Radio Heads

CHANGING THE DIAL

[BOX]

CHANGING THE DIAL

Wanna make a rock star shut up? Ask him or her about radio. Still, a few brave musicians shared their thoughts on the current state of FM.

BONNIE RAITT "I'm for diversity and not having everything coagulated into one corporate monster. The same thing that's going on in Washington is happening in radio, and we ought to break it open."

ROB THOMAS (matchbox twenty) "Years ago, Frank Zappa [said] he foresaw the music business changing and how he saw radio changing. He predicted that one day there would be a big Clear Channel thing that owned all these different stations--and that's correct."

LUDACRIS "It's definitely becoming too corporate, but that's what the whole music industry is--a political game. You have to learn how to play the game; it's a business. It's about knowing the right people and having the kinds of songs everybody in the audience is looking for. Music catalogs are getting a lot bigger--especially in hip-hop. Now you have hip-hop that's 15 years old. So you not only have to come out with old-school hip-hop stations but ones to showcase songs from four or five years ago. Then you have satellite radio. You have more competition, which is how it's supposed to be."

BURT BACHARACH "I think radio is really desperate. I used to love driving around and hearing Gladys and Aretha. And I don't hear those people anymore. I always gravitated toward urban radio. So I play CDs now in the car."

ART ALEXAKIS (Everclear) "Sometimes I think radio is really sad and pathetic, and sometimes I think it's horrible. No, sometimes I get very depressed listening to radio, and then sometimes I listen to certain songs and I think it is going to be okay. I think [of] bands like the Strokes who are getting a lot of play. I'm amazed, and I think it's very cool."

SIR ELTON JOHN "I listen [to radio] when I'm in Atlanta. I just find it too categorized. It's either pop, hard rock, or alternative. I like radio to play everything. I hope it will change because it's so boring."

ON THE RADIO

If only Dr. Johnny Fever could hear this. Below, a random sampling of music currently spinning on dueling satellite outfits Sirius and XM.

SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO

My Vitriol, "Always Your Way" Jaguar Wright, "I Don't Know" Norah Jones, "Cold Cold Heart" B-Tribe, "Sometimes" Moby, "We Are All Made of Stars" Itzhak Perlman, Beethoven's "Kreutzer" sonata Ned Otter, "The Best Thing for You" The Flatlanders, "My Wildest Dreams Grow Wilder Everyday" Kenny Chesney, "The Good Stuff" Midwikid, "Debo"

XM SATELLITE RADIO

John Coltrane, A Love Supreme Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" Hank Williams, "Long Gone Lonesome Blues" The Three Tenors, "Nessun Dorma" Led Zeppelin, "Carouselambra" Moby, "We Are All Made of Stars" The Chieftains, "Ferny Hill" Genesis, "The Fountain of Salmacis" Slayer, "South of Heaven" The String Cheese Incident, "Rollover"