It's time for another Edge 102 rant from Cool Steve. Hold on to your hats, kids, this is another good one.
Hello again, Mike.
I visit the CFNY section of your blog now and again, so I just found out about the latest firings. I thought both personalities were decent and I certainly didn’t dislike them. I still can’t stand Fred though, and Josie has morphed into a shallow air-head. Only Adam and Bookie remain that I enjoy.
Since it was before my time, I gotta ask – this Pete guy from Pete and Geets who passed away at 81. Hasn’t CFNY always been youth orientated? Because he would have been in his 50s during his time at the station and, at least to me, he sounds out of place. Or maybe radio didn’t care about older age in a younger market back then, I dunno. I mean no disrespect to him; I am just surprised at his age.
I have to say that I don’t give 102.1 The Edge the time of day anymore, and when I do listen to the radio, it’s mostly stuck on 88.3 CJIQ which is ten years old now, or Boom 97.3 but its signal struggles in Kitchener. I drove to London a few weeks ago and 88.3 held out for as long as possible, and the playlist mix is night and day better than The Edge. My only gripe with them is that they have no playlist on their website, so when the DJ doesn’t give me the name of a song I don’t know, I can’t check back on it.
One of my favorite groups/artists is Matthew Good, and I always gave The Edge the smallest bit of points when it came to playing his solo singles as he got older. They spun the singles from his greatest hits collection in 2005, the ones from 2007’sHospital Music and 2009’s Vancouver. I decided to scroll back in their playlist three weeks to see if they were spinning “In Place Of Lesser Men” off Good’s recent album Lights of Endangered Species, as I heard it on the college station already back in April. I’m a bit shocked, but the song is no where to be found. They have no problem playing the same three/four songs from 1997-1999 era Matthew Good Band, but zero new Matthew Good. Why? Same label, Universal, released it and his last two albums. Is it because Good is turning 40 at the end of this month? He played the Casbys only two years ago. Perhaps an unfair comparison due to the levels of success – but Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters are all hovering around the same age, and we hear their newest songs repeated several times a day. We still hear the new Beastie Boys as well – all in their mid 40s.
Radio is a fickle thing. As an artist as you get older, a station will only play your greatest hits from a certain period. Even if they play your newest songs over the next five years, they will still go back to the older stuff from when you were really big when your newest singles have died down. It makes you wonder when the oldest, ‘newest’ singles an artist released will ever get played again. Maybe they never will be. 102.1 The Edge has spun every one of Matthew Good’s solo singles since 2003’sAvalanche. After those songs have run their course, you only hear old Matthew Good Band tunes. And even then, they ignore the singles from the band’s first 1995 album and their last 2001 album because both didn’t do as well as 1997’s Underdogsor 1999’s Beautiful Midnight.
I know I’m only mentioning one artist/group above, but I’m sure the same applies for several. You may never hear “newer” 2000-2008 Oasis on The Edge again, but you can bet your ass they will still play the shit out of anything from the 1994-1997 period of the band. They spun the singles from the Gorillaz’s 2001 and 2005 releases but completely ignored 2010’s PlasticBeach. I didn’t even know they released a new album, The Fall, until a few days ago. The Edge also loved to play Sloan’s newest singles. Their newest song “Unkind” is a catchy tune, it’s all over college radio. Its no where on The Edge, only the band’s 90s tunes – did the band suddenly get too old and uncool? I wonder if Our Lady Peace’s upcoming release will get any air time?
At the end of day, I really shouldn’t care anymore. Terrestrial radio sucks the big one these days. No one is going to listen to lifeless and annoying DJs who talk over half the song, repetitive play lists, choppy radio edits, and ads everywhere in between. I only need it for weather, news and traffic reports these days. It ticks me off when good artists are ignored just because they are getting older. It’s almost like radio sabotages them and doesn’t want them to succeed anymore.
If you want more, his rants are buried within my rants right here.
