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It's a shame what's happened to radio

blog.jimgrey.net

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Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#131

Post by mrngld »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #10

(2009)ish And a very American/mainstream-centric view of things. Radio (especially from the view of things in 2009) in more niche/underground circles was and in some regards still is a driving force of music curation and community in other parts of the world like the UK, parts of the EU and beyond. Does radio have to be on the FM band? Do we count streaming like via YouTube, twitch and other platforms the same as Rad…

Agree about YouTube and Twitch. Whatever personality you want, there's someone that fits it. You can pull up a recent stream or tune in and message them live if they're on. In some ways we're in the golden age of some of what the article was saying was lost, because pretty much anyone with a basic setup and a little bandwidth can start streaming and building an audience/brand. No need to get hired, no need to get a letter like in the story that says you might've been OK in a small town but you're not ready for the big leagues.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#132

Post by verall »

TYPE_FASTER wrote: post #129

College radio is still a thing. I've discovered some good music via WRUV (UVM). WERS (Emerson College) dropped the Rockers reggae show when they changed their programming back in 2013, but I should try streaming again and see what it's like these days.

kutx and koop on the same frequency are great

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#133

Post by setsewerd »

inigyou wrote: post #120
lostlogin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really want a reaction here, announce that you use your phone speaker or a Bluetooth one out in public.

Sometimes, but not too often, in Berlin of all places you encounter someone biking around with a massive speaker attached to their bike blaring (obviously) techno Not always a bike. Sometimes just a trolley or a handcart or a custom jerry-rigged contraption.

You see this type of thing daily in Brooklyn NY still, but instead of techno it's any genre, primarily hip hop, reggaeton, or afrobeats.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#134

Post by doodaddy »

The frequencies are alive with music in Brazil. Among the broad (and excellent) variety of local music are three stations that play an eclectic variety of foreign music from around the world. One station features a lot of rare or more unusual recordings of music from the 60s through the 2000s. Sure you’ve heard Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” a million times on the radio but you probably haven’t heard the version by Heartbreak Klub, an Australian rock-pop band. Or one of the live recordings of “Going to California” with John Paul Jones’ extended mandolin solo.

It’s great because they stream online so when I’m back home and don’t know what to listen to, it’s always an option.

For those interested - https://itapemafm.com.br/

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#135

Post by smath »

In a way it’s the same phenomenon as TV channels with fixed programming replaced by cable and the streaming video. Newspaper vs curated feeds. There is an exploit vs explore tradeoff in all of these. The newer versions lean heavier on exploit, so explore suffers. Explore is the ‘broadening horizons’ bit that some other comments refer to.

Automation / machines tend to make things more efficient and we shouldn’t shy away from automation, but they can also reduce the human connection. I think the same thing will happen with AI generated art - l human generated art can be a spiritual experience meaning you can connect with another human through art - but if a masterpiece like Cypress Trees in Wheat Fields is AI generated, there isn’t a connection with the human artist. Consequently we must consciously turn to other places to keep human connection strong.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#136

Post by criddell »

mickdeek86 wrote: post #6
kxrm wrote: post #4

Good radio died in the mid 80s. Most people today can hardly remember when radio was curated live. Perhaps if you were near a small station you might have had the experience. Most major markets were completely corporate by the early 90s. I know, my first career pick was radio, and by the time I was in college at a college radio station in the late 90s. That career path was dead unless I wanted to be in marketing or s…

I'm reminded of Adrienne Barbeau in The Fog with her late night radio station in a lighthouse, or Lily Tomlin in Prairie Home Companion saying "Now radio's just a bunch of people yelling at each other and computers playing music". Although I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a GenZ girl doing something I had forgotten about: channel surfing.

When I think about the glory days of radio, I think of American Graffiti.

I live in Austin and there's a pretty good station (I think it's actually a group of stations across Texas) called Sun Radio. I pretty much only listen in the car, but they are usually playing something I'm interested in.

https://www.sunradio.com/playlist/

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#137

Post by don-code »

yaky wrote: post #16
nicksergeant wrote: post #5

Still a few great ones hanging around, like WBER in Rochester: https://wber.org/

Discovered WITR not too long ago, their selection is right up my alley (although it is arguably "millenial radio" rather than "college radio")

I was briefly involved with WITR during my undergrad. Loved what they were doing, but at that time the station definitely bought into the hipster attitude, music you've never heard of and will never hear again.

The only band I can remember hearing on WITR, then hearing anywhere else, is Neon Indian. They also sponsored a concert with Viva Brother, which briefly got some airplay on other stations, in spite of never (to my knowledge) having played them.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#138

Post by mobilene »

I'm the OP, and I'm surprised to find this article on HN at all, let alone the front page!

Many comments are focusing on music but the thing I tried to get across in the article was that good radio wasn't primarily about the music, it was about fun and connection. A good DJ kept you from just turning the radio off when you heard that same hit the fourth time today -- you wanted to keep listening because the DJ made it fun. It made homework and hobbies feel a lot less lonely. A Spotify playlist sure as heck can't do that.

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#139

Post by mobilene »

parpfish wrote: post #2

There’s a human connection element to old radio that streaming will never replicate. And I worry that it’s gone from modern automated radio too. It used to be if you were driving down the road and heard a song you liked Hearing a song you liked on the radio hit harder then playing it yourself because you knew that there was another human nearby at that moment in time that had picked it out and played it. You were phy…

Yes! Exactly this. I'm the OP and I wrote about this specifically as well.

https://blog.jimgrey.net/2023/01/10/connecting-through-the-e...

Re: It's a shame what's happened to radio

#140

Post by mobilene »

RyJones wrote: post #99

Jim Grey and I knew all the same people at WMHD yet somehow never ran into each other. I was an annoying high school student. Ron Dippold (he ran usenet votes for a long time) was there, among others. When I was digging through old VHS tapes, I digitized a couple TV spots and put them on youtube; passing them along to Jim. Best advice I got when I got to San Jose was from an old recruiter - she must have been 30! She…

Hi! How did we overlap at WMHD and never run into each other?
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