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[RTS] College Radio
Apr. 25th, 2009 11:08 amThe weirdest thing happened to me the other day at work.
I have an old radio/tape player that I snagged from a coworker when he left, and I like listening to music while working. I keep it on very soft, just enough for me to listen to and my coworkers would have to really strain to hear it over the cubicle walls.
I was getting a bit frustrated with hearing that All American Rejects song "Wish You Well" for the tenth time on Live 105 that morning, and wasn't really in the mood for listening to NPR (which I usually do in the morning, simply to avoid the endless-chat-and-little-music of the 'morning drive' shows), so I took a chance and searched for local college radio stations. For most, that basically entails going to the left of the dial and searching for any station playing something other than classical, news, or jazz...although over the course of many years, this isn't necessarily true anymore. Many college stations aren't about the alternative and indie anymore, but are more along the lines of shoehorning as many styles and genres of music as one can into their schedule, leaving indie for a precious few hours of the day. But I digress--I'll skip on that gripe for now.
So anyway, I found KUSF 90.3, which is of course University of San Francisco's station. I knew it was a college station because I heard something vaguely indie (as opposed to commercial alt.rock), followed up quickly by Joy Division's "She's Lost Control". Score!
It took me about three songs to realize that--just like that, without any preamble--I was listening to college radio again. I hadn't done that in years for one reason or another. I have listened to college radio now and again via streaming audio on the internets, but not for a long stretch, and there's also the fact (as stated above) that a lot of college stations play anything but my beloved alt.rock when I want to listen to it.
( Notes on College Radio, past and present )
This all ties in with the current audio project of mine, in which I'm 'ripping' my old radio tapes into mp3 form--basically to preserve them, to be honest--and comparing college radio back then to what it sounds like now. It's really interesting to listen to, considering that the alt.rock that you'd only hear left of the dial back then in the 80s has become somewhat the norm now. Hell, there's a national commercial out there right now that uses Tones on Tail's "Go!" as background! And now, the indie stuff that gets played on college stations today are benefiting from the internet age--there are blogs and streaming stations out there playing all sorts of indie songs, giving these bands a LOT more airplay and word-of-mouth than terrestrial radio ever did back in the day. It took the genre a good couple of decades to return to its original state, but it's back again.
It may not be in the mainstream, but never mind that.
College radio is where it was born, and where it feels most at home. And I like that idea.
I have an old radio/tape player that I snagged from a coworker when he left, and I like listening to music while working. I keep it on very soft, just enough for me to listen to and my coworkers would have to really strain to hear it over the cubicle walls.
I was getting a bit frustrated with hearing that All American Rejects song "Wish You Well" for the tenth time on Live 105 that morning, and wasn't really in the mood for listening to NPR (which I usually do in the morning, simply to avoid the endless-chat-and-little-music of the 'morning drive' shows), so I took a chance and searched for local college radio stations. For most, that basically entails going to the left of the dial and searching for any station playing something other than classical, news, or jazz...although over the course of many years, this isn't necessarily true anymore. Many college stations aren't about the alternative and indie anymore, but are more along the lines of shoehorning as many styles and genres of music as one can into their schedule, leaving indie for a precious few hours of the day. But I digress--I'll skip on that gripe for now.
So anyway, I found KUSF 90.3, which is of course University of San Francisco's station. I knew it was a college station because I heard something vaguely indie (as opposed to commercial alt.rock), followed up quickly by Joy Division's "She's Lost Control". Score!
It took me about three songs to realize that--just like that, without any preamble--I was listening to college radio again. I hadn't done that in years for one reason or another. I have listened to college radio now and again via streaming audio on the internets, but not for a long stretch, and there's also the fact (as stated above) that a lot of college stations play anything but my beloved alt.rock when I want to listen to it.
( Notes on College Radio, past and present )
This all ties in with the current audio project of mine, in which I'm 'ripping' my old radio tapes into mp3 form--basically to preserve them, to be honest--and comparing college radio back then to what it sounds like now. It's really interesting to listen to, considering that the alt.rock that you'd only hear left of the dial back then in the 80s has become somewhat the norm now. Hell, there's a national commercial out there right now that uses Tones on Tail's "Go!" as background! And now, the indie stuff that gets played on college stations today are benefiting from the internet age--there are blogs and streaming stations out there playing all sorts of indie songs, giving these bands a LOT more airplay and word-of-mouth than terrestrial radio ever did back in the day. It took the genre a good couple of decades to return to its original state, but it's back again.
It may not be in the mainstream, but never mind that.
College radio is where it was born, and where it feels most at home. And I like that idea.
