On every AOR classic rock FM radio station ever

1. "Get The Led Out" daily radio block of Led Zeppelin
2. Rocktober
3. "Be caller number #15 and win a pair of tickets to see Tom Petty at the Anonodome!"

please add more GO!

4. Car-repair ads. Endless, endless car-repair ads.

(also including oil changes, emissions tests, etc.)

5. Twofer Tuesday!

Annual countdown of the greatest songs of all time with "Stairway to Heaven", "Hotel California", or "Comfortably Numb" at #1

(#6)

Car repair ads was a good call!

7) You might hear "Stairway" one other time during the rest of the year but will hear "D'Yer Maker" at least once per week.

8. Morning Show DJs telling you to stay tuned for their "big interview with the legendary..." who always turns out to be Eddie Money, Tommy Shaw, or the drummer from Night Ranger.

In Canada, there's a good chance it will be Rik Emmett.

9. "Eric Clapton recently released a new album entitled Old Sock, released on Gary Hoey's label. [30 additional seconds about the recording of said album.] Here's an older one from him." *plays "Cocaine"*

hahahahaha yes, totally

OTM

10. "Breakfast With Beatles" program neatly tucked away @ 7AM on Sundays.

11. ...followed by Sunday Morning Over Easy, 8:00-10:00

12. One of these bands every hour: Boston, Foreigner, Kansas, Loverboy, Triumph, Journey, Styx

triumph?

Perhaps they're less of a staple in the US.

13. Station IDs implying that DJs, far from being interchangeable figureheads grafted onto standardized playlists, are distinct and vaguely rebellious individuals who play the music they like and that you want to hear.

14. Zepptember

13a. Said IDs are soundtracked with appropriately-themed clips, one of which must be "Born to be Wild."

15. Oddly compiled "classic" rock tracks that they never would have played when the song was new; see "Cult of Personality" or "White Wedding".

16. The Friday Song played every Friday at some pre-destined time (Jonathan Edwards, "Shanty")

(The Ottawa and Toronto stations both played Triumph today. Just checked.)

Definitely an Acoustic Sunday syndicated program.

17. Regular Sunday night syndicated retrospective program ("Tonight... 1973...")

18. Saturday night "In Concert" series, featuring Frampton Comes Alive every six months.

19. Weeknight request show with every song already assigned to the log three days ago.

20. Traffic liners rotation of "Drive My car" and "Crosstown Traffic".

21. Frequent mispronounciations of "D'yer Maker", Aja and Jim Croce.

22. Playing that Beatles birthday song for listeners on their birthdays.

23. plays the same two songs by popular artists despite the fact that these artists have an entire catalog of music spanning decades containing equally good or better songs.

15. Oddly compiled "classic" rock tracks that they never would have played when the song was new; see "Cult of Personality" or "White Wedding".

"Don't You Forget About Me" between "Aqualung" and "Jane."

24. Two songs by black artists w/in 24-48-72-hour period: "Superstition" and "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."

25. repeats the same exact playlist of songs in the morning and the afternoon, and every other day so if it's on the radio where you work you'll hear the same songs in the same order at least 6 times in the span of four days

Do they still do Get the Led Out?! I listened to classic rock radio a lot when I first moved to the US in 98 but barely since then. Was the "7th day 6-pack" a universal thing also? (6 entire albums played on Sunday night).

I've never heard anyone mispronounce Croce. I'd probably call the station and ridicule the dj for it, and I don't even give much of a shit about Jim Croce.

26. "We were just in ZZZ vault and discovered a dozen copies of EC's seminal box set Crossroads on cassette. Remember those, folks? The first 12 callers who phone or text us with the name of one other famous Yardbirds guitarist will win a copy and a $25 gift certificate to Chili's."

27. "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" must never be separate.

28. the existence of something called "rock blocks"

... where they play the same two songs of a popular artist in a row.

Frequent mispronounciations of "D'yer Maker"

V. OTM!

Was the "7th day 6-pack" a universal thing also?

Never heard of this.

Two songs by black artists w/in 24-48-72-hour period: "Superstition" and "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."

I'm not sure if I've ever heard these on classic rock stations tbh. A lot of Hendrix, though, of course. Thin Lizzy, Lenny Kravitz, maybe Living Colour. (Don't know if the Allmans count.)

29. [Average release-year of songs played during Flashback Lunchbox program is two years earlier than average release-year of songs played during day's other 23 hours.]

27. "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" must never be separate.

28. See also: "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions"

Andy K = on fire

Was the "7th day 6-pack" a universal thing also? (6 entire albums played on Sunday night).

This sounds great! Playing whole albums would be something actually useful these stations could do. (Similarly, actually playing the "Old Sock" singles - if anybody should be eager for new material, it's classic rock radio fans. Almost makes you wish payola would make a big comeback. I did hear Joe Walsh's new single once, six months ago, but I think he was also going to be appearing in concert and maybe on the station, so they may have had to cut some sort of deal.)

Saturday night Metal show.
OTM about the "rock blocks"

Yeah, I'd love it they played entire albums, or even more albums more often.

On my station "rock blocks" were commercial-free stretches.

29. "All of the ROCK [*Queen snippet*]...and none of the CRAP [*Vanilla Ice snippet*]."

30. late night weekend show where they play one different song by an artist, like Achilles Last Stand instead of Stairway to Heaven or Kashmir. song is never played again.

hahahah yesssss, I think some version of that came up on a racism thread recently

31. Motley collection of still-touring acts is COMING TO THE ARENADOME in three months and every third time a DJ speaks it's in reference to this (tickets you can win, the upcoming interview with a bassist for the band, the next song is by the first band to ever play the Arenadome back in 1974, etc.).

er, xpost re the racism thread

our classic rock station plays these horrible racist promos that are like "would you rather listen to... THIS?" *plays clip of Inner Circle "Bad Boys"* "...or THIS?" *plays clip of Steve Miller Band* "We thought so too!"

― loosely inspired by Dr. Dre (crüt), Thursday, July 25, 2013 10:43 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What a weird choice -- I don't think I'd even bat an eye if a classic rock station played "bad boys"

― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Thursday, July 25, 2013 10:45 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the sunday albums thing was on klbj in austin, starting at 10pm or so and going into the morning with the albums being played uninterrupted, probably some ads inbetween each. it was great - i remember hearing goodbye yellow brick road on there. definitely something i couldn't imagine on radio now.

Motley collection of still-touring acts is COMING TO THE ARENADOME in three months

always includes 38 Special

30. late night weekend show where they play one different song by an artist, like Achilles Last Stand instead of Stairway to Heaven or Kashmir. song is never played again.

Oh, Deep Cuts with the Ghost of Herb Tarlek (Sunday, 2-3 a.m.).

"Did you know that Boz Scaggs recorded songs not titled 'Lowdown' or 'Lido Shuffle'?" *plays "What Can I Do"*

*Listener punches radio, yells "DID YOU KNOW THAT BOZ SCAGGS RECORDED MORE THAN ONE ALBUM!?"*

That's kind of interesting. When I've heard them do those sorts of promos, it's usually with other white artists, e.g Vanilla Ice or Duran Duran.

xposts

27. "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" must never be separate.
28. See also: "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions"

32. Waiting On the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago
33. Heartbreaker/Livin Lovin Maid

34. Really weird nasal whitebread way the DJ pronounces De Do Do Do De Da Da Da in the back sell.

the sunday albums thing was on klbj in austin, starting at 10pm or so and going into the morning with the albums being played uninterrupted, probably some ads inbetween each. it was great - i remember hearing goodbye yellow brick road on there. definitely something i couldn't imagine on radio now.

There was a similar show on WCSX/Detroit (more classic rock than AOR). It started with the DJ discussing the album ("Boy, it's been ages since I've listened to [Jethro Tull's Stand Up] from front to back, folks -- what a thrill this is.") with walking-up-a-creaky-staircase FX in the background.

35. Clear Channel doesn't want you to hear "Eruption" in front of "You Really Got Me" anymore.

Has anybody ever heard anything post '76 from Elton on any CR station nowadays. I'm guessing only "I'm Still Standing" would get any airplay.

Maybe "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues"

Maybe. I think I heard "Standing" on my local, but that was years ago, and I rarely tune in anymore.

There could be a separate thread for songs by core AOR artists rarely played two years after '80s/'90s release ("Higher Love," "Forever Man," "Wide River," "River of Dreams," etc.).

"Mixed Emotions"

The Firm, "Radioactive"

36. Wacky lunchtime theme show that is lukewarm adventurous, or call-in request show that is even more bone-headed than the standard playlist.

37. They will play the full length version of "Light My Fire" only after 9pm, otherwise it's the short radio edit with no organ solo.

38. *As "All Right Now" starts* [A version of a band featuring Paul Rodgers] are in town this Saturday, if you wanna be in some GOOD company -- but the tickets ain't FREE," if you catch my drift..."

39. [30-second politics round-up during morning drive-time program consists of cribbed Fox notes read over intro to "Karn Evil 9."]

we in the UK missed out on rock radio. we cant join in your fun.
the best we can do are oldies stations that instead
of playing 50s/60s/70s when we grew up now play 80s/90s with the odd 70s song.
They used to have beatles and stones blocks (elvis too) but dunno if they still do.

40. At least one token "Lifer" DJ who's been in town since the seventies, working his* way from the regular AOR station to the classic rock outfit (likely the last Rock outpost) who spends commercial breaks thinking about that one time he was railing with REO Speedwagon and how it felt like those days would never end...

*I'd say "their", but who are we fooling here?

(The Ottawa and Toronto stations both played Triumph today. Just checked.)

― EveningStar (Sund4r),

Sarnia too!

we in the UK missed out on rock radio. we cant join in your fun.
the best we can do are oldies stations that instead
of playing 50s/60s/70s when we grew up now play 80s/90s with the odd 70s song.

Ditto growing up in Ireland. Irish radio refused to play anything that wasn't a single, resulting in my dad's belief that Pink Floyd were a group that sang Arnold Layne and peaked with See Emily Play, then lay dormant for years before launching an amazing comeback with Another Brick In The Wall.

We got our first classic rock station 3 years ago - Radio Nova (see what they did there?). It has the massive flaw that I presume US classic rock stations have (I'm in the SF Bay Area as of a year ago but haven't listened to any radio yet) - some great 60's stuff, then some rot that the 60's folk released in the 80's to pay the taxman/coke dealer. Also bland 70's stuff.

41. DJ fumbling their way through scripted ad for cable provider/Honda dealership/area restaurant.

42. "Psychedelic Six-Pack" (psychedelic meaning "it was recorded sometime between 1965-1974")

43. Exactly two female DJs, one of whom appears only as the host of the Saturday morning request hour.

44. Both female DJs sound like chain-smokers.

45. Station plays the acoustic version of Heart's "Crazy On You" more than the classic version in an attempt to be 'hip'

46. Sponsor some local free concert of some washed-up has-been, older devoted fans can relive their past, while onlookers can play fun games such as "count the number of P.O.W./M.I.A. tattoos"

47. No real pretence of being album-oriented in at least 20 (possibly 35) years (except for these stations that play entire Jethro Tull albums on Sunday nights!)

48. All of punk rock represented by "Train in Vain" by The Clash

49. Timorous ventures into '90s rock: Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters...

50. Live broadcast from the classic car or gun and knife show. "If you're in front of our booth when we play 'Rocky Mountain Way,' you'll win two lawn tickets to the upcoming Joe Walsh concert."

51. ...and keychain giveaways!

52. DJ's patter at car show vainly attempts to convince listeners that it's a great, wild time and you should come on out.

53. Station coozies too!

oh man, the terrifying world of station merchandise :/. otm

54. Clunky enlivening of station IDs through cutting-up of familiar tracks. "This summer, if you're" Lookin' for adventure... "...even if you don't own a..." Jet airliner! "... just.." Take it eeeeeeasy " - sit back, crack open a brew and keep your radio tuned to Z86 - The Fox."

55. Elevation to classic status of obscurities such as Billy Thorpe's "Children of the Sun" because they feature cool-sounding sonic gimmickry

56. "[Major city]'s number-one source for real classic rock...yesterday...and...today." (Station is located in affluent suburb.)

57. Wintertime Hawaiian getaway contests:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOBwOfXR2BY

Man, I forgot how good island getaways always used to look in contest/game-show prize previews.

I never actually knew what "get the led out" was a reference to: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/get+the+lead+out

58. i switch on channel randomly and hear a really weird and cool experimental thing with swooping synths and atmospherics and then it abruptly ends and it turns out it was just the middle section of a dumb stadium rock song

59. "Get The Led Out" slowly being phased out in favor of angsty younger brother, "Mandatory Metallica".

haha love this thread so much. looking forward to working with you all soon on the Classic Rock Canon ballot poll.

27. "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" must never be separate.
28. See also: "We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions"

32. Waiting On the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago
33. Heartbreaker/Livin Lovin Maid

― pplains, Sunday, August 11, 2013 12:23 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

btw i hadn't mentioned it but i've totally been planning on counting these pairs together as one entry on the poll.

I would not object!

haha, Mandatory Metallica was totally a thing on my local alt-rock station in the late 90s. Cute to imagine it migrating gradually into AOR/CR.

60. A beat's silence and then, alas, "Bad to the Bone"... you die a little.

61. Always plays album version of "American Woman," including the bluesy acoustic intro, unlike the "oldies" station, which only plays the single edit. (NB both stations are owned by the same company. This is called "branding.")

62. other barely audible intros like "Black Dog" and "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" also left intact

63. 'humorous' DJs that sing over the end of a tune along with band's singer

634 Gravelly-voiced VO guy who does all bumpers and IDs and smacks of "attitude" and "rebellion." Is almost certainly over age 60, wears a do-rag and rides a Harley or, in smaller markets where he doesn't make as much, a Triumph. But all in all, is basically

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3x13p8DsVQ0/S-ZEHKBNx4I/AAAAAAAABC0/1EY2v8qvGvo/s320/Poochie02.jpg

was classic rock radio ever like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaQCr4PIsHE

65. DJ delivering trivia fact prompted by last song struggles to convey that he is both a record guru who Knows These Things, and also a regular radio fan like his listeners, all of whom first learned all the trivia facts at least 20 years ago.

66. Callers trying to win tickets through trivia answers go through all the above, with less finesse.

67. Have one or more DJ's with colorful nicknames like "Louise the Squeeze", "Bearman", "Beerman", "Louis the K" etc.

68. Beyond that one of the DJ's will inevitably have the nickname
"Wolfman/The Wolf" or "Maddog/Bigdog"

Hahhaa bearman/beerman

So much of the appeal of this format is in the comforting familiarity of all this crap. The XM station at the coffee shop right now just played 'No Time' followed by 'The Wind Cries Mary' but it's just not the same without the gravel-voiced rituals. The smell of car trips and my dad's workshop is missing.

69. Sex/drugs reference in song is winkingly labored-over in commentary, as if you can't just say all this stuff on the radio now.

70. DJ's kid, we learn, is also into this great, rockin' music you can only hear on Z86. Kid is never produced to testify.

71. song with notorious explicit lyrics played daily with words left uncensored that would've gotten the rap station across town a hefty fine

72. Song's origin in a blues or garage obscurity is referenced; the source material is referred to as a ''great'' or ''great old'' example of its genre. It will never be played.

71. song with notorious explicit lyrics played daily with words left uncensored that would've gotten the rap station across town a hefty fine

Wait, does this happen a lot?

72 pretty OTM; again, missing the days when our classic rock station actually had a blues show and a jazz show

The song is unusual in that it contains two instances of the word "fuck" – at 2:16 and 5:43 (at 2:14 and 4:27 in the single edit version) – yet has been played frequently in its entirety on rock radio stations (although, in the wake of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction and ensuing crackdown by the FCC, this song is now often heard in an edited form, expunging this word). The expletives, while not clearly enunciated and slightly obscured by Moon's drum fills, are nevertheless quite audible.

"who are you"

73. With much cushioning, audience is exposed to an officially-released alternate take of a familiar song. DJ regales us with capsule version of already-banal liner notes blurb: ''...but in the end they decided to take the song in a different direction.'' To steady the listener's nerves, followup is the band's most familiar hit.

74. Late night show with a name like "Dave's Vault," supposedly featuring forgotten obscurities but actually populated with big hit songs that by right would be in the regular rotation if they hadn't skimmed it down to tracks that peaked at #5 or higher.

No, I'm not surprised that obscenities get played on rock stations. I'm surprised that urban stations get heavy fines for playing songs with swear words. Doesn't the First Amendment protect against that??

sund4r - http://www.fcc.gov/what-we-do

32. Waiting On the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago

Rolled the dice the other day and yup, guess where Spotify decided to play an ad.

xpost A ha: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/obscenity-indecency-and-profanity

The classic rock station I used to work for completely Bowdlerized its catalog after the Justin/Janet Super Bowl thing. Even the Eagles now sing things like "We've been up and down this highway / Haven't seen a Zchwap-Zham thing..."

So that means that even campus stations and NPR can't broadcast 'obscenity'?

The FCC is a tricky bitch. Community standards play a big part, so if you're doing a college radio show on a 10K watt transmitter broadcasting to dorms and frat houses near and close, you're not going to face any huge fines.

(Except maybe you will, who's to say.)

News and education programming can get away with a lot. Show Saving Private Ryan on a Sunday afternoon and dare the FCC to fine you for showing the trials and tribulations of Amercia's Greatest Generation, DARE THEM.

the community station i volunteer at got hit when a listener claimed they heard the swears in "working class hero" even though the dj played an edited version. the station now records everything they broadcast, along with having a five-minute delay.

I worked in radio for almost 20 years and had it drilled drilled drilled into me to be ready for the FCC Inspector who would show up at the station unannounced one day to demand that I demonstrate that as an official operator on duty, I knew how to check transmitter readings, turn the station on and off, conduct myself during a national emergency.

Twenty years I waited for this boogeyman. For 20 years, watching the jugulars of program directors throb as they went over each rule in the handbook, bulletpoint by bulletpoint.

Finally, in the last month I was in radio, He showed up. Dude didn't look like Agent Smith or one of the FBI guys from the Sopranos. He was this paunchy grey-haired guy in a Southwestern dress shirt and bolo tie. He would've fit in better as a mysterious figure standing on a desert highway somewhere, screaming at the tumbleweeds with a bible in his hand, than as the Government Ops Man Who Could Ruin Your Career we had all heard about.

I showed him the transmitter readings and the button I could push to turn it off. He looked at my logs to see where I had signed in for the day, and that was that. Most anti-climatic event ever to happen to me in radio.

12. One of these bands every hour: Boston, Foreigner, Kansas, Loverboy, Triumph, Journey, Styx

haha. but here in LA, it's more like:

One of these bands every hour: Boston.

75. Classic rock anthems, stoner Baby Boomer DJs and ads for bars like Cool Daddy's only to be interrupted by sixty-second completely square PSA featuring the usually unheard General Manager on a generic music bed of 80s brass inviting listeners to come down to the station's offices any time between 8 and 5, Monday through Friday, to inspect for themselves the Public Files for KILX, 97.7 FM, owned and operated by Dallas Radioworks Incorporated of Lake Arlington, Texas.

74. Late night show with a name like "Dave's Vault," supposedly featuring forgotten obscurities but actually populated with big hit songs that by right would be in the regular rotation if they hadn't skimmed it down to tracks that peaked at #5 or higher.

Last time there was a good oldies station in town, they would actually play garage rock obscurities late at night, but they also had a thing during the day every hour or so that was "Obscure B-Sides" and the DJ would take the time to really hype it up how this was a great lost track and stay tuned for this rare song! Then eventually they'd get around to playing it and it would be something like the B-side to Tony Orlando's first hit.

76. "Roll The Bones" weekends (DJ "throws" the "dice", number that comes up is how many tunes by whatever band gets played. Funny how when it's Blue Oyster Cult it's always a "1" but when it's Pink Floyd or The Who it's generally a "6".)

By the by, on the swearing tip, seems like it took decades for classic rock stations to finally ditch "funky kicks going down in the city..."

at what point did stations of this kind (and not just classic rock format) start going by "the wolf" "the fox" "the mountain" "the arrow" or whatever? seems like a newish thing in the last ten years or is it?

76. "Roll The Bones" weekends (DJ "throws" the "dice", number that comes up is how many tunes by whatever band gets played. Funny how when it's Blue Oyster Cult it's always a "1" but when it's Pink Floyd or The Who it's generally a "6".)

The Buffalo station did something like this, which I liked, especially since they rolled a pair of dice. Once they played 10 Journey songs in a row.

TS: "The Fox" versus "Joe FM"

15. Oddly compiled "classic" rock tracks that they never would have played when the song was new; see "Cult of Personality" or "White Wedding"

fwiw "white wedding" got tons of play on both of the stations that would have been considered "classic rock" in my neck of the woods at the time.

Canada is pretty anal about 'hate speech' but I don't think there's much regulation of swearing: http://www.thefreeradical.ca/television/crtcOnProfanity.html

You can hear all kinds of profanity all day on campus/community stations.

xposts Yeah, I was hearing "Cult of Personality" a lot on rock radio at the time.

The Buffalo station did something like this, which I liked, especially since they rolled a pair of dice. Once they played 10 Journey songs in a row.

They also played some more interesting earlier Pink Floyd songs when they did this.

48. All of punk rock represented by "Train in Vain" by The Clash

Unless you count stuff like the Police and the Cars, who do get heavy-rotation airplay, punk rock was mostly a cult phenomenon in the US/Canada until the 90s, without many big hits other than the one or two Clash singles. I'd sooner question why hugely popular album-oriented rock artists like James Brown, P-Funk, Stevie Wonder, and Prince are left off these stations, when their music could comfortably fit in.

Because those artists were slotted into "R&B" and there are other stations for that. If you're suggesting they should retrofit black music into a format that never played it when it was new, I think that would be too audacious a break with tradition for programmers to be comfortable with.

AOR doesn't need James Brown because Led Zeppelin did "The Crunge." AOR doesn't need Stevie Wonder because Led Zeppelin did "Trampled Under Foot." Led Zeppelin did everything, so it's just easier to play them all the time.

The whole point of classic rock is retrofitting! There were no classic rock stations when Zep IV was released!

Maybe they played Danny and the Juniors

76. More Smashing Pumpkins than anyone asked for. In lieu of that, Silversun Pickups.

wrong radio format dude

77. Station uses "Foreplay" as part of their station identification message.

not in my town

xp

i mean...i'm pretty confident none of the first 75 items in this thread described a station that's ever played the Silversun Pickups.

The whole point of classic rock is retrofitting! There were no classic rock stations when Zep IV was released!

There used to be a thing called AOR, mentioned in the thread title, which began the tradition that the Classic Rock format evolved out of. Classic Rock was really just a new name for AOR that reflected an abandonment of any pretense to being contemporary - which was the road that AOR had been going down anyway. You could argue about precisely when AOR started - it may have been just after Zep IV appeared, but even then there were free-form FM stations that would've played Zep, and a lot of those same stations became the first AOR stations when they accepted the restricted playlists.

Maybe they played Danny and the Juniors

Well, sure, but freeform/progressive is a different format from AOR/classic rock. Many things have been left out in the transition, at least as I understand my history (and especially when you compare contemporary AOR/classic rock stations to contemporary freeform stations). I mean, I'm being a little difficult. I think I'm reasonably aware of the history of American rock radio formats and recognize that the roots of radio re-segregation predate the current classic rock format. My point is more that this seems like the more significant issue to me than whether or not bands that did not reach a mainstream audience in the first place are getting airplay, even if the roots of the problem go back 40 years. (400 years?) Admittedly, it might seem less problematic if I lived in a place where ANY stations play those artists.

Actually, Jack FM stations do seem a little less segregated in this way.

xpost

Actually, it would be pretty interesting to have a WFMU-style freeform station that still played Zep and Tull album sides alongside everything else.

OK I see your point.. I think we can agree that the classic rock format is stupid in many ways. It's designed to be reductive.

whether or not bands that did not reach a mainstream audience in the first place are getting airplay

The fact that they didn't reach a mainstream audience has a lot to do with the fact that they didn't get airplay in the first place on the self-described rock stations.

it would be pretty interesting to have a WFMU-style freeform station that still played Zep and Tull album sides alongside everything else.

that's pretty much what glen jones' long-running sunday show on wfmu is!

AOR doesn't need James Brown because Led Zeppelin did "The Crunge." AOR doesn't need Stevie Wonder because Led Zeppelin did "Trampled Under Foot." Led Zeppelin did everything, so it's just easier to play them all the time.

in its time, AOR was also known, not unfairly, as apartheid oriented rock. alternative rock stations weren't any different or any better. lots of dance music by white british people and not a lot of dance music by anybody else. lots of beastie boys and not any hip-hop whatsoever by anybody else. the continuing racism of classic rock is self-perpetuating. the longer they don't play james brown or stevie wonder or p-funk or prince, the more they'll cement an audience that doesn't want to hear it.

Please tell me that "Roll The Bones Weekend" used Rush's "Roll The Bones" as the theme song.

They don't! They use a sound-clip loop of rolling dice (die?), which sounds a lot like eggs frying.

^^Just the facts? That sucks some gluteus max!

I've never heard "The Crunge" on any radio station ever.

Heard "Achilles" exactly once on (non-satellite) radio, at 2am on Detroit's "WRIF Rock Cafè" (where they'd nightly play true "deep cuts" for about three hours.)

Portland, Maine's "classic rock" station WBLM goes by "the Blimp." They play the Trout Mask clip "The blimp! The blimp!" constantly but never any actual Beefheart music (not surprisingly).

78. drivetime 'comedy spotlight' where they play 5 minutes of some HBO standup special from the early 90s or that "Jack Nicholson working the drive-thru at Jack In The Box" skit

wblm played "abba zabba" on their psychedelic breakfast show!

and isaac hayes "walk on by"!

Portland, Maine's "classic rock" station WBLM goes by "the Blimp." They play the Trout Mask clip "The blimp! The blimp!" constantly but never any actual Beefheart music (not surprisingly).

― Shart Week (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, August 12, 2013 2:34 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha, I'm reminded of how one time our station had a GUITAR WEEKEND (not like all those other, guitar-free days) and the ads for it included clips of "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama," a song that would never be played on the station in a million years.

more:

The Mothers Of Invention - "Call Any Vegetable"
Manic Street Preachers - "Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky"
Amon Duul II - "She Came Through The Chimney"

wow!

having begun listening to the radio in the early 80s, tis true that AOR would play the fuck out of radio tracks from corporate rock cats. I grew up in Louisville KY, so you would get lots of ZZ Top, 38 Spay-shull, Mellencamp, Bad Company (post Paul Rodgers version was HUGE) and stuff that had a vague southern shit-kicker quality. I never ever heard Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Dylan and the Grateful Dead, in that I doubt their research told them that the mid south males they wanted to not change the dial liked those acts. Mellencamp was played cuz he was the springsteen of the region. Rolling Stones, The Police, def Leppard passed muster, as did a few MTV acts like duran duran and the romantics very briefly, before MTV became associated with Michael Jackson. The point is that Led Zeppelin or washed-up, pre-comeback Aerosmith or Kiss (at any point) was not played on WQMF or WLRS, but new radio tracks from active acts like Van halen, Rush or Journey or Loverboy or the Trevor Horn-Yes or pre-Invisible Touch/"pop star Phil" Genesis. and yeah, no black music EVER. Not even Hendrix. I remember when the rock station DJ said "OK. we're not so sure about the following," and then dropped the needle on Metallica's "One."

that changed when AOR yielded to Classic rock. Sometimes "forever man" or the new song from the Stones or McCartney, but the eternalcanon that at least for me drove me towards record collecting and the extremely fertile punk rock scene in Louisville was in place.

Which it still is, but I've noticed that certain artists have graduated to the canon that pitiful gasbags who ruin the Rock stations on Sirius for me offer hosannas to:

U2
red hot chili Peppers
Nirvana
Metallica
Pearl Jam
stone temple Pilots

have the Foo fighters graduated to this? who else?

Stunned (at WBLM). Never heard anything along those lines when visiting, and friends there long ago gave up on the station.

xp

well that show is only on between 8-10am on saturday. more surprising stuff on their playlists: http://www.wblm.com/page.php?page_id=391

79. DJs whose patter is basically based around stuff they saw online ("Did you see that literal video for 'Friday'?") Or on TV ("Last night's Breaking Bad...man!"), topped off with "Oh by the way, here's Aerosmith!" <plays "Rag Doll">

In case anybody here's missed it, some dude's poll is gearing up: CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS POLL parking lot tailgate pre-party -- nominations, discussions, parameters, etc.

Carry on my wayward son