Rock Stations in General

Neodreadlord

it might seem like a stupid question or an old one, I don't know but I have to ask...

we have had Rock & or metal stations pop up over the years on Irish/Dublin Radio, and they start off being dedicated rock stations, they play everything from classic rock, to modern rock, to complete metal, but... they always end up getting mellower and mellower and losing the fact that their a rock station and do something stupid like play britney spears, and thats it.. the point of no return, rock is gone and its then a pop station... 2 fm did it with their various rock hours, 98FM did it soon after they came out, Rock 104 just became 104 and probably one of the greatest stations DLR106 just disappeared after years of broadcasting great music...

my question is, there is huge rock support in Ireland and there always has been, yet it always ends up being an untapped resource for music, we get bored of listening to radio because they start playing mellow stuff, all the time, yada yada yada... why does this happen? why haven't I heard Metal (classic or new) being played by phantom during the day? and is phantom going to eventually do the same?

cheers
Neo

eric the head

i share your sentiments. but i'd give phantom/ray mcgowan credit for having metal notes. it is easily my favorite show, i just wish it was on for longer or was on a couple of times a week. however for other people it may not be their favorite. that's the reality of metal music !
so kudos to ray and the gang in phantom.

John Caddell

Hi Neodreadlord

Thanks for the post. As Phantom's Head Of Music, I can guarantee you that we are NOT going to water down our music output. We're dedicated to Rock music. It's what we know, and it's what we're good at. The reason we don't play a lot of metal during the day, and another reason why we couldn't play Britney even if we wanted to (and believe me, we don't!) is because our licence is an "Alternative Rock" license, so our output must stay true to that. Having said that, as you mention, we do have the Metal show on a Monday night, and various other specialist shows throughout the week. Have no fear - Phantom as you know it isn't going anywhere. We're here for the long haul. Other stations might jump on the genre of the hour and bleed it to death, but there's no substitute for music that matters.

Cheers

John

Neodreadlord

cheers for the replies lads,

I do give Kudos to Ray, and fair play to him, but one of the things that I always thought was lacking in Dublin was a decent metal station, personally I would only listen to the radio while I'm in work because I am generally busy doing other things in the evenings, but I miss hearing things like AC/DC, and led zepplin and the like, can't beat the classics, but by the same token, it's nice to know Phantom isn't going anywhere or going to follow all the rest of the stations down to just pop..

cheers
Neo

Aquavid

Don't forget Random Access on Sundays 7-9pm, the all-request show.

If it's played on Phantom* it'll be played on-request in Random Access.

Aquavid


(* unless its something specialist that you've heard previously when a presenter has brought it in from their own collection)

Neodreadlord

yep but as I said I'm more on about daytime radio like when I'm in work.. and hey if they just don't have it, then I will give them my collection of music, everything from Abcess, to ZZ TOP, alternative, metal, classic, punk.. whatever.. bout 40 GB's worth lol


Neo

Shanannigan

alternative seems to be becoming a narrow genre. personally i can't say i recognize music i listen to in terms of genre, and so to me the word alternative should represent the broad spectrum of music that isn't pop(in the listened to by the majority of the population sense of the word), and that should include metal. napalm death is as much alternative music as radiohead or REM(i'm sure i could think of better examples but you get my drift). maybe I'm not prepared to accept the complexities of the different aspects of different styles of music or perhaps i simply can't get my head around the idea of assigning every band that releases a song/album to a specific category.
having said that i still applaud phantom in its successful endeavors to provide both a dedicated good music station and an outlet for the bands that want to reach an audience through that station, and as phantom isn't going anywhere but perhaps national eventually(i realize that might not be in your longterm aspirations but it's not an impossibility*) i'll continue to lend them my ears and hopefully contribute to the playlist as a musician.
*perhaps you could do something like what spin did when they launched spin southwest and launch a regional version of phantom. thats just a suggestion.