August 30th, 2006 Davis
For my entire life I’ve fantasized about being a radio DJ. It started when I was just a kid when I would take my FM receiver and from about midnight to 2 AM and I would secretly tune into the local classic rock radio station and listen intently to music that had been created before I had been born. I’m not sure why classic rock appealed to me so much at that time in life, but I do remember that when I would listen to the radio during the day it just didn’t feel the same. The music wasn’t as powerful, the DJs didn’t spend the time to really talk to their audience, life felt more rushed, it was mass market pop whereas my midnight shows always felt like they were being broadcasted directly to me.
For a long time I pursued trying to break into radio and for about a month I actually had a bit part in a morning show in Los Angeles reviewing movies. Later on, I worked as a commercial editor for a station owned by Bob Newhart and as an accountant for a company that not only broadcast the Dr. Laura Show, but also did the Howard Stern show (who ever thought the same company could run two radically different programs?) During my time in radio, it was long enough to figure out that the DJs don’t really control anything and that the playlists were dictated by financial arangements with the studios, but it was brief enough to give me a taste of an industry that when I retire someday I still hope to come back to.
As media has evolved, so has radio. Satellite has taken a big bite out of terrestrial radio and podcasting now threatens to tip the balance of power away from the studios completely. The studios have done their best to defend their monopolies, but there has been little that they could do to actual slow microcasting let alone stop it. Overall, I view these changes as remarkably positive because I believe that the ease of distribution over the net allows independent bands to find niche audiences and it gives new talent an opportunity to make their voice heard. With so many different podcasts, it can produce a lot of noise, but at the same time listeners have been good at figuring out what they like and aggregation services may soon replace the studios in determining who the Howard Sterns of the internet will be. This whole evolution has been remarkably exciting to watch, but I’ve resisted jumping in and realizing my long lost dream of broadcasting my voice to the world largely because the media still controls the rights to many of my favorite songs and to go out and try and get the copyright permissions of independent bands I enjoy is a daunting and unweidly task for an independent publisher.
If I wanted to do talk radio, podcasting would be a real solution, but my dream is to do a midnight to 2 am show featuring some of my favorite off the beaten path artists and songs. Instead of playing the same three songs by an artist I would delve into alternative tracks, b-sides and older albums that never got played becaue they weren’t with a major label. Because the studios have yet to figure out a way to make money by offering their music up to podcasters, it’s prevented me from wanting to start podcasting on my blog, but in the meantime alternatives have been developing.
One of these alternatives has been Pandora. Pandora has been one of my favorite sites for about six months now and while I know that I jumped on the bandwagon a little late, their algorithms continue to impress me as I’ve noticed that night after night after night the quality of what I hear gets more and more customized to my own unique tastes. At first I was a little frustrated because they would only let me skip so many songs an hour, but I’ve now come to the point where 95% of what plays on my personalized playlist sounds like pure gold to me. Since I don’t see the studios coming around and embracing citizen radio in the next few years I’ve decided to do the next best thing and to publish my personal Pandora radio stream so that all of my readers have an opportunity to take a look into my musical tastes and preferences. While you won’t hear me philosophizing about the deep issues that seem to come up between midnight and 2 AM and you won’t get to hear my own take on each song, you will be able to at least catch a glimpse of the sound that drives me. Therefore ladies and gentlemen I present to you, Davis Freeberg’s Midnight Hour. It may not be the same thing as having my own station, but it’s a good alternative and something that will continue to evolve as I use the service. I hope that you enjoy the stream as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it.
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