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Why (FM, Not XM) Radio Sucks
wemmick writes "The Washington Post has an article "Can XM Put Radio Back Together Again?" which discusses the history of marketing FM radio, how XM could be different, and about Lee Abrams -- "the man who shackled FM radio to the tyranny of mass market research" and is now program director for XM."
Everyone knows that to make something sound cool you just put an X somewhere -X-Box -Xtreme Games -XXX (the action movie, not the rating, triple x triple the fun!) -XXX (the rating) -Windows XP -Ximian
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
are all that's needed to show how bad FM radio sucks: Creed marathons.
It's almost worse when you can get *some* radio, but it's annoying radio. Driving in West Texas is like that. (Not all the time, but ... with enough time, "not all" can still mean quite a bit ;))
Cracker Barrel (which is of course not in plentiful supply in the utter boonies, yet) has an insidious, effective plan to make sure you consume their maple syrup: rent (actually, sell but with an easy sell-back plan) audio books.I think it's about $2.50, if you return a tape within one week. It's worse than the addictive chemical in the Colonel's chicken.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
"Americans don't care about the rest of the world. Dang."
Cry me a river you fucking victim. When the rest of the world does something worth caring about, wake me up.
X11 aka X Windows, what started this whole trend and what all the hippest /.ers are using. Rather than just sounding cool, it is cool.
If you think "extreme games" are lame, check out my parody. It features Tux, Ellen Feiss, Beasty(Chuck), Bill Gates, and more.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
What ever happenned to the days of good, honest record labels sending good, honest dj's good, honest album covers filled with cocaine.
We don't need no corporation...
Actually, Sid Meier is American...
correct me if im wrong
Don't worry, they will. This is Slashdot after all.
This reminds me of something funny I heard on a local FM "modern rock" station about a week ago.
They just started playing a song, when it suddenly stopped playing. After 15 seconds or so of dead air, the DJs came on, complaning about the computer crashing and screwing things up. They tried to get it to play again, without success. Then, one of the DJ's started complaining about a "PCI bus device failure error" on a blue and white screen, and asking what the heck that meant.
After another reboot, they seemed to get things going again - but wow, I didn't know they ran the whole music collection off a Windows NT/2000 box! Scary.
"In Cincinnati its no different. Its either Clearchannel or Infinity. Although we do get WOXY [woxy.com] which is independantly owned and operated and quite good."
I thought WKRP was privately owned.
i never thought the fast tracker format would make such a comeback!
Now where did i put these schleudertrauma releases...
I just heard -- Slashdot troll was found dead in his parent's basement. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Well, you're ahead of the majority of the Slashdot crowd by, oh, 20 showers per week!
Here in Chicago, I'm noticing a trend with FM radio. If I like a station, within a year they switch the format to Mexican radio. Let me count the ways:
- 107.9 - 70's music
- 103.1 - 80's music
- 92.7 - dance
The one that really upsets me is the loss of Energy 92.7&5. That was the only Chicago area station that played decent dance music. Did we really need *another* Mexican station?Sonar, Sound, and Seismic waves, are a bit below the elecrtomagnetic spectrum.
Abrams is considering adding several XM stations geared to niche markets serving hackers. A confidential memo was passed to me by a recently laid-off employee detailing the psychographic research behind the effort:
"Real Hacker": 17 to 35, male, jobless. Owns 1.2 bicycles. Lives in rent-controlled apartment with five other Real Hackers. Political ideology: Blast everyone, since we don't have anything worth taking away. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Weird Al Yankovic.
"Aging Hacker": 25 to 55, male, corporate salary worker. Owns 2.4 cars and 0.00000001 Segways. Has 1.6 kids. Lives in detached house on postage-stamp-sized plot in large development. Political ideology: Blast no one, since we have nothing we want taken away. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Pink Floyd.
"Script Kiddie": 8 to 18, male, jobless. Owns room down the hall from single parent's bedroom. Subsists on Ring Dings and Twinkies. Political ideology: I 0wnz 3v3ry b0xen. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Skinemax soundtracks.
"Dot Bomber": 18 to 25, male, jobless. Lives in cardboard box on subway grate. Owns 7.3 newspapers. Political ideology: Doesn't know what went wrong, but is sure it's The Street's fault. Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Pink Floyd's "Money".
"Hacker Chick": 18 to 34, female, corporate salary worker. Owns 0.7 cars. Political ideology: All Men are Animals -- just look at all the male hackers! Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Air Supply's "I'm All Out of Love". Note: Statistical results reliable only to the 6.4% level due to limited population.
"H1B Visa": 20 to 25, male, corporate sweatshop worker. Owns bus pass. Political ideology: Anything to increase the H1B quota. Unlikely to listen to much of anything (works 18-hour days). Cries when listening to Suchitra Krishnamurti's "Zindagi".
"System Administrator": 25 to 50, male, corporate or university salary worker. Owns 1.1 cars. Political ideology: Malthus was Right! Unlikely to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Cries when listening to Weird Al Yankovic's "It's All About the Pentiums".
The rest of the memo was illegible. The ink appears to have been soaked off the pages by a combination of hard liquor and human lachrymative fluids.
Towards the Singularity.
Because Slashdot's favorite buzzwords are not the solutions to all the world's problems.
If only we could install Linux on this ear of corn, we could end world hunger forever! Unfortunately Monsanto already installed a proprietary kernel in it.