One Big Holiday on the radio?

[Garth69]

My girlfriend tells me that she's now hearing this one on the radio, as well as 'Golden'. In fact, she heard them both yesterday on WXRT in Chicago. Anybody else heard it? It was cool to hear 'Golden' on her radio/alarm clock one morning a few weeks ago as I was getting up.

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

I know I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to insert my "louisville radio sucks" rant here.

For the love of all that's holy, is there any reason, ANY at all, that the stations in this town can't dedicate a few minutes each day to play ONE FUCKING MMJ SONG?  I feel goddamn strong about this.  It makes me sad and totally PISSED OFF that the best band in town can't get regular airplay.  I might understand if MMJ had like, one single and an EP out, but fer chrissakes, there's such a rich tapestry of songs on EVERY FREAKIN' PIECE OF MEDIA THEY'VE EVER PUT OUT that blow away a lot of the tripe that gets passed off to us as "cool".  If all of the stations in town just cut their station ID's by 10-20%, they would have all the time in the world to dedicate to an incredible local act that everyone claims to love so much, but just can't get around to playing them on the radio.  

ONE FUCKING TUNE A DAY.  Stop gabbering about yourselves for one goddamn day and you'd have a whole block of time to dedicate-shit, you could PLAY MMJ ALL DAY LONG if you'd stop yammering station ID's, promos about yourselves, inane commentary, etc.  

Maybe I don't get it, I'm not cool enough to understand the workings of crappy FM stations in a small market town.  I'm puzzled to no freakin' end as to why the best band in town doesn't get regular airplay.  If somehow I'm missing the playings of these tunes between the sleepy time shit that gets played CONSTANTLY, its because I'm so freakin' bored with the programming that I can't sit through 9 songs of Pitchfork-endorsed schlock or Bob Seger, or Boston, or Nickleback, or Blink-182, or yammering idiots on talk radio.

It's simple:  Play the songs.  MMJ DESERVES a bit more exposure in its hometown.  Anyone who's ever been to shows lately knows that they have a loyal following, growing every day.  Doesn't that equal more radio play?

If it doesn't, then I don't get it.  I can recall shows in the early days when there were less than 20 people-while the guys were selling out in the Netherlands.  Why?

In those days, you heard a few tunes sprinkled here and there-don't get me wrong, without a chance radio flip of the dial I wouldn't have been struck by "the bear" like I was-but not enough for mass exposure/regular doses for the junkies.

I am not advocating an I-tunes sponsored world tour, or any other such hype nonsense.  I am simply asking that the radio stations in My Morning Jacket's home-fucking-town play their music more often.  We have to endure countless rotations of Mr. Mellencamp just because he's from Indiana...he's spun on the 80s station, the two classic rawk stations, and god knows what else not because its all that good, but because he's a "local".  Hogwash.

[Garth69]

That's too bad. I happen to like Seger and Boston but I know what you mean. WXRT is kinda in between NPR style and classic rock, which is maybe something Louisville doesn't have on a bigger budget scale. Plus they play a lot of godawful crap alongside good stuff, so it's still not the best station, but they have been pushing MMJ a great deal. It's all big-money market research and PR payola, and somehow that research is telling Louisville programmers that they shouldn't be playing MMJ. I don't get it either, especially at this point.

[MMJ_fanatic]

hey jc,
up here they're playin TWO MMJ songs.  I keep pushing them for more tho'.  request operators are going to block my number  ;)

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

Hey, sorry for the bad vibes on my ranting post.  As you may be able to tell, my CD player has died a cruel death in my car.  Radio is all I've got at this point and it's like having poison ivy all over your body in July and you're trapped in a car with vinyl seats!

peace.  may the radio gods hear my plea.

[marktwain]

John, I feel yer pain!

My car cd player has expired as well, and louisville radio just doesn't cut it.  Now, I am grateful for WFPL for playing MMJ from the very beginning, but they also play way too much crap.  And it seems like lately I've been hearing a lot of classic rawk on WFPK.  Not that I don't love some 70s rawk now and again, but there are already plenty of local outlets for that genre.  Public radio should provide an alternative! >:(

So, it's the cassettes for me.  And books on tape from the library have become my best friends, especially for the long commutes.

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

yo, i thought i was all alone in my disappointment of louisville radio!  wow, sure is good to know my observations haven't been all wacky.  

Listen up, radio programmers:  make your playlists longer, with more variety, less commercials/station ID's, and definitely more MMJ.  

[sweatboard]

I understand your frustration John, I really don't like listening to the radio but we have a college station thats really good, and two stations that will dedicate an hour or two a week to local music, and play some good stuff inbetween all the crap that's on thier standard play list. So if my cd player died I would be able to survive surfing between those three.  My suggestion would be to just turn off the radio and belt out a couple of your favorites acappela.

[MMJ_fanatic]

right now it seems the trend is for the indie/smaller stations to play the guys more and I figure its due to the larger market stations being more or less puppets of the industry.  WBCN up here has played them some but I feel like they've slipped through the cracks some there, just wish I could figure how to influence someone there to pull them out more often and during high listening times--all people need is that first listen...

[lfish]

Well here in Belgium they started to play golden on the radio, but I heard it only two times. After promotion and touring stopped, also airplay dropped, which is a pitty.

Last I was attending a festival and I was imagining the jacket was upon stage.  I was immediate convinced that when the jacket stood there on that very moment, waw man, they blew the joint away.  Allas, I'm still waiting for this to happen.

Maybe next year....