No "lite" matter

Good evening my friends. I hope you all are all happy, healthy, and well. This entry will be about a topic that can make me grind my teeth with fury some days. This topic is so dear to my heart and many others, and I'm sure will only be voicing the opinion of many of you. This subject of course is the horror that is "free" radio anymore. Baltimore's radio has become full of conglomerate, pre-recorded, no effort radio. Stations like Jack FM, which touts a huge playlist still tends to lean towards mediocrity and contains no DJ art form. Spinning records for a radio station and programming is a true lost art. No longer can you call a station and get the DJ, nor will you hear a DJ talk about a song, or talk in a song. These days are over.

This leads me to the specific point...Lite FM stations. I'm sur eyou have unintentionally listened to these same 30 songs over and over again. This station prides itself on not letting those generic, run of the mill songs from slipping through the cracks. Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, with a little bit of Journey sprinkled in. Disco still lives on in this universe. This is the only station I know though that will play those genre-less stars and hair metal (More Than Words is by one of the must under-rated hair metal bands, Extreme, which refers to my last blog entry, if you like that song, you like Metal, thats right, your aunt singing along at the doctor's office is now a metal head). So lets get back on topic.

I like Journey, probably more than I should. Journey is Lite FM's saving grace for me. We listen to it 8 hours a day at the library in the work room. No one truly likes this station, but its the one we all hate equally and tolerate. I like to put ont he classical station but I can't because one coworker says "This is what I get my teeth drilled to" and another one claims that it actually gives her a headache. I don't understand this. I can't handle musical ignorance in that respect. I can't take people insulting art really. I will never bash any performer, I will just say I don't care for what they're doing.

The most mind numbing part of it is that its the same songs, over and over again, every day. You can set your watch to "I don't wanna wait for our lives to be over" and "Don't Stop Believin'". I really ask myself everyday, what DJ in their right mind at that station enjoys that music and enjoys only hearing that music over and over again. And my answer to myself is none, and they pre-record themselves saying the station ID. There is no way I could be in that studio for 8 hours and not go, "you know I'm supposed to play 'I Will Survive' right now, but I think I want to hear 'For Those about to Rock' by AC/DC right now...FIRE!!" And I do think I'd be fired. My blood would curdle though. Radio DJ is one of my dream jobs, but not in this format at all. Every station seems pre-programmed. I wouldn't even play my favorite stuff all the time or over and over again. I'd try to put on something exciting and new every day. This repetition though isn't just on Lite FM, or "free" radio. It occurs a bit on Satelite radio stations as well, but not quite as badly. Frequently though the DJ at least is in the studio with the tape playing.

This blog lately has been fairly negative. I don't like that, as music is a positive and pretty much the best thing in my life, and always will be. On a positive note though, I went to hear Kristen's punk band, Type 53. They were quite good, very tight, and solid. They truly carry the punk attitude. They did mostly their own songs but also threw in a few covers of The Clash, and they're trademark that they avoid is a very skilled cover of "Airstrike". kristen, I doubt ya read this but, nice damn job tonight!

On that note, this is Sig signing off.