Agreed

I caught an excellent documentary on the tv the other night about the 'roots' of Grunge, or something like that, most of it was about REM and Nirvana and some bits about Pearl Jam. The whole dilemma of 'fame' or 'keeping it real' ran through the whole program especially when Kurt Kobain was in the picture, the poor guy really couldn't handle the fact that he had become an intrinsic part of what he had originally shouted out against.
But then he was also into smack, which doesn't really help!!

The radio is still very real though. it is as is the internet a place where you can find the right light, if you go looking for it !

i think that's a very good point, about Kurt Kobain and then finding the right light.  well said, friend

i guess the point is that if you focus on too much of *anything*, you can turn it into a bad thing, but then if you just take it in step, it can be a good, valuable thing.  Like Kurt, there.  I don't think he did a particularly bad job as a musician :P 

I think what I don't really like is the industrialization of the radio, who it's all about how many pop hooks they can stick in your throat, and how often they're pitching the exact same ones just to catch as many as they can with it... sure, people that like it will of course be alright with it... but that just means that because I think in this way that the radio isn't my spot.

now... if we had more stations like in the OLD days... (i liked the picture you painted of it, battlecat)

Sup,

Didn't really read all of this post but read the first bit. I hate most radio stations only because they are full of fake mainstream pop and their playlists are so short you hear the same songs like 3 or 4 times in one day. However there is an alternative! If you live in Australia triple J is the way to go. They promote so much unsigned/unheard of really excellent music, some of its not the best but it sure beats other radio stations plus there's no adds =D.

                                                  So yeah listen to Triple J guys!

Well I love PBS....
If your talking about music well I think many of us didn't know many bands until we heard them on the radio.I think you have the option of selecting radio stations or radio players based on what you can afford or are interested in.Xm is just another form of radio just with different set of options and different set of strategies of making profits..All radio really means is at  rate of oscillation(As per Wiki").

Am
FM
XM or Satellite
Internet Radio
Multiband
I wonder whats will be next.
Its good to have options...

Let me think if people stopped making adds don't you guys think that will have a bad impact in the life's of many that depend on those jobs...I wonder?

Well I agree about the jobs but,  here in lies the problem,  an artist writes a song about what they are passionate about. Ok so it might be offensive to some one in some way.  The Ad agency gets a call from the manufacture about the offensiveness of that song, and they call up the radio station (now days it is usually many many radio stations  under corporate control with national program managers), They threaten to pull all there ads, and future ads, if the songs is not pulled from the playlist.  Hmm  so now the ads have more power than the material, which is fine because really their are no rules that say it shouldn't, or couldn't be that way.  If you had an alternative to that ,where the music is uncensored, and the interviews are uncensored, would you want it? Where the consumer pays, and there are no ads, so there is no one to put pressure on the program managers to do something they probably don't want to do.

I have know problem with ads, or ad agencies, but I don't believe that corporations should control art.

Personally in my opinion we the people give those agencies the power either by supporting there decisions ,being blind to them or just not caring.Also some sort of  guideline needs to be exist so boundaries of mutual respect are not crossed.If some one came out with a song about Puerto Ricans being stupid(Me)although creative as the song might be I might get real upset and go shoot some people(I hope that gets the point across).In addition with art and its expression also comes a sense of responsibility.We speak for those who can't in many ways either by anger,oppression,love,money whatever the reason it is a weapon if chosen to be.
All in all I think all media is Ok as long if its handled with responsibility.Again not by the source but by us... A car doesn't run without fuel and in my opinion we are that fuel...
So XM  Internet and Radio are just communication devices, the listeners are the ones that making choices if they know how to use that power....

I respect everyones opinion here and this is just mine . I mean no offense to any artist or  people out there and In no way I speak for them..this is just my though on the matter....

I'm guessing its the same for all you guys, but around here, all the major stations (with the exception of  PBS and a few college stations) are owned by Clear Channel. and thus they have been homogenized and regimented to such degree that I find them extremely uninteresting (even repugnant, to coin a term from a cartoon character). They play the same tunes over and over...they stay within a very rigid format and they certainly don't respond to the interests of their listeners. All my life, I have been an avid listener of radio, and thus my musical interests and sensibilities have been seriously influenced by radio. I am enthralled by the power of radio and my wish is for radio to survive; however, I take issue with the current policy of corporate-monopolized
radio formatting. I am not alone...in my area there is a well-established boy cot of normal broadcast radio for the same reasons, I delineated above. Thus, it is also well-known that broadcast radio is losing listeners by degrees (to computers, i-pods, satellite, etc.). By the way, I am also a fan (and regular listener) of PBS.

That's a valid point, but I must say that the majority of my musical interest didn't come from the radio... sure, there were those highschool days where there's some song that's popular (Like Will Smith's "Party Like it's 1999" for instance!) and everybody knows it... yeah, we knew those songs, but that's not where I developed my interest.  Those who did devlope their intersts in the radio as their sole source are the very ones who are still revolving around it, listening to the same 3 or 4 song playlists across monopolized station formats...

In fact, most of the bands I've come to like are the ones that I've never heard before on a radio... and I found out about them by the mysterious underground communication that seems to survive without any influence from the radio at all... The musicians who are performing in clubs / shows when suddenly they get some sort of little contract and they show up at the Warped Tour, or some other event where they're tagging along with the artists who have already made it big. 

The mysterious underground uses a communication line that's completely independant of the radio... it's bizarre to think about how it works, really, but the fact in the matter is that it does work

The music that I came to like via the radio will always somehow be seperated in my head as the "radio" music, which are single songs by an artist that only ever made 2, maybe 3 songs that ever became popular enough to get marketed on the radio

Guys not all the radio stations are in the United States and they don't abide to the rules restrictions found here either whether by political or financial influence...

that's understood, i think...

but i can't discuss the radio based on an abstract idea what radio is in terms of general existance... the fact is that what radio is in the USA is most certainly not ideal.  Personally, I've felt like that's been the point of our discussion.  I respect entirely what has been said about the australian "triple J" station.  I wish I could listen in on it!

we're griping about what we've been stuck with in the states, that's all   When I say that "I hate the radio" (as the thread title suggests), I'm not saying that every radio wave in the world is the spawn of Satan--- I'm only speaking out of my own experience, which happens to be centered around the US of A's... wonderful... system

I haven't researched this so I may be talking out of turn but , I do believe that clear channel and Intercom control  the biggest portion of "free broadcast radio"  they are corporate controlled and run most radio stations whether it
be rock, country, heavy metal, talk ect.  intercom here in KC had bought up almost every decent broadcast station there is.  Then it quickly in my mind turns to shit.  to rigid of playlist , over played ads, to much advertising and to much DJ talking.  No B side song plays, or any thing other than just what the national programmers want to be played....

Marino , I wished that people here could listen in on Radio stations from other countries , So they could remember what radio broadcast used to be like.  I just recently got satalite radio , did not realize what I was missing. I am not saying that it's perfect cause it's not, but it is better than any of the free broadcast stations I get around here. Which after all is all I can go by, cause that is all I have to go by.

lol...not to mention those silly-assed morning "comedy personalities" (when I'm driving to work, I want to hear something meaningful - not a bunch of wise-asses who think they're funny, occupying all the air time with their foolishness...and it seems this is prevalent across all genres, be it rock, country, soul, etc).

No one laughs harder than a breakfast announcer. "Hey we run outa ideas lets get the public to ring in and tell us their most embarrasing pants down  stories.....gives us something to bounce off."
Now for the engleburt  umpteenth time today,
"Alterntative" youth radio is becoming just as bad, sources new music through their "Unearthed"sites linked to others  which can charge membership fee or to upload demos ,next the applicants email fills with  promo contests, win free mechandise, spam.
So the whole purpose is to build a data base of likley suckers ,praying on the desparation of musicians to get heard.
Actually if you want to make some money , borrow $20000 from the bank as prize money or ,production mastering or gear  value
 .Run a song writing comp , charge $5 per song upload ,design a comprhensive application form 2 get as much info as possible from applicants ,not related to the music ,personal, professional,financial,info etc.
You'll make a killing and be able to sell on the data base too.
 

Quote toastedgoat:
"this is way better than most of the crap I hear on the radio."
Commenting on THIS SONG

It takes certain kinds of evenings for it to dawn.....what a absolutely amazing place bandAmp is !