Fuzzy's fight against new rock radio.

[fuzzyroes]

So I've been becoming really pissed off with the tired old songs and the neutered, poppy hipster shit being played on alt-rock radio so I decided to give my local station (99.3 The Fox) a piece of my mind. I sent this e-mail to a bunch of people involved with the station and even singled out the Smashing Pumpkins. Here's my protest:

Hey man, been a life long listener of your station. I still remember when I was a little boy in 1994 and hearing Green Day's Basket Case coming blaring through the signal for the first time- an instant music-junkie and lifelong FOX fan was born.

But I'm a little concerned with the direction the station is going. Allow me to be ignite my stream of consciousness thought process for some moments. You guys always play Beverly Hills by Weezer even though they have a great new, fresh single called King Of The World that the band is pushing and I haven't heard it on your station once... What's worse is that you guys are promoting their upcoming concert and deciding to play a fringe-pop hit that no fans really like instead of a good new song.

This isn't so much about just Weezer, the same can be said for a lot of bands that you constantly play and promote their shows for yet play the most generic hit of... Now I realize that a lot of these bands just aren't making air-play worthwhile music anymore, but even a band like Smashing Pumpkins had a solid "newish" single called One and All that they were pushing that would fit the FOX format perfectly and you guys didn't bother and continued with the same hits from the band that we've heard a million times before.

I know you guys are all about staying current, but theres really no accurate gauge for what people wanna hear anymore (since very few people buy music), and you guys are playing a lot of really tame/pop/trendy stuff that doesn't mesh at all with the rest of your play lists.

I know staying current is hard in an age of little new, exciting rock music.... But it's like you guys aren't even trying. At worst it could come across as insulting... I mean, hey! play the trendy new stuff if it attracts listeners, but why ignore great new singles for generic stuff by the established artists you play? It's doing no one any favors.

Thanks for reading this rambling long message if you in fact did.

Cheers

Fuzzy

[fuzzyroes]

Some of the replies I got are interesting and I'll share them here

[redbreegull]

so you called a classic rock format station and complained about hearing the same songs over and over



ok

[fuzzyroes]

Hey Fuzzy!

Thanks for writing. I personally have about 0 input or emphasis on our music library, like all hosts of the station. We have a whole department who make educated choices based on tons and tons of information. We do listener surveys. Random panels with people. Look at what actually charts, what people are buying on iTunes and streaming on Spotify.

I know it may sound crazy to someone who doesn't care for the direction we're going, but believe it or not we now have the highest ratings we've had in years for the Fox after making these changes. About 5 years ago we weren't doing well at all... These changes make more people listen, which means dollars in our pocket. At the end of the day we ARE a business. We need to pay our staff.

I get it though. I guess you can blame the masses. We follow the trends. So, for example The Smashing Pumpkins song - I heard it. I liked it. It did NOT even make a blip on the charts. That means unless you're a diehard pumpkins fan you won't recognize the song at all. When you don't recognize a song you change the dial. Frustrating, right?

Thanks so much for writing in and asking though. I know it can be a bit frustrating to love a song and not understand why more people aren't backing it.

Have an awesome Sunday night!

[fuzzyroes]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

so you called a classic rock format station and complained about hearing the same songs over and over



ok

No it's like the current alt-rock station

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by fuzzyroes

No it's like the current alt-rock station

so that's why they only play music from 20 years ago? I think marketing has gotten the best of you.

[fuzzyroes]

Thanks for the email Fuzzy!

Let me try to respond to some of your thoughts here, though my involvement with CFOX is limited now as I am no longer the Music Director for the station.



While some great traditional CFOX bands are in fact coming out with new tracks, it doesn’t always mean they are better than previous ones or that they will in fact become hits. You cited Smashing Pumpkins…they are the perfect example of a band that, while yes are putting out new music…to be painfully honest…it’s not great new music.

Look at their record “Oceania”…lotta hype and it went nowhere because, for the mass audience, it wasn’t great.



So then as a radio station why would we play something that while it’s a new offering from a long-time CFOX band it’s not as good a previous hit?

It’d be like if your favourite beverage company released a new brew and even though you didn’t like it, you still refused to enjoy your favourite flavours for the sake of forcing you to get down the new one.



And you are right about there not being a wholly accurate gauge for what people want to hear.

Though, we try our best to follow standard music charts, streaming audio lists & online digital single sales. However, in the end it’s the will of our music committee that helps sway decisions for airplay on CFOX.



So I guess what I’m trying to say is that in my humble opinion newer isn’t always better. King of The World IS the latest single that is being pushed by Weezer, but a year from now will fans remember that single or will they prefer to hear Hash Pipe, Island In The Sun or Say and Say It Ain’t So?

I guess we will just have to see?



Thanks again for your thoughts Fuzzy & please feel free to continue providing feedback on CFOX.



Cheers,

Dustin

[fuzzyroes]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

so that's why they only play music from 20 years ago? I think marketing has gotten the best of you.

they play a bunch of lame new hipster shit as well

[fuzzyroes]

Hey Fuzzy,



Thanks for the email, and I hear what you’re saying. As a longtime listener of the Fox I’m in the same boat you are. As an employee, there’s not much I can do about it. The music direction is completely up to my bosses, and us DJ’s have pretty much zero say on what songs we get to play. Technically I’m not even supposed to play listener requests.



All I can say is hang in there, these things tend to go in cycles. Right now my boss is fixed on familiar hits. When that gets a little stale (to the boss’ ears) we might get more new songs, or new harder songs…or whatever he thinks will get us the best ratings.



Thanks again brother,



Stone

[hnibos]

can you give some examples of the lame hipster shit

[fuzzyroes]

uhhh it's it's like Awolnation, Imagine Dragons, X-ambassadors.... a bunch of stuff like that... I can't even tell you the names of most of these bands though... just really tame, poppy songs that are played on a station who plays a lot of good older altrock bands.

[reprise85]

fuzzy remember classic rock radio back in the day? played a bunch of ACDC and rolling stones and guns n roses and stuff along with sp, nirvana, blind melon, STP etc?

it's the same station, except you're the old dude who likes the old jams now

[fuzzyroes]

Theres a classic rock station that plays the 70's, 80's and 90's and then theres just the rock station that plays mostly 90's,00's,10's. The point is, if you're a rock station, don't play the poppy pseudo-folk rock nonsense... And if you're gonna still play all the same songs from the 90's bands, why not feature some of their new stuff when it's good enough?

I guess judging by some of the responses, most people don't think much of the new Smashing Pumpkins... But Weezers new jam King of the World is way better than Beverly Hills.

[redbreegull]

we're all getting ahead of ourselves


why would you listen to the radio to begin with?

[Elphenor]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

we're all getting ahead of ourselves


why would you listen to the radio to begin with?

Pretty much this. Thread should be over.

But to humor Fuzzy the songs you listed are actually quite the piles of steaming shit that no one but you wants to hear

Say it Aint So is at least a fun party anthem

[redbreegull]

reminds me of my 14 year old self wanting to save rock and roll and restore my local alt rock station to greatness

[reprise85]

I listen to the radio in the car cause it has no hookups for a phone or anything. There's some decent stuff out there. But Imagine Dragons is the worst shit ever, as soon as one of their songs starts I have to change it. I've never had such a negative visceral reaction to a band before.

[Elphenor]

Yeah they suck but it's quite telling that it's what Fuzzy thinks of as "hipster" music

Fuzzy: Rule of thumb, if you hear it on the radio, it is not "hipster", it's just pop

[JESUSNEEDSAHIT]

lol his alt rock station plays classic rock music and imagine dragons. so fuckin alt

first of all alt rock is classic rock. there is no more alt rock. aint a g enre and never was. it was a movement against radio rock. this thread is so fucked up I cant even

[Elphenor]

This is all stuff that's been explained to him like a thousand times

The type of bands that are truly "alternative" don't even want to be on the radio

[teh b0lly!!1]

fuzzy on teh money

[Disco King]

When I was a kid and my dad would take us to Blockbuster, I thought that Blockbuster actually made the movies we rented, and I'd go to Blockbuster employees with movie pitches for future movies that I had prepared. These movie pitches were mostly just plotless crossovers of all the cartoons I had watched at the time.

Fuzzy at thirty-something reminds me of me at six.

[teh b0lly!!1]

hahaha i'm usually sort of impatient when it comes to children but that's honestly fucking adorable discostu

[fuzzyroes]

Originally Posted by Elphenor

Yeah they suck but it's quite telling that it's what Fuzzy thinks of as "hipster" music

Fuzzy: Rule of thumb, if you hear it on the radio, it is not "hipster", it's just pop

well theres a ton of other pitchfork bands that sound almost indentical to Imagine Dragons. They're likely just corporate rip-offs of those bands, but it doesn't change the fact that they play the popular/hipster type of music.

[fuzzyroes]

Originally Posted by Elphenor

Say it Aint So is at least a fun party anthem

Yeah elphy... that's what it is

[fuzzyroes]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

we're all getting ahead of ourselves


why would you listen to the radio to begin with?

Get a load of this guy

Too trendy to even listen to the radio in his vehicle.

When most people drive they don't wanna be fussing around with their MP3 player the whole time. And it's nice to hear a variety of stuff, not just the same music that you listen to all of the time while you're not driving.

[crabshack]

I think it's pretty hilarious that you included the email responses from the people at these stations. It's nothing new, but it's indicative of why and how terrestrial radio is such garbage.

Sorry you had to figure out that all radio stations are owned by corporations this way. What you're looking for is non-profit radio. Maybe search the program blocks of your own local non-profit and college stations to see if they have a block that plays the kind of music you want to hear. That's your best bet, but you still won't find anyone playing the new weezer or smashing pumpkins.

[crabshack]

The only radio I listen to in my car (which is rare) is local radio. I have alerts on my phone notifying me when certain programs are on. For instance, there's a metal show, an oldies show, an experimental show, a garage show.

Not sure how close to a big city you live, though.

[fuzzyroes]

Originally Posted by crabshack

I think it's pretty hilarious that you included the email responses from the people at these stations. It's nothing new, but it's indicative of why and how terrestrial radio is such garbage.

Sorry you had to figure out that all radio stations are owned by corporations this way. What you're looking for is non-profit radio. Maybe search the program blocks of your own local non-profit and college stations to see if they have a block that plays the kind of music you want to hear. That's your best bet, but you still won't find anyone playing the new weezer or smashing pumpkins.

I thought I'd post em cause they kinda relate to how Billy's always complaining about radio not playing the new music, and I thought it was funny how the one dude trashed new SP music.

I realize that it's all corporate bullshit, but I seem to remember back in the day that bands would encourage people to "call up your radio stations and request the new song!" and when a lot of people did this it seemed to actually work sometimes.

One of those e-mails mentioned that DJ's aren't even allowed to take requests anymore... I think that at least is a new phenomenon cause I remember calling in a lot when I was younger and whoever picked up on the line was like "yeah sure, we'll do that" and then they'd play it and the DJ would even mentioned that it was requested by his "buddy" (guess it was obvious that I was just a little kid calling in)

College stations are definitely the way to go, but I can't get em in on the signal of my shit-mobile.

[fuzzyroes]

I get that you can hook up phones and MP3 players that get better signals to car radios and what not, but I just can't be bothered with all of that shit for a 10-15 or even a 30 minute drive.