Since my iPod got run over a few months ago, my listening habits have changed drastically. First and foremost, I've been listening to the radio while driving. I hate most of the music on commercial radio these days, but I've found a few acceptable stations in the Boston area: WZLX has some reliable (though tired) classic rock, and WXRV is varied enough, though not what it used to be. Mainly I'm on WERS, operated by Emerson College. It's non-commercial, it features new and independent music, and heck, I even like their news. It's my favorite station by a long shot; where else am I going to hear Florence + the Machine followed by Ray Charles? However, it has two noticeable shortcomings:
1. Anything that's not their daytime programming. On weekdays at 7 pm, they switch over to reggae, then hip-hop at some point. On weekends they do a cappella and children's programming. Which is fine, I guess. I understand that there's probably nobody else who's going to play a block of reggae music, and people like hip-hop at night. But at 7, I'm all of a sudden stuck with two music options. And NPR.
2. This is hardly specific to WERS, but I think it's fairly prevalent with the deejays there: they're overly broad with describing their music as "new." As in, "and that was the new one from A Fine Frenzy, 'Blow Away!'" despite the fact that the album it's on, Bomb in a Birdcage, was released in August, almost four months ago. I hear this often. I get excited for new stuff from artists, and when I hear a promo for "the new one from Andrew Bird" and I hear "Oh No" from January, I'm disappointed.
I submit that the cutoff for "new music" should be six weeks from the release date of the album. After that, I guess it can still be "the newest" from whomever, but please, stop getting my hopes up.
And in a side note, everybody please stop referring to Phoenix as a "new band." They've been putting out great music for almost 10 years, people.
