*crickets*

Well if you ever wanted evidence that radio forums are all about the past & old timers locked in the past, the lack of mention of Beats 1 is it. 

The worlds most successful tech company WHICH has the largest music store in the world & soon the largest streaming service starts a radio station called Beats1.  Said company revolutionized the MP3 player, vapourized the competition, then introduced the worlds most popular smart phone.  

The company decides creates a radio station called Beats1.  They hire the top musicologist on the planet as programmer (Zane Lowe) and the rest of the staff live and breath music.  They create live radio with personality and invite listeners from all over the world to "call in" for requests.  If you can't call in, well you can always use social media (because everyone has it).  Recognizing that music fans don't care about a format, the station plays everything from Jimi Hendrix to Ariana Grande.  At 6 PM EST, they introduce Ebro, a Hot 97 morning man now at Beats1.  He's given the mandate to introduce 100 countries to New York City music.  And in the name of social media, he uses Twitter Periscope so the world can watch the moment he does it.  

And, then to represent his city, he plays NY State of Mind.  But he doesn't play the Jay Z version, he plays the Nas version. Because it's not about playing the established rich man (Jay Z). it's about playing the artists who truly represent NYC.  Because only someone that understand the musical history of NYC would know the important of Nas over Jay Z.  

And the first song on the station?  Not some cliche burned out radio classic as the first song.  No, Zane Lowe choose an unsigned UK band you had never heard of.  But anyone with a musical ear can hear the "hit" in this song.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NpSk62x0Qk

Finally..on the topic of Canadian music.  The station has no mandate to play Canadian music whatsoever & on the world stage we're insignificant.  But it DOES drop some Cancon but it's not any of the expected suspects.  It's a teenage girl from Brampton Ontario named Alessia Cara with a song named Here.  It's getting tiny bits of airplay in Toronto & now regular airplay on Beats 1.   She was kind enough to recognize that significance and thank them on Twitter.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKp2CrfmVfw

Golly, live radio, programmed by music people that program songs based on potential, not on charts.  And understand the need for live, informed personalities that relate the audience of today.  Yet not a single mention on radio forums anywhere..including this one.  

So you're radio fans eh?  





 

Last edited by Hathaway (July 2, 2015 9:50 PM)

No Beats 1 in my truck.  Can't stream it on my Squeezebox radio.  Kids have the iOS devices and they've not said a peep - though my 15yo son informed me that Buddy Buie recently died....who? (of course I had to look it up).