This is part two of my end of the great WGPU debate. If you have not read Mody’s part of it then read it HERE.
     I think Mody has a very valid point about DJ ignorance. I get the impression that most of them don’t even really know what it is that there playing half the time, and the program managers really do not seem that interested in exploring any bands catalogue beyond whatever their most popular song was, even to the point of ignoring entire albums. But read Mody’s article for that, he says it really well. I have a different point to make today. I am here, hat in hand, humbly asking, no, BEGGING for on simple thing. Here it is:

WOULD YOU, ON AIR MUSIC MONKEYS, PLEASE, TELL ME WHO THE BANDS ARE AND WHAT THE SONGS ARE CALLED AFTER YOU PLAY THEM.
    
     Is it that hard? I don’t need a whole history of the band. I don’t even need to know the name of the album or when it came out. I was not born with a rain man like recall of every damn band in the world built into my head. I can not tell you how many times I have heard a song, liked it enough to look into the album, and not been given the opportunity to buy it because I can never find out what the damn thing is called. It drives me crazy. I mean really, do what you want to with your station, play whatever you feel like all day long if you want, just let me know what it is so I can buy it if I like it.

     It occurred to me yesterday that Kurt Cobain, who died in 1994, really had no concept of the Internet. He was pre-internet. Back in 1994 computers were not nearly as prevalent, and the Internet as we know it today was in its infancy. I’m not really sure what I mean by mentioning it, other than I find it strange that he seems so relevant, and really so modern to me. Maybe it’s because I came of age in that era. It made the whole thing seem more distant to me than it had up until then, and it made him seem like more of a figure from the past. That was 11 years ago.

     I used to listen to WPGU when I lived in Mattoon. Back then it was called ‘The Planet’. Because Mattoon is around 45 miles away from Champaign, where WPGU is located, I was right on the edge of its broadcasting range, and would only be able to pick it up half the time. It would be fuzzy, would cut in and out, and would sometimes be overtaken by a crappy top 40 station that we were also on the cusp of, but my radio dial hardly ever left the 107.1 position. This is because they, sometimes, would play something I liked. Maybe I would hear Weezer, or Nirvana, or some other really mainstream thing that I, as a child of the 90’s, could appreciate. They would also play something I had never heard before on occasion, and I thought that was great, as I can never hear enough new music. Over time, WPGU started to sound more and more like the to 40 station. I heard Creed on a number of occasions. They were playing a LOT of Jimmy Eat World. Emo ran rampant. I was hearing less and less new things. Every now and then they would toss on some Smashing Pumpkins, or Green Day, just to placate the older folks, and it made me feel cheap. It wasn’t a station I wanted to listen to any more, but it was all that was around. It was Mattoon after all, and one can only process so much Brook’s and Dunn.
     Then I moved to Champaign, and I had the luxury of picking up WPGU loud and clear. I listened to it in glorious fuzz-free stereophonic Hi-Fi. It was great. For about two weeks. Then I realized, because of my new location, I could also pick up WEFT, and the WHIP. These stations almost ALWAYS played something I had never heard. I knew if I listened to these stations, and I heard something I didn’t like, that in a few minutes there would be something, TOTALLY DIFFERENT, to listen to. Not from Sum 41 to Third Eye Blind Different, but REALLY, REALLY, different. And NEVER ANY CREED.
     So I listened to WPGU a lot less. Then they changed their format, destroying ‘The Planet’, and creating NO-RULES-RADIO. Which is fine, except that there are many, many rules.
     I remember the day they did it. They played children’s music all day. It was great. They played music from the Muppets. TV theme songs. Schoolhouse Rocks segments. I really enjoyed it. When they came back to playing regular music it was with the clam that this was to be a whole new era in Champaign-Urbana radio. A mighty and bold claim. It was also one they could not quite meet.
     They DO play a lot of new music. Lots of things I have never heard. It is much more like the days when a DJ could play whatever it was that he or she wanted to play in the whole spectrum of music. Except that it’s not those days. Before they would cycle through the same 40 songs all day. It would be mainstream music with a slight ‘alternative’ tinge. Now they do the same thing, except that 20 of the songs that they play are stuff you’ve never heard before/ moderately successful Indie Bands, 10 are acceptable fair from the past (read: Pixies, The Clash, and The Talking Heads), and the remaining 10 are leftovers from the previous format.
     Don’t get me wrong. I think its great. The more Frank Black I can hear on the radio the better. I have taken to listening to WPGU again for he first time in a while. I will even put in on at work sometimes. But its not like the studios of WPGU are filled with a bunch of freewheelin’ hipsters playing the record of the cool band they saw last night. Unsigned local bands are still relegated to their own hour-long show on the Graveyard that is Sunday Night. There are still plenty of rules. You will hear no Acid Polka. You couldn’t play Hank Williams if you wanted to, it probably wouldn’t even be in their computer. But you might hear Wilco now. And I think that’s great. I like much more of what they play than I did before. They are playing more cool music than anybody else on commercial radio in this market right now (As I’m sure they will tell you all about in great detail), but if you want real NO RULES RADIO, Listen to community radio WEFT. They could be playing bagpipe music right now. Or punk rock. Or forty minute long Sitar solos. Whatever it is you can SURE it was picked out by whoever played it. But it might suck. Thats the chance you have to take.
     But at WPGU most people a certain kind of musical taste will at least be able to listen to and will likely enjoy, oh, 85 percent of what they play. Not Bad. Not challenging, but not too bad.

In a never-ending quest to expand the boundaries of both the possibilities of inter-website relations, and my own ego, Brain Pan and Silly Little Trouser Monkees have embarked on an exciting new project. The basic idea is as follows: A topic will be chosen. I will produce a bit of commentary on the topic in my usual poorly informed and rambling style. Then I will hand things over to Staff writer Mody Lyman over at SLTM, and he will continue the commentary on that subject. We will bounce it back and forth for a while, and then we will pick a new topic. (He has an explanation of all this on his site that is really much clearer). The first subject is a discussion of local Champaign-Urbana radio station 107.1’s recent format change. I will have my bit tomorrow, but today you should look for:
HIS ARTICLE RIGHT HERE

Enjoy, and look around while you are there, as it is a really good site.

From WENN:

Cosby Caught Up in Sex Scandal
Funnyman Bill Cosby is at the middle of a shocking new assault scandal after an unnamed Canadian woman claimed he had sex with her at his Cheltenham Township home near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The anonymous woman alleges Cosby invited her back to his home after meeting her at a local restaurant and gave her pills that made her dizzy after she complained of stress and tension. She admits her memory about what happened next on the night last January is fuzzy but she recalls Cosby allegedly touching her breast and placing her hand on his genitals. In a complaint made to Toronto Police, which has been passed to Philadelphia authorities to investigate, the woman claims she awoke at about 4am the following morning with her clothing in disarray and her bra undone. Cosby's accuser states she didn't report the incident immediately because she was concerned it might effect her standing at Temple University, Philadelphia, where she worked. Cosby has not been charged and his attorney Jack Schmitt insists his client is innocent: “The charges are categorically false.” Meanwhile, Cosby cancelled a show in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday night for “undisclosed personal reasons”.


I have only one thing to gay about this:

EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW