Has CHR radio in the US, in general, just given up on specialty mix shows and live club broadcasts? Perhaps I'm just spoiled because I'm used to decent quality shows like some of the stuff on WKQI/Detroit, B96 Chicago, RX 93.1/the Philippines or Kiss100 London for decent quality mix shows and club sets. But I've been checking out some of the streams using Tunein on my phone and I'm legitimately horrified at what I'm hearing.
Case in point: G105/Raleigh. They say they're "live" from some club downtown, but really it's got to be some awful prepackaged "mix" show, where random near full-length slow pop songs are tossed together with weird noises between them to simulate some sort of live club broadcast while the jock tells you every 20 minutes that the club is getting full and you should come out because they are “live.” They actually went from the Lumineer's Ho Hey to Eminem's Loose Yourself before the break, neither of which are energetic, interesting or should or would be found in a dance club or a mix show on a Friday night! It's so awful it's almost funny, except I know there's someone who doesn't know any better who is listening and thinking it's actual quality. Just ... incredible.
Even Channel 955/Detroit, which usually has grate shows that are (or were until a few weeks ago) legitimately live from real clubs, was airing some lame-sounding mix set on Saturday night, and when I checked another stream in Florida, it was the same songs. I'm pretty sure the Clear Channel stations just use the same show and music. Still, at least WKQI isn't afraid to actually mix on some shows and more importantly, play a wider variety of top40, hiphop and dance music than their regular rotation.
Does it all really sound this bad? Are there top40 stations left in this country that either have live and local mix shows on the weekends, or even better, actual live broadcasts from clubs? Or in general, has it come down to corporate prepackaged lame mix shows or programs like Open House Party and Saturday Night Online with Romeo?
Case in point: G105/Raleigh. They say they're "live" from some club downtown, but really it's got to be some awful prepackaged "mix" show, where random near full-length slow pop songs are tossed together with weird noises between them to simulate some sort of live club broadcast while the jock tells you every 20 minutes that the club is getting full and you should come out because they are “live.” They actually went from the Lumineer's Ho Hey to Eminem's Loose Yourself before the break, neither of which are energetic, interesting or should or would be found in a dance club or a mix show on a Friday night! It's so awful it's almost funny, except I know there's someone who doesn't know any better who is listening and thinking it's actual quality. Just ... incredible.
Even Channel 955/Detroit, which usually has grate shows that are (or were until a few weeks ago) legitimately live from real clubs, was airing some lame-sounding mix set on Saturday night, and when I checked another stream in Florida, it was the same songs. I'm pretty sure the Clear Channel stations just use the same show and music. Still, at least WKQI isn't afraid to actually mix on some shows and more importantly, play a wider variety of top40, hiphop and dance music than their regular rotation.
Does it all really sound this bad? Are there top40 stations left in this country that either have live and local mix shows on the weekends, or even better, actual live broadcasts from clubs? Or in general, has it come down to corporate prepackaged lame mix shows or programs like Open House Party and Saturday Night Online with Romeo?
