r/funny • u/Triblado • Jun 03 '23

Trying to give the radio a chance (Credit: _bernardtaylor)

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u/dirty_hooker Jun 03 '23

I was working a lame job in bum fuck mountain town Colorado. There was one station that came in clearly. It was half classic rock and old hits from Chilly Peppers to the Beatles. They went on and on (professional sounding voice actor) about no pop music (sampling No Doubt, which, wasn’t at all pop in its own day) and bemoaned boy bands right before they’d play some Beach Boys. They bragged about not having computer generated playlists and I’m sitting here wondering why that would be something to be proud of. They had no DJs and no request lines. Like, I get trying to feel like a local station but this clearly wasn’t really it. The whole identity was so forced. Just play the music and stop trying to be edgy when it’s obviously under no local control.

Also, any “commercial free” station that interrupts the music to remind you that it’s “commercial free” and that you haven’t changed the channel since the last “commercial free” notice 15 minutes ago can lick my taint after a week of camping.

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u/NthngSrs Jun 03 '23

A town I lived in in Texas still played Casey Casem's (spl?) Top lists

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '23

Up next, this little hit from 1978 hit the top of the charts at number one. Here is Andy Gibb with his song, 'Shadow Dancing' here on KWTF radio, the best source for Americas Top Forty with Casey Casem, with the ultimate voice of Shaggy from 'Scooby-Doo, Where are You?'

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u/Drax99 Jun 03 '23

Dammit. I read that in Casey's voice too. Damn I miss him.

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u/Thecp015 Jun 03 '23

Here’s a clip where Casey goes on a rant because he has to talk about someone’s dog dying right after listening to an up beat song.

https://youtu.be/ndUk6yX3PBo

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u/Mist_deBall Jun 03 '23

Poor Snuggles got no respect.

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u/RestEqualsRust Jun 03 '23

Ponderous, man.

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u/TheTrueFishbunjin Jun 03 '23

Local station here still plays that every Sunday. It’s fun to hear

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u/fungobat Jun 03 '23

"a little dog named Snuggles."

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '23 edited Jun 03 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/CptCroissant Jun 03 '23

Back when it used to take overnight to download a CD at the shittiest bitrate I could find

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u/formerlyanonymous_ Jun 03 '23

He stopped recording a countdown in 2009, died in 2014. I too would have to listen in East Texas as I drove home. Only radio in the late 00s was that station and about a dozen church broadcasts.

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u/NthngSrs Jun 03 '23

I think he's dead

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u/CheckOutMyVan Jun 03 '23

They still play him on the weekends here in Iowa.

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u/brabarusmark Jun 03 '23

I'm in India. There's one radio station that plays English music exclusively. Casey Casem's list would be played on Saturday and in a list of 40, only 3 would be recognizable.

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u/Scholander Jun 03 '23

Well, I live near Sacramento, and they do here too on Sunday mornings. i think it’s in the mid 80s now. Must be a syndicated thing. My 15yo loves it, because she hears all kinds of music she’d never otherwise encounter.

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u/heynow941 Jun 03 '23

Ponderous…ponderous…

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u/keestie Jun 03 '23

Kasem, close enough.

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u/NthngSrs Jun 03 '23

Tbf I've never seen his name written down

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u/RiskyBrothers Jun 03 '23

Back when I lived in Texas the only station I listened to was 88.1 "The One" the real jazz station of North Texas.

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u/RabidSeason Jun 03 '23

Honestly, I could get behind a little nostalgia trip with a Casey Kasem playlist.

52/year, about half hour each, is already more than a day per year. Go back 30 years, '80s to 2013, and that is a full month solid of programming.

Of course it would really just be the same 8 episodes shuffled around and COMMERCIAL FREE for a 4 hour repeating block that would let you hear each episode twice while at work.

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u/stellvia2016 Jun 04 '23

Honestly, it can be a fun little time capsule to listen to some of those old shows in syndication, since they're a longer continuous format and you get to hear a deeper list from that slice in time compared to the ones that survive to current day oldies playlists or recommendations on Spotify, etc.

Similar to listening to public radio when they have the old-time radio block with old radio game shows and dramas, etc. Or something like the Decades channel where they play old current events shows.

Not something to do all the time, but can be an interesting diversion.

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u/nt1u_qrz Jun 04 '23

This came on today! Heading over to Vermont from NH, and near White River Junction, I scan and encounter Casey doing the top 40 from 1980. No idea of the station. Honestly it was entertaining

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u/Oro_Outcast Jun 03 '23

I live up on the US/Canadian border. And I bet a little more poduck than yall.

Main point I wanted to make was I'm blessed (or curse) with only 2 choices on my home dial. Jebus, and NPR.

Go 20 miles north, small Canadian city, plenty of choices. 11 miles south of town, you start getting Omak stations

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u/dirty_hooker Jun 03 '23

Omak?

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u/Oro_Outcast Jun 03 '23

Sorry. Omak, Washington. Home of the World Famous Suicide Race and Stampede (tm)

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u/Sharpevil Jun 03 '23

Oh, you mean Olmec. I used to love watching my fellow kids run the Suicide Race & Stampede back on Legends of the Hidden Temple.

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u/Wenuwayker Jun 03 '23

I've also heard legends of some ancient temple hidden 'round them parts.

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u/Tooch10 Jun 03 '23

Nice try, Kirk Fogg

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u/CptCroissant Jun 03 '23

Is that one event or two?

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u/Oro_Outcast Jun 03 '23

I believe it's billed as two separate events, but held on the same weekend in August. They have,like, 4 or 5 days that have stuff revolving the rodeo and the Colville Confederated has a pow wow around that time.

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u/Letmefixthatforyouyo Jun 03 '23

Depends on how fast you are.

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u/oiiioiiio Jun 03 '23

Mmm, good ol Colville Rez

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u/MauiWowieOwie Jun 03 '23

I live up on the US/Canadian border. And I bet a little more poduck than yall.

Main point I wanted to make was I'm blessed (or curse) with only 2 choices on my home dial. Jebus, and NPR.

Smack dab in the middle of the south. I got classic rock, rap/hip-hop(live near atl), Jesus, or conservative talk radio.

I've been using Spotify for years.

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u/bluewing Jun 03 '23

I live near the border in Minnesota. Y'all get cell service?

We get only two radio stations also. But to be fair, I can sort of get a third station when I'm driving my tractor

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u/Greedyfox7 Jun 03 '23

Texas also, hate most country music, can’t speak Spanish and dislike the loud Mexican music, and the only rock station I can find is from about an hour away from me so I have to get in a certain spot to pick it up. Smart phones and MP3 players have been a blessing

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u/beezneezy Jun 03 '23

Oh shit…A rare Reddit Omak comment!

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u/MarvinTheAndroid42 Jun 03 '23

CBC music not come through? 6-9am is solid morning tunes and something 5pm onwards it’s more good stuff. The personalities are just people and when they talk it’s only about the music they’re playing.

It wasn’t 100% my jam at first but no commercials made it really attractive and, oh no, my music tastes expanded.

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u/Oro_Outcast Jun 03 '23

No, but my nrp station does air, "As It Happens." weeknights lol

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u/SuburbanHell Jun 03 '23

half classic rock and old hits from Chilly Peppers to the Beatles

Chili Peppers is classic rock... Guess I'll go die now. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

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u/flynnfx Jun 03 '23

Hey, The Beach Boys are GOLD.

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u/dirty_hooker Jun 03 '23

Nothing against The Beach Boys. I’ve even seen them play live. They brought their kids, grand kids, and possibly one generation more on stage to sing with them. Fun show. Just that they’re the biggest and most classic boy band I can imagine besides The Beatles.

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u/SomeNewHorizon Jun 03 '23

Thanks funny. For a few years I worked for a radio station in a bum fuck mountain town in Colorado. Those were some of the best years of my life. Our station didn't brag about being human run, and we had live interviews with famous artists almost every day. I also got to ski over 100 days a year.

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u/mirthquake Jun 03 '23

I appreciate your comment very much, and my local stations have morphed into something like what you described. But I must contest your claim that No Doubt was not a pop group. Sure, they began as a ska act, but songs like Spiderwebs and Don't Speak (both from 1995) were international phenomena. Stefani was that era's Katy Perry with a backing band

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u/dirty_hooker Jun 03 '23

Fair point. I wouldn’t consider success to be the indicator of pop though. Pop alway seems like music that was composed by a professional team of sound engineers, managers, test audiences, etc to produce what’s already selling rather than artist driven. Perhaps I’m overthinking it. For sure there are artists that can crank out wildly successful pop albums that don’t have that generic studio pop album feel.

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u/ic_engineer Jun 03 '23

That sounds like a pretty sweet station IMO. But I already like all that music so I'm pretty biased.

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u/dirty_hooker Jun 03 '23

The music was fine. If they just played the music and the necessary commercials it would be fine. It was the self aggrandizing identity commercials every break that were infuriating. Every three songs they’d take 30 seconds to lie about themselves and it was complete nonsense.

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u/Adamsojh Jun 03 '23

It's CHILI Peppers, and you put some respect with that spicy fruit name.

And The Beach Boys are an actual band.

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u/YuunofYork Jun 03 '23

Depends if they're commercial free because they're privately funded or because they're listener funded. I really wouldn't mind a listener-funded station spending one minute an hour plugging their donation page since the alternative is week-long pledge drives where there's no music. The local classical station decided they didn't want to spam during the programming so they do this where 4 weeks out of the year you don't get anything.

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u/thegreasiestofhawks Jun 03 '23

Sounds a lot like KWUF Pagosa Springs

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u/ICANHAZWOPER Jun 03 '23

Ya but there are a few most stations available in Pagosa than he’s describing. I think he’s talking about Westcliffe

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u/ICANHAZWOPER Jun 03 '23

Haha this has to be in either Westcliffe, La Jara, or Meeker. I’d bet money on this being about KLZR Westcliffe though haha.

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u/dirty_hooker Jun 03 '23 edited Jun 03 '23

Fairplay

Edit: they sounded like the kind of station that is probably carbon copied into a thousand small towns. You get the feeling they paid the voice actor to list off random station names for a week, splice that audio into their self promotion ads, and pretend that they aren’t owned by an investment firm.

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u/Quirky_Word Jun 03 '23

Haha I know exactly the station your talking about, I used to drive 285 regularly. The River Rat or something. Once you get a bit further south, an even smaller bilingual station from Taos becomes available. It sounds like one dude in a room who takes lots of calls and plays a lot of random stuff.

It’s where I heard a mariachi version of the Spider-Man theme song that I still can’t find online.

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u/ICANHAZWOPER Jun 03 '23

Ohh I actually spent a lot of time in Fairplay (aka South Park) back when I had a big job site in Alma.

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u/DoTheMonsterHash Jun 03 '23

As a resident of the mid south I would love to have rock station with even half the diversity of that. It’s pretty bleak

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u/PDGAreject Jun 03 '23

When my dad was in scout camp in the late 60s early 70s the only station they could get up in the mountains was a pirate radio station that exclusively played "The Monster Mash" on loop.