My favorite radio station is Radio Nigel found in iTunes (under Radio). I listen to them everyday off of my computer (with Airport hooked up in my office to send the music wireless downstairs to Altec speakers I can put anywhere – they sound great and they are only 6 inches tall. Cost $35 after rebate.) Go to the section called 70s/80s Pop then scroll down to Radio Nigel. Here's just a sampling of what they were playing during the ten minutes I wrote this post;
06:31:49 Men At Work - Overkill
06:31:42 Bump G2 - Quite Enough ID
06:28:42 Generation X - One Hundred Punks
06:25:02 Gang Of Four - Is it love
06:21:19 Shriekback - Lined Up
06:21:08 Bump E3 - So Help You God
06:16:07 David Bowie - Cat People (Putting Out Fire with Gasoline)
06:08:18 U2 - Bad (live)
06:05:07 Public Image Ltd. - The Body
06:01:27 The Smiths - I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
What hooked me was their very funny spots (ads). I wrote them in San Diego and yesterday I got a call from Steve West, the Radio Nigel DJ. We discussed possible ads for my book and he agreed to do the voice overs, which was very nice. He explained that, like me, he missed the old radio stations like WLIR, WBRE and other Long Island stations of the 80s that played cutting edge college music. I went to high school in Long Island where I remember myself feeling like an outcast listening to the Dead Kennedys, The Split Enz, The Furs, X, Thomas Dolby while everyone else was into Billy Joel, Kansas and a bunch of embarrassing LI bands like Good Rats, Foghat and, ugh, I'm starting to get a headache...I don't know how I would have got through it without those stations (actually I didn't quite make it, starting art classes "early" in Manhattan at Pratt and Cooper instead of attending my senior year in H.S. I sat in on classes I wasn't registered for and then got early scholarships from them.). 
Gotta run and write that copy for the Radio Nigel ad!
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4 comments:
Billy Joel still beats the shit out of the lousy bands you were listening to back in the day.
Lordy, Bob...stop The Madness ("yes...it IS a very fine house...)...The sadness that must have washed over you as u as u wrote those words: "and then I got early scholarships from them."...sniffles!...I listened (and saw!) almost all the bands listed and will say, that FOGHAT (New Haven Coliseum, night B4 my SATS!!!) was better live than SPLIT ENZ (New Haven again: Opening for The Police!)...and, I thunk, SLOWRIDE holds up lots better than I GOT YOU (though the limited edition holographic 45 really rawwwwked) and let's be honest now, SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE doesn't hold up any better than THE POINT OF NO RETURN...c'mon, bubbe...buck up...we all felt like outcasts...that's why we all went to art school! And the REAL sad fact is we weren't/aren't as "special" as we'd like to think we were/are... And to the kids (Like my 17 year old), getting misty over Echo and The Bunnyman induces the same gag reflex in them that I got when my mom dropped the needle on the "latest" Andy Williams LP...So please: "Don't go changin', to try and please me...I luv u just the way u is"... Jay
Well, bully for you.
I've just discovered Radio Nigel and I'm totally in love.
I went to a Kansas concert when I was in college, and it was the death blow to my always-limited tolerance of arena rock. I left the venue fantasizing about what it would be like to see a band whose lyrics showed some sense of humor, and whose light show consisted of a single bare light bulb swinging over the singer's head -- and lo and behold, there was Wall of Voodoo!
Screw Journey. Stan Ridgway rules!
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