College Radio

Now that I'm all worked up about music, I guess I'll do my planned College Radio post now.

Today while driving I was listening to Houston's corporate classic rock station, KKRW 93.7. They play a generally good mix of music, but the advertising is so obnoxious and frequent. They cut to commercials every two songs or so. Anyways, the DJ actually played a respectable set of music, at least five songs long. It went something like "Let it Be" by the Beatles, then a Bad Company song, and then something by Hendrix. Great, we surpassed the 2 song average. Except then the DJ played "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. I don't hate the Police or anything, even though all their songs sound the same. But there is something so wrong about playing those three well-matched songs and then going into the pseudo-reggae creepy confessions of Sting. It made me very angry.

This wouldn't happen on college radio. The ads would not be obnoxious and would probably be subtly read by the DJ. At least half, if not all, the commercials would be for goings-on around campus, justifying the break in music. And the sets are thought out and uninterrupted for half hours at a time. They'd never follow the Beatles' "Hey Jude" with Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" (it's happened on KKRW, it was terrible). Thank god for WMBR's Night Fly "In Blues We Trust", and for internet streaming. As mentioned earlier, Nuri Nuri's show on KPFT is amazing. KTRU Rice University Radio is also very good. KTSU, run by Texas Southern University, plays some awesome soul/gospel sets. It is the only FM station I have ever heard play Coltrane. And not just any Coltrane, I'm talking Ascension, which has two ~40 minute songs on it. To the person who is not a fan of jazz, this album in particular would sound like noise. And they played it. This would never happen on the "smooth jazz" bullshit radio stations that every major city in the United States is plagued by.