Packy Malley's Wedding DJsThere's no arguing the sorry state of commercial radio in the U.S. Still, ever since I was a little kid I have been in love with radio and the songs I'd hear coming through those speakers.
I can remember hiding under the covers in my bed tuning in my bakelite encased Motorola transistor radio to hear far flung stations that you can pick up via the phenomenon called "skip". In which large powered AM stations bounce off the atmosphere and travel very far distances. I was ecstatic listening to stations from New Orleans, Chicago, NYC, etc. Especially because this was in the day of locally programmed radio where you would here top 40 songs they weren't playing in your town.
I did the college radio thing and was programming during the late 70's when it became a force to be reckoned with. Playing the "new wave" of artists that would change the course of popular music long before commercial radio had a clue.
I did a short stint in commercial radio both as a jock and in sales. But I saw the writing on the wall and bailed years ago.
I still kept the spirit, listening to shortwave. Again, being awed by the fact I could tune in frequencies from the other side of the globe.
It all sounds so primitive now that the net provides us the opportunity to hear a myriad of stations and formats from every corner of the earth. I tend to enjoy terrestrial stations that stream rather than net only because it gives you that feel of location and geography instead of mere cyber space.
All of this to explain why I feel like sharing my favorite places to go on the web to enjoy radio.
The first, I've spoken of before...even had a thread which so a quick death. It's called http://www.reelradio.com/ . Here, Top 40 radio geeks, mostly old jocks themselves upload "exhibits" or actual recordings of stations from back in the day. Some are what we call "airchecks" or "scoped" meaning the songs are not recorded. These were made so a DJ would have samples of his work for his inevitable job search in the future. It was also useful to hone one's on air skills.
Others are complete samples, some over an hour, with songs in tact. These are either from "logger" tapes that would run continuously at a slow (poor quality) speed for archival purposes or just from people recording stations at home on their reel to reels or cassette decks.
New tapes are still unearthed at garage sales, flea markets, etc. It's well worth the $12 annual fee to listen.
Second is a portal site called http://www.radio-locator.com . Here you can look up stations throughout the world by location, genre, etc. It will also tell you the most popular stations and whether or not they stream on line.
Lastly, there is another portal site called http://www.publicradiofan.com. Of course, this site shows what's playing on public radio not only in the U.S. but all over the world. It's got grids similar to TV Guide so you can find out what's on right now.
Want to hear Terry Gross or World Cafe now instead of waiting. They're probably on somewhere.
I hope you take a look at these sites and tune in. With the plethora of choices out there satellite radio really seems a waste. Enjoy.
