Quote:
Originally Posted by Deelow
Guess what? CBC radio 3 is not a commercial radio station. They are not trying to make money and they don't make money...it doesn't really matter what they do. Apples and oranges.
Hundreds of great local bands? You have got to be kidding me? There are only a handful of bands in Calgary that have gone through the process of actually professionally recording their music. Some dude walks into the radio station and hands the Music Director a crap CDR that he made in his mom's basement of course it's going to go into the garabage where it belongs. I am not positive but I believe that X is required to play 40% cancon which puts them at a disadvantage in relation to CJAY and other stations in the market. Of course they are going to make sure that the songs they are playing have the biggest impact.
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First off, most of the bands that I know who record a demo CD produce some artwork for it so that they have something more than a 'crap CDR' to hand in. Recording demos these days is so much easier than in the analog days, and it is easier (and cheaper) to produce a professional quality recording now than it was 20 years ago.
I can remember bands such as Sloan, Barenaked Ladies, Treble Charger, Pursuit of Happiness, etc. getting radio play (even, in some cases, high rotation play) even before having a major label debut. BNL received a lot of buzz and radio play based on their self-produced tape, for instance (IIRC, it was the first indie tape to go platinum). Early versions of such songs as
Underwhelmed, If I Had $1000000, Red, Even Grable, and
I'm An Adult Now all were indie hits which were re-recorded when the bands signed to a big label. The fact is, there are some gems out there in the demos and it is the responsibility of the so-called "alternative" stations such as x92.9 to present them. Instead, it is places like CBC and campus radio that have to test market indie music. It seems to me that songs that if a song has a proven following, it's not really "alternative" anymore - just a different flavour of pop music.