I never thought this would happen, but I'm starting to get tired of rock music. Why? It's due to the repetitive, dull, and unimaginative playlisting on rock radio. I thought DAB radio was going to be great when it first started, but I have found it increasingly disappointing over the past five years. Yes, we have a far better choice of stations - and that's great. But all the rock stations are playing the same songs.
Team Rock Radio looked like changing all this - they really were a much needed breath of fresh air when they started broadcasting two years ago. But they recently decided to stop broadcasting on DAB and go online only - a huge step backwards in many people's view. They say going online only and making people listen through their PCs or Apps on mobile devices is the future. It's certainly not what most people actually want, although apps have their uses and can (in theory) be good if you are out and about - but so can FM or DAB and they are far more reliable. Who want's their radio listening frequently interrupted when their phone signal drops out? It's no bloody use in my car either. So unfortunately I can't listen to Team Rock much any more - not at all at work where I used to have it on most of the day, and not much at home 'cos listening via an app simply isn't convenient. What the people running Team Rock don't seem to get is that people like the sheer convenience and ease of use of conventional radio. When I get up in the morning or get home from work I just want to press one button and hear instant music. DAB or FM can deliver this - apps can't. I get home from work, turn on my tablet, wait for it to start up, wait for it to find my Wi-Fi signal and log into it, then launch my 'radio' app. Meanwhile, my tablet is downloading various updates for Twitter, Facebook, Play, Amazon or various other apps. Then various Twitter and Facebook notifications pop up. It might even decide to update one of my radio player apps too. So around five minutes after I could have pressed a button on my DAB radio and be listening instantly I am still waiting to actually hear any music from my app. Sorry Team Rock, but this is not acceptable. They claim the reasons they have come off DAB after two years aren't financial - but as they also say it costs around one million pounds a year to broadcast on DAB. Go figure....
Anyway, my train of thought has become derailed. Getting back on the tracks... Now Team Rock has chosen to remove itself from my list of DAB radio listening options what is left? Planet Rock? Well I was initially pleased to discover this station a few years ago when I got my first DAB radio, and also Absolute Classic Rock. But I soon realised they were both playing mainly the same songs - the same tired old classics that I used to love. Back then they both broadcast in good quality stereo. Oh how things have changed - and not for the better. See my previous blog on this subject. Team Rock is no longer on DAB while Planet Rock and Absolute now broadcast in poor quality mono - another step backwards. When I was a kid I first moved over from the BBC's Radio 1 to Capitol Radio because it sounded so much better in FM stereo compared to Radio 1's shitty mono AM signal. Later Xfm appeared - this was great in it's early years with plenty of rock, metal, and classic punk during daytime, as well as loads of great indie stuff. Xfm grew increasingly commercialised as time went on after various sellouts and takeovers - eventually dropping rock and becoming a pop/indie station. I originally bought a DAB radio to listen to Xfm at work where the FM signal was poor, but then I soon discovered several other 'rock' stations. Salvation seemed to be at hand - I no longer had to put up with pop dross like LaRoux and all the overhyped mediocre indie bands Xfm were pushing. I was mainly switching between Planet Rock, Absolute Classic Rock, and The Arrow (which was great 'cos it didn't have adverts, news, or DJs - just music) but it was all too good to last. I got bored with Absolute Crock when I realised it didn't play any new music. Planet Rock wasn't much better as the new music it played was by only a few bands and seemed a bit of a token gesture. New music by old bands, but not many new bands. Like other commercial radio what got played seemed to be dictated largely by the major record companies pushing their own artists, while smaller record companies with limited budgets didn't get a look-in - and unsigned artists could forget it.
Things started to get a bit boring. Then the audio quality (one of the big selling points for DAB in it's early days) started to be compromised. Stations which used to broadcast in good quality stereo went mono and also decreased the audio quality (again see my previous blog on this subject) so it was like going back to the bad old days of shitty mono AM/MW broadcasting that I thought Capitol Radio started to sweep away back in the 1970's. So much for progress.... Team Rock was never in stereo for the two years it was on DAB - even for a million pounds a year. I think the government is largely to blame for this as they privatised the radio broadcasting system, so now it is no longer a public service but a 'Cash Cow' for companies like Arqiva to extort money for providing a poor quality product. One million pounds a year just to provide a shit quality mono DAB radio signal across the UK. Someone is making a hell of a lot of money out of this while providing a very poor service.
So it's goodbye to Team Rock from me as far as regular daytime listening is concerned. Absolute is just too boring and repetitive - do I really want to hear 'Paranoid', 'Freebird', 'Smoke On The Water', 'Won't Get Fooled Again', 'Ace Of Spades', 'Back In Black', etc every single day for the rest of my life? And have some idiot like Russ 'The Cock' Williams who knows little about rock music and is reading notes off a piece of paper telling me "What a great song!" after every song - I don't need some moron telling me 'Highway To Hell' is a great song - I can tell that for myself thank you. Which leaves Planet Rock - which is now also in shit quality mono on DAB. Team Rock gave Planet Rock a much needed kick up the arse and made them add a lot of new and old bands to their playlists that they never used to play before, but now they are sitting back and relaxing as their main rivals have taken themselves out of the game. Planet Rock don't have to try anymore - and it shows. The station is getting lazy again - it seems to be more repetitive now, and the programming far less imaginative. It used to be so much better when I could switch between three or four stations all day at the press of a button when adverts, a song I didn't like or was bored of, or just too much talking bored me. Planet Rock is now the least worst 'rock' station on DAB. It's OK for three or four hours, but there is no way I could leave it on all day - it's far too boring.
I've almost entirely given up on the 'rock' stations now - they are killing my love of rock music with their repetition, and their boring and dreadfully unimaginative playlisting. I can't take any more! So what's the alternative on DAB? I've been listening to the BBC's 6Music at the weekends mostly for some time now. They do seem to champion mediocre singer/songwriters, and there is the odd bit of unremarkable pop music that belongs on Radio 1, but there is also a refreshing mixture of indie, rock, classic punk, blues, and old school rock & roll. Also, they seem to only employ DJs (or are they all 'presenters' now?) who are passionate and knowledgable about music *some other stations take note* and mostly musicians themselves. I don't like all the music, or all the presenters but that's always going to be the case on any station - but there is enough to keep things interesting and I like the variety. It's also the least repetitive station I know - I particularly like this. 6Music now sounds at times a lot like the 'alternative' music station Xfm used to be. Also, they play some old rock & roll and blues stuff that I won't hear on any other stations outside of their 'specialist' once or twice a week shows. It does annoy me at times that there is too much talking on 6Music though - it is called 6Music and Music is what I want to hear! If I want to hear talking I'll tune into a 'Talk radio' station OK? It's nice not to be constantly interrupted by annoying and repetitive adverts though - thank God for the BBC!
Ironically, I have also started listening to Xfm again! Ironic because Xfm is the reason I bought my first DAB radio, but I stopped listening to the station soon after as I discovered other stations that played the rock music that Xfm had stopped playing. Xfm now seems to be slightly less repetitive than it was when I gave up on it a few years ago, and seems to have largely abandoned the lightweight Radio 1 style pop rubbish they had started playing a few years ago. They might only play one 'rock' song every hour or so, and they still champion mediocre indie bands but they play some good new and old indie stuff too. Xfm has certainly improved, but it's certainly nothing like as varied and interesting as it used to be back in the days when it was a genuinely 'alternative' station. It's actually not that far from being a commercial version of 6Music now, but not as varied or with as good 'presenters'. Xfm still has the legendary Ian Camfield though - possibly the only genuine ROCK fan on the station these days, although he can no longer play Metallica, Motörhead, Iron Maiden etc all the time in daytime like he used to back in the golden days of Xfm.
Oh - and one other great thing about 6Music and Xfm that makes them much more pleasurable listening and keeps me coming back - unlike all the other stations I have mentioned they still broadcast in good quality STEREO at 128Kbps! For more on this bugbear of mine read this - I'm not the only person who gets really wound up about how DAB radio has not lived up how great we were told it was going to be. Ever get the feeling you've been swindled?
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