homogenize milk, not america

[alphajerk]

if i could ask for some help. our radio station just lost its broadcasting on its frequency due to FCC bullshit. this is a radio station that is run by a family now being the frequency is being autioned to the highest bidder [liberty media] resulting in satellite fed bullshit the rest of america now receives. i know that you dont live here but some support would be appreciated. below in the link where the various parties involved can be contacted and the story behind the bullshit.

 

http://www.wzls.com/fcc.htm

 

oddly, the senator, john mccain who attached the rider allowing the fcc to do this on the balanced budget is also the same john mccain calling for campaign fianance reform, seems hypocritical in his beliefs. selling out the frequencies to the highest bidder opposed to the people who are a part of our community and actually arent part of the national playlist. the closest thing i have heard to free radio.

[Hippie]

That is a battle that I don't believe can be won at this late stage in the game; "money talks, bullshit walks". I think we need to go back to the days of "border radio" or "radio Caroline".

What's even more hypocritical, is the gov. (FCC), allowing the sale of "free/privately held" radio stations, in turn limiting artistic exposure, then offering artistic grants to the artists they deem "worthy"!... My belief is, if you let people hear as much of a variety as possible, the artistic support will come by way of a private sector or a grass roots level. Its never a good thing when the gov. has so much say so in artistic output.

 

Sorry 'bout the news Alph, but here in Detroit, this happened to local radio about 12 years ago, and has gone downhill ever since. Luckily, we're just across the river from Canada, and there is still a couple of stations still doing the right thing.

 

-Hippie

[Tedster]

Dude, you're in Detroit? I'm from Port Huron...I remember the old days, the really old days, when WABX played underground stuff. Ahhh...for the good ol' days...

[JES]

Sorry to hear about that, Alphajerk. One more thing on McCain. He was one of the few Republicans who opposed the digital spectrum giveaway in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 BUT he made a great effort to help Pittsburgh's public television station sell off their UHF affiliate to private christian broadcasters. Happily, local activists put the kobosh on that deal.

 

So McCain's clearly happy to go with whoever's lining his pockets.

 

--JES

[alphajerk]

i dont think its necessarily lining mccains pockets. his idea might of been in the right place having auctions to the highest bidders feeding money into the govermental structure to "better serve the people"

 

one thing i cant understand is that around here there is TONS of space available on the radio spectrum. there arent that many stations filling them up, nothing like when i lived in DC. im not quite sure why another company cant run on another one.

 

it seems to be more of a case of bullying smaller businesses. but WOW, was the radio exciting today. the DJ's are all up in arms using what couple weeks they have left to protest the descision.

 

in their own little playlist that i caught

rock and roll radio- the ramones

radio radio-elvis costello

radio free europe into whats the frequency kenneth-rem

i lost track after that.

 

its a really sad place in amerika now. the last bastions of uniqueness are disappearing. i am quite pissed about this, if you have checked the site and followed the battle over the past decade, its not the first time this station was silenced only to have the ruling overturned by a higher court so it not over yet... its a shame though that this is costing this family so much in legal fees battling these huge corporations that have no idea how to serve our community.

[dansouth]

I believe that Sen. McCain would love to end this game. He has put his neck on the line for campaign finance reform. But since his ideas have not caught on, he still has to PLAY the game to stay IN the game where he can keep fighting the fight.

 

That said, I'm very sorry about Alpha's radio station. I was a teen in the 70's when there was a lot of diversity in radio. We've lost a lot of ground. Hopefully, new media will allow us to make some of that ground back up. Except for college and NPR/public stations, radio is in sorry shape these days.

[alphajerk]

shit, this station was better then public radio. were you could request ANYTHING [as long as they had it] but quite a diverse station with the BEST late night show i have ever heard. reminded me of WHFS in the old daze. this girl who does it is a freaking genius. driving home from bars latenight, damn she just KNEW what to play and WHEN to play it. the radio station that acknowledged rainy daze by the music they picked as well as the sunny daze.

 

its funny too because i moved from DC where you could tune into 4 different stations playing the SAME SONG at the SAME TIME. how fucked up is that? listen to enough radio at work and you dont have to look at the clock anymore, you knew what time it was because they played the same songs at the same time day after day.

[Duhduh]

Welcome to America, Inc.

[Chip McDonald]

McCain is full of crap like the rest of him. He's very good at milking the sound-bite level of social awareness while doing the same crap the rest of them do. Look up his record - he's pushed pork into budgets, suggested all sorts of wacky far right "solutions", and his role of apparent "spoiler" in the Republican party is a very carefully planned scheme - he'll tow the line when need be.

 

*It's all carefully crafted*. Just like Dole in the Pepsi commercials, selling Viagra - they know what they're doing, blurring the line. McCain is just as scary as the rest.

 

I used to try to "Fight the Power"; I'm now resigned to it under the premise that it's not going to get better - the faster it falls apart the sooner something real can happen.

 

Radio is doomed. Let them take over, it's an obvious plot. In my hometown a textile mill that had been open for many generations just closed down - couldn't afford to stay running any longer, one day just shut the doors and declared bankruptcy...

 

 

.. Today another company bought it who apparently thinks it can make money. They're hiring half the employees back -lower pay no doubt... Of course, the rest can be replaced with new people - new people that won't get as much pay for having worked there so long, people that haven't built up a retirement and probably won't.

 

Par for the course: communism supplied by giant corporations is no different than a centralized power base. Ultimately we'll get everything from Walmart, we'll have cheap everything but only 3 colors to choose from and one foreign manufacturer to pick... Entertainment will be generic but of high quality ala Titanic, Pearl Harbor, Shrek - at the expense of anything artful getting through. We'll all be happy workers thinking we're individual consumers.

 

 

It's happening so delicately slowly that there's no point complaining about it. People won't get mad, it's the same reason people smoke despite knowing it's killing them. That's why it's got to fall apart; if people suddenly realize there's nothing but schlock on the radio, no more real choices at the market, no choice *of* market to go to, no choice in color or style (what's with car dealers now just selling lots of nothing but one color???), just resolute, competant gray.

 

In fact, any opinion that counters that will become increasingly taboo, because entertainment/consumerism has now been inexcorably linked to production. To oppose it is to oppose why a person works hard at their job everyday.

 

Meanwhile the top 1% live a real life. It's their perspective that makes the one-worlder thing work, and it's true to an extent. If the sheep are content it doesn't matter if they don't know they're sheep.

 

------------------

New and Improved Music Soon: http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

[alphajerk]

sheep and apathy. what a nice comatose combination.

[Alndln]

I didn't realize there were any stations left as I gave up on that a long time ago.Hopefully this can somehow survive.McCain probably would have made much more headway as an independent,but he didn't because he's not independent in the literaL sense.In fact he said it himself,"Ronald Regan is my ideal leader".That pretty much summs it up.

 

This message has been edited by Alndln@hotmail.com on 06-05-2001 at 08:29 AM

[masternfool]

It's also the same Mccain who voted against a TAX CUT for America...

why have one face when two are better...I wonder where he will cash his check...Harry

[GY]

And it doesn't stop with radio stations. Try being a land owner or heaven forbid, a gun owner...

[rumpelstiltskin.]

look at it reasonably:

 

john mccain has been a senator for over twenty years. how can one be "a maverick" or "an outsider" for that amount of time without getting anything truly counterquo accomplished, or without getting run out of town completely?

(ed. note: yes, i just created the word "counterquo.")

 

the fact is that one can't do that, and john mccain is a government advocate like the rest of them. he goes the extra, lying step of trying to deny his nature, but most people don't appear to be fooled.

 

it is no wonder to me that america is collectively disaffected by politics.

[Anderton]

The "new" FCC under Bush 2.0 is going to be problematic in more ways than one. Also look for increasing media consolidation, as single entities control all media -- print, TV, radio -- in major markets.

 

But check out my thread on Internet radio. Right now I'm listening to an African world music station and it rocks. Who needs the regular spectrum -- well, except in your car, and that's why you have CD/Tape players.

[KJ]

Politicians unfortunately are only out to perpetuate their existance. So that means making government bigger and bigger. I'm incredulous listening to politicians complaining about not having enough tax money to pay for their programs. Who says I want MY money spent on these pet programs. Keep the peace and stay the hell out of the way! Who says the programs they're spending the money on are working anyway. I see that ad with the guy pushing his book about how to get government money from little known programs! Give me a break! Take all that money and make that our tax refund! Maybe I digress again...

 

 

 

------------------

KJ

-------------------

bari man low

[rumpelstiltskin.]

Originally posted by Anderton:

Who needs the regular spectrum -- well, except in your car, and that's why you have CD/Tape players.

 

i'm really interested in satellite radio, too. it takes a special tuner, so new cars won't have it until 2003, but in theory car radios and regular radios with the satellite band will be available this summer.

 

satellite radio is planned to be subscription ($9.95/month, i think), and there will be a diverse set of channels with DJ personalities, but no advertisements. of course, this is all press release material, which may conflict with reality.

 

it's something i'm watching closely, though, because they said the accept CD submissions by independent musicians, and they listen to every track on every CD and decide which ones to broadcast.

 

i don't know how they plan on handling requests.

[strat0124]

I don't see the relationship between being a gun owner and corporate radio. I've inherited several guns from my father, hunted my entire life, but I see no reason for an ordinary citizen to own an AK47, semi or auto. In the same breath, we have to point out that most crimes are committed with handguns....easily concealed, and often hot. Call a spade a spade.....conservatives in this country really aren't. It's a moniker they give themselves to still pull in the old rich folks vote. What's conservative about drilling for oil in a wildlife reserve? What's conservative about giving a gazillion dollar tax cut that benefits the wealthiest of Americans but threatens Social Security/Medicare? What's conservative about boosting prices for fuel to pschologically condition Americans so they can gain access to land set aside for nature, so your oil buddies/contributers can get even richer??????

Radio has sucked for a very long time.......I long for the KAAY Little Rock Beaker Street days....but it's over. Politicians and Used Car salesmen......a smile, a handshake, but no kiss after you've been @#$%ed.

[Botch.]

At least with radio and the advent of Internet radio, alternative listening can be found. Here in Utah, the Mormon church-state, who owns the NBC affiliate, decided that "Saturday Night Live" was not appropriate for family viewing and so blocks it out. We can't get it. Of course, polygamists with five underage wives is tolerated, I guess this is called "family values"...

[alphajerk]

Originally posted by Anderton:

The "new" FCC under Bush 2.0 is going to be problematic in more ways than one. Also look for increasing media consolidation, as single entities control all media -- print, TV, radio -- in major markets.

 

But check out my thread on Internet radio. Right now I'm listening to an African world music station and it rocks. Who needs the regular spectrum -- well, except in your car, and that's why you have CD/Tape players.

 

can you say monopoly? i thought the music industry was already found to be one.

 

the purpose of radio is to serve the local community. this is by nature as radio waves are limited to the curvature of the earth. so what is happening here is that a family own radio station is being pushed out in favor of a nondescript satellite fed, non community serving entity.

 

i was hoping for a little help with some email activity expressing your views to some of the people on the SAVE WZLS page www.wzls.com/save.htm john mccains email is there along with the local representatives email. i know you all arent local but expressing your view would be helpful im sure. i have already emailed them in supportof the station keeping their frequency.

 

 

dubya is just a total fucking idiot, he cant even keep his own party members from leaving now... now all of amerika is having to pay the price for the stupidity of those who voted this dubmass in. he is the one causing this energy crisis, he is the one who fucked all of us who are stinking rich with NO TAX CUT, he is the one that cut funding in all sorts of important areas.... why doesnt he just push the big red button now.

[Chip McDonald]

Originally posted by Anderton:

, as single entities control all media -- print, TV, radio -- in major markets.

But check out my thread on Internet radio. .

 

That's curiously synchronistic....

 

I used to listen to net radio a good bit. In particular Radio Tunisia, which used to play a really wide variety of ethnic Tunisian music.

 

Notice I said "used" to: one day they popped up and suddenly started playing what amounts to Tunisian MTV music.... which begat what I take to be European white trash techno music.

 

Ironic - right now there is probably Tunis thinking "this music - it smells of the scent of freshly laid feces of the camel!" (no, that was badly stereotypical... uhg)... anyhow, ultimately western "civilization" is inundating every society like social cancer.

 

 

The french are seemingly stereotypically arrogant by way of annecdotal evidence, but I can't blame them for wanting to preserve their culture. Genericism is such a penetrating disease it would seem, and yes - King George will mean this can only get worse....

 

------------------

New and Improved Music Soon: http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald

[dansouth]

Originally posted by strat0124:

I don't see the relationship between being a gun owner and corporate radio. I've inherited several guns from my father, hunted my entire life, but I see no reason for an ordinary citizen to own an AK47, semi or auto. In the same breath, we have to point out that most crimes are committed with handguns....easily concealed, and often hot. Call a spade a spade.....conservatives in this country really aren't. It's a moniker they give themselves to still pull in the old rich folks vote. What's conservative about drilling for oil in a wildlife reserve? What's conservative about giving a gazillion dollar tax cut that benefits the wealthiest of Americans but threatens Social Security/Medicare? What's conservative about boosting prices for fuel to pschologically condition Americans so they can gain access to land set aside for nature, so your oil buddies/contributers can get even richer??????

Radio has sucked for a very long time.......I long for the KAAY Little Rock Beaker Street days....but it's over. Politicians and Used Car salesmen......a smile, a handshake, but no kiss after you've been @#$%ed.

 

Well stated!!

[dansouth]

Originally posted by masternfool:

It's also the same Mccain who voted against a TAX CUT for America...

why have one face when two are better...I wonder where he will cash his check...Harry

 

Is every tax cut a good tax cut? Maybe the bill was full of pork barrel riders. Maybe Sen. McCain felt that it wasn't ENOUGH of a tax cut. Maybe tax cuts are stupid to begin with. Maybe we need to work on tax ABOLITION. The income tax was supposedly to pay for WWI. Well, I think we paid that off already.

 

Don't pat politicians on the back when they offer us crumbs when we deserve loaves of bread. That's the same non-critical, sheep herd mentality that says every town needs a WalMart and encourages every would be minimum wage employer with low interest bonds and tax amnesty. Why? So we can kill off the few family owned businesses that still exist? So more people can be underemployed and pile up toxic amounts of debt? We get shit upon, because our collective expectations are too low.

 

Say what you want about McCain; I'd rather have HIM in the White House than W.

[Hippie]

Originally posted by Tedster:

Dude, you're in Detroit? I'm from Port Huron...I remember the old days, the really old days, when WABX played underground stuff. Ahhh...for the good ol' days...

 

Hey Tedster,

I'm out of Sterling Heights, small freaking world, eh? My band used to play in Port Urine http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif, at a bowling alley, in the downtown area, (the name eludes me now), OTOH I've probably played in most rock clubs in a 400 mile radius. But yessir, Detroit used to seriously rock with new stuff all the time! Now, the only stations worth a crap here are 89X (out of Windsor)& WDET. Speaking of WABX, I recently ran into an old DJ from the station you may remember, his name is Mark McQuen. We sat and BS'd for an hour about the good old days of "free form" radio, and how it was responsible for the term of Detroit being "the home of rock & roll". God I miss those days!

good to talk to you neighbor,

-Hippie

[KJ]

Amen, Dan, ABOLISH INCOME TAX!

 

I've quoted Jefferson before:

 

"the government which governs least, governs best"

 

Give me back my Liberty and let me keep my income!

 

This message has been edited by KJ on 06-06-2001 at 10:31 AM

[Kris]

My town's radio stations got ravaged by the corporations a few years ago. Ever heard of John boy and Billy? It's too bad ain't it?

[Tedster]

Hippie...

 

Could have been the Blue Water Bowl. What years were you gigging there? What was the name of the band?

 

I vaguely remember the name Mark McQuen. Been a lotta years.

 

You into the blues scene at all in Detroit?

[Hippie]

Originally posted by Tedster:

Hippie...

 

Could have been the Blue Water Bowl. What years were you gigging there? What was the name of the band?

 

I vaguely remember the name Mark McQuen. Been a lotta years.

 

You into the blues scene at all in Detroit?

 

Hey Tedster,

Yes, It was the Blue Water Bowl.(if I recall, we used to have to lug all the equip. down a flight of stairs, yuk!) It was around '86 - '92, I believe. The names of the bands were, "The Electric Revue" or "The Inversions" . These bands were working through Sterling Diversion Entertainment Agency, maybe you know about them, they had a monopoly on gigs here for the longest time.

Regarding the blues scene, I'm not as active as I used to be, but lately I've been going to see "The Bobby East Band"; he's damn good! He's been doing Wednesday nights at a place called Sh-Booms, in Warren. (14 mile & dequindre)

Tedster, do you gig? are you in a working band/solo? do you record or both?... I'm always interested in finding new musicians to work with on my bands originals, or yours, to record in my home studio or just to jam & have fun. -I'm always searching for the right chemistry of people to create the ultimate band.

 

-Hippie