Local artists on local stations

[ciao99]

While the debate about community radio drags on, I will give credit to Big City 101.3 for breaking local artist Jadine:
http://www.myspace.com/jadineg

How do the other local stations do in supporting local artists? I have a friend from NY who keeps asking me about "Boys Like Girls". Maybe I've missed it, but I cannot recall hearing them on Kiss 108 or any other stations. But apparently it's a local group and doing well across the nation.

I know FNX has the New England Product Show, blah blah blah, but that's tucked away in the wee hours of the weekend. Do any commercial stations give prominent air time to our local artists?

 

[SonicOverload]

I think, a lot of the time, it's up to college radio, podcasts, MP3 blogs and the like to champion lesser-known local artists. Word of mouth... build it up...

 

[ex radio pimp]

Before Max Tolkoff left FNX they had some local bands on rotation and they had New England Product Spotlight twice a day every day. That with the Sunday show was a lot more than any other station. After Max (right when I quit) they reduced the daily spotlight to once a day and rotation is now a pipe dream for local bands. They replaced that time with The Gin Blossems and Counting Crows. How very alternative.

Boys Like Girls have played some shows for Kiss including Jingle Ball.

 

[BoredModerator]

disregard.

 

[ciao99]

Before Max Tolkoff left FNX they had some local bands on rotation and they had New England Product Spotlight twice a day every day. That with the Sunday show was a lot more than any other station. After Max (right when I quit) they reduced the daily spotlight to once a day and rotation is now a pipe dream for local bands. They replaced that time with The Gin Blossems and Counting Crows. How very alternative.

Boys Like Girls have played some shows for Kiss including Jingle Ball.

Stations are a brand. the FNX brand is edgy and alternative. That's the history and how listeners view it. Even non-listeners view it that way.

But the new programmers haven't really been true to the brand. It's like FNX is scared to be itsef. Yes, they throw in an alternative song. Once in a while. And the lunch program is great. But as you mentioned, new alternative has taken a back seat to what is mostly adult contemporary groups like the Counting Crows.

 

[NSPUNX]

My playlist for my college radio show on wednesday night (91.7 FM WMWM 9-Midnight) has over 15 local bands on the list.

 

[inthewolf]

As Captain Defend FNX from ex radio pimp and Ciao, I will once again respond to another post blasting the radio station.

FNX continues to play more local music than any other rock station on the dial. While WBCN / WAAF do play the Dropkick Murphys, FNX (in the last year alone) has played bands like the Dresden Dolls and Dear Leader in all day rotation. They recently started playing Eli Paperboy Reed (which is a real different tune and worth checking out).

Im glad to see Ciao has replaced Peter Gabriel with the Counting Crows for this post. How many times did FNX play the Counting Crows last week...get ready for it...ONCE! How many times did FNX play Vampire Weekend (a band that NO OTHER station in Boston plays)...28 times. What about MGMT (a band that no one else plays)..20 times. How about an old song that I'm sure is considered "alternative" like the Pixies "Where is My Mind"...3 times.

Ex Radio Pimp also nice to see your factual inaccuracies have returned. It was Max Tolkoff who reduced the NE Spotlight from twice a day to once. It now plays every night which, again, is more than any other station in the market highlights local music.

 

[thetheo]

FNX plays plenty of local music. At one point this came up I think last summer and I checked playlists and about 25% of our current spins were local bands. I don't see many other commercial stations in any market doing that.

As for Boys Like Girls, they are indeed getting huge, and blowing up not just nationally but here as well. They are pretty pop so not a band you'd likely hear on an Alt station, but in the last 12 months they've had over 900 spins on Kiss and over 300 spins on Mix. In fact even though the record came out in 06 Kiss still played it about 70 times last month.

 

[ex radio pimp]

"Im glad to see Ciao has replaced Peter Gabriel with the Counting Crows for this post. How many times did FNX play the Counting Crows last week...get ready for it...ONCE! How many times did FNX play Vampire Weekend (a band that NO OTHER station in Boston plays)...28 times. What about MGMT (a band that no one else plays)..20 times. How about an old song that I'm sure is considered "alternative" like the Pixies "Where is My Mind"...3 times.

Ex Radio Pimp also nice to see your factual inaccuracies have returned. It was Max Tolkoff who reduced the NE Spotlight from twice a day to once. It now plays every night which, again, is more than any other station in the market highlights local music."

What about Gin Blossems? When I said "They replaced that time with The Gin Blossems and Counting Crows." I didn't mean that at that exact time they played strictly one of those two bands. You can add David Grey to the list of many lame ass non alternative bands FNX plays these days.

Vampire Weekend, MGMT etc have nothinbg to do with this conversation.

The Theo there's no way that 25% of FNX currents are local. No way. One out of four currents are local? Come on.

PS Max looked me in the eye and said that Julie Kramer and Dakin were the death of the New England Product Spotlight daytime slot. "Julie gets her way" is right there in the production of her "hidden gem"

I will agree with: FNX continues to play more local music than any other rock station on the dial. But that's like saying Wendy's sells the most baked potatos therefore we are not eating fench fries.

 

[NSPUNX]

The Bruisers, Dropkick Murphy's, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Ramallah, Ten Yard Fight, Slapshot, Blood For Blood, Reach The Sky, Street Dogs, Gang Green, etc..... These are the types of Boston bands I have always wanted to hear on the radio. All they seem to play on 'FNX is music that IMO nobody really likes but thinks it makes them "cool" to say they like it. Thats why I started my own college show so I could play these great Boston bands.

 

[inthewolf]

Either way, ex radio pimp, Max made the call as he was in charge. Julie and Keith may have had their opinions but Max was the PD at the time.

As far as our friends in the Gin Blossoms...only 1 spin during Leftover Lunch.

I would argue that David Gray is not totally out of the question for alternative radio. If you recall when Gray came out alt rock was in the awful Limp Bizkit / Korn years and most alt stations ignored him. There were a few, at the time, that didnt play Staind 24-7 that did play David Gray. I dont think its totally out of the question for FNX. For a station that plays Coldplay, The Shins, Death Cab...David Gray is not really too out of place. If anything Jack Johnson sounds weirder than Gray does.

Please keep in mind that in pre rap metal FNX played Sarah McLachlan, Jewel and other very light crossover artists.

Vampire Weekend and MGMT do make sense for this argument because Ciao refuses to believe that FNX still plays new music. Thats why I continue to bring this up.

 

[ciao99]

FNX plays plenty of local music. At one point this came up I think last summer and I checked playlists and about 25% of our current spins were local bands. I don't see many other commercial stations in any market doing that.

As for Boys Like Girls, they are indeed getting huge, and blowing up not just nationally but here as well. They are pretty pop so not a band you'd likely hear on an Alt station, but in the last 12 months they've had over 900 spins on Kiss and over 300 spins on Mix. In fact even though the record came out in 06 Kiss still played it about 70 times last month.

Please explain how much alternative music or local talent there is in Lovelines, a Los Angelas based program of teenagers giggling about penis size and "doing it" for the first time. I cannot believe that a cutting edge station, make that a FORMERLY cutting edge station, like WFNX would replace local talent and alternative music for this nonesense.

As I mentioned before, a radio station is a brand. Lovelines is not in line with the WFNX brand that Boston listeners identify with.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Please explain how much alternative music or local talent there is in Lovelines, a Los Angelas based program of teenagers giggling about penis size and "doing it" for the first time. I cannot believe that a cutting edge station, make that a FORMERLY cutting edge station, like WFNX would replace local talent and alternative music for this nonesense.

I haven't listened to the show. Is it heavily sponsored? Are there a lot of national ads contained with it? If so, there may be revenue for the station in it, and if that's the case, that may be a reason they're running it.

 

[ex radio pimp]

inthewolf, quit being so litteral. I'm talking about "the counting crows" of the world. Not how many spins that one band had last week. Get the point man, FNX plays a lot of music I can hear on AC staions. Think about it, does anyone listen to FNX for that music? I just don't get what's happening over there. That and the prevailing attitude made me want to quit.

I did give FNX credit for having local music on more than anyone else. They used to do more.

 

[thetheo]

FNX plays plenty of local music. At one point this came up I think last summer and I checked playlists and about 25% of our current spins were local bands. I don't see many other commercial stations in any market doing that.

As for Boys Like Girls, they are indeed getting huge, and blowing up not just nationally but here as well. They are pretty pop so not a band you'd likely hear on an Alt station, but in the last 12 months they've had over 900 spins on Kiss and over 300 spins on Mix. In fact even though the record came out in 06 Kiss still played it about 70 times last month.

Please explain how much alternative music or local talent there is in Lovelines, a Los Angelas based program of teenagers giggling about penis size and "doing it" for the first time. I cannot believe that a cutting edge station, make that a FORMERLY cutting edge station, like WFNX would replace local talent and alternative music for this nonesense.

As I mentioned before, a radio station is a brand. Lovelines is not in line with the WFNX brand that Boston listeners identify with.

None. Clearly. How much local talent is there on other stations that have AM Drive with almost all talk, or from a national feed, etc. Every station has some show that is on that takes a bit of time away from the music. That said, loveline is on when the average listener is already sleeping. So it's not taking "quality" spins away from ANY band, local or national.

 

[NSPUNX]

FWIW, As a 25 year old male I used to rather enjoy listening to love line. This was a few years ago when my schedule was different and I was up at that time, and Adam Corolla was on the show. I never heard his AM drive show but I thought he was very very funny on love line.

 

[JoshuaC]

If you want to hear a local artist, go out and buy tix to that artists show. Buy their T-Shirt... tell your friends... make a scene of it. The radio station will eventually take notice and get on board. The bands will be happy and get better for it, the radio stations will be happy and get better for it. That's how alternative stations like FNX did it back in the 90s when it mattered, that's how they will eventually do it again. It's not enough for a radio station to say "oh... that's a rock band from my neighborhood and I'm the rock station in my neighborhood, I should be playing it."

If you really want underground local music before it blows up, then push the dial hard left and I'm sure you'll find something... or didn't I hear something about somebody in the area doing local stuff on an HD-2?

Unfortunately for us all, radio is in very rough shape and all radio (even ALTERNATIVE radio) needs to be more selective about what it plays - if it doesn't then it will go out of business and then where will you rock out to your Pixies album cuts?

 

[ciao99]

If you want to hear a local artist, go out and buy tix to that artists show. Buy their T-Shirt... tell your friends... make a scene of it. The radio station will eventually take notice and get on board. The bands will be happy and get better for it, the radio stations will be happy and get better for it. That's how alternative stations like FNX did it back in the 90s when it mattered, that's how they will eventually do it again. It's not enough for a radio station to say "oh... that's a rock band from my neighborhood and I'm the rock station in my neighborhood, I should be playing it."

If you really want underground local music before it blows up, then push the dial hard left and I'm sure you'll find something... or didn't I hear something about somebody in the area doing local stuff on an HD-2?

Unfortunately for us all, radio is in very rough shape and all radio (even ALTERNATIVE radio) needs to be more selective about what it plays - if it doesn't then it will go out of business and then where will you rock out to your Pixies album cuts?

Wow, you created a new sign on name just to post that comment?

Take a look at the top music stations in Boston. Kiss 108 and Jammin 94.5. They both play new music.

Maybe rock is dead. That must be why rock stations won't play new rock, they have no faith in it.

The new generation isn't listening to rock, they listen to Hip Hop. And why should they listen to rock, when rock stations are so heistant to embrace new rock from the their generation.

Rock stations are tightening their playlists at the very moment in time they should be doing something innovative. The new generation isn't waiting for radio to head the music they want. They've got their iPods, iTunes, YouTube, MySpace, Internet webstreams. No one is waiting around for BCN, FNX or the lame new Radio 92.9.