How important has radio been on your discovery of music

Early FM radio, before the suits and bean counters took over, and College radio stations were a big influence on my listening habits. Back in the '70s WRPL a free form AM station in Charlotte NC turned me on to tons of great music. Today it is all gospel music.

After I moved to NYC; WNEW and especially Vin Scelsa, were a constant source of new music for me. After Vin moved first to K-Rock, and then Fordham University I followed him for decades. He understood the intimacy of radio and made a close connection to his listeners.

WFUV 90.7 from Fordham University remains a mainstay of my listening at work and in the car. They always push new and alternative artists.

WBGO 88.3 FM from Newark has been the main source of my Jazz education. Great Jazz and Blues programming and a resource for discovering new and old Jazz artists. I play tenor sax so that station is important to me.

I have listened to David Garland on WNYC FM a lot and bought many recordings by artists I discovered there. WQXR is my go-to classical station.

I just love radio and it has exposed me to most of the music I know and love. Sadly the short sighted people running the radio business now are making it flavorless and irrelevant.

Sirius had loads of potential but none of it was realized because they decided to just milk subscribers and run narrowly limited playlists on most channels.

Irony of ironies the latest rage in streaming is "curated playlists." Isn't that just another name for a DJ? I'd say they are the real expert playlist curators! There is nothing new under the sun.

 

Didn't it suck when 'RTI was no longer 24/7 jazz...? I miss those days...

 

When I was young radio played a significant role in discovering music.
Nowadays it's just annoying. Even songs I could like are played to death until I hate them.

 

Don't mention that. It's still a sore spot.

 

As a Temple grad, I find it particularly irritating...

 

"But you can get it 24 hours on our internet station."

 

Often as much of a hinderance as a help.

Case in point: DJs who play a track, then talk over the intro/end/sing along to it inanely and then DON'T CREDIT THE ARTIST AT THE END!!!

The last is a particularly heinous offence. It took me decades (pre-internet when I first heard it) to find out the name of a song (Song For My Mother) and the artist behind it (Dean Friedman).

 

yeah...thanks...

 

Pretty essential, even in the heavily formatted late 70s/80s, which were my first real introductions to music.

Ten-Q and KFI in my youngest days, followed by KMET, KLOS, and KROQ when I switched to FM in the early 80s.

Countless college stations, followed by satellite (XM In the early '00s) and now Internet radio.....

 

Indeed we did, and it was dire. It used to come on to Radios 1&2 right after the chart show "Pick of the Pops" IIRC, usually when we were on the way home after a nice Sunday out somewhere. It was perhaps my Grandad's type of music, but certainly not mine. It featured the 'Mike Sammes Singers' and really killed the mood, following as it did the latest 'No1' in the charts at the end of 'Pick of the Pops'.

 

I rarely listen to the radio.

I've discovered more music from watching television shows and films as well as clicking on the similar artist suggestions on iTunes and other websites.

 

Massively important in the early 80s when I was a teenager. I listened to BBC Radio One for all the mainstream pop singles. But I listened to Radio Luxembourg and other stations I can't remember to hear all the Soul, Funk, Electro imports from America.

I stopped listening to radio probably around the late 80s or early 90's and have never gone back. The only time I ever hear radio is for the brief time I'm in a taxi. It seems so old-fashioned to me now that someone else would be choosing what I listen to. For the last 25 years I've chosen what I listen to.

 

Whenotre I was a youngster, it helies me discover classic rock and grunge (this was mid to late 90s.

Now that I am older, I listen to the 2 colge9radio stations hat are in range, they play quite a bit of newer stuff. I'd probably still find it whether I listen to the radio or not... what with the internets a day all

 

Crucial, back in the day (90s).
It really was the main medium to discover new music, with magazines a close second.

 

If anything, radio was detrimental to my discovery of music. I found most everything through magazines and record guides.

 

I still sometimes find new (to me) music that I want to buy when listening to local or online (broadcast stations that are too far away to pick up on the AM/FM radio) radio stations.

Not often, but sometimes.

 

John Peel's importance as a facilitator, and arbiter, was incalculable. Where else could I have heard Beefheart, Throbbing Gristle, Fela Kuti, The Fall, Napalm Death etc. (often in the same show)?

He didn't curry favour, and wasn't afraid to antagonise artist or audience. The 'heads' complained about punk, so he played it more often. He championed The Ramones; losing half his listeners, but gaining a new half. When no-one else would touch the Pistols' records with a barge pole, JP played them.

Unrestricted by playlists, or charts, (and tucked away late at night, as though you were gaining entrance to an exclusive little club), Peel was forever championing the 'new'. He provided the listening platform for all the weird & wonderful acts I'd read about (but not yet heard) in the NME.

 

I was 6 when we first got Mtv (which was in '81 when it first started), so Mtv was more important to me. Back then they used to play everything they could get their hands on, so you'd get new wave followed by rock followed by soft pop followed by ska followed by whatever. You'd see 5 different genres within an hour. It introduced me to a ton of different music. A lot of the times, I saw hit songs on Mtv before I heard it on the radio. And, my parents had a record collection that was killer. Beatles, The Who, Patsy Cline, Zeppelin, Moody Blues, Barry White, etc. They had everything. So the radio wasn't much of a factor to these ears.

 

These days, any "discovery" from radio is limited to Hip Hop (WPWX) and Jazz (WDCB). I parted ways with Pop and Rock radio long ago.

 

i grew up in a very small place with awful radio stations and as a result found almost none of the things i enjoy from the radio. music video channels did for me what radio must have done for people growing up in the 60's and 70's.

 

In the '70's and early '80's it was a big part of discovering new things, but I haven't listened to radio at all aside from a publicly funded classic jazz station here in NJ (WBGO) since the early '90's.

 

Other than the Friday Rock Show on Radio 1 back in the day with Tommy Vance, then not at all.

Sounds and Kerrang! on the other hand...

 

I just watched this for the second or third time and thought I'd drop it in here....the only DJ that ever mattered, at least to me.

 

1967:
Pocket radio magic.

 

Huge for jazz, and only because of the late Ron Cuzner, The best jazz DJ EVER.
His show was aptly called "The Dark Side".

No one could ever replace him, no one could even succeed or supplant him.

He was one of those folks that comes along once in an eternity who seemingly was born to do exactly what he did.

Not only was he was a natural fit into the grand scheme of the jazz radio universe, he WAS the center of the jazz radio universe.

The greater Milwaukee area was a much better place when it resounded with his gentle voice and exquisite, seemingly endless selections of straight ahead jazz. Miss him so.

I listened to him literally for decades, from a young, nocturnal teen in 1975 all the way to 2002 when he passed.

And even my 2nd wife, who was not into jazz, once we got married in 1999 I would play Ron's show late at night in the bedroom and she feel in love with jazz and Ron too.

We loved to listen to his show and drift off to sleep, sometimes I would wake up early and I'd get to hear his last few selections and sign off.




Ron Cuzner closing theme - Don Shirley's "Trilogy"

OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writers' Blogs: Remembering "The Dark Side" and Ron Cuzner