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WXRT

B

Brian Bowers

I have listened to 93 WXRT since the 70's (and yes I'm aware a lot has changed on the station since then) but lately I find myself deliberately not tuning them in. Most of the time when I do listen, they almost put me to sleep with their non compelling programming. I crave for them to play something to get my heart beating a little faster, or to play something that makes we want to turn up the car radio a little louder. I'm not sure what demo they are going for, but if it is the male demo, IMO, they need to rock out more. Amazingly, the station barely still has some moments when they shine. But they have streamlined the music so much that I'm surprised favorites like New Releases Thursday still exists. Monday nights Blues Breakers is still however a must listen, and with the current more conservative sound of the station, I should be lucky it too is still around. I really wish I knew how much freedom the jock had in picking the music that gets played on his/her show, so I knew where to actually put the blame. Is the jock just getting lazy in digging deeper in the library or is everything so dayparted, researched and controlled (don't get too creative) that this homoginized sound is now what we are being forced fed? I can remember when every minute of programming on 'XRT was as uniquely programmed as Little Steven's Monday night syndicated show. Yes, those were the good ol' days. Now, I know all of the air talent is capable of delivering this same type of programming, but I'm beginning to think their hands are getting tied tighter and tighter as the years move along. If that is the case, what a shame.

It would be absolutely wonderful if they would bring back XRT after 8 with Johnny Mars. What a mistake in getting rid of Johnny Mars. That guy was so perfect for nights and that station. And is the current crop of new release cuts that are played during a normal broadcast day the best they can pick from the hundreds of monthly new releases? Come on. Where are the Midnight Oils, Churches and Eurogliders of today? It makes me sick to think of how this station use to find and play the best in new releases, but can't find that same level in the current up and comers. You know they are out there. While I'm at it, please stop bombarding us with the call letters between every song. This is fine for some stations, but sounds horrible and is a tuneout, on 'XRT. I know it is the trend but it stinks. The station for the majority of its lifetime has played at least 3 songs (if not 4) back to back with no liners. You will hardly ever hear that now on 'XRT. I'm sure this subject has been overly researched but how stupid have we as a listener become to have to be reminded every 5 minutes what station we are listening to? Has inserting those IDs every five minutes really helped your ratings 'XRT? No, it hasn't. So please stop it.

OK, I'll stop complaining for awhile. Some of the things I still love about the station (yes, there are a few) are the jocks that have been there forever (Lin, Terri, Tom, Frank, Marty, Richard, etc.). These personalities have been with me through the good and bad times. So it is comforting to still hear their voices. I also still appreciate that even though 'XRT is quieter on the dial, their processing is perfect for the station. That station has always had great audio. So I am still (barely) loyal to the station for these few things. Now...if only Danny Lee still owned the station. Aaaahh, but now I'm dreaming. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
 
Danny Lee doesn't own it anymore. (and hasn't for several years) Over a course of time, the big corporate clowns are doing with XRT as they wish. I guess nothing can last forever. The reason XRT was good is because Danny hired good people and let them create and do their jobs. There's no room for that kind of behavior in today's radio.
 
What a load of (well intentioned) whining. As Harvie Wells, the long time GM of WXRT once said, "20 minutes after WXRT signed on the air, we weren't as good as we used to be." You guys are drifting away into middle age and you mistake the reduced sensation you get from listening to music and radio today for the (revisionist) memory of a few brief years in your life a long time ago. The new Midnight Oil, Church or Eurogliders? (Couldn't you come up with a stronger group of bands to pin your rant on?) How about Foo Fighters, My Morning Jacket and Death Cab for Cutie? WXRT still plays a lot of music that no one else in Chicago has the guts to play. They don't play everything. And they never did. But they do play a lot of good new music and a lot of good (and bad) old music.

The jocks at WXRT still have a great amount of freedom to choose the songs they play each hour. And, they are as good and bad at it as they ever were. Jonny Mars was a good jock and, at times, a very lazy, distracted and unhappy announcer. WXRT just had the nerve to part ways with Bobby Skafish so that they could bring in some new blood and bring the average age of their announcers down below 55. Imagine being 25 again and how you would feel if your local rock station was nothing but a bunch of guys your dad's age groping around the new music of the day and trying to sound legit? You wouldn't have bought it. That's what's happening at WXRT. Unless they become a nostalgia station and keep spoon feeding you the songs of your own personal memory lane, they're going to have to evolve and focus their music and presentation for the next generation. And, you're probably not going to like it as much as you remember liking it.

80% of the people programming at WXRT today were there when Danny Lee sold out and took the money. And he's your hero?
 
The OP's opinion is why Satellite radio and Internet radio stations like Radio Paradise.com and radioIO unlimited exist. The heck with over the air AAA stations most of which are so overly homogenized to appeal to the masses that they appeal to very few. I'm in Southern California where LA has no AAA station and the AAA station in San Diego sounds very much like legendary 'XRT sounds today.

BTW Internet stations like RadioParadise are 1,000X better than anything Sat radio has to offer - I am an ex- XM subscriber.
 
I would say be happy xrt is still around. Us hard rockers lost the blaze,rock103.5,the zone,wmet,zrock 160.7, even the loop was mainstream rock in late 80's to early 90's. Not same boring rock the loop plays now . I am grateful i have xm and siruis to listen to.
 
As you get older nothing is the way it was when you were younger. because it was your station then. You cant blame the station for your no longer being 21 anymore.
 
Oh please. Who gives a crap about age. If a poll were taken of 'XRT listeners, it would probably show that 80% don't find the station as exciting as it once was. It is as simple as that. The station most of the time musically is boring. And when it comes to new releases, yeah sure they play Death Cab for Cutie or My Morning Jacket, big deal, but there are hundreds of new artists they don't play. You have to admit, years ago they were cutting edge, these days not so. Although the other day I did hear Terri Hemmert play a new Pat Methany cut. That surprised me. That use to be an artist they played all the time. They need to find more of these killer new release cuts and play them regularly. Years ago they didn't have a problem doing this. Let me quote Robert Feder. "Is WXRT as great as it could be? No. Is it as great as it once was? No." So I guess I'm not the only one that realizes this.
 
If a poll were taken of 'XRT listeners, it would probably show that 80% don't find the station as exciting as it once was. It is as simple as that. Oh please. What's more lame, vain and stupid than the notion that thousands of people you don't know are in perfect agreement with you? Rhetorical rubbish. What do you base this fact on? Have you seen accurate research beyond you and the guys standing at the end of the bar? Have you ever spent anytime answering WXRT's phone or answering their listener email? How about interacting with actual WXRT listeners beyond the small group of your friends? I'll predict that 80% of WXRT listeners would say, "Brian Bowers has no idea what I think."

If 80% of WXRT's listeners were truly dissatisfied with WXRT, the station would cease to exist. There are just too many options for listeners today for folks to stick with a radio station that isn't doing a better than average job of satisfying their needs. WXRT isn't at the top of the ratings, they never have been, but they're doing better in the past few years than ever before. Face it, people are listening and enjoying.

"...there are hundreds of new artists they don't play." More weak whining. There have always been hundreds of new artists that they don't play. You actually think that back in '85 they played all of the new artists available? Maybe you just didn't know any better back then. One Pat Metheny cut does not a strong arguement make.

For the record: I agree with you that WXRT could be sharper. But they don't suck nearly as much as you are so eager for us to believe.

And, Robert Feder is your expert witness? Geez. That's like quoting Gene Shalit on the art of film.
 
atwater kent said:
"...there are hundreds of new artists they don't play." More weak whining. There have always been hundreds of new artists that they don't play. You actually think that back in '85 they played all of the new artists available? Maybe you just didn't know any better back then. One Pat Metheny cut does not a strong arguement make.
Click to expand...

The story is that way back in 1991-92, XRT tried to shoot it out with Q101 just as they were going modern. They decided it wasn't worth it because their audience wouldn't allow them to do the type of tight rotations that Q101 was doing--and their audience didn't want to hear a lot of the kind of music they were playing to keep up with Q101.

XRT has made the decision to stay with the audience that made them instead of try to be The Next Big Thing. So their playlist choices aren't as cutting-edge as they could be. Their audience, like most older audiences, doesn't want cutting-edge if it means emo and hardcore. So they trade in their hipness quotient for dependability and consistency--and have done very well with that. If they weren't doing well with it, CBS would've put Jack on 93.1 instead of 104.3 (or some other format) by now.
 
"Although the other day I did hear Terri Hemmert play a new Pat Methany cut. That surprised me. That use to be an artist they played all the time. They need to find more of these killer new release cuts and play them regularly."

The Pat Metheny song your heard was "Eighteen," from 1982.

Perception is a bitch, ain't it?
 
So the question is, how many XRT listeners does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: 1 to change it and half a million who sit around and bitch about how it isn't as good as it used to be.
 
I've been bummed ever since XRT (CBS?) fired Bobby Skafish and brought in this bad out-of-town rookie DJ named Jason Thomas. Another message board says what I'm thinking: "Matt Dahl is better than Jason Thomas!" (humor in a jugular vein)
 
Y'all quit yer bitchin'.

I grew up on 'XRT, and since leaving Chicagoland 15 years ago, haven't found anything like it.

First time I ever heard The Cure, Muddy Waters, and The Church. Might have been the same hour!

When I come home, I tune in 'XRT, crack open an Old Style, and order Rosati's pizza.

Like an ex-girlfriend, you don't know what you got 'til it's gone

Hope it snows...love, new orleans
 
Oh please. Who gives a crap about age. If a poll were taken of 'XRT listeners, it would probably show that 80% don't find the station as exciting as it once was. It is as simple as that. The station most of the time musically is boring. And when it comes to new releases, yeah sure they play Death Cab for Cutie or My Morning Jacket, big deal, but there are hundreds of new artists they don't play. You have to admit, years ago they were cutting edge, these days not so. Although the other day I did hear Terri Hemmert play a new Pat Methany cut. That surprised me. That use to be an artist they played all the time. They need to find more of these killer new release cuts and play them regularly. Years ago they didn't have a problem doing this. Let me quote Robert Feder. "Is WXRT as great as it could be? No. Is it as great as it once was? No." So I guess I'm not the only one that realizes this.


"OH PLEASE?"

My friend you stated that you have been listening since the 70's, that's 30 years,..........now; do you really think your tastes are exactly the same as they were 30 years ago? IF THEY ARE I WOULD THEN SAY TO YOU THAT YOU HAVE NOT GROWN UP AND MAYBE THE STATION HAS. or You're in a state of arrested developement, sorry that's reality. Thirty years, THIRTY YEARS...can you name one thing that you PERCEIVE as being as good as it was when you were that age?.........not even Coca Cola is as good as when you were young because your system has gotten used to the sugar and maybe you dont get that youthful sugar rush as now that you did when you were 16. Come on, you sound like the old man at the party complaining about how good things were 'back in my day"
 
Man I remember when I started my radio career at XRT. Was a board op doing the spanish stuff and then the Classical rock crew came in doing all nites. Wow how time flies. Wonder whatever happened to the old XRT crew. Last I heard John Platt was in NY but whatever happened to Don Bridges.

125-WG-Al
 
1250wg-al said:
Man I remember when I started my radio career at XRT. Was a board op doing the spanish stuff and then the Classical rock crew came in doing all nites. Wow how time flies. Wonder whatever happened to the old XRT crew. Last I heard John Platt was in NY but whatever happened to Don Bridges.

125-WG-Al
Click to expand...

John Platt: http://www.wfuv.org/wfuv/platt.html

Don Bridges: MIA
 
WXRT on the internet

Hey all. I just started listening to WXRT on the internet again and I am really enjoying it.

I do have one question about WXRT. Why do they have "Filler music"? I do not know how to describe the music they use, but it is varied but kind of annoying. I do not understand it and am very interested in knowing what is up with it.

Hope someone can fill me in.

Thanks.
Dave
 
Re: WXRT on the internet

davidphx said:
Hey all. I just started listening to WXRT on the internet again and I am really enjoying it.

I do have one question about WXRT. Why do they have "Filler music"? I do not know how to describe the music they use, but it is varied but kind of annoying. I do not understand it and am very interested in knowing what is up with it.

Hope someone can fill me in.

Thanks.
Dave
Click to expand...

They are playing filler music to cover commercials being run on the radio station. Because of a contract dispute between the ad agencies and the folks creating commercials, radio stations will either drop commercials and cover with music or replace radio commercials with internet only spots.
 
Krow LA does that, on kroq.com......they play a promo and then some song that you could describe as "filler" it may be a CBS mandate, like you said there are aftra commercial use implications at play.
 
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