80's glam/hair, though that's their bread and butter on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.
college radio is big in Boston. 90.3 WZBC the Boston College station being by far the best. One day I'll explain an elaborate hoax/ prank phone call a friend of mine and I did there back in the day