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Who is Lammo?
Posted by Lammo in I can’t work without music during the day, and normally listen to the radio as I like the randomness of tunes, finding new artists and music and a bit of banter/comedy/news (otherwise I’d just whack on some playlists from my downloaded music or Napster). However I’m having trouble finding a radio station that I can stick with for more than a week. Here’s my problems:
Radio 1: Too much dance music and crappy pop.
Radio 2: Michael Buble and Celine Dion. Need I say more?
Radios 3 and 4:Err, no.
5 Live: No music!
6music: George Lamb is a knob. music ok, but a bit too random
Local Radio: Please, no – listening to local radio is a fate worse than death. Some “Smashie and Nicey” type DJ who thinks they’re hilarious introducing the latest xfactor type sh*t surrounded by 30 minutes of adverts every hour.
Absolute Radio: The reason I got a DAB radio years ago was to listen to Virgin without the crackling of mediumwave. They started to annoy me by playing Scouting for Girls 20 times a day. Then they re-branded to “Absolute” and they’ve gone so MOR it’s unbelieveable – I even heard Elton John on there the other day. It’s like Radio 2 with adverts.
xfm – The station I probably listen to more than any other at the moment, and they’ve served me very well for almost a year now. However, they’re starting to bug me – Granted I’m listening to The Who now, and you get the joys of Muse, Wombats, Doves and Kasabian on a regular basis. But then they’ve also started playing Lily Allen, and employed Richard Skinner to do four hours a day – Nothing against Skinner, but he’s just not a good fit with xfm – stick him playing some cheesy 80’s “anthem” on Absolute and he’d be right at home – “bigging up” the Last Shadow Puppets and Airborne Toxic Event he sounds like your dad reading NME. Oh, and stop playing Green Day twenty times a day!!
So, anyone got any suggestions for a decent radio station to listen to? My criteria:
Decent sized playlist, so no relying on Green day every hour or so.
Good indie/rock music – no pop/xfactor crap or anything that might make it onto a “Now 159″ CD
Down to earth DJs that have good banter and love the music they play, but nothing too cheesy.
Preferably no adverts – though I can just about stand them if the station is good enough.
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Nowt wrong with Plymouth sound, sorry plymouth heart! Larry Speares adverts make my day!
Gotta get on board with spotify dude, you can pick what you want to listen too! It’s great!
Plymouth Sound? Oh dear, oh dear – it really doesn’t get much worse than that: It comes to something when some 70 year old bloke singing “I’ve got carpets beds and furniture” is the best thing you can say about a station lol
Spotify.. hmm.. I’m already using Napster, which is similar and means I can actually download the music to my mp3 player – doesn’t beat a decent radio station though for hand picked classics, finding new bands and banter/news etc.
I can empaphise with this problem entirely.
That’s why I love to use http://www.last.fm
Just type in the name of an artist you like and let LastFM do the rest!
Have you tried interweb radio? I’ve got a few stations that I regularly listen to though they’d fall into your banned list
eye97 is pretty good mate – http://www.eye97.com/
Trying out Last.fm now Lee – The “indie tag” seems ok, but still lacks the human touch – I’ll see how I go with customising it a bit though.
Pete – sorry mate, one look at their webpage, and I’m put off: “best hits of the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today” sounds just like local radio – and a quick look at the recently played includes the warning words “Britney Spears” which is a big red flag. Not to mention they’ve also played Green Day in the last 10 minutes (although I guess that means I shouldn’t hear them again for another 50 minutes, and it might even be “the other GD song that gets played on the radio”)
Think this guy had the same issue as you Lammo – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178515/How-I-went-Ga-Ga-The-radio-addict-tuned-different-station-day.html
Blimey, that bloke could have been my twin (although I would never have persevered with Classic FM for the whole day!) – I’ve always had a radio station that I felt felt the same way about music as me – It was Radio 1 until they got rid of Mark Radcliffe, Virgin until they went all MOR and most recently xfm until they employed my dad (Richard Skinner) and started playing Lily Allen and Scouting for Girls.
I’m now a music nut without a radio station, and feeling none the better for being able to make my own playlists via last.fm, spotify or napster. There’s no sense of “belonging” there.
Have you tried Talk Sport?
I know it’s not a music station, but it’s great for the banter.
I couldn’t work without it.
MW 1098/1053.
No way I could work to TalkSport Steve – I know it would be fab for the banter, but they talk about footie rumours all summer long, and I’d end up surfing footie sites instead of working, and looking at wonder goals on youtube
Perhaps I’ll have a compromise and listen to TalkSport during breaks!
Have you tried Virgin Radio? They play mostly guitar based bands from the latest new releases to a load of old classics.
Years ago I used to listen to Virgin on my radio in crappy AM frequency, but you can hear it now in proper digital sound.
I used to listen to Virgin Henry – since they’ve rebranded as “Absolute Radio” though, they’ve moved towards the middle of the road Radio 2 audience, playing less edgy bands and more Elton John and Eric Clapton. That, coupled with the adverts and cheesy DJs forced me out.
I’m getting on ok with last.fm so far – a fair bit of crap coming through, but they reckon that the more you love/ban tracks, the better it learns your personal taste.
Oh, I didnt know that they were rebranded as something else and changed music styles. Its been a while since I listened to it.
Typical affiliate – promoting something I don’t actually use…
Hi Lammo,
One of my greatest finds over the past few years has been ‘Indie Pop Rocks’ on SomaFM
It’s a free online station (supported by listener donations)
Brilliant indie music — this station has introduced me to so many new bands it’s unreal. Plus I think I’ve only ever heard 1 or 2 songs in 2 years that I didn’t like
http://somafm.com/play/indiepop
I guarantee if you listen for a couple of hours, you will discover a new band you’ll love
Cheers Hobbsy – they look pretty damn good! will give them a listen!
Hey Lammo,
What radio station do you now listen to? I’m having the same problem and am trying to google a new station and your comments came up. I also listen to the radio all day at work and used to love Colin Murray on Radio 1. I’m struggling to find something just as good. The somafm is alright but I’m missing the banter. Hope you can help.
Cheers Jess.
Hey Jess,
If I have the radio on nowadays, it’s for no more than an hour as I find all stations too repetitive – xfm is about the only station that I can still listen to (although they’ve started playing some really dodgy tunes recently.. I mean Owl City??)
They did their “top 1,000 songs of all time” list over the xmas/New Year week, and whilst I could give you 300 songs that are better than “Mr Brightside” by the Killers, it is a pretty decent playlist – whack it on random, and away ye go.. 60 hours of fantastic tunes – http://open.spotify.com/user/geordielee/playlist/2KEaOQ6jkKstQ29fkTTJ66