Canadian radio sucks

Being Canadian, I must let the world know about 'our' music. Many Americans believe that because of our radio stations, demanding by law, at least 30% Canadian content, seems smart because it strengthens Canadian music. But anyone spending the entire work week listening to radio, comes to HATE Canadian songs, due to extreme repetition. I had an interview with Rock 102.1 about their limited playlist; and I saw their music "library"....they had 2,000 songs on a computer, aided by Pro-Tools. How can you entertain a country with such a tiny playlist? I've seen dozens of people with over 15,000 digital songs, and 1 guy had over 100,000 songs!
  Canada doesn't hate Nickelback because they suck dirty goat nuts, Canada hates Nickelback because the radio has played it to death, and continue to do so. I used to love classic rock, but years and years of hearing the same songs over and over on the radio, I can no longer stand certain bands, especially Canadian bands: BTO, The Guess Who, The Stampeders, Trooper, Blue Rodeo, Kim Mitchell, Nickelback, 3 Days Grace, Loverboy, Headpins, ....it is a long(ish) list. I quit more than 3 jobs due to forced radio all day; many and most physical labor/factory jobs have a radio playing all day, every day. I won't work any job if radio is at all a concern. Try to imagine hearing Shania Twain or Alannis 10 times in 8 hours, everyday. Shania was very beautiful, but her 'music' is not rock. In Canada, I have never heard of a metal station. I used to co-host a metal show, 'Damage Inc.', on the Community station in the 1990s, but you'll not hear Napalm Death or even Night Ranger anymore. I haven't heard more than 1-hour of radio in 15 years. Radio Kills thought.

I never listen to radio for music. Only talk radio and hockey. I have CDs for music.

A lot of the American classic rock radio stations play the same old songs. Some of the so called "modern rock" stations are still stuck in Nirvana mode.

All radio sucks. I haven't bothered listening to it in a long time.

moonspell67 wrote:

  Canada doesn't hate Nickelback because they suck dirty goat nuts, Canada hates Nickelback because the radio has played it to death,

Surely the fact that they suck dirty goat nuts comes into the equation somewhere?

Boris2008 wrote:

moonspell67 wrote:

  Canada doesn't hate Nickelback because they suck dirty goat nuts, Canada hates Nickelback because the radio has played it to death,

Surely the fact that they suck dirty goat nuts comes into the equation somewhere?

I still love classic Canadian rock (many of the bands mentioned), so no problem hearing them repeatedly, but sometime in the 1990s, as I traveled across Canada, I noticed a trend.
ALL rock radio stations had the same format (same  can be said for most AM talk radio or pop stations too).

That was when they started repeating the same songs all the time, as you said.
It wasn't simply the same bands, but yes, also the SAME songs.
It was like pulling teeth whenever phoning in requests for deep album cuts or heavy 1960s/1970s tunes that used to played any time of day or night, among the current hits on their playlist.

When they started playing really shitty, wimpy bands they labelled "rock" among the same songs repeated, and topped off with way too many commercials, I called it a day.
Instead of the 15-20 minute sets I was used to, it was commercials after every 2 or 3 short songs ; and I am not talking about any morning shows, as it was expected they would break it up more often with weather and traffic reports while you got ready for school or work.

Stuck with my own music collection, and would watch the video shows  a few times a week to see what was currently popular. In the late 1990s-early 2000's, for at least 5 years, started listening to college radio metal shows again, which got me back into buying metal cd's and mags again.

Talk radio shows are good if you know what they are there for. To only allow the public to rage about issues, and let them feel as if they are accomplishing something, yet not changing anything.
The ones with real power will laugh and ignore the callers' complaints.

nevermore wrote:

A lot of the American classic rock radio stations play the same old songs. Some of the so called "modern rock" stations are still stuck in Nirvana mode.

Actually, a lot of classic rock stations have updated in more recent times to add 1990s and even some 2000s era rock songs.

As for modern rock stations, a lot of them have played stuff where you can barely even hear an electric guitar, and more folk sounding stuff, in more recent years.

Radio in general pretty much sucks...

I'm not Canadian, but if I did have to run a Canadian rock station, i'd get around the "Canadian content" rule by slipping Exciter and Razor in the playlist.

Rock 102.1 (rawlco) plays an acceptable amount of Sabbath, but..... it is always 'Paranoid', 'Iron Man' and rarely 'War Pigs'....I have requested 'Sweet Leaf', 'Changes' (radio may play this schlock),'Fairies Wear Boots' and many more requests. I can request deeper cuts all day/every day and Rawlco still won't play anything by Sabbath except the same 2-3 songs.
That is why I quit listening to any and all radio for 11 years now.

mlotek wrote:

I still love classic Canadian rock (many of the bands mentioned), so no problem hearing them repeatedly, but sometime in the 1990s, as I traveled across Canada, I noticed a trend.
ALL rock radio stations had the same format (same  can be said for most AM talk radio or pop stations too).

In the States, the same thing happened when Clear Channel (now known as IHeartMedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHeartMedia) bought up radio stations left and right all over the country, then standardized everything. You could drive coast to coast and hear the same playlists the whole trip, no matter where you tuned in on the dial. Isn't that exciting!!

Radio sucks dirty goat balls and has for some time now. It's not just a Canadian thing unfortunately.

Reading this and doing a little reminiscing of when DJ's had control to some degree of what they could play. I came in right at the tail end of that and remember hearing album sides or deep cuts and the DJ's knew what they were talking about.

Lari wrote:

I never listen to radio for music. Only talk radio and hockey. I have CDs for music.

Same here and if i want the radio ill turn on Pandora


I have to say one of my all time favorite bands is from Canada that being Metric.

Id also love to visit Canada someday especially Nova Scotia where my grandmother was born

I know many other Canuckleheads who've been to Cali - they all say american radio is awesome compared to Canadian radio....metal stations!! Mind you, most of those ppl went to Cali 10+ years ago. I thought maybe satellite radio would save the day...not even close.

I've always thought the idea of requiring Canadian radio to play a certain percentage of Canadian music to be pretty cool. In theory, it sounds like a great way for some bands to get exposure that they might not find.

But I guess if you lived there, you learn quick that not every band deserves that kind of exposure. And the ones that do don't need to take up 29 of that 30% ratio.

moonspell67 wrote:

I know many other Canuckleheads who've been to Cali - they all say american radio is awesome compared to Canadian radio....metal stations!! Mind you, most of those ppl went to Cali 10+ years ago. I thought maybe satellite radio would save the day...not even close.

From my experience West Coast has better variety , I live on the East Coast and they suck here

Addy wrote:

Id also love to visit Canada someday especially Nova Scotia where my grandmother was born

I'm from Nova Scotia.

Other than the country station occasionally I generally don't listen to terrestrial radio. Q107 out of Toronto used to be decent back in the 80s but now it's just the same old same old, same with 97Rock right across the border in Buffalo

007 wrote:

All radio sucks. I haven't bothered listening to it in a long time.

Word.

This song sums it up. Warning there are curses.

what is the worst aspect of radio, especially in Canada? Extreme repetition, repetitive ads, a tiny playlist, DJ Dumb and DJ Dumber sharing their morning show with DJ Retard, or does something else tee you off?

moonspell67 wrote:

Radio sucks

Fixed...

British radio is pretty cool!

Okay that's stretching it, but compared to when I was a kid and the only show in town was the BBC and the only time they would EVER play a heavy metal track was on The Friday Rock Show. Two hours a week was all we ever got, but since commercial radio took hold there's Kerrang, Planet Rock, Radio X, Absolute Classic Rock that all play a lot of cool stuff. I only listen to the radio while at work but as there is a disproportionate amount of metalheads where  work it's usually decent (although I'm too often stuck in an office and unable to hear it )