Hellboy...
Diki covered the weather report in Florida. Good thing, because I have the urge to go buy some Dorito's.....if you know what I mean.

Great site, btw.

Eddie

Oh, if you mean my site, thank you kindly sir.

I live in the State of Queensland (Australia) and from what I can tell, the two climates (Florida and Queensland) are VERY similar.

Both hot and humid and noted for such.

I think I really, REALLY know how you feel right about now!

I hear ya ... The duos I play are usually with one of two sax players I work with, both of whom sing ... I am always doing harmony or background to their leads ...
Did the same thing in the band I had when I wasn't singing lead ...
t.

I actually liked Alanis Morisette a lot. I thought she had a number of great songs that the cover band I play in still covers today.

There WAS great music in the 90's...

What went wrong was we started to get lousy RADIO... The start of the Big Consolidation started (or got up to steam) then, and local radio stations started to have no DJ's or their own programming, and just started to take satellite feeds. Once you lose local promotion, the field of playlist choice narrows considerably, and you start to get this awful homogenization we currently suffer (at least in the US).

How many great bands got their start in the sixties and seventies by being pushed by a local area radio stations, and then blowing up nationally? Nowadays, that opportunity is MUCH smaller and less likely...

Unfortunately Diki, it's not just in the U.S.

In Australia, (and frankly I'm assuming most parts of the "Western World"), there is a pre-packaged corporate concept behind all commercial broadcasting that I'm aware of.

Aside from Community Radio and a scant Hour or two of "Let's Discover New Talent" Programs or Competitions, there are no DJ's who discover and play whatever they want including new Artists.

Even Internet Radio is quite commercial and structured (well, a lot of it is) though you DO get an INCREDIBLE amount of diversity and choice thanks to it's wide array of Genre and Niche Broadcasting - part and parcel of simply being the World Wide Web of course.

The bright side is though, Myspace (and other Social and Music Sites) let you discover new (or hell, even Old) Artists/Bands thanks to that same, good ole World Wide Web.

As much bad as there is on the Net, I also think it can be an overwhelmingly positive force for good - it's pretty much still "The People's (Virtual) Place", and it's now put the power back in the hands of the Artist.

As long as they self promote and believe in themselves that is.....

Diki and Hellboy are right. I know a couple of traditional "jocks" around here. Since consolidation and automation, they each work about 10 hours a week, part-time doing commercials and the banter that's played between pre-programmed tunes. They do a week-s worth of broadcast stuff (their "programs-20 hours playing time) and complete their commercial production in those 10 hours. They make a fraction of what they used to a few years ago.

Just for an eye opener, if you have access, go to a station run by Cumulus or other "biggie". The lack of live production and staffing is a shocker. The local staff, if any, is simply there to fill in the blanks left in the feed.


Russ (ex-old jazz jock) Lay




[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 07-15-2009).]

Yes indeed, mainstream radio is pretty much bottom of the barrel. College radio and stations which run by dint of public donations are the only ones left with any semblance of a real radio station with live human beings at the mic. and interesting playlists which aren't dictated by advertising moolah. One such station seems to be
http://www.phonographblues.com/2006_09_01_archive.html

which I stumbled upon quite by accident while searching the web for an old single of ours and which happened to be on their playlist (God bless 'em! ). There probably are many other stations of their ilk, but most of us seem to fall into the ennui of leaving the dial where it is. And we all buy the stuff that's advertised, don't we?

Still, it seems as though modern radio is a good fit with the current culture of declining human contact in this ever-cyberising world. Where does it go from here?