Why is classic rock radio the way it is?

Call me old-fashioned (haha, I'm 23 for chrissakes!), but what ever happened to tastemakers? I work part-time in wine retail, and my girlfriend works in a record store -- believe me, people *want* tastemakers. They *appreciate* being guided (not patronized) helpfully by enthusiastic folks who love what they do and what they know. Radio stations lack balls. I realize that they make a ton of money -- or, rather, they make Clear Channel a ton of money -- but that's a ridiculously conservative way to run a business. How is it in any way scientifically sound to play to people in a room a bunch of shit they've already been force-fed their whole lives -- by RADIO nonetheless! Doesn't that strike anyone as odd and sort of viciously circular?

Kashmir
Lunatic Fringe
Already Gone

Does Lunatic Fringe get played anywhere else?

http://rockclassics.tripod.com/rftartcl.html
http://jdblackfoot.tripod.com/jdarticl.html (blackfoot's page)
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/MUSICSONGS/ksheclassics.html

What could classic rock radio play more of? I like my local station, but I have heard the O'Jays and Al Green on there, but no Curtis Mayfield, for example. I also never hear Joni Mitchell. You can occasionally hear blues artists, too. What do you think they could play more of, esp. black artists? I noticed they play Talking Heads and The Clash, too.

I'm heavy into this genre right now but sick if the formula so I make my own "classic rock" playlists that I spike with stuff that I feel fits in with the genre.

My local classic rock wouldn't get near O'Jays or Al Green, so consider yourself fortunate. Heads and Clash are a rarity, if at all. When I listen (almost never) it's Zep/Petty/Eagles/Doors/REO/CCR/Seger/Skynyrd 24/7.

The one in my area is horrendous; there's as much Bon Jovi, Stone Temple Pilots, and hair metal as there is Zep, Aerosmith etc. The only Black artists the station plays are Hendrix, Living Colour (and only "Cult of Personality") and War (and only "Low Rider") (and not very often).

The only point in their favor is the occasional bizarre curveball: Lou Reed's "New Sensations" (heard this a week before he died, so it wasn't a deep-cut tribute) and a Richard Thompson song I couldn't identify.

We have a hard rock station competing with the classic rocker, so that's where the hair metal has gone locally.

Last 4 artists played on classic rock: Queen, Seger, Triumph, Aeorsmith
Hard rock: Black Keys, Soundgarden, Cult, Foo Fighters

Pretty sure our classic rocker doesn't even include "Walk On The Wild Side" let alone "New Sensations."

I'm in Chicago - we get "Walk on the Wild Side". The Drive is pretty good but I think they could play more black artists instead of post-grunge crap.

very weird how stone temple pilots have somehow entered the classic rock radio canon

"Lamentations about the state of commercial radio have become so standard over the last few decades that they have achieved something of the rote tedium the critics ascribe to the medium itself: how radio consultants -- led by [Lee Abrams], creator of the album-oriented rock and classic rock formats -- have taught station programmers to slice and dice their playlists to appeal more precisely to specific demographics; how more and more stations have come to play fewer and fewer songs," reported the New York Times in an article entitled "One Way to Get Radio Play: Do It Yourself," published in 2006.

Paradoxically, Abrams was hired by XM satellite radio supposedly because the formats and trends he popularized at FM had resulted in playlists with no innovation or variety.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2008/03/la-times-company-hires-man-who-ruined.html

I listened to "Court and Spark" today and wondered why classic rock radio doesn't play "Help Me". Surely "Free Man in Paris" would sound great on a classic rock station!

Toronto's Q107 does play it.