.:DataWhat?:.

Ah the first nice day...Sitting on the porch listening to new old radio.

Today Raad Thinkston called me from I-696 to tell me that 93.1 WDRQ has changed it's name to "The Doug" (which is a pretty retarded name) and they have a new format in which they play EVERYTHING (you have to believe them, they keep telling you between every song). I am a corporate radio skeptic, so here's what I noticed.

"The Doug" is a Classic Rock station with a curveball thrown in every sixth song.

Playlist live from the porch:

"Maggie May" - Rod Stewart
"Little Lies" - Fleetwood Mac
"FM "Steely Dan" (which sounded really good)
"Groove is in the Heart" - Deee-Lite (Whoa! I don't remember ever hearing that song on the radio before)
"Who's Crying Now" - Journey
"Macho Man" - The Village People (Surprising! But not good!)
"While You See a Chance" - Steve Winwood
"Refugee" - Tom Petty
"Straight from the Heart" - Bryan Adams
"Kokomo" - The Beach Boys (getting disappointed at this point)
"All of My Love" - Led Zeppelin
"Lyin' Eyes" - The Eagles (uh...doesn't this town have a WCSX already?)
"That Don't Impress Me Much" - Shania Twain (curveball!)
"Again" - Lenny Kravitz
"Year of the Cat" - Al Stewart
"That's Just the Way it Is" - Bruce Hornsby (uh...doesn't this town have a WCSX already?)
"Dance the Night Away" - Van Halen
"These Dreams" - Heart
"My Sharona" - The Knack
"Start Me Up" - Rolling Stones
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" - The Beatles
"On The Dark Side" - John Cafferty (Eddie & The Cruisers! OK, I'm actually really into this cut.)
"Pinch Me" - Barenaked Ladies (curveball!!!)
"Love Rollercoaster" - Ohio Players
"New Sensation" - INXS
"Your Song" - Elton John (uh...doesn't this town have a WCSX already?)
"Only the Good Die Young" - Billy Joel (uh...)
"Couldn't Get it Right" - Fun Lovin' Criminals (curveball!)
"Should Have Known Better" - Richard Marx (Dick Marks? No thanks)
"I Can't Tell You Why" - The Eagles (Hey Doug, if you're playing EVERYTHING, don't play the Eagles twice in the same hour)
"Love in an Elevator" - Aerosmith
"You Make My Dreams Come True" - Hall & Oates
"You Can Call Me Al" - Paul Simon
"Hole Hearted" - Extreme
"Streets of Philadelphia" - Bruce Springsteen
"Get Down Tonight" - KC and the Sunshine Band
"All She Wants to Do is Dance" - Don Henley (Geez, are the Eagles bankrolling this station or what?)

So (roughly):
2 Songs from the 2000s
6 songs from the 90s
15 songs from the 80s
13 songs from the 70s
1 song from the 60s
0 songs from the 50s
and only two female artists in about three hours.

The huge majority being "Classic Rock" with the occasional flicker of something slightly different.

No hip-hop (obviously), no indie rock, no college rock, almost no alternative rock (unless you count Lenny Kravitz, who is just a classic rocker with a better agent), no jazz (c'mon, get serious), no real country, nothing from outside the US or UK (Canada and Australia are in the US, and do not tell me Shania and BNL are "World" music).

Not exactly EVERYTHING, which becomes even more grating every time they make that claim. And, if "Everything" includes "Kokomo," Richard Marx, "Macho Man," and Bruce Hornsby & the Range, maybe a little editing would be helpful.

The fact that they keep saying stuff like "If Variety is the spice of life, your ears must be burning" or "If you made a thousand dollars every time you guessed what song we're gonna play next, you'd go broke" is really grating, and reminds me of this David Sedaris bit from "Dress Your Family in Courdory and Denim" where he says he met this lady who says she is "soooo crazy and wacky" that nobody knows what she is going to do next. In reality she is like a third grade teacher who wears red on a day that everybody is supposed to wear green. Wow lady, you are way out there...watch out for the man in the white suit and the net to take you to the loony bin.

"Doug" constantly telling me that his collection is so great and that their playlist is so crazy you'll never know what to expect next gets old, especially when all of this variety he's so proud of is the same shit I've heard a billion times in the past.

but!
Very few commercials, no annoying jocks, no "traffic & weather together," they played Deee-Lite, Van Halen, and man, that Steely Dan jam hit me at just the right time.
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Bottom Line: Potentially interesting, and if you hear the right half-hour it seems a little refreshing, but it also makes me realize that the state of modern radio is so horrible that when something with a smidgen of variety comes on I get momentarily hopeful, then ultimately disappointed.

Articles Here (Detroit Snooze) and Here (Billboard Radio Monitor).

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A friend of mine found this suspiciously phallic iPod ad
on a website we both frequent...

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For the low low price of 12 billion dollars, you too could own this Star Wars Life Size Death Star Model.
Exhaust-vent covers not included.

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This project is trying to take a photo from Every Latitude & Longitude Intersection on the planet.
They're pretty far already. And since the photos need to be taken at the exact intersection, a lot of them are way off in the woods, or a field, or the ocean. It's pretty cool. Gerard and Steve 2.0 should both do one.

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Pretty sharp Mash-Up.
Scissor Sisters, Beatles, George Michael, Aretha Franklin. Well done.

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Hey DJ, I'll play a song just for you, Like it was 1972

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Thanks Rob
Thanks Horkulated
Thanks Matt
Thanks Lee
Thanks Danny Carroll

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