Classic Rock Radio Is Really Wierd When You Think About It

nowadays i dunno -- i don't live around there any more!

the oldies station (in minnesota, again) now plays stuff from the 60s and 70s. everything was bumped up a decade! can't listen to KQ myself.

The abject dreadfulness of "Here I Go Again" is surpassed only by its even more loathesome sibling, "Is This Love?" And to think that this came from the same band who sang "Slow'n'Easy".

Q104 has its moments, for better or worse.

The real debate is Q104 VS K-Rock.

I hear those on oldies stations now. I've also heard stuff like "My Sharona". It seems like in the late evening the 1970s gets more of the focus in an attempt to get people in their 30s/early 40s listening, after the really old people who want the 1955-1966 stuff have gone to bed.

Eminem no, Kid Rock and Beastie Boys yes (assuming the station I listen to is representative).

- Kid Rock is hardly played at all anymore. Same goes for Gorillaz.
- Eminem is played occasionally.
- Beastie Boys are played several times a day.
- Cypress Hill is played daily.
- That Jay-Z/Linkin Park mashup is played several times daily.
- "Jump Around" by House of Pain is played a few times a week.

Time - Floyd
Dancing Days - the cover that's on the Econium record
November Rain - GnR

Not bad.

However, 70s/80s American AOR and the word "classic" just don't mix.

Sad to see the virtual demise of pre-Beatles oldies format on radio. Those stations were much more apt to pull out all sorts of odd and unexpected obscurities, especially late at night.

was thinking about starting a thread for odd songs/artists that have inexplicably become classic rock radio staples, but this one will do. over the weekend i was listening to 99.5 THE MOUNTAIN and heard "sweet dreams" by the eurythmics followed by "legs" by zz top followed by "everybody wants to rule the world" by tears for fears. how did eurythmics and tears for fears sneak into the classic rock canon?!

i think when you hear EMF on the classic rock, that's when it will really be UNBELIEVABL

was wondering if "classic rock radio" was on its way out as a format. seems like there are more and more stations that are more like "classic radio hits" stations. like they'll play van halen next to young mc next to madonna. just kinda like a more formless nostalgia-centric playlist.

there are loads of "the hits of the '70s, '80s and '90s" stations out there but i think they've always existed outside of classic RAWK stations. do they really play "Bust A Move" alongside Madonna, though? kinda surprises me.

classic rock stations definitely seem to move up their timeline in accordance with the average DOB of the listening audience. ten years ago Journey and Foreigner's early '80s hits seemed to be the dividing line, now it's Joshua Tree-era U2 and Appetite-era GNR, if not "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

yeah one station out here (which i think is a weird franchise-y station) plays novelty hip hop from the 80s -- run dmc, tone loc, young mc, mc hammer alongside hair metal, 80s pop, gin blossoms etc. it basically feels like a grab bag "greatest hits of the 80s and 90s" thing.

this one: http://www.jack.fm/

That's kind of a different format though right? Like Jack? "Classic Rock" for aging gen xers, which includes the classic rock classic rock that they grew up listening to, plus their own nostalgic songs from the '80s and '90s.

xp haha

yeah ... i guess i don't know whether jack really plays "classic rock" in the sense i think of it -- don't think i've heard zeppelin on there. but i have not done a serious study.

Sirius XM satellite radio has a nice solution. They've got 2 stations, Classic Vinyl which is the original classic rock stuff from the 60s and 70s. The Wall and Hotel California are probably as late as they go.

Then they have Classic Rewind which is the late 70s through 80s. You hear a lot of Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and AC DC.

Yeah, the 'jack' format is different from classic rock. They might play "D'yer Maker" but not "Stairway to Heaven". It also seems to be taking over, at least in Canada. Regina is the first place I've lived in that does not have a classic rock station, only a Jack station and a modern rock station.

One thing that I do find interesting about the Jack format is that it seems to completely disregard the weird racial divide of rock radio formats since the 70s.

It's actually probably a more 'logical' format than classic rock, although it makes me a little sad that we might be moving towards a situation where we'll never hear "Aqualung" on the radoi anymore.

radio

Sirius XM satellite radio has a nice solution. They've got 2 stations, Classic Vinyl which is the original classic rock stuff from the 60s and 70s. The Wall and Hotel California are probably as late as they go.

Then they have Classic Rewind which is the late 70s through 80s. You hear a lot of Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and AC DC.

― kornrulez6969, Monday, August 13, 2012 1:44 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also Boneyard, which is harder rock oriented classic rock. "Classic" metal and hard rock about 85% of the time, sometimes some newer stuff.

Jack is so odd. The station here has a festival of tribute bands, and I was tempted to go for the weirdness. The lineup was perfect for their format:

Vitalogy
Guns 4 Roses
Back In Black
The Atomic Punks
Rhymin’ N Stealin
Le Cure
The Police Experience
Mysterious Ways
Frontiers
MurMur
Strangelove
The Sheagles
Hysteria
Rio

The Sheagles

LOL!

I'm hoping mobile Internet radio will save the day. Thousands of worldwide 'stations' with playlists not selected by corporate drones.

Atlanta has not had a classic rock station for years. The closest we have is a "classic hits" station that basically seems to focus on mid 70's through mid 80's stuff.

omg THE SHEAGLES

i'm gonna start an all-male Bangles cover band called The Mangles

^^^ A+

Atlanta has not had a classic rock station for years. The closest we have is a "classic hits" station that basically seems to focus on mid 70's through mid 80's stuff.

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Monday, August 13, 2012 3:17 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What, 97.1 the River? It sucks. But a few weeks ago i was driving back from the airport on a Sunday nite and they unloaded their vaults for some deep tracks and it kicked ass. Ive never heard Trapeze on "classic rock radio" before, also played Skynryd's "Working for MCA" which is a nice change of pace from the standard 3 or 4 they play.

The Guy-Guy's
The Manaways
Sleater-Manney
Mankini Kill

There is a Tom Petty cover band that plays here in North Texas with a perfect name: Petty Theft.

It's no Sheagles or Lez Zeppelin or AC/DShe, but than again, what is?

wait there's a Petty cover band here in the Bay Area called Petty Theft, I used to know their guitarist

maybe it's the same one? They just seem to be through here every 6 weeks.

sleater-manney is making me die

Thanks for the hyphens!

I just went to check whether The River is technically listed as a classic rock station

It would be awesome if for bumpers they used the part of "Cities" where David Byrne is all "it's only the river! IT'S ONLY THE RIVER!"

I really like the fake classic rock station in GTA: San Andreas. It was called THE DUST and the promos are pretty spot-on for classic rock radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx4DJAlpaVk

Fox 97 is the oldies station i grew up with and i don't think anything can top that. RIP

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, August 14, 2012 11:47 AM Bookmark

Fox 97 was cool but family-owned OLDIES LAKE 102.3 was the shit in the mid 90s. Your archetypal "50s oldies station that vanished as demographics moved along by a decade." Tons of memories of listening to that on the way to school and my mother turning it up for some weird thing she'd swear she hadn't heard in forty years. I got a lot of my musical taste baseline from that station. It was still pretty good in the early 00's when I was working a retail summer job, but it was trending more 60s, less 50s. The same band is now "La Raza," serving the growing Hispanic community, and former owner "Skipper" Bob Joseph passed away in 2005.

"strutter" is so fkn awesome

XRT was always a bit different, have no idea what it is like now, but back in the 90s it's still the only commercial station I ever heard play Richard Thompson.

Yeah, XRT is still pretty great in terms of playing stuff that you'd be hard-pressed to find on most other commercial stations. These days it even plays a smattering of high-profile "indie" stuff, like Vampire Weekend, Spoon, Decemberists, M83, etc.

we had a cool Classic Indie station for a few months that played popular (yet not found elsewhere) stuff from Bowie thru New Wave and 90s alt to occasional current indie hits. then it became a country station....

There's the classic Classic Rock station that gets the Led out every night, and the Rock station that became Classic Modern Rock by virtue of not updating their playlist since 1998.

The River rules on Sundays.

Fox 97 is the oldies station i grew up with and i don't think anything can top that. RIP

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, August 14, 2012 11:47 AM Bookmark

otm. this was the station I grew up on. now no commercial station plays anything from the '50s. barely anything from the '60s either.

dudes follow @540WXYG

crazy crazy deep cut classic rock station, like unreal shit doggs

I assume you classic rock heads in Atlanta already know about this: http://stonehengeatlanta.blogspot.com/

WZBA, "The Bay," 100.7 FM in Maryland is a really good station, they do the two-for-Tuesdays and Get The Led Out but also a lot of other stuff like playing a whole side of a different LP every night, deep cuts, occasional airings of local/regional favorites like Little Feat and Crack The Sky, some cool knowledgeable DJs.

I do now, that looks awesome, thanks for the link!

xpost to crut

AM1280 WWTC in Minneapolis used to be an amazing old-school 50s/60s oldies station in the 80s, my first exposure to everyone from The Bobbettes to Diane Ray. They seemed to have NO playlist. They are now conservative talk radio. RIP.

Samples of this are actually available online. Jingle packages! Shouty DJs! April Stevens' "Teach Me Tiger!"

http://www.radiotapes.com/Airchecks%201/Scott%20Stevens%20-%20WWTC%201983.mp3

http://www.540wxyg.com/

recently played:

We May Never Pass this Way Again - Seals and Croft
Happy Hooker - Black Oak Arkansas
Duncan - Paul Simon
California - Joni Mitchell
Earache My Eye - Cheech and Chong

I assume you classic rock heads in Atlanta already know about this: http://stonehengeatlanta.blogspot.com/

― Gurdas Mane (crüt), Tuesday, August 14, 2012 5:55 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In spite of the North Avenue Trade School connection, this show is pretty awesome.