Commie Curmudgeon

I originally wrote a post that attempted to describe some of my impressions of a few commercial radio stations on the FM dial, before getting into the noncommercial stations. But then I realized that I might have gotten some of the stations confused. For instance, was the "underground" hip-hop show that I actually kind of liked on Friday night Hot 97 or Z-100? It's all a blur to me. In general, I can say just a few things about commercial radio on the FM dial:

First of all, I don't even listen to the commercial FM rock stations anymore, because they're so conservative and so dreary. Sometimes, I listen to the dance stations, because they're not quite as bad, but I can't get too excited about them. When I do hear music that I like on commercial radio, usually, these days, it's hip-hop. That's not to say I like most of the hip-hop on commercial radio; most of it is bad. But some of it is kind of good, and at least I find this music a little more fresh (no pun intended) than all the same old fucking rock music.

For a while, I was enjoying the reggaeton station, La Kalle, at 105.9, but I really got tired of it... Not because I got tired of reggaeton, but because La Kalle was playing the same few tunes over and over again, like any commercial radio station, and there simply wasn't enough variety. Plus, as with much commercial radio, the commercials really stank. So, that's the end of my honeymoon with La Kalle...

Radio has always been, and remains, a rewarding medium for me, but for the most part, it's noncommercial radio. I can't do a comprehensive post on radio in general, because the only stations I really pay attention to are the noncommercial ones. So, scrap the more general post about New York radio here; let's just say I'd like to mention a few shows and stations that I've been listening to. (And then, sometime later, maybe, I'll mention some more...)

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For well over 20 years, I have gotten a great deal of pleasure and muscial education from WFMU (91.1). In fact, most of the people I know feel the same way. If the general public at all resembled my own set of acquaintances throughout the years, then WFMU would be, by far, the most popular and most famous radio station in the whole New York metropolitan area, if not the nation. Of course, this is not the case. As far as I know, it is just a little college station (although, from what I understand, it severed ties with the college that it once belonged to, though I don’t completely know all the details). I suppose that WFMU is popular among my acquaintances because it is popular among struggling musicians and radical left political people, two sets of people whom I’ve been acquainted with quite a lot over the years (that is, relatively speaking – because, as everyone knows, I don’t exactly hang out with a lot of people in general). Also, strangely enough, I’ve been proofreading fairly often with someone who was once a WFMU DJ. But, then, that shouldn’t be surprising if you know anything about night shift proofreaders (i.e., rather unusual characters much of the time)...

If anyone were to ask me what kind of music, exactly, WFMU plays, it would be difficult to name all the genres, because the station goes all over the place, especially along the edges of popular music. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot from WFMU about rockabilly and psychedelic music as well as hearing a lot of the best, edgiest stuff being played in the rock clubs. I used to love a show on WFMU that focused almost exclusively on guitar-heavy girl pop. At the same time, I’ve also found WFMU to be a very good source for hip-hop, and I’ve been listening a lot lately to the Wednesday (late) night hip-hop show. I also like the world music show on Saturday afternoons. (And, by the way, I’m not going to name and link to all this stuff (although I have linked to the hip-hop show before). Go to the main site and you’ll find it – it’s all very easy to navigate.)

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Last night, I listened to the Saturday night reggae shows on WHCR (90.3). I don't know much about this station except that it is a small station connected to City College (CUNY) and that it bills itself as "The Voice of Harlem." I don't think I would have gotten it in Staten Island or even Brooklyn, but it comes in nice and clear here in the South Bronx. I've found some hip-hop on this station and some jazz. But mainly, I tune in for the reggae, especially the Saturday night reggae (though there are also a couple of other reggaae shows, on Thursday and Friday); this has been a sort of staple for me.

The first show, from midnight to 3am, covers a wide variety of reggae music, most of it good, some of it a little difficult to listen to. Although, of course, “difficult to listen to” is a subjective matter. A lot of people I’ve spoken to find dancehall music to be the most difficult to listen to, but this is actually my favorite kind of reggae music. Admittedly, the social content of dancehall sometimes leaves something to be desired (although sometimes it has been quite good, especially in recent years); however, I appreciate the heavy beat, much of the MC’ing and the stripped-down quality. I also like the old DJ-toasting music that I hear on this station, and I do like the classic reggae, especially for the social content. (I do find Rastafarianism as unbelievable as any other religion, but the old Rastas also have conveyed the best egalitarian and revolutionary social messages.) The only thing in reggae that I really find difficult to listen to is the slow, quasi-soul-like love-ballad singing that can creep into any of the sub-genres. Frankly, I just don't like that “romantic” kind crooning. But overall, it is very nice to hear such an eclectic reggae show.

From 3 am to 6 am, there’s a show that often starts off with a few different singers of classic reggae (unless that's just the prior show running late sometimes) but always moves into a long stretch of Bob Marley, mostly concerts recorded way-back-when. Come to think of it, it seems that the DJ here plays the same exact lengthy tape of live Bob Marley music every weekend while he goes off and sleeps somewhere. (I don’t want to make any unfair accusations here; I’m just saying, this is what it seems like to me.) Sometimes, it’s very nice to hear old Bob the Rastaman for a long stretch of time; sometimes, I’m not in the mood for it, especially if it’s the same stuff every time. But I've got to say, it does set the right mellow tone for me for those Saturday nights when I'm lucky enough to be going to sleep by 6 am, and in that situation, the repetition doesn't bother me so much.

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I heard some different Bob Marley recordings on the reggae show over on WBAI (99.5 - Pacifica radio) late on Friday night, while I was proofreading. This reggae show was pretty good, and it also contained some interesting, socially conscious chatter (mostly centered on Black History Month and, well, black history). This was also the station that reminded me that Tuesday is Bob Marley’s birthday, an event that’s apparently being celebrated in a lot of places. (Happy birthday, Bob! Wish you were still with us...)

WBAI probably requires a post all by itself sometime. Though it would be a chore to write it... I’ve heard people lament that BAI is playing more music than it should these days and not enough talk. But most of my best memories of WBAI are of the music. Back in 1998 through 2000, I regularly listened to a DJ there named Delphine Blue, whose tastes I really appreciated. On her show, I got to hear a lot of the latest stuff coming out of the Asian Underground. But I think she left at some point during the fateful year of 2001. (She did move on to other stations and other projects, and I did hear her elsewhere, though not very often. But more on that another time - I should write another whole post just on Delphine Blue.)

Then sometime in 2002, I completely stopped listening to WBAI. They'd had some really nasty internal political shakeups there. At first it seemed as though there was a sort of evil group completely taking the station over at the expense of the good people, but then I realized that the “good” people were for the most part just as annoying and authoritarian as the "evil" group. (Which isn’t that unusual where internal leftist disputes are concerned...) The battles involving WBAI - as well as the overseeing network, Pacifica - were also a point of obsession for some people in the New York City activist “community.” Some people talked about WBAI as though it was the most important subject in the world – especially when they got to their ambitious ideas about somehow making WBAI more democratic and responsive to the listeners... Which talk, now that I think about it, I probably should have walked away from much more quickly.

So, by sometime in 2002, I got so sick of hearing about WBAI, I blocked most of that information out of my head and didn't tune into the station for a very long time. Now, I tune in once in a while, but I have no strong feelings about it one way or the other. Nonetheless, I am still glad that there are a few noncommercial stations like WBAI on the radio dial. I'm sure that noncommercial leftist stations can become disappointing too, but I can't imagine them getting as dreary as regular commercial stations. With all the crap out there, it becomes difficult to love this medium called radio. But I still do, I think...