I am starting a new thread on album rock to address Legacy's post.
Legacy said.....
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"I guess us Album Rockers will be forced into a discrimination class action lawsuit. Album Rockers are no more druggy`s than Hip Hop Rap being all thrusters.
I know more gangsta authority bucking Rap and Hip Hop than I can count on my fingers and toes yet that is OK.
TED NUGENT NEVER DID DRUGS he spoke loudly how DRUGS destroy you not help you. He is all for guns and loves the wild.
Album Rock is often Worshiped just like Jesus Christ and John Lennon was killed for his loud and upfront statement. Sorry that’s just the way it is it is worshipped by many and with folks who have lots and lots of money. Money pays the bills money can help build a city money can help improve things that are wrong in a city. You want something to be fixed you can call in an album rocker to come and help you before you can count on a rapper. Have someone in your family with cancer? You can count on an album rocker to help you I can guarantee that. Ask somebody who listens to something like Busta Rhymes or brother Bill brother Bill being repeated for 20 to 30 minutes if they will help you with your dying wife or dying sister or dying whoever and they’ll say dude I don’t have no money for that.
So you may ask why Williamson needs an album rock station? That is why because I am sure if they get more upscale folks who have money living in that town they will have a better City. But a real album rocker who scans the radio dial and finds nothing but rap and hip hop on the radio will never move into that town. That is how I judge a town in the first place if I can’t receive a classic rock or album rock station in that town I’m not going to live there because it tells me that the crime rate is going to be astronomically High.
- You put in a few high-end audio shops in the town of Williamson West Virginia and I guarantee you they will be the first folks who will be paying the taxes that’s going to fix the roads for that town. I am one person who is more than sick and tired of the Stigmata Us album rockers have gotten for many years. And I for one is head on and very Headstrong when I say that there needs to be a class action lawsuit it is long overdue and I feel that once it is passed and some of these big broadcast companies are sued to almost nothing then we’ll get our album rock stations like we should have. And in my opinion and this is only my opinion put the rap back on am like it belongs leave FM for the album Rock The Classical the real country the real gospel music stuff that is played with real instruments. Since rap is all about bass it doesn’t require any sort of high-end audio at all so mono AM is very suitable for rap music.
Yes I’m more than ticked off and like I said I’m going to see if I can get some folks to help these people file a class action lawsuit and it will happen I’m going to also see if I can get some of my album Rock lawyer friends to do some pro bono work because I think this type of thing has been long overdue and I hope that this suit is very headstrong and hits home because it’s long overdue."
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With all due respect here's my response to this.....
I don't know where to start....first of all about the John Lennon thing, He was saying in a statement to the press that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ but it was taken out of context of the point he was making and the way the press released it, it was not what he was saying but he was trying to make the point that it shouldn't be that way. He was saying it was wrong that more people worship the Beatles than Jesus Christ.
As for mainstream commercial stations having tunnel vision and not playing bands from Canada or Britain or Austrailia like Status Quo, Girlschool, The Move, Slade, Honeymoon Suite(Canada) April Wine(Canada) BTO(Canada) etc etc etc.....they play a narrow playlist because there's 100 songs that they have to play over and over because commercial radio is run by advertisers. But as Tim said there are some stations not owned by big corporations and play more, including him. But that's where we come in.....you me and all of us in the hobby we play everything they won't. Why all the hate for commercial stations. It makes you say such ridiculous things like suing? Unfair against the white adult? Album Rock is like a religion? People won't move to a city or town because there's no Album Rock station? Come on. Is all other formats no good? Sue the Rap stations because they are discriminating against you....why not sue the country stations as there are more of them than anything......that's ridiculous! There's only one thing I agree with and that's Rap is associated with bad people from bad areas and they cannot in any way be considered as "musicians" because they aren't and I know that a good neighborhood can be, among other things, where you don't hear any Rap. But still, you sound ridiculous when you say sue stations because you don't like what they play. Check out the stations around the USA and Canada and look at the formats....very few over all are Rap/Hip Hop formats.....so why are you complaining so much? Also remember that if you are over 55 radio doesn't care about you. It's younger people that buy everything and keep the economy going. Even the so called oldies stations on a commercial station won't go back if at all to earlier than the late 60s. And they will play only certain mainstream songs. And that keeps changing as time goes on. Soon oldies will be 80s and 90s!
As for Album Rock and Classic Rock some of the formats overlap but Album Rock is a little different....longer versions of songs and album tracks that were not hit singles where classic rock is mostly more of the hits the band had. There were lots of bands from the late 60s and early seventies that just made a couple of albums and had no hits at all but were played on album rock stations. Look up a band called Fever Tree to see what I am referring too, just one of many.
As for drugs unfortunately even swing era bands like Glen Miller, singers like Billie Holiday were all taking drugs too.....Billie Holiday died of a heroin overdose...Ray Charles was shooting up between shows....it all over all music genres. Country is the cleanest. The album Rock bands, yes the majority were on drugs including the beatles.....the weird stuff they wrote like I am a Walrus was all when they were on drugs and Happiness Is A Warm Gun is about John Lennon's heroin addiction. But very little of what they sang about had to do with drugs and lots of rock people stayed clean and never did it like Jeff Beck, Randy Bachman, Ted Nugent, Chris Slade, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, Charlie Watts, and a large although be it a minority didn't do it but it's not at all limited to Rock. In almost every band some did it, many died from it and many survived and in every band there was one or sometimes two that didn't(do it). I should mention that Dion with the Belmonts when he was 16 was already a heroin addict when he had the hit Teenager in Love. Judy Garland was already on the pills in The Wizard Of Oz. She died from it. It's unfortunate but I wish I could understand why it is. Some songs by some bands had a reference to drug use but very little over all and a lot of songs that were perceived to be about drugs were not at all like the song 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago....just one example.
As for Album Rock being worshiped like Jesus, and suing for what I don't know, you are letting this obsession make you crazy.
We all like what we grew up with in our teen years into our 20s and we all think that is the best and they were the good old days.....me you and everyone else. You aren't alone.
This world has gone crazy and if I had my way I want to be the age I am now and go back to the early 60s.
About AM going digital but keeping the analog band open for hobby radio.....I don't think so. If it goes digital the band will be scrapped or assigned to something else. We don't want all digital or it means the demise of the hobby. Let it stay like it is now with the hybrid system. Analog can't be patented but digital is a patented system and you can never get a transmitter to get on a digital band....there is no frequencies like analog that are used or unused.
There are no plans as of now to convert the AM or FM band to all digital and all this talk is just opinions and speculation.
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Oh yes, another comment.
I don't understand your continual conflict with album rock and rap, like its a war between the two. What's one got to do with the other?
People in good neighborhoods listen to Jazz, classical, rock and roll, blues, swing, country, not just album rock.
And calling an album rocker to come and fix your plumbing in your house, basing his/her reliability on whether he/she likes album rock is ...well.....you are just saying crazy things...can't put it any other way. But if you have this lawsuit idea, sue the country stations as they rule radio, along with news/talk/sports. Not Rap.
Country, Classical folks are very high functional folks in society. Not saying anything bad about those genres. As a matter of a fact I think that there should be more of those genre type stations available.
But when I talk about country I'm not talking about the homogenized country there is today. Some of it I even called rap tree yes that's right hodge podge mix of rap and Country something that is on to opposite ends of the spectrum. I couldn't believe what I heard one day on television.
What I'm referring to as a statement about radio being ruined most people don't know the difference nowadays or pretend not to know the difference should I say between a classic rock station and a classic hits station as I have tried more than once to explain.
Folks that listen to real Progressive thought-provoking music not just your hits are the folks that have an open and well evolving mind when it comes to lots of different subjects. The ones who have to listen to repetitive hits maybe top 42 top 100 are those that tend to have to do things that are repetitive sort of like teaching a monkey to do a task.
There are plenty of people who have given up on radio my step-mom included and she is almost in her 70s. Her reasoning because they play the same songs almost identical each day. She enjoys the variety of oldies and even some of the Jazz and Broadway Type music that you cannot get from homogenize terrestrial radio these days.
I can tell a lot about a person simply by looking at their collection whether or not they are open to new ideas and rather or not there mine's look for a new challenge. I could go on and on but the truth is the truth.
Real progressive rock or album rock often mixes classical with it. I'll take a song by a band called The Move probably a band that 99% of you don't know nothing about. But you should know about Jeff Lynne a well-known producer of Electric Light Orchestra. Which again is one of the most diverse and Progressive artists that I've ever heard in a long time.
There's more to Electric Light Orchestra then songs like Evil Woman, in the homogenized version of Can't Get It Out Of My Head which they took the whole beginning part of that song out which has the El Dorado overture in it. The Eldorado overture plays after a little story about El Dorado.
Carl Blair you would even think that this was a real masterpiece. It starts kind of slow and gets Rocky then it goes right into can't get it out of my head which makes the full version of that song much more mind blowing.
By chopping these songs up you are bastardizing what the artist intended and cheating the people of good musical taste out of the True Performance of that song. In my opinion that should be illegal. It's a shame and then there are labels and artists that complaining about musical piracy this is the worst type of piracy there is.
Next will take the band sweet from the album level-headed The song is called Love Is Like Oxygen oh but I bet you over 75% of you have not heard the full version of that song Only the classic hits radio station version which chops off a very Metal piece wait after the guitar portion of Love Is Like Oxygen. Plus to boot the classic hits version is sped up and some of the instruments sound distorted well I guess it's because it came from a 45 record. Anyways a true album rock station wouldn't even think of cutting that song not for No One.
To know what real album rock is you have to live it and I am one of the folks along with a few folks that are like me that know the difference. Okay I'll give you another one how about Rush the album is called hemispheres the song is called the trees.
The lyrics go something like this: there is unrest in the forest there is trouble with the trees for the maples want more sunlight and the Oaks ignore their Breeze there is trouble in the forest and the creatures all have to run for the maples scream aggression and the Oaks just shake their heads. There is trouble in the forest and they can't convince their rights for the Oaks are just too greedy we will make them give us light but the Oaks can't help their feelings cuz they like the way they're made and they wonder why the maples can't be happy in their shade
Now there's no more known aggression for they passed a nobal law and the trees are all kept equal with Hatchet Axe and saw.
We can walk a road together if our goals are all the same we can walk alone and free if we pursue a different thing let the truth of Love be lighted let the love of Truth shine clear sensibility on with sense and Liberty with the heart and mind United in a single perfect sphere.
Some of the best rock some of the best drum solo and some of the best classical is mixed with this masterpiece. Now don't expect to hear that song on a classic hits station you won't hear it but on a station like mine you will because we don't chop our music and we play the mind-expanding and lyrics that teach.
I tell the story too many kids when I tell stories. It has a lesson to be learned. Think about it and you will expand your mind.
I will take the example of The Trees and homogenized radio vs open minded radio.
The homogenize radio is like the Oaks the album Rockers are the maples The Oaks are grabbing up all the light and all the oxygen sucking the life blood out of people who want their minds expanded.
One day there will be a noble law where all the stations will be able to have equal rights and there will be more room for diversity and the display of true creative work.
HD radio came close to it because you had not only the main Channel but you had one and two which yes some of the classic hits stations did have true album Rock but only on the HD sub frequencies or should I say channels. I have heard a little bit of that being displayed in Detroit Michigan whereas 94.7 The main frequency was classic hits but oh when you switch to HD 2 you got the beautiful sound of true album Rock whereas the full songs were played deep tracks were heard and it was a breath of fresh air.
I plan on getting an HD receiver to see if it's the same way in this state of Virginia I'm almost thinking it might be. Only problem is that I will need about an 86 element antenna with a decibel game of over 10 to 15 DB to even here the HD signal and the boom of the antenna would probably be 20 foot long from end-to-end and it would take an amateur radio antenna rotor not just the type that you get from Alliance that would Powerade regular Winegard TV antenna we're talking something that would almost be a Homebrew or special order antenna and it would have a very strong front-to-back ratio. The cost of the antenna alone would probably be three to four hundred dollars. That is what you would have to do today to enjoy true album Rock on the radio.
So do I think it's fair you might ask? I say no. When I say that you can hear top 40 stations running rampant or rap stations running rapid and they don't have to go out and by three or four hundred dollar antenna along with an HD receiver to hear their rap. Now let's put the shoe on the other foot let's say that for a month or two I was the dictator of the United States and I were to say if you want to listen to rap you have to have an HD receiver oh and we're going to put the HD signal and a power level so weak that you have to be within 20 to 30 miles of the station at best otherwise you'll need to buy a $400 antenna and don't forget you'll need the land to put it on so you'll need to own your own house too bad so sad if you don't have it.
I guarantee that the people would be in an outrage they would probably be riots and killings over it. But yet we the more educated folks have not done that but I guarantee you if you were to take over East Detroit or how about New York with that type of an idea and see how long your life would last because they would Lynch you before the sun went down.
Again I'm talking about true country music lovers as well True Oldies lovers as well and classical music lovers as well yeah your music is available on the radio all right but you two will have to buy an HD receiver and a $400 antenna to receive it. So again you asked me why certain people on the radio are doing what they're doing that is your answer they are tired of the fact that the FCC has allowed this to happen why not make the HD signal just as powerful as the analog signal? Well I think there's a reason for that and it's called a monopoly and it's very unfair and something should be done about it and until there is something done about it you have people like me that are quite ticked off at the situation and one day somebody is going to do something about it and to the sadness of the Monopoly they're not going to like the end result.
TheLeg wrote: " I could go on and on but the truth is the truth."
I agree that you could go on and that the truth is the truth.
"Joe's Garage" - Frank Zappa
Classic hits is from the same time period as classic rock but concentrates on hits exclusively and oldies and classic hits overlap a bit where oldies are hits from the 50s 60s and 70s but as I said this changes as time goes on as advertisers don't care about you if you are over 55 but us, we don't kiss the butts of corporations so we can play what we want.
Also ones musical preference doesn't go along with their economic status or if they are rich or not so well off. Rap is liked by people born in 1980 and after(mainly) but not all of them like it. A bad area and an area that has a lower income bracket are two different things. People that like album rock, country(new and old), jazz, etc can be rich or not so well of financially.
Rap is more assossiated with BAD, not less affluent areas. I can go around to different parts of Toronto and good areas with different kinds of people and there's no rap.....not one car in a plaza with that crap coming from it. It's good kids, families, the rap element isn't there. Stores in those areas don't play it. Go to another area where I would not be around and look at the people around, the difference, and that's where the rap is.
How do you tell a good neigborhood from a bad one.....you don't hear rap in a good one.
As for "white adults" they listen to rap too as like I said the rap generation was born in 1980-1985 and they are adults now....look at the driver of the cars with that noise coming from it, it's a white adult as much as a black person.
Remember radio caters to the 18-50 year old age group as they buy things and keep the economy going and the advertisers dictate what is played. But still the vast majority of stations are not rap or Hip Hop. Album rock is getting far enough in the past and will very soon be to old to be programmed on radio anymore like oldies but WE can keep it there.
Maybe one reason I'm so mad is because I'm 55
I feel an age discrimination against us. I've been oppressed many times in my life and learned that if you don't stand up for your rights you'll fall for anything. Sometimes you can't just conform blindly to something just because your neighbor says its the social thing to do.
Working on solutions to issues in Radio should be the focus of Hobby Broadcasters. But too I've seen a willingness to allow the disrespect for our culture. And Yes since 2015 I've been pushing hard for a change. Few have followed me publicly but do follow what I've been about.
If the pilgrims have not left the British for the persecution of their religious belief's we'd have no USA. The declaration of Independence was one progressive document that ordered a change. If all the soldiers thought "Its not worth our lives to fight" you would not have this great country we live in now.
Must we forget our rights and must we allow certain members of society to be tossed away as outcasts? Just because I'm 55 doesn't mean I'm any less important. I've paid my dues, gone through the school of hard knocks and didn't steal to get what I wanted or lived on Mommy's tit for all of my life. I don't get what I want by simply kicking and screaming until my parents give me my way.
However by giving us Hobby Broadcasters a portion of the AM band at a reasonable range say 1-2 miles with a 35 dB signal at that distance will help. LPFM's are few and AM translators are amung the most problematic on FM.
Plus we can offer warnings to a small town along with other announcements to help a community. We need to unite not divide ourselves. The industry would like to see us devide and fall apart lets show them we will not fall. We will not bow down to a monopoly or a dictatorship.
Sheik Yerbouti.
Yes in radio and TV to an extent age discrimination is there. A radio station could have 3x the listeners playing one thing but will play to a lessor audience but an audience that will buy more goods and the age group advertisers want. They will not take a little less money to play for us "old" people. It's the capitalist system.
There are some large towns in Muskoka cottage country north of Toronto and some local stations and since most of the residents are retired people in the 55 to 90 age group you'd think that the local stations would all be oldies but no....they are contemporary, todays pop, Why, because they play for the few that the advertisers want to get to. The "local" stations are also owned by a large corporation and they get their programing from somewhere else.
If I was there and set up my station I would take most of their listeners....I am trying to get to move up there.
I hate capitalism as it's not fair and leaves people like you and me(I'm quite a bit older than you) out.
It sucks, I know, and that's why I got into this hobby.
This isn't just with radio it's with everything.....the capitalist system leaves people out.