Why is classic rock radio the way it is?

no, Mungojerry, stop

And quite calling people who do enjoy it "sheep", fer chrissakes.

But we want to listen to it.. If only it were better.

okay, how about "lemmings"?

I don't get this thread at all. If you don't like it, don't listen to it.

Sorry, I guess I'm just not that "simple." I enjoy trying to discuss things that I don't like as well as things I do like. There are interesting things going on with classic rock radio that have no relation to how I feel about it.

Teeny, what kind of station do you run? And how do you live with yourself? ;-)

I mean, I would request something I've never heard and that would blow my mind, but how would I request it if I've never heard it? Geddit? You know it's bad when hearing "Stranglehold" on FM radio seems like a revelation. (Holy shit, this sounds like Loop!!)

Broheems -
RE; Why? .. because we (I mean "I") would like to be able to listen to the radio sometimes, instead of putting on records.. I don't necessarily want to hear anything new either (not in the classic-rock genre anyway..) - I'm just sick of the 60 songs that they always play.

Just sayin'.

My point just now kind of ruined my initial point. Let me say, I'd love to hear new and awesome stuff on the radio, especially new (to me) and awesome classic rock stuff. But it never gets played! And there's sure not much current coverage or discussion of the stuff. When I heard "Strangehold" for the first time recently, I realized that Nuge had some awesome songs! But those moments are few and far between; usually it's just the same token Zep --> token Boston --> token new shit Nickelback or Indigenous horror --> token Skynyrd --> ad infinitum.

I don't know ... my classic rock station now is pretty much the standard playlist, but every once in a great while stuff creeps in that I've never heard. Just a couple weeks ago they played that Jonathon Edwards song "Sunshine", which I had never heard before! So that was new and kind of interesting. Oh and one time they played this Chicago song I'd never heard "Dialogue, Pt 1 & 2". It was really awesome! I already owned the first two Chicago albums, but never bothered with anything after that. And then lo and behold, just when I thought I'd heard everything, here comes a really kick-ass song from Chicago V! It makes me wonder if they always play these songs every so often - i.e. part of their standard playlist - or it was a one-time thing. Maybe it was one of those "deep cut" weekends, but I don't think so.

Anyway, I think the "standard playlist" actually varies a fair bit from region to region too. I was driving cross-country once listening to classic rock, and the station played "Love Alive" by Heart - which is a totally awesome song, but one which I've never heard elsewhere.

Oh, hey teeny! While you're here that reminds me; is it true that this rock guy from the 70s named J.D. Blackfoot is still really popular on the radio in ... that place where you are?

Mine: "Don't Stop Believin'" (okay, maybe my station's not THAT bad... ;-) )

Just catching the last Clarence Clemons squeals here .. fading out ... and we're off into "Turn to Stone" by ELO!

Not bad!

ok, next song comes on and it's .. "Horse With No Name" by America. Ugh.

Ok I'm putting my Beach Boys cd back on now. But that was fun for two songs at least; the ELO sounded great!

You'd think this would skew things, but the first thing they played after I turned it on was the Stones' "Satisfaction".

but that's what the "best new rock" is fer classic rock stations -- even if it's just the latest from some old farty buttrock act!

Like the New Allman Bros. tune? Or that John Hiatt "Almost Fed Up With the Blues" dungheap which might be the worst thing ever to enter my ear canal.

Now it's Steely Dan's "Rikki don't lose that number" hahah

I used to listen to it in the car when I didn't have a tape player, and every day they would play these songs: "Layla", "Land of Confusion" and one of those godawful sappy Billy Joel songs that I have attempted to block from my memory. And the same Fleetwood Mac songs over and over, but I didn't mind that part.

That sounds like the end of some sci fi movie where humanity has been delivered into Utopia.

still there's something dusky and smelly about the whole "classic rock" concept, i'll never cotton to it.

the weird beatific tones of the announcers and all...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/showcase/chi-020414radio-station-list,0,4376289.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Here's another reasonably accurate article:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20001005d.asp?prodtype=grn

I disagree Kenan. Free-form Fm radio is/was cool but classic rock has always been just an evil marketing formula. You're never gonna hear Little Richard, Buddy Holly, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground,Stooges, anything from Nuggets, just the stuff that business types decided would be appreciated by boomers. I think it's sad that the artists I've mentioned are not considered "classic" by
way too many Americans. Sure lots of the artists on classic rock radio are worthy, but the format has created a narrow canon that should be wider. Yea, I know it's commercial radio but still. Here in the DC area I don't have a college radio station I can pick up in my car, so if I want to hear old rock I end up listening to "oldies" radio instead.

Any rock older than ten years on that station is not fair game, just safe major label album rock. I was a college radio dj in the early '80s, when do I get my music nostalgia--I wanna hear the Replacements and Minutemen and Husker Du. I guess I have to settle for Mtv pop-punkers and the Strokes utilizing early 80s non-"classic" sounds.

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.