The Sirius radio experiment is going quite swimmingly. Two weeks in, and it's almost enough to make one forget that both Sam ("C Ya") Malone and the insensate cretins of 740 AM all reside in the same fair city as yours truly.
Aside from the lack of commercials and initial double-takes at hearing someone say "fuck" on the radio, it's a familiar format. Weirder songs, to be sure, but the DJs still come on and blather occasionally. They also take requests.
I'm guessing the subscriber population isn't dramatically smarter than their public airwave counterparts, because the same inanities persist on satellite radio when it comes to requests. To wit, requesting songs every human being in the western hemisphere has heard ten thousand times.
The guy just now, for example, requested "Destination Unknown" by Missing Persons on the First Wave station. This would've made sense in 1983, when the album might not have been available in your particular corner of Appalachia, and the local station was still playing select cuts from the Thank God It's Friday soundtrack. But in 2005? Get on your friendly neighborhood peer-to-peer network, go to Amazon, or visit the bargain bin at your local CD store. Explain the rationale behind requesting a song that is so easily accessible?
Better yet, why request songs on the radio to begin with? As I've so cunningly pointed out, you should be able to get your hands on just about anything you may be interested in hearing, and most record stores have listening stations, while Amazon and many band websites have sample sound files for preview if you're unsure.
But for crying out loud, lay off the Missing Persons. They were overplayed almost before their album was originally released.
Then again, back before I understand such venerable radio concepts as "format" or "payola," I would call the local FM stations to request songs, then act incredulous when the top 40 station balked at spinning Pink Floyd's "Careful With That Axe, Eugene," or that the AOR station never played "Jesus Loves the Little Children." So maybe everyone is being deliberately obtuse as well.
Satellite radio was originally conceived as a way to bring FM-quality signal to people in remote mining towns, or to truckers who pass through broadcast zones quickly. The original demographic was rural and blue-collar heavy.
Not to doubt you, but this is the first I've heard of this. I;m thinking specifically of the development of XM, which started as AMRC in 1992, and didn't demo its first prototype until 2000.
If you're talking about some earlier version, that's all well and good, but the two biggies out there now have never done anything but market their systems to what I would consider a more urban demographic.
For many Americans, the radio (whether conventional or satellite) will always be their primary source for tunes.
That's their problem. My point was that it's now easier than ever to obtain music without having to request it over and over again, is all.
So, it shouldn't surprise that satellite radio will still see heavy demand for the standards.
Bah. Laziness.
That may shift as the demographic continues to slide towards disgruntled 30-something professionals
Zing!
It surprises me to hear that there isn't a 'Rare 80's Music' station
I've been getting a lot of play out of the early hip-hop channel (Backspin) and the aforementioned Hair Nation, but there's nothing like you describe.
U used to live in SLC?
Yeah, back before anyone there thought to call it "SLC." We lived up on 13th East, near the university.
That's tight.
I live down by the fairgrounds, but i dont know if that existed back then.
Pete, please recall that the initial user base of Sirius was centered around people for whom conventional radio was a non-option (instead of an annoyance). Satellite radio was originally conceived as a way to bring FM-quality signal to people in remote mining towns, or to truckers who pass through broadcast zones quickly. The original demographic was rural and blue-collar heavy.
It's unclear to me whether P2P filesharing has taken off in the Ozarks. And even when it does, there will always be a class of people who don't embrace the technological revolution. Not everybody rips and jukes their CD's as soon as they get them. For many Americans, the radio (whether conventional or satellite) will always be their primary source for tunes.
So, it shouldn't surprise that satellite radio will still see heavy demand for the standards. That may shift as the demographic continues to slide towards disgruntled 30-something professionals, but you'll never completely get rid of people wanting to hear 'I Wear My Sunglasses At Night'.
Nor should you. I think we forget that the 80's generated a huge amount of terrible music, and the top-40 hits that persist have survived by natural selection since they just don't stink as much as the stuff that surrounded them when they were new. This isn't to say that the top-40's are the only good music from the 80's, but once you filter through the other stuff, you're still going to come up with a 'good tunes' playlist that is finite in size. We can't banish Missing Persons entirely.
It surprises me to hear that there isn't a 'Rare 80's Music' station -- one that caters to your tastes by shelving the top 40's and only playing the less-heard or oddball stuff. I'd love to have a station where they dig out the Colourbox and the B-sides of Level 42.