finally, thank you shockwave for coming to my defense. I'm not trying to obliterate independent radio in columbus, i just think there needs to be more of a significant change. I've worked for KBUX/The Undergroung for years now, but no one would give us a chance to get on air.

If I had the funds, I would start my own radio station. I feel bad for saying anything negative against the independent playground. Rudy and Tom are doing the best with what they gots. I'm amazed Andyman let's them on the air for two hours without asking them to play "It's the end of the world as we know it"

This is what your cd collection is for. If you have a hankering to hear Cracker or Cake or 3 Doors Down or Semisonic or Seven Mary Three, listen to it on your own time, but please don't repeatedly play it everyday, throw in a few songs by Interpol and the White Stripes and then proceed to call your station "new." A radio station is for new music, if it were for reveling in the "college rock" days than that should be the format. A 90's nostalgia station. I digged a great many bands from that era, but it seems like only the worst garbage (oh they play Garbage all the time too) from the 90's gets played. They were one hit wonders, that fucking Southern Culture on the Skids song or that "sitting in a phone booth" song. Stale stale stale stale stale. Will they ever try and delve into the lesser know realms of that time, play a goddamn Superchunk song instead of Red Hot Chili Peppers today. Try that. Or Pavement instead of R.E.M. Or maybe an old Built to Spill song instead of an old Pearl Jam song.

Maybe in twenty years I will want to be reminded of my high school years (probably not) but not now.

Yes, for the last time. CD101 does much more than the average station. Plays many different things when compared to the Blitz (but that's not saying much, at least the blitz will never play Bob Marley). But really folks, Independent Playground and Invisible Hits aside, do you really, honestly feel like turning on CD101 at 5p.m?

Amen, Brother. Amen.

Spoiled kids. You all sound like my five-year-old. Get over your bad indie selves and realize that commericial radio has very little to offer anyone with a brain. At times, CD 101 can be very good radio indeed. And it can also suck at times. "That's just the nature of the way things works."

Be satisfied with the fact that you do have something remotely independent in your own backyard and move on with your pathetic little lives. That's what I do.

PLAY LIST on Independent Playground 4/24:

Black Eyes Deformative $
Blanche Someday $
Buzzcocks Sick City Sometimes $
Calexico Quattro $
Calla Don't Hold Your Breath $
Coachwhips Nife Fight $
Dog Fashion Disco The Acid Memoirs $
Dwarves Satan $
El Guapo Just Don't Know $
Gadget Boredom Suits me Fine $
Ghost Orchids Synthesizer Brusies Nothing can Hurt You $
Goldfrapp Train $
Gossip, The Jason's Basement $
Gravy Train!!! Kottonmouth BJ $
Hint Hint Harry's Ass is a Picnic $
Hope Conspiracy, The Nervous Breakdown $
King Missile Give Me a Dollar $
Means, The Bordon Grote $
Melvins Little Judas $
Numbers Insomnia $
Officer May Obscurity Rules! $
Party of Helicopters Mic My Mind $
Party of Helicopters Never Ending Cycle $
Party of Helicopters Delta '88 $
Pleasure Forever Czarina $
Rapture, The Modern Romance $
Rye Coalition Speed Metal Tap Dancer $
Sicbay Herculaneum $
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Dark Wave $
Subtitle Unstoppable '03 $
Townsmen, The Hello Waitress $
Ultra Dolphins Duck Butter, Then $
Vells In Sunless Seas $
Whip, The Sheep & Goat Judgement $
Yo La Tengo Nuclear War $

once again, we're not testing the indie prowess independent playground seems to provide. we're against the everyday, everyman playlists pumped out the rest of the airtime.

I did hear Radiohead's new song today on CD101 when I was driving.

They're doing the guest DJ thing...I think Mr. Duffy should put together some songs and try to get on.

Ummm....why is Radiohead all starred out in that post?

MOOO HOO HAHAHHAHAHAH

In fact, they are having an hourlong guest DJ every day of May -- here's your chance, Duffy.

AtomicNed tossed his hat in the ring (can you imagine a full hour of Warrant, Skid Row, Spread Eagle, Sleeze Beez, Shark Island, Tigertailz?) about a week ago but hasn't heard back yet

i started putting together a list of stuff i think i should be able to hear on rock radio, but i never do, and i discovered that so far, out of 6 songs, every single band begins with a "the". what the fuck.
the new pornographers. the red and the black. the fire theft. the forms. the wrens. the postal service.

yes superunison, yes. you're catching my drift. why on earth wouldn't cd101 play a new pornographers song. it's like pure pop canadian kinks, with neko fucking case. or yes, the wrens. what about a songs:ohia song, or one from adult. on the radio. what a concept.

I'm amazed that this topic has gotten such a great response. At least I know I'm not alone.

I take it upon myself to respond to all of CD101's "Sounding Board" surveys, with a hefty extra few words tacked on at the end to express my distaste in the path they've chosen to take over the last few years. Make no mistake, those surveys are not anonymous, and I'm not very popular over there. All that aside... Andyman has responded to my rants now and again, and even invited me down to the station on one occasion so that I could see just how they choose that crappy music that they play day in and day out. I don't need to see it, I know how it's done. As has already been stated, it's all about the money. CD101 FINALLY made it into the top ten of the Columbus Arbitron ratings this year. While that does absolutely nothing for me, for them it means more advertising dollars. And more advertisers means more corporations they need to keep happy by only playing radio-friendly songs. And that's not going to change anytime soon...

Here's a remedy to CD101's lacking selection of "new" music: go to woxy.com and go to the "charts" section, and also check out "New Tunes Tuesday." Then proceed to buy and/or download all the tracks from their playlist. Stick them in your mp3 player or on your computer, and get rid of what you don't like, keep what you do, burn a CD and voila, you've got new radio anytime you want it, sans annoying DJs. Check into woxy every two weeks or so to see what's new and up-and-coming. Or, there's always Mojo, New Depression, Magnet and Rolling Stone to give you the lowdown on new artists. Sure as hell won't be finding out about new music from listening to the radio. Not anymore.

As for CD101's playlist, I finally took a look at their playlist and I couldn't believe my eyes -- almost EVERYTHING was new! Well, in the sense that it was "new" to CD101. The sad thing is that I check out the CD101 playlist on a regular basis, and it's been nearly six months since anything has changed. That's an awfully long time to keep the same old same old in rotation. I've been listening to the All-American Rejects since that CD came out MONTHS AND MONTHS ago. And The D4 have been making noise for a long time, same with Soundtrack of Our Lives, the Datsuns, the Libertines, etc, etc. Once in a long while one of those bands will make it onto their playlist (if there are no new Blink 182, Everclear, RedHotChiliPeppers or U2 songs to play in their place), but not often enough.

But look at it this way, at least they don't advertise to play "new music first." Oh wait, they do.

Imagine Columbus radio without CD 101. What radio are you going to listen to? WNCI's "top 7" format (they haven't dared play "top 40" in years)? Q-FM 96...for another ZZ Top song? SUNY 95? Maybe if you're old and/or gay. Maybe there's a good tune or two on WCBE...if you sit through 15 hours of Linda Wertheimer, tribal drum solos, and the Columbus Public School Board Meetings.

Look - the whole concept of "indie rock" or "music you don't hear everyday" is that it's actually going to piss off more people than it pleases. It's not music for the masses. As soon as one person customizes the playlist to his/her tastes, you've gone and alienated somebody else. Does CD 101's listenership or sponsorship go up when they play my band? Nope, but they play it anyway (not often enough, of course). Does CD 101's listenership or sponsorship drop when they refuse to play Dave Matthews? Sadly...it does. You can't truly have one without the other, at least not without a decent signal. CD 101 is doing their damnedest to please everybody...and even taking all of our shit for it. God no, it's far from perfect, but with government deregulation letting ClearChannel come in and Celine Dion-ize 90% of radio, I feel pretty freakin' fortunate to have 'em.

none.

cd101 is better than the other stations, okay, whatever. dogfood still tastes like dogfood.

you are wrong sabotage, the point is they don't have to play those dave matthews songs. have they ever attempted to play an RJD2 song in thier rotation. It sold over 300,000 copies in Europe, why wouldn't it be big on a "supposed" alternative station.

Or take for instance Pearl Jam. Thier new album, horrible. Their old stuff, quite dated when played literally 10 times a day at least. Why not take the initiative to not play Pearl Jam today. Or maybe Cracker. Cracker is a much better example. Will there be a day when a song like "Low" or maybe Live's "Lightning Crashes" or maybe The Cranberrie's "Zombie" or say.....(oh not again) RHCP's "Love Rollercoaster" can be retired, destroyed, declared never to be played again on CD101.

Do you think the advertisers care if this station plays more Jack Johnson or G. Love than it does Black Keys or Lightning Bolt? No, they don't. They probably don't even listen.

They can change with the times, if they want listeners in the future they gotta satisfy the kids. I know they have the power. I know they have the will, the dignity. Escape from the Planet of mid 90's nostalgia before it's too late.

Faustoid breaks my heart when he talks of Pearl Jam like that, but I love him anyway.

Rob "Member of Pearl Jam's Fanclub" Duffy
(dont make fun)

just using riot act as an example, don't worry i had a flannel and cargo shorts at one time too.

Well, if I knew the Indy Playground jocks read this board, I probably would have thought twice about slamming them. Still, I meant what I said: Like the music programming on the show, dislike the presentation.

I never said anything about contacting the FCC. Period. I love the station and would never do anything to harm CD101. That's the main reason the on-air swearing gets to me. It's gratutious and could easily bring the heat down on my favorite station. Am I personally offended by swearing? No. But, come on, a DJ on a top 10 (!) rated station should know (WAY) better. CD101 plays censored songs. They just started playing a version of The Roots 'Seed 2.0' that censors the word 'bitch' from the phrase 'bitch and whine' for chrissakes!! Cussing on-air is just plain stupid. And immature. And unprofessional.

The Blue Jackets games on CD101 are not ratings winners. Personally, as a huge hockey fan and player since age 5, I think it's cool that we can get play-by-play on an FM station. Still, the station takes a huge ratings hit during those broadcasts. So why do they do it? THEY'RE SUPPORTING COLUMBUS OHIO, BABY! Not just by playing local music, but by supporting out first major league sports team. Their web stream features music during the games.

I like WCBE a lot. I voulntered (sp?) there for years and am a 'member'. They play TONS of local music and lots of cool indy or otherwise obscure music. That said, all the talk shows are a huge drawback. You have to listen to WCBE like you watch TV...remember what times the music shows are on. And that sucks. Hard.

We had an AWESOME pirate station in Columbus for a while. It came in great in Clintonville and I listened to it to the exclusion of my CDs and any other station...when it was on, I was listening. Then the Other Paper went and did a story on it. And the FCC shut it down within days of the story. Awwwwwww

The Crew is a major league sports team.

I want play by play of soccer.

I love IP. But I gotta admit, I'm a little tired of hearing "Superman" every day. Does anybody like this song anymore? And I'm a bit suprised that they aren't a little more current. I have heard this damn song at least 4 times in the last week.

I have to disagree. At CD101, it IS music for the masses. Music that won't offend. Music that can be played in the background of a secretary's desk. Music that the GENERAL PUBLIC will listen to.

I'm not asking that they cater to my specific tastes. But I would like to be exposed to new music, so that maybe I hear about new bands and expand my horizons a bit. So that maybe when Ben Lee or The Datsuns or Stephen Malkmus come to town I might catch their shows because I heard them on the radio. I can't get that if they're always playing the same songs.

I give Tom and Rudy all the kudos in the world for what they do. They have a fantastic specialty show. Yes, they play music that doesn't normally get airplay, and that's a good thing. And I enjoy the witty banter between the two DJs. They're both extremely knowledgeable in what they play. But to say that their specialty show, great though it may be, makes up for the way the music is selected for the rest of the week is innane. That would be like saying "because we play one hour of reggae, you reggae fans out there should be satisfied," and thus declare themselves a "reggae-friendly" station. Maybe that's a bad example, but hopefully you get my point.

We're lucky to have CD101. And those of you who say without it, what would we listen to, you're exactly right. They play music (The Strokes, The White Stripes, and all other "The"-starting bands) that no one else in town will touch. But just because we have something good, doesn't mean we can't want it to be better. There are a lot of holes in CD101's programming -- one glaring fact is the need to reduce the amount of airplay given to "CD101 artists" -- like Pearl Jam and the other outdated and overplayed bands from the 90's.

I've only been a listener for the last seven years, so it probably isn't right for me to compare how it is now to how it used to be. But just in the last few years, or more rather ever since they switched their tagline from "Stuff you don't hear everyday" to "The Alternative Station," I see that as being their breaking point. What isn't alternative these days? CD101 plays (or has played in the last year) the exact same songs heard on 97.1, 97.9, Qfm96 and TheBlitz. Argue with that all you want (I'm not saying their entire playlists were identical, but the number of cross-over "alternative" artists was ridiculous) but the fact remains they weren't playing "stuff you don't hear everyday." They were merely tapping into the already over-saturated "alternative" listener pool of all the other stations in town.

1) We're lucky to have CD101.

2) We have the right to want to see it to its full potential.

i was going to keep my thoughts to myself on this subject. to be perfectly honest, i'm generally happy if people are talking about us, good or bad. you know the old saying, there is no such thing as bad publicity, but i digress. this quote from "schmoopatties" did upset me. if you had known we read this board, you wouldn't have slammed us? what on earth are you talking about? this is the internet. billions of people are connected worldwide via this grand communications tool. this is a columbus music message board. of course we're going to read it. especially if we're being dissed. say what you want, just have a bit of courage and say it to me, not behind my back.

xoxo
tom

oh, thanks to all for the support! we have a ton of great interviews coming up and possibly a few more surprises. stay tuned!

Although the stuff that Tom and Rudy play on the Independent Playground isn't always my cup of tea (a little too much noisy punk), I'd LOVE for them to get a prime time slot once a week. The show is on too late for us working stiffs who have to be up at 7am to go to work for the MAN. Perhaps during the prime time slot they could play music that is a little easier on the ears -- there are plenty of good indie rock bands that have a "commercial" sound, if you will -- bands like the Wrens, 84 Nash, Caviar (who were once on a major label).

And FYI -- I've discovered quite a few GREAT bands by listening to the Independent Playground. My latest obsession is the new Caustic Resin CD which I actually had been sent a copy of but had never listened to until I heard a song on the Playground a few weeks ago that sounded a LOT like old school Black Sabbath.

Let's be clear that I'm not saying CD 101 is the ultimate in radio programming. However, it is the best we have. I'm all for the constructive criticism of the station...and CD 101 should be as well if they want to remain in touch with their listeners. But I don't understand those who go out of their way to slam it when every other station is much more deserving. Is CD 101 "alternative" in the opinion of the average DW.com member? Nope, but that's because we're all music snobs. But it is a lot more alternative than every other station (despite some overlap). And though far from perfect, the state of Columbus radio would be a lot worse if we didn't have it. It may be somebody's dogfood, but egad - the alternatives are dogshit!