I’m 32 years old. I’ve got a great job that I love, a girlfriend whom I adore, a nice car, a family that loves me, a sweet house about 5 minutes out of the city, and enough money to eat a decent meal each day.
But still, I’m homeless. Radio homeless.
How did this happen?!?!
As a 32 year old, I have no radio home. No place where I feel really comfortable listening.
On alternative radio, I feel old – the Uni assignment chat on the brekky show, the continuous stream of indie kids probably wearing fluoro singlets and flat-brims, and the new hip-hop/electro/indie clash bands. It’s all a little too young & cool for me.
On adult-rock radio, I feel a bit too young – Chisel, The Oils, AC/DC, INXS, they’ve all got their place, but it’s probably not in my ears. There’s not enough there to challenge me, or satisfy my need for the alternative experience I’ve developed for myself.
On top-40 radio, I find it hard to wade through the commercials only to get slapped about by Taylor Swifts’ candied lyrics and One Directions boy-band tripe. It’s just not my scene.
On the AM’s, I feel ignored. There’s too much political banter, too many BAD 60s songs (there were good tunes back then, right???), and too many radio jocks who used to be hip, telling my exactly how hip they USED to be.
I don’t live in the Western Suburbs, with a wife, 4 teeth, 6 kids and 9 Commodores. I’m not a mum dropping my kids to school in the Prado. I’m not a teenage girl who’s 14 but dresses like Katy Perry. I’m not wearing my pants low and my baseball-cap high. I’m not swallowing pills every Friday night, dancing like a knob & looking for fights.
I’m a well-educated, well-spoken, well-travelled, financially-independent, friendly, down-to-earth, easy-going person from the ‘burbs who went to Uni, played in a few bands, played a bit of sport, and most importantly, LOVES great music.
I’m not catered to on the radio dial. At all.
I graduated from Triple J when I turned 27 or so. So where do I turn to next?
Why is there no breakfast show on the radio that caters to people with great taste in music when they turn 30??!?! Once you’re cooked on Triple J, there’s nowhere to turn. You get force-fed commercial music at every single turn. For people who aren’t hugely passionate about music, that’s all they need, a bit of background noise to sing-a-long with.
I don’t want Noiseworks – I want Ryan Adams. I don’t want Katy Perry – I want Beastie Boys. I don’t want Shock-One – I want The Strokes. I want The Kinks, The Tallest Man On Earth, Paul Simon, Regina Spektor, The Doors, Bright Eyes, New Order, Manchester Orchestra, Led Zep, Weezer, Billy Bragg, Death Cab For Cutie, Joy Division, Fleet Foxes, Gaslight Anthem, Iggy Pop, Dashboard Confessional, Neil Young, The Avett Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, Pearl Jam, Talking Heads and Young The Giant.
I want them all, and their friends on the one playlist.
I want a breakfast show that talks about mortgage rates and beer prices at Splendour, about relevant politics and relevant TV shows like Sons Of Anarchy, The Wire, Game Of Thrones and anything other than Big Brother and The Block. I want sport, I want comedy, I want news, I want music news, I want movie reviews. But done well for a change.
I don’t want Gotcha Calls, Beat The Bomb, Hit Or Shit, or non-stop-blocks-of-rock. I don’t want my head ripped off by Dubstep at 7am, or to be force-fed Creed while I’m driving home.
I want relevance.
I want real life on the radio.
Has my generation been forgotten by the radio programmers of this country? It certainly feels like it!
So I’m back to iTunes, Spotify, Guvera, Rdio, YouTube, or however else I can get my fix. Lord knows it ain’t on the radio dial.
-Anonymous
