OT: RIP ... WAAF

Yup, grew up with BCN and HJY. Loved Lou Brutus on HJY...also WCOZ "Kick Ass Rock n Roll" before it became a disco station...BCN had too many legends to list them all... Charles (Big Mattress), Chachi, Ken Shelton, Mark Parenteau...."Five minutes past the big hour of 5 o'clock..."

and don't forget Tank on Sports

BCN's last song -Shine on you Crazy Diamond...

QuantumMechanic said:

They're becoming Christian contemporary?? Really??

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If true, that's funny.

stinkypete said:

Not only is WAAF a victim of the internet radio age, it is a victim of the younger generation's complete lack of interest in rock music. Rock radio has been living in a state of arrested development since the turn of the century. I work with middle school kids, and their knowledge of "classic rock" is limited to Guns and Roses, AC DC, Metallica, Nirvana, and whatever band logo Target is pushing. What new (decent) rock music has cracked the airwaves over the last two decades? White Stripes, Black Keys, anything else?

It's a damn shame - the corporate structure of radio airplay. They missed out on the indie rock flood of the mid-2000's. Maybe it was a little too twee for the likes of AAF, but some early Modest Mouse would have fit in fine, and the Mars Volta would have blown minds. Nowadays there is a glut of great bands influenced by classic rock, psychedelic, and early metal sounds - King Gizzard, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segal - that could have completely refreshed a listener base tired of reliving 1996 over and over and over again.

Adapt or perish.

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You should search Youtube for "reaction" videos of younger people to either Classic Rock (true 60s-early 80s) tunes or early 90s rock (RATM, Tool, Radiohead etc).

To a person, they all recognize the greatness of it (compared to modern music)....but hard to blame them when Nick Cannon is pushed on them, with a track dissing Eminem, who is an infinitely more talented lyricist.

There is a reaction to Steely Dan Peg by "College Students" that is a good example.

Jamel_aka_Jamal's reaction to RATM Bulls on Parade is also a great example.

Drewski said:

If anything, it makes it infinitely easier. Among my group of friends is some serious music junkies. A common Friday night, many drinks deep, is to take a device connect it to Sonos/Bluetooth Speaker, bring up Amazon Music/YouTube and pass it around, with each person able to play something they want to hear, no matter what it is.We tend to call it Youtube Karaoke

In speaking for myself, I have been exposed to a ton more folk/bluegrass than I ever would have on my own. I would have never heard of Billy Strings, Tyler Childers, Yonder Mountain String Band, Mandolin Orange, Avett Brothers etc etc etc etc if I had to go buy a 33 to do it.

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Back in "olden times" the conduit to new music discoveries was FM radio and so-called "underground" shows late nights/weekends like Beaker Street, which gave important exposure to non-mainstream artists via deep album cuts. Music publications -- some local -- were vital sources of info as was your friendly local record store manager, who could fill you in on the latest exotic imports from overseas. There was something special about having to really seek things out, like being on a treasure hunt.

I'm still a dinosaur who listens to FM radio in the car. I've got my station presets. My kids have their preferred channels. If a gun was held to our heads and we needed to identify the call letters of these stations to survive, I think we're all dead. There are no institutions like WAAF...

...or maybe that's what killed WAAF.

Regards,
Chris

Drewski said:

You should search Youtube for "reaction" videos of younger people to either Classic Rock (true 60s-early 80s) tunes or early 90s rock (RATM, Tool, Radiohead etc).

To a person, they all recognize the greatness of it (compared to modern music)....but hard to blame them when Nick Cannon is pushed on them, with a track dissing Eminem, who is an infinitely more talented lyricist.

There is a reaction to Steely Dan Peg by "College Students" that is a good example.

Jamel_aka_Jamal's reaction to RATM Bulls on Parade is also a great example.

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Those reaction videos of people doing their "first-time" listens to classic artists are lame and a bit sad for those of us who grew up with that music.

Tunescribe said:

Back in "olden times" the conduit to new music discoveries was FM radio and so-called "underground" shows late nights/weekends like Beaker Street, which gave important exposure to non-mainstream artists via deep album cuts. Music publications -- some local -- were vital sources of info as was your friendly local record store manager, who could fill you in on the latest exotic imports from overseas. There was something special about having to really seek things out, like being on a treasure hunt.

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There is still some of that if the right people are around. I have heard of a ton of stuff through buddies that are bands on like the 4th stage of Jazz Fest in NOLA or play on a side stage on Bonaroo.

I may not like their favorite band, but Phish fans are pretty good sources of "deep cuts" as you call them.

Tunescribe said:

Those reaction videos of people doing their "first-time" listens to classic artists are lame and a bit sad for those of us who grew up with that music.

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So its "lame and a bit sad" to see someone's first exposure to something that happened 30+ years before they were born which you happen to enjoy?

I'm a huge RATM; I can remember vividly the first time I heard their first CD in Middle School. I enjoy seeing someone else react to something I personally did.

But I'm a different generation than you. Maybe you expect people to know all the music you grew up with. I dunno.

Drewski said:

So its "lame and a bit sad" to see someone's first exposure to something that happened 30+ years before they were born which you happen to enjoy?

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I probably could have phrased that differently. Listening and reacting to something heard for the first time in a vacuum, especially from 40-odd years ago, can lack important context that lends to fuller appreciation. For instance, you have people doing this with the likes of Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" -- a complex epic composition that defies relevant assessment from someone lacking basic knowledge of how music is constructed or the meaning of lyrical references. If you're going to share why you do or don't like something it helps to insightfully articulate the reasons.

Drewski said:

Maybe you expect people to know all the music you grew up with. I dunno.

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No, that would be unfair. But the history of rock music only goes back about 70 years so boning up on its evolution and important periods doesn't require much effort.

"Deep cuts," by the way, refers to tracks "deep" in an album, usually of longer duration.

Tunescribe said:

I probably could have phrased that differently. Listening and reacting to something heard for the first time in a vacuum, especially from 40-odd years ago, can lack important context that lends to fuller appreciation. For instance, you have people doing this with the likes of Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" -- a complex epic composition that defies relevant assessment from someone lacking basic knowledge of how music is constructed or the meaning of lyrical references. If you're going to share why you do or don't like something, it helps a lot to insightfully articulate the reasons.

No, that would be unfair. But the history of rock music only goes back about 70 years so boning up on its evolution and important periods doesn't require much effort.

"Deep cuts," by the way, refers to tracks "deep" in an album, usually of longer duration.

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Yup. Listen to the first 2 albums of the 80’s band, Talk Talk, then their 3rd album, Spirit of Eden, and you just can’t react initially in any other way but astonishment. If you’re a music lover it will grow into pure joy. If you’re a singles lover it will turn into a nap.

Tunescribe said:

I probably could have phrased that differently. Listening and reacting to something heard for the first time in a vacuum, especially from 40-odd years ago, can lack important context that lends to fuller appreciation. For instance, you have people doing this with the likes of Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" -- a complex epic composition that defies relevant assessment from someone lacking basic knowledge of how music is constructed or the meaning of lyrical references. If you're going to share why you do or don't like something it helps to insightfully articulate the reasons.

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I don't disagree. A "first time reaction" is for sure "shallow" in its analysis of a song. But that doesn't mean it can't be impactful while still being shallow in a "oh man, that song really jams" without knowing exactly what the lyrics are referencing or how the song was composed.

Tunescribe said:

No, that would be unfair. But the history of rock music only goes back about 70 years so boning up on its evolution and important periods doesn't require much effort.

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Again I don't disagree. However my position in agreeing is coming from someone whose parents were born in 1950 and 1954, who played the Beatles, anything Mo-Town, Three Dog Night, CCR, early Elton John etc etc etc in our home growing up. It was their music and they exposed my sister and I to it. Kids in college today? They were born between 1998 and 2002. Their parents? They were born probably somewhere between late 60s/early 70s, meaning they cut their teeth in the formative years (see teen years) of the mid 80s...long after the best of the best a decade before. Did you spend hours and hours listening to the music of your grandparents generation? Because for some people today, that is what the 60s/70s is.

ETA - Here is what I mean about grandparents.

My nephew is a Freshmen in College (I couldn't tell you what music he listens to)
His parents were born in 1970 and 1973. "Their music" is Prince, U2, REM, Motley Crue etc.
His Grandparents were born in 1950 and 1953. "Their music" is Classic Rock; Fleetwood Mac, the Animals being two of their favorites.

To relate that to me, my material grandparents were born in 1912 and 1918. I was long into my adult years before I listened to big bands of the 40s.

Tunescribe said:

"Deep cuts," by the way, refers to tracks "deep" in an album, usually of longer duration.

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I knew what you meant. Echos, Mountain Jam, Loan Me a Dime, Child in Time (to name a couple)

All right guys here's one for you ...
I had a massive cassette collection taping the King Bisquit "Flower Hour" on my massive and I mean ginormous boom box ...better than anything in the stores. Which back then was the Beacin Shop in Providence ZRI.

stinkypete said:

Not only is WAAF a victim of the internet radio age, it is a victim of the younger generation's complete lack of interest in rock music. Rock radio has been living in a state of arrested development since the turn of the century. I work with middle school kids, and their knowledge of "classic rock" is limited to Guns and Roses, AC DC, Metallica, Nirvana, and whatever band logo Target is pushing. What new (decent) rock music has cracked the airwaves over the last two decades? White Stripes, Black Keys, anything else?

It's a damn shame - the corporate structure of radio airplay. They missed out on the indie rock flood of the mid-2000's. Maybe it was a little too twee for the likes of AAF, but some early Modest Mouse would have fit in fine, and the Mars Volta would have blown minds. Nowadays there is a glut of great bands influenced by classic rock, psychedelic, and early metal sounds - King Gizzard, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segal - that could have completely refreshed a listener base tired of reliving 1996 over and over and over again.

Adapt or perish.

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Rock music isn't dying imo. My daughter and her friends listen to various new age rock. They just don't listen to it on the radio.

Some of the stuff she listens to has a rock/punk sound to it.

Skillet is the only band I can think of at the moment but there some pretty good ones out there.

Tony2046 said:

Rock music isn't dying imo. My daughter and her friends listen to various new age rock. They just don't listen to it on the radio.

Some of the stuff she listens to has a rock/punk sound to it.

Skillet is the only band I can think of at the moment but there some pretty good ones out there.

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I agree with the bolded. The radio, in a modern context, represents a severe limiting of what you can consume. Why listen to a device that plays a couple of tunes, some you like, some you don't and then deal with commercial filler when you could listen to literally anything you want from Amazon Music/Apple Music/Spotify streamed from a phone?

Its like the youtube channel Straight Pipes (car reviews) who usually complain about a car's ability to rewind Satellite Radio. Why worry about Sat Radio; let alone rewinding it, when you can stream just about anything you want from your phone including "radio shows"?

My Morning Jacket, Cage the Elephant, White Stripes/Jack White/Racontuers, Black Keys, KALEO, Gary Clark Jr., The National, War on Drugs, Greta Van Fleet, twentyonepilots. It's there, it's just different.

Drewski said:

I agree with the bolded. The radio, in a modern context, represents a severe limiting of what you can consume. Why listen to a device that plays a couple of tunes, some you like, some you don't and then deal with commercial filler when you could listen to literally anything you want from Amazon Music/Apple Music/Spotify streamed from a phone?

Its like the youtube channel Straight Pipes (car reviews) who usually complain about a car's ability to rewind Satellite Radio. Why worry about Sat Radio; let alone rewinding it, when you can stream just about anything you want from your phone including "radio shows"?

My Morning Jacket, Cage the Elephant, White Stripes/Jack White/Racontuers, Black Keys, KALEO, Gary Clark Jr., The National, War on Drugs, Greta Van Fleet, twentyonepilots. It's there, it's just different.

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I'm offended that you neglected to mention Skillet.

If you like old Sabbath, check out Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats.

Tony2046 said:

I'm offended that you neglected to mention Skillet.

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Other than one song and they (did or do) have a girl drummer and guitarist, I know nada about them

Emo music and Rap are taking over.

Sad state of affairs. Not a single one of these new wannabes will be around 10 years from now while the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Who, Dylan, Dead, etc are still relevant going on 50 + years/

Great station. I still remember the controversy over their "WOW" promotion.

Triumph said:

Emo music and Rap are taking over.

Sad state of affairs. Not a single one of these new wannabes will be around 10 years from now while the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Who, Dylan, Dead, etc are still relevant going on 50 + years/

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Triumph said:

Emo music and Rap are taking over.

Sad state of affairs. Not a single one of these new wannabes will be around 10 years from now while the Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Who, Dylan, Dead, etc are still relevant going on 50 + years/

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It is not really a big deal. Music like classic rock and motown are solidified in history and at some point it will be a research project for teens in high school and then bamm....another bruno mars is born and you get motown back. It will happen eventually for rock.