I'm a DJ at a college radio station (WRFL in Lexington, KY) and can really identify with people's disgust in mainstream radio. I just hope they don't think all radio is like that. Public radio has long been a champion of non-commercial, underground, good music WAY before the Internet and music became synonymous.
Particularly college radio stations that operate on shoe-string budgets with volunteer DJs that are highly knowledgable about all types of music and devote themselves to exposing it to a wider audience. We've been fighting tooth and nail with the corporate mainstream since day one and deserve some respect. Not all radio sucks. Some stations (ehem, such as my own) go out of their way to provide an audience with good music.
We don't get paid. Operate 24 hours a day (which means some poor DJ is sitting there on a 3am - 6am shift). Take money out of our own pockets to buy CDs to play for the general public. Enforce rules to keep the mainstream out of our programming. *At WRFL there is a rule where you cannot play the same song from the same band more than once in a SIX HOUR period. (As opposed to 20 minutes on mainstream stations)
Lately, we've even been ordering CDs from unsigned artists at mp3.com to but in our playbox for regular rotation! Internet music distribution is a wonderful new thing, but good radio should still be respected because it has benefits that "Internet radio" does not.
So, don't hate radio, just hate the corporations that are whoring it out. Find a public or college radio station in your area, because you can support them just by listening.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a DJ at a college radio station (WRFL in Lexington, KY) and can really identify with people's disgust in mainstream radio. I just hope they don't think all radio is like that. Public radio has long been a champion of non-commercial, underground, good music WAY before the Internet and music became synonymous. Particularly college radio stations that operate on shoe-string budgets with volunteer DJs that are highly knowledgable about all types of music and devote themselves to exposing it to a wider audience. We've been fighting tooth and nail with the corporate mainstream since day one and deserve some respect. Not all radio sucks. Some stations (ehem, such as my own) go out of their way to provide an audience with good music. We don't get paid. Operate 24 hours a day (which means some poor DJ is sitting there on a 3am - 6am shift). Take money out of our own pockets to buy CDs to play for the general public. Enforce rules to keep the mainstream out of our programming. *At WRFL there is a rule where you cannot play the same song from the same band more than once in a SIX HOUR period. (As opposed to 20 minutes on mainstream stations) Lately, we've even been ordering CDs from unsigned artists at mp3.com to but in our playbox for regular rotation! Internet music distribution is a wonderful new thing, but good radio should still be respected because it has benefits that "Internet radio" does not. So, don't hate radio, just hate the corporations that are whoring it out. Find a public or college radio station in your area, because you can support them just by listening.