• Radio Daze

    Ick’s Radio Daze: Puttin’ on the Hitz – 101.5 JamZ

    Every week I pick a radio station and listen in for an hour, documenting the experience – for better or worse – just for you.
    It’s Ick’s Radio Daze. Click here to see all of the Radio Daze posts together.

    Station: 101.5 (KZON)
    Format: Top Hits
    Type: Terrestrial (Phoenix, AZ)
    Slogan: 101.5 JamZ
    Date / Time: Jan. 25th, 2010 / 9-10pm MST
    Commercials: 7 mins
    Hot Chick on Home Page of Web Site? Yes. Beyonce. Britney. Mariah.
    DJ: Sugabear
    Favorite Song: I don’t even really care for the song, but “Empire State of Mind” beat out the hour of trash I just put myself through.
    Least Favorite Song: “Whatcha Say” – Jason Derulo

    Song List:

    Young Money feat. Lloyd – “Bedrock”
    Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance”
    Jason Derulo – Whatcha Say
    Orianthi – “According to You”
    Lil Wayne – “Lollipop”
    Britney Spears – “3”
    Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce – “Telephone”
    Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
    Ke$ha – “Tik Tok”
    New Boys feat. Ray J. – “Tie Me Down”
    Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
    David Guetta feat. Akon – “Sexy Chick”
    Jay Sean feat. Lil Jon & Sean Paul – “Do You Remember”
    T.I. – “Whatever You Like”

    Comments:

    I’m getting old.

    Good Lord thank God that’s over. To think this station used to mean something to me. I mentioned a few weeks back that KZON used to be AAA, and it helped introduce me to Steve Earle and Bruce Cockburn, among many others. Well that format went kaput in the mid to late 90’s, and I’m not even sure how many format changes it’s gone through since. But in 2010, it’s a station owned by CBS Radio, locked (down) and loaded to bombard you with the hitz of day. Its demographic is the tween & teen market, something I haven’t been a part of for 20 years now.

    When the very first lyrics I heard were: “You can call me Mr. Flintstone, I can make your bedrock”, I knew I was in for a long hour. Thanks Young Money.

    One lasting impression from this hour: A-u-t-o-t-u-n-e. Holy modulation batman, does anyone in pop music not use autotune?? It was everywhere! For complete and utter Autotune Hell, listen to “Whatcha Say” by Jason Derulo. Really sad that autotune has turned into the rule instead of the exception. Blechh.

    This was a very long hour for me, folks. Yeah, I’m showing my age. I’ll turn 40 this year. I’m the “old guy” now to the kids who listen to this station. But I cannot imagine coming of age listening to this stuff – formulaic to the extreme, lacking emotion, and any semblance of soul. The subject matter is unimaginative, simplistic, and completely vapid – and this is the music that kids will look back to 20 years from now with the same nostalgia I have looking back to Prince, Run-DMC, hell, even Samantha Fox and the like?

    Granted, it could be a generational thing, but I honestly feel like something really bad – something irreversible – is happening in popular music. Painful. Just painful. I weep for pop music today.

    Sunday’s Grammys should be a hoot. Yeahhh, I’ll be watching. *shakes head*