http://www.blogto.com/feed/recentcomments/?880 Comments recently made in this post on blogTO Copyright 2009 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:07:40 PST http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c650216 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c650216 Toronto, Music Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:42:41 PDT http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c11380 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c11380 Toronto, Music Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:08:43 PST

Check me out!]]> http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1525 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1525 Toronto, Music Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:29:55 PDT http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1496 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1496 Toronto, Music Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:56:25 PDT http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1462 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1462 Toronto, Music Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:41:30 PDT
As both a voracious consumer of music and a former music industry marketer, it disappoints me to no end that radio has become what it has. From a music consumer point of view it has literally nothing to offer me. The list of artists I now enjoy which radio has never played (nor would they now) is massive. The volume of genres radio fails to encompass or address is ridiculous. I think of it as this glorius window of opportunity until I think a little deeper about it and then realize that between costs, licensing, cancon requirements and approvals from the CRTC, the system is practically built to only allow something like another Edge-type station to be created. It makes me, and pretty much everyone I know, really angry.

From a marketing perspective, radio is a ridiculous closed-loop affair. Assuming you manage to convince them to play some new artist on a smaller label (which can take months and requires a longstanding background with the station you're marketing to,) they will often play the artist very few times, at obscure hours, and only as CanCon requires them to. The irony is that CanCon is largely supported only by the likes of artists who haven't lived in Canada for decades. (Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, etc.)

I plan to listen only to shoutcast from now on anyway. Beyond that it's all word of mouth and that form of "marketing" has never let me down yet. :)

As an aside, a friend of mine asked me: why aren't there any pirate radio setups out there? I think the time is ripe for this kind of revolution.

ad]]> http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1461 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1461 Toronto, Music Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:34:16 PDT http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1458 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1458 Toronto, Music Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:21:21 PDT http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1448 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1448 Toronto, Music Tue, 09 Aug 2005 00:03:59 PDT a post on my blog a while ago where i mentioned that "indie" is now a label-defined sound and no longer a state of being. you're indie if you sound indie not because you're unsigned or on a small label (not that there are many small labels who aren't owned by big labels now anyways). like all pop culture, it only stays on the fringe until someone in a marketing company can find a way to usurp it and sell it back to us as "authentic culture".]]> http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1447 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1447 Toronto, Music Mon, 08 Aug 2005 23:27:11 PDT except where the damn band was playing! and we're supposed to buy that as genuine love of the music...]]> http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1446 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1446 Toronto, Music Mon, 08 Aug 2005 23:22:26 PDT
It's a business, and businesses are always concerned with the bottom line. I wish we still lived in the age of privately owned radio stations, but we don't, so we might as well get used to it. Our job, as fans, is to inspire grass roots movements to make those bands we think are quality more lucrative.

And it's not all doom and gloom; look at the recent success of the bands coming out of Montreal. I don't think anyone would call that predictable.
As for the homegrown talent getting played on the radio, check out these links:
http://www.letsfixcancon.ca/
http://www.ciraa.ca/
]]> http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1445 http://www.blogto.com/music/2005/08/a_radio_rant/#c1445 Toronto, Music Mon, 08 Aug 2005 22:00:10 PDT