7d ago

The new fake "Indie" radio station in town

There's a new radio station in town that bills itself as "commercial-free and member-supported." It appeared suddenly on a channel that used to be a college station. There are no live DJs, all the self-ads are generic corpo-sounding crap, and they play the same top 40s as every other generic corpo station in town.

Now, they've started a membership drive in the fake hopes of appearing like a grassroots station. The infuriating part is that we have a legitimate indie station (partially publicly funded) that they're trying to steal money/contributions from.

It's obviously a corporate ploy to destroy the current commercial-free station while replacing it with a fake one that will just turn into another soulless corporate station.

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It's likely this station is in the non-commercial band if it used to be a college station - anything below 92 mhz. They're legally not allowed to have actual commercials but they can run PSAs, membership drives, underwriting, etc due to FCC rules.
It's almost certainly not a ploy: it's way more likely the college decided the previous format was too expensive. The college probably decided to lease out their frequency to someone else. The lessee still can't run commercials (or even operate "commercially," whatever the FCC decides that means), but it's very easy to pre-program a music format with all the breaks already slotted in which explains the top 40s and the lack of live DJs. The college therefore reduces their operating costs to nearly zero and they make money from the lease at the same time.
This exact situation happened to my college radio station when I was an undergrad and I hated it too.
There is a local "rock" station I started listening to when I moved into the area. Their playlist was limited, and I quickly realized they would play the exact same songs at almost the exact same time every day. I think the weekend was the only time I ever heard any recent music.
I drove a lot, so I subscribed to XM. That was super nice, but pretty soon I noticed the same thing. I switched channels a lot, then started listening to a talk channel because I tired of the same songs. (O&A, Ron & Fez, fuck you Anthony you racist piece of shit...)
I dumped XM, started listening to podcasts. And I expanded my music library 10-fold through the wonders of privateering.
Recently I was outside at lunchtime, and someone was sitting in their car listening to that same old local "rock" station. And they are still playing the same garbage songs at pretty much the same exact time every day.
- I think it's the same practice as why sitcoms always used to revert to the status quo of the previous episode as if nothing had happened. Most humans are truly creatures of habit and find comfort in habit and so giving them something habitual is giving them what they want.
  In other words a lot of people find comfort in the same song same time every day thing. It's stupid, but stupid sells.
- The Sirius XM people are probably hassling you every day now right? Those bastards are the most annoying of any subscription service I think I've ever used.
  
  it would be a shame if more people started getting the SiriusXM Dealer app on their phones to game free 90-day intros over and over.
  Surely it’s that lack of subscriptions that keeps the content from improving. right?
  
  SiriusXM is now buying up a ton of popular podcasts and locking new episodes behind a completely separate membership from my Spotify subscription, so my feed is filling with a bunch of locked episodes. They've found a way to torture everyone not just those people who tried a free trial (or were given one after buying a car).
- I had the exact same experience with my local shitty rock station. I really have only one thing to say about it:
  Getting born in the state of Mississippi Papa was a copper, and her mama was a hippy In Alabama she would swing a hammer Price you got to pay when you break the panorama She never knew that there was anything more than poor What in the world does your company take me for? Black bandanna, sweet Louisiana Robbing on a bank in the state of Indiana She's a runner Rebel, and a stunner On her merry way saying baby, watcha gonna? Looking down the barrel of a hot metal forty-five Just another way to survive California, rest in peace Simultaneous release California, show your teeth She's my priestess I'm your priest Yeah, yeah, yeah She's a lover, baby, and a fighter Should've seen it coming when I got a little brighter With a name like Dani California Day was gonna come when I was gonna mourn ya A little loaded, she was stealing another breath I love my baby to death California, rest in peace Simultaneous release California, show your teeth She's my priestess I'm your priest Yeah, yeah, yeah Who knew the other side of you? Who knew that others died to prove? Too true to say goodbye to you Too true to say, say, say Pushed the fader, gifted animator One for the now, and eleven for the later Never made it up to Minnesota North Dakota man Wasn't gunnin' for the quota Down in the Badlands she was saving the best for last It only hurts when I laugh Gone too fast California, rest in peace Simultaneous release California, show your teeth She's my priestess I'm your priest Yeah, yeah, yeah
  
  Have you ever like, genuinely listened to RHCP? Lyrically speaking it's shear unbridled nonsense with maybe three songs that actually have any coherent sense or meaning. Californication reads like someone put a bunch of tabloids in a shedder and then glued every full word they found to craft paper like a ransom letter. And even still everyone from my grandma to the local homeless credit it as a good song.
  I genuinely think they got stupid high and accidentally discovered a memetic hazard that they've been using to make 90% of the population believe they write good music.
Recuperation.
Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead.
Joyce Messier, Disco Elysium
Do you need licenses to run music radio? I feel like running one all of a sudden
???

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