Here we are in January 2011 and the new music released is at a minimum. Most of the stuff on pop radio is singles released before the holiday period of 2010 so its getting a little long in the tooth. The new albums aren't really coming until March/April when people are back in a buying mood. So right now we end up with all the old stuff rehashed and some singles that otherwise would never be released as such if newer music was available.
The sad part is that so much good stuff is out there but gets no chance even with the light release schedule. I can name a few tunes in the pop genre that would be welcomed over having to hear stuff like "Club Can't Handle Me" or "DJ's Got Us Falling In Love Again" for the ten millionth time. Because pop radio gets tied to just a basic few artists per year and usually don't expand beyond the mainline record label darlings many good songs are missed completly in favour of another Rihanna song or Lady Gaga or Beyonce song no matter if there is better music available to fill the slot. Take for example Kool FM in Victoria BC, they will play Eminem's terrible single "Not Afraid" twelve to fifteen times a day or more versus playing something new and exciting. Fresh music has been relegated to the internet radio stations or to the satellite radio stations who even have a better rotation than public commercial radio.
I understand that pop radio needs to hit a demographic and sell advertising to survive but they also have to entertain us and most of the time I'm not entertained by stations like Kool FM because they repeat their scaled back playlist. When I can put on my I-Pod and hit shuffle and that is more engaging than what a million dollar radio station can do it really says something. I know that my I-Pod has songs that I personally picked but I have over ten thousand songs in said shuffle. So I know commercial radio has no chance to be better but sometimes its fun to hear the DJ's, news, happenings around the entertainment world.
Now back to the music, the music is there for the radio programmers to play but they fail every single year by refusing to push a bunch of missed tunes that came out in the previous few months. Right now on stations around Victoria many cool new songs and artists could be getting a fair shake let's start with the pop station Kool FM's missed oppertunities.
White Tie Affair - You Look Better When I'm Drunk
Scissor Sisters - Any Which Way
Professor Green - Monster
Imelda May - Mayhem
Duffy - Well, Well, Well
Kate Miller-Heidke - Caught In The Crowd
Never Shout Never - I Love You 5
Then we have a rock station that has probably the smallest playlist of all and it's so stale that I never turn it on because I've been hearing the majority their music choices for as long as I've been listening to music seriously. 100.3 The Q is Victoria's lamest station on the FM dial and the sad thing is they have some of the city's best on air personalities. Songs that they should be playing are too many to list but here is a small sample of perfect fits.
Blue October - Jump Rope
Ratt - Best Of Me
Hinder - All American Nightmare
Jonas & The Massive Attraction - Big Slice
Victoria's adult station is called the Ocean which has a decent lighter side of pop and rock playlist. They still could add some current stuff that would be huge for them and as well Kool FM could take these on as well.
Rumer - Goodbye Girl
Lena - Touch A New Day
Nick Jonas - Introducing Me
Jason Castro - Let's Just Fall In Love Again
Eliza Doolittle - Pack Up
This is just a small listing and I've not included the cities modern rock station which is still not in the league of CFOX which is the best modern rock station available on an FM radio in this area. The Zone is capable of being great and with less effort than all the other commercial stations but they are held back more because of their on air personalities than the music they program. The music they program could be a little better by leaving some of the alternative and indie bunk, replacing it with more hard rock and heavy metal. No station does a very good job at programming those two genre's. Most either go classic rock overplayed artists like Ozzy Osbourne and only the first two albums and No More Tears or they go the wrong way and play Nu-metal that is screaming absurdly. They seem to miss what really would be cool, bands like Halford, Accept, Wig Wam, Overkill, Hinder & Black Label Society.
If I could have a chance to work with the programming team at any of these stations (not The Ocean) the ego in me and confidence believes they could benefit greatly. But they would have to be open to new and fresh ideas and be willing to forgo the typical and safe to be truly excellent which I am confident none have the guts to make that change. In the end January, February and usually March will continue to be the weakest months of the year for the industry of radio and probably will never change as long as I am alive. But I've got some great ideas to make commercial radio great again but will never see the light of day and I'm ok with that.
Monday 10 January 2011
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