Series – The Radio: 106.5 Mix 106

Today’s instalment is Mix 106.5 (More Music. More Variety), another Bayshore Broadcasting station. I’m listening on the same hour (11am to 12pm).

This is one I’ve been dreading, actually. Why? I heard A LOT of this station, working at the bank. The radio was on all day, always tuned to this. And it was always on that insidious volume where it’s just loud enough you can hear it but not loud enough you could actually hear it. The manager seemed to think it helped the time pass, but it could not ever interrupt client transactions, so they found this secret formula volume that was ‘just right’ and it was awful. Neither here nor there. Either shit or get off the pot, I say! Have it on, or don’t. Blah. Except at Christmas, then they turned that shit up. Oh man. You wanna piss me off? Play Christmas music at me for 8 hours. I will break things inside 10 minutes, let alone a whole shift.

Anyway, at that time, this station played a lot of stuff I really disliked – new pop and crap artists that pass as the new “r&b.” Aretha must shudder. We’ll see what’s in the rotation these days…

Looking at the main web page, it’s links to events, blogs, podcasts, news sports (I like that they separate news and sports – I don’t really consider a diversion like sports to be news on par with world events). In the upper right is a Now Playing that updates almost fast enough to be in real time (it seems to be about one song behind).

And here we are. I am nothing if not dedicated. I’ve started this series and I must finish it, no matter the challenge to my own musical tastes, despite my trepidation about possibly hearing Robin Thicke or Beyonce multiple times in this hour…

So, into the breach!

It’s 11 am, and it’s 13C with winds WNW 21 gusting at 45 km/h. The forecast is mostly cloudy with sunny periods and scattered showers.

Deep breath.

Here we go.

station id
Walk Off The Earth – Shake (R.E.V.O.)

station id
Oasis – Live Forever

station id
Kings Of Leon – Temple

blather (the DJ is Rod West)
* weirdly, he said Don Henley’s Boys Of Summer had played before Paul Simon, but it didn’t!
Paul Simon – Graceland

station id
Theory Of A Deadman – All Or Nothing

blather, weather
dr. oz spot (strawberries fighting cholesterol)
blather
community cruiser spot
commercials (5: sauble beach events, real estate, furniture, united way, financial advisers)
weather report (we might set a record for record low today 15C!)

station id
community notebook (chi cheemaun calendar)

*** my neighbour rang the doorbell at this point, so I missed about 2 minutes. I assume the Chi Cheemaun thing ended, there was a station id, and then the next song. There might have been something else in the middle there, but I just won’t know.

Magic! – Don’t Kill The Magic

blather
Cars – Let The Good Times Roll

station commercial for contest (win $5000!)

Nickelback – When We Stand Together

blather (this DJ has a weird vocal delivery)
commercials (5: nurse awards nominations, cars, oil changes, ribfest, paint store)

station id
One Republic – Love Runs Out

station id
Pearl Jam – Elderly Woman Behind The Counter in A Small Town

blather about the Kardashians
* weirdly, he said Sloan’s The Rest Of My Life had played before Pearl Jam, but it never played.
community cruiser spot
commercials (2: cars, dairy queen ice cream)
station id
commercials (1: bell telephone bundles)

station id
Green Day – When I Come Around
Sam Roberts – Bridge To Nowhere

And now it’s 12pm and time for news. It’s 13C, with winds WNW 21 gust at 45 km/h. It’s mostly cloudy with sunny periods and scattered showers.

So here’s what we got:

6 times the DJ talked
9 station IDs
13 commercials
2 weather updates
3 community news spots
1 station contest spot
1 dr. oz spots
2 songs claimed to have played but didn’t
12 songs played

In Sum:

First off, let me express my relief that the format seems to have changed away from non-stop Miley Cyrus and other pop tart crap that I used to hear all the time. What we got instead is a sort of amalgam of the 94.5 Bull and 92.3 The Dock stations. Some pop, some rock.

As for the songs played, I enjoyed the Pearl Jam, of course, and the Green Day was a fun nostalgia goof. The Nickelback was pretty bad (my opinion), and the Theory Of A Deadman track sounded like Nickelback’s clone. Or are they the same band doing a side-project? I don’t know much about it.  The Sam Roberts track has a totally Pixies guitar part, especially at the intro. And the One Republic song sounds like a Eurythmics cover. It could well be. Oh, and they also edited the f-bomb out of the Walk Off The Earth track. Instead of inserting something else in its place, they just left a blank.

I have no idea why the DJ announced two tracks that weren’t even played (and I’m bummed, I’d have enjoyed hearing Sloan!). Maybe he was reading off a different playlist than the computer was actually playing? Weird.

The rest, as far as DJ talking and commercials and all of that, went pretty much as expected.

Will I tune in to this in future? Unlikely.

So. I have emerged relatively unscathed. One more day to go! And tomorrow will be a very interesting one…