What The Hell Is Wrong With Aussie Radio

[summercity]

Is it just me or has radio always been this bad.I know that i read somewhere that aussie radio only has to play a (very small) percentage of aussie music. Something between 2-5%. Unfortunately (with the exception of JJJ and a few others) they stick rigidly to this figure.

You know, the record companies talk about declining sales and blame it on people downloading music ..etc but could it possibly also be the fact that most people have just lost interest because all we are hearing on the radio is talkback and "HIP" stations playing crap from the USA.No one is interested in playing fresh aussie music anymore.

I find it hard to believe that we live in a country with radio that flatly refuses to do anything about its own talent.

Rant over

[bob]

When I was a young fellow I was an ardent 4zzz listener,
there was even less to choose from than today.
I switched to JJJ when they went national, and
after a few years I returned to zzz.
JJJ still play a lot of good music, but they play a lot
of crap too and the aiming at the youth market gets a bit
trying a times. 4zzz play some crap to but as a free form
station the annoucers can play what they like, unlike
all the formula stations JJJ included.
As far as local music goes zzz went a long way to
making the Brisbane music scene what it become.
JJJ have consistently ignored so much Australian talent
it makes me wonder sometimes.
Having said that they have also gone out of their way
to promote undiscovered bands.
The other formula radio stations are just dreadfull.
So bad they almost make me laugh, like MMM and
their never ending classic rock playlist.
Or B105 and the seeming never ending amount of
terrible girl bands there is these days.
ciao bob

[Dr Keats]

In Community radio, we have to play 25% Aussie content. I try for around 50%. Mind you, APRA never checks, and it's an "across-the-board" requirement, not "per program", so if you have a couple of shows devoted entirely to Aussie content, it covers you for a couple of non-Aussie shows...

I agree with summercity - pretty much anything that charts in the US or UK is rush-released here. Doesn't automatically follow that we'll dig it.

What's wrong with Aussie radio? Hmmm... The following is based on three years of listening to radio in my workplace for eight hours a day, locked onto each station for a month or two at a time. You see patterns begin to emerge:

Triple M? "The Bogan's Choice". Great if you're a bogan, absolute purgatory if you're not... Warhurst & Hellier are awful. So are Wil & Lehmo. Spoonman's the only decent thing on there...

Fox? It's not "variety" to play the same song three times in one 8-hour period. Worse still when you do it with the same three or four songs every day... "Gotcha" calls.

Vega? It's not "variety" to play three different songs by the same artist in one 8-hour period. Worse still when you do it with three or four artists every day... Announcers you've either never heard of, or never want to hear of again.

Nova? Dave Hughes. Need I say more? OK - Akmal. And all the other unknowns. Not to mention doof-doof...

Gold 104? "Beatles FM"... More music, by more dead people, more often...

Mix? Not quite as bad as the others - at least there's more variety in their playlist, albeit a tad on the bland side...

Common to all the above:

Near-rigid playlists. Once a song's on, it's pretty much there for life. Vega seems to recycle its entire playlist every two days - if you heard it on Monday, you'll hear it again on Wednesday. Sometimes Tuesday. Same with Gold.

Horrible "alternate" versions - the version of "Heart Of Glass" everyone's playing ain't the one that charted. Same with that woeful extended version of "Nutbush City Limits" - how many times do they repeat that synth break?. And "Borderline" by Madonna. Sure, play 'em if they're better than the radio cut - not just 'cos they're different. Try the "Sons Of Beaches" cut of "Downhearted" for a change...

No back-announcing - you'll hear a great new track, followed by "Khe Sanh". Guess which one they back-announce?? Yep, the one you've heard a million times...

Same old songs - if a band had a dozen chart hits, why always play the same three? People who remember them will remember the other nine as well, and they'll get the whole "Haven't heard that one for AGES" vibe happening... when Gold announce a track by Stevie Wright coming up next, you pretty much know it'll be "Evie"... What about "Black-Eyed Bruiser", "Hard Road", or "Guitar Band"?

Refusal to move on - three singles on, these stations are still flogging the song that dropped out of the charts nine months ago. Yes, we've heard that one, now play the current release...

Ass-hats...

[gazzastapo]

If God had meant for us to listen to radio, He wouldn't have invented CDs, the internet & MP3 players

I don't...no that's wrong...I won't listen to commercial radio because of all the factors everyone has stated above, plus the mind-numbingness of the waffle inbetween..be it announcers, station breaks, ads or whatever...I hate it!!
There are a couple of programmes on local (shire/eastern suburbs) community radio that I listen to, plus radio national sometimes has a good programme.

[Austwiz]

Radio in the 70s was not too bad as I remember... 

The main things I hate about current radio are the bloody DJs who think we want to listen to their fucking constant drivel, and the ceaseless barrage of inane advertising.  You seem to be lucky (or usually unlucky) to have 5 songs an hour!

Me, I listen to audiobooks on my mp3 player in the car, and cd/mp3 at home, I get my new music from the 'net these days   :-\

[motcher76]

Radio in the 70s was not too bad as I remember... 

The main things I hate about current radio are the bloody DJs who think we want to listen to their *ucking constant drivel, and the ceaseless barrage of inane advertising.  You seem to be lucky (or usually unlucky) to have 5 songs an hour!

Me, I listen to audiobooks on my mp3 player in the car, and cd/mp3 at home, I get my new music from the 'net these days   :-\

I can't even remember the last time I listened to the radio. I used to be a big fan of JJ/JJJ in the 80's & 90's but I've long since lost interest ... started sounding like all the other commercial stations - a procession of dickhead presenters (and their inane banter/antics), crappy playlists, constant rotations etc etc. Same old, same old.

I put a new sound system in the car five years ago and it's only purpose is as a head unit for the CD changer and the mp3 player. If you switch to radio mode you just get static because I haven't even bothered to tune any stations in. I don't even have the radio stations set on the home theatre system either.

I'll stick to the music programs on the telly and the Net to keep me up to date.

Cheers

[Hector McFreckle]

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With Aussie Radio :-

Yeah... NOBODY plays Jason Donavon anymore !!! 

[Newrace]

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With Aussie Radio :-

Yeah... NOBODY plays Jason Donavon anymore !!! 

I am sure no decent Aussie Radio will

In the late 70's I was a Big 3RRR fan and still listen to that station along with 3PBS

[stacky]

what happened to plain old talent-it was in abundance in the late 60's-mid 70's & vanished with the disco era.you could count on one hand the great acts
that have appeared since then-radio is really struggling in my opinion :-\

[Jaylee]

We always had ABC radio going, but i find myself turning it off more and more, one gets sick and tired of having to put up with  the announcers political bias coming through in order to hear a few good songs....

[Dr Keats]

Mmmmm, which it what finally turned me off JJJ - the constant "anti-Government" crap, regardless of which party was in power at the time. They'd bag the s-h-1-t out of the current Government, lobby hard against them at election time, celebrate when they were voted out, then proceed to do exactly the same with the new one...

Pick a side and stick to it...

Mind you, they weren't all that better than the "commercials" re playlist; they had their list of preferred artists, whose stuff they'd flog to death. I recall when a particular REM single was released - they made a big show of playing once an hour for the entire day! I mean, seriously....

[Austwiz]

I don't really care WHAT their politics or opinions on anything at all are, I just wish they would all STFU and just play music!!

[Vermin]

Radio is dead (at least for me), for all the reasons previously stated. Thankfully the advent of truly portable music players that enable me to carry my entire music collection with me everywhere means this isn't really a problem.

I never was a fan of commercial radio and thought JJJ was great when it first started being broadcast here in the early 90s but I must have slipped out of their target demographic (i.e. I've gotten old), because I find it annoying now.

I still tune into a local community radio station now and then but mostly my new music discovery is now all done online.

[Austwiz]

to put my entire music collection on a portable I'd need one with about 3 terrabytes of storage!!   

[kelvin1962]

to put my entire music collection on a portable I'd need one with about 3 terrabytes of storage!!   

Maybe a reality one day 

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/16420/the-500-000-gb-mp3-player

[Vermin]

Heh, it pays to be picky, (only 94GB).

[Austwiz]

well, i have about 1 tb on hdd and 3,000 'real' cd's.....

[NerdBurger]

The last time I actively listened to the radio was in the late 70's of 3RMIT-FM, which eventually became 3RRR.

Those days were great.  My fav show was hosted by a friendly guy that use to serve me at Archies and Jughead Records, which later became Missing Link Records.  That was Bruce Milne. Later on he established Au Go Go Records. The charistmatic Bohdan X hosted a Friday punk show.  There was also Greig Pickhaver, Johnny Topper, Santo Cilauro, Greg Champion of the Coodabeen Champions and Punter To Punter's Dr Turf. Tuning in to the radio broadcast of The Melbourne Cup or the Footy Grand Final was like tuning into a live comedy show.  Their was one horse called Black Knight and during one eventful Melbourne Cup race, they kept on singing, "....and Black Knight is a long way from home".

The station also had Live To Air concert recording from local bands from The Birthday Party,  The Models, The Reels, Young Modern, Ears, MEO 245, Serious Young Insects, Scientists, etc.  I just wished I had the forsight to record them. 

At one stage I teamed up with a guy and we were scheduled to do a radio show on 3RRR.  We met with Stephen Walker ("The Ghost Who Walks") and he loved our idea.  At the last minute, the other guy pulled out and the show never eventuated.

Since the mid 80's I stopped tuning to the radio.  The car always had cassettes that I played, which eventually became CD's and now MP3's.

[Skids]

Sydney version

Triple M? "The Bogan's Choice". Great if you're a bogan, absolute purgatory if you're not... Warhurst & Hellier are awful. So are Wil & Lehmo. Spoonman's the only decent thing on there...

must be OLD bogans choice, cause they play the same music, just with more adds as 2WS

Vega? It's not "variety" to play three different songs by the same artist in one 8-hour period. Worse still when you do it with three or four artists every day... Announcers you've either never heard of, or never want to hear of again.

very similar to the above two MMM  & WS

Nova? Dave Hughes. Need I say more? OK - Akmal. And all the other unknowns. Not to mention doof-doof...

We get Akmal too...picks up the popular tracks from JJJ, but had Merrick & Rosso as a +...started out as a great variety, playing a bit of everything including Kock Rock..now I'd call it Frock Rock  :P

Gold 104? "Beatles FM"... More music, by more dead people, more often...

sounds like 2WS  :P

Mix? Not quite as bad as the others - at least there's more variety in their playlist, albeit a tad on the bland side...

more a mix between Nova & 2WS
Common to all the above: IMO
Don't really play any new Aussie music, Hence live band venues disappearing all over the place,also assisted by whingers complaining about the noise even though the venue was there when they moved in!!

P.S MMM calls themselves a rock station and plays "No Doubt"

I usually surf between JJJ 105.7 Nova 96.9 for traffic updates and Community station SWR 99.9 & the CD 
my 2 bob

[Dr Keats]

RRR used to be great - I loved Bruce Milne's show "Eeeek", with Phil Brophy, and "Danger: Low Brow" was another ripper...

Bruce was a great guy - always used to have a chin-wag every time I popped into Au-Go-Go...

[busbydaze]

Over here in the west, I listen to RTR. It's really the only station comiitted to playing new local music, Triple J aint what it used to be , and tend to play more overseas music (read: English and American).

[Downhome61]

I reckon as a kid I lost interest in radio by the time i had around 30 albums. It may have got worse but it's always been crap if you're a music fan coz it's always about everything else - dickhead DJs, stations IDs and ads, bloody ads - and not about the music.

[Whalanboy]

what is radio .. as far as i new music formats are casette , lp , cd ,dvd and for the ancient peeps out there there was 8 track...  but seriously peeps aussie music is alive and well ! its also going very strong just check your gig guides get out of the house and party on !!! For those that need examples The Angels are currently touring ( Yes with Doc )  Dragon Just released a new Album and even the Oils are talkin bout taking to the stage again. Time to pressure the radio stations to play OUR music.

[sachabinky]

Speaking of Yanks playing Aussie music,, have you seen what an import CD of The Angels costs on Amazon.
I just saw one going for $122.00

[Exorphin]

Hey all, I dont know if anyone has heard of a band called "Beaverloop" ?  They had printed on the back of their CD's "NATIONAL RADIO NETWORKING IS SATAN", I remember their wisdom and it helps to keep my blood pressure down

[Beergut]

Back in the 70's you could often hear whole albums played soon after release on 5KA (now MMM), particularly late evening on to midnight. Now you never even hear an album track! It's all singles, and the same crap day after day. And the bloody ads just drive me mad! Ambulance chasing lawyers, mattress factories, a water purifier who just has to advertise every 5 minutes on EVERY station, strip clubs advertised while you're driving kids to school: the list is endless. They just GRATE!

Then you have Nova which is absolutely full of techno, trance crap that seems to never end. Boring!

I usually last about 10 minutes with the radio in the car. If I don't have my MP3 I listen to silence.

[Periscope]

The fact that conventional radio has gone to the dogs leaves an opportunity open for Internet radio shows or podcasts to really take over and do something that the punters actually want. Trouble is there is so much cost and red tape involved in playing copyrighted material over the net these days it's practically impossible unless you've got zillions of dollars in capital. I've tried... several times

[Vtroll]

The fact that conventional radio has gone to the dogs leaves an opportunity open for Internet radio shows or podcasts to really take over and do something that the punters actually want. Trouble is there is so much cost and red tape involved in playing copyrighted material over the net these days it's practically impossible unless you've got zillions of dollars in capital. I've tried... several times

Could always go in the direction of pirate radio station 

[Periscope]

The thought has crossed my mind 

[dopamine]

I'm so old I remember listening to Melbourne radio stations like 3KZ (stan Roffe et al) on a crystal set for gawds sake - but the music was exciting in the 60s