Living in the suburbs means that you do a lot of driving, and hence a lot of listening to the radio. Normally, I suppose, I listen to CDs but seeing as how mine are all in boxes in a lock-up in Ottawa, I'm forced to listen to the declining standards of Canadian radio.
Is it just me or has radio in Toronto not changed in 15 years? Q107 is still playing "psychadelic snacks" on Saturdays, and "the Edge" 102.1 is moving further from that edge by playing Nirvana weekends and copious amounts of Tragically Hip, Nickelback and Smashing Pumpkins. I even caught one station pumping out the Bryan Adams classic "Cuts like a knife", no doubt to fill their Canadian content quota. Now don't get me wrong, with the exception of Nickelback (bite my tongue), I'm a big fan of the other artists mentioned. I just don't see how any of it is "edgy" or new. If you're lucky you might catch a new Metric tune (they are critical darlings with their new release, for good reason), but otherwise Toronto radio stations are playing the same stuff and the same artists they've been playing when I was thinking about how to approach that girl in Gr 9 math class. I do like the trip down nostalgia lane, but it would be nice if a commercial radio station had the balls to step out of the "classic rock" format and break some new artists. There's enough new talent out there to fill stadiums, but we never hear these bands on the radio. Most of these new artists are finding their own way through Myspace, Internet radio, or just being featured as the Itunes tune of the day. It may be a sad fact that commercial radio will go the way of the dodo if the programmers don't catch up with the times and leave high school behind.
Here's to hoping that I don't hear "Rape Me" today.
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