I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of North Texas.
The AM and FM radio dials are crowded with dozens of stations representing every format imaginable.
We have stations playing rock, classic rock, hard rock, pop, top-40, hip-hop and rap, dance, jazz, new wave, punk, heavy metal, country, classic country, country rock, yodeling, polka, Native American war chants, Christian, R&B, blues, talk, sports talk, classical, children’s music,…….you name, we got it.
One thing that we have very few of are actual radio Disc Jockeys. (Dj’s)
We have lots of stations with people doing the weather, traffic updates, news updates, etc. but very few stations with actual human beings actually introducing the music or taking requests for songs.
Back when I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s, you could not hear a song on the radio without having some annoying disc jockey talking over the entire opening riffs of the song. This made taping songs off the radio real frustrating.
When I was young I had a “Ghetto Blaster” stereo that had a built-in dual cassette player. I would sit for hours listening to the radio, waiting patiently for the newest hit songs to come on so that I could tape them onto a cassette. Of course, the song would eventually come on but everything prior to the beginning of the vocals would be wiped out by the damn DJ droning on about something totally irrelevant.
Ah….those were the days!
Now, everything is computerized and automated. Stations from one part of the country to the other sound exactly alike. Many corporations own dozens of stations around the country and these stations all play the same automated play-lists. These stations have names like “Jack-FM” and “Bob-FM”.
Annoying chatty DJ’s are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
I used to think that this was a good thing. When listening to music on the radio, I want to hear the music. News, traffic, weather, etc. are all OK as long as they do not talk over the actual songs.
Now, I am getting older and I find myself missing the age of actual radio DJ’s.
I hear a song on the radio now and I have no clue who sings it. I start screaming at my car radio….”Who the Hell sang that song!!!????” “Who?” “Whooooooooo?????”
I may never know because there is no DJ to tell me.
We need more Dr. Johnny Fever’s and Venus Flytrap’s on the radio!
WKRP in Cincinnati actually saw this trend coming thirty years ago in one of their episodes. Venus Flytrap is offered the program director position at a new station in town. He goes over for an interview and during the course of the interview he asks if he can meet the stations DJ’s. The station owner takes him over to a door and opens it to reveal a large computer. It is an automated station with no DJ’s. All the music is pre programmed and sold all over the Country. Now, 30 years later, that is the reality of the modern airwaves.
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