For some reason they were playing Live 105 at my gym this afterenoon. I hadn't listened to them for an extended period in a long time. And damn they're a worthless radio station. Christ on a cracker -- they've still got "Little Lion Man" in rotation. Virtually everything I heard in 2 hours was a (today's) KFOG staple, except for maybe 2 songs, one of which was "We Are Young" by Fun (presumably new?). But it was Green Day and Cake and Foster the People and Black Keys and Florence and RHCPs and Coldplay and AL's beloved Foos. It's like KFOG without the '80s gold (in other words KFOG without the handful of things that make KFOG bearable). The oldest thing I heard was Beck's "Loser". Oh and there were the ads for AdamAndEve.com -- ick.
Yes, that station is a disaster and has been since CBS took over. It's as much as a disaster as Alice and Star (Mix isn't quite as bad yet, but it's coming up close.)
Live 105's current Top 50:
lw TW Artist Title TW lw Move Aud
4 1 GOTYE Somebody That I Used To Know 64 50 14 0.4833
1 2 COLDPLAY Paradise 62 64 -2 0.4677
2 3 BLACK KEYS Lonely Boy 61 63 -2 0.4802
6 4 M83 Midnight City 54 35 19 0.4281
11 5 NEON TREES Animal 49 32 17 0.3871
12 6 FOO FIGHTERS These Days 33 31 2 0.2728
5 7 GROUPLOVE Tongue Tied 31 46 -15 0.2383
7 8 NAKED AND FAMOUS Young Blood 31 35 -4 0.2439
8 9 YOUNG THE GIANT Cough Syrup 31 35 -4 0.2545
35 10 BLACK KEYS Gold On The Ceiling 30 14 16 0.2259
3 11 FOSTER THE PEOPLE Don't Stop (Color On The Walls 30 53 -23 0.2344
37 12 FUN. We Are Young f/Janelle Monae 30 13 17 0.2259
9 13 SILVERSUN PICKUPS Panic Switch 27 33 -6 0.2081
75 14 OF MONSTERS AND MEN Little Talks 26 1 25 0.1775
34 15 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Shake It Out 25 15 10 0.1903
17 16 WIZ KHALIFA/SNOOP DOGG Young, Wild & Free f/B. Mars 25 23 2 0.1762
26 17 FOO FIGHTERS Rope 24 20 4 0.1929
29 18 AVICII Levels (ID) 23 19 4 0.158
21 19 DIRTY HEADS Lay Me Down f/Rome 23 21 2 0.1816
28 20 PHOENIX 1901 23 20 3 0.1728
24 21 RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS Adventures Of Rain Dance... 23 21 2 0.1855
32 22 BLACK KEYS Tighten Up 22 18 4 0.185
22 23 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE Dog Days Are Over 21 21 0 0.1632
23 24 MUMFORD & SONS Little Lion Man 21 21 0 0.1704
27 25 MUMFORD & SONS The Cave 21 20 1 0.1602
25 26 CAGE THE ELEPHANT Shake Me Down 20 20 0 0.1351
10 27 FOSTER THE PEOPLE Pumped Up Kicks 20 32 -12 0.1596
20 28 PHOENIX Lisztomania 20 22 -2 0.1668
15 29 BLINK 182 After Midnight 19 25 -6 0.1605
14 30 SKRILLEX Scary Monsters And Nice ... 19 26 -7 0.1431
31 31 BLACK KEYS Howlin' For You 18 18 0 0.149
36 32 EXAMPLE Changed The Way You Kiss Me 15 13 2 0.0821
0 33 NAKED AND FAMOUS Punching In A Dream 14 0 14 0.1068
0 34 RISE AGAINST Satellite 14 0 14 0.1027
13 35 ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS Beekeeper's Daughter 13 28 -15 0.086
33 36 SHINS Simple Song 12 16 -4 0.0477
44 37 FRANZ FERDINAND No You Girls 8 5 3 0.0554
42 38 LINKIN PARK New Divide 8 7 1 0.0554
38 39 NEON TREES Everybody Talks 8 12 -4 0.0302
18 40 RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS Monarchy Of Roses 8 23 -15 0.0586
19 41 BUSH The Sound Of Winter 7 22 -15 0.0553
0 42 COLDPLAY Charlie Brown 7 0 7 0.051
39 43 LANA DEL REY Video Games 7 10 -3 0.0091
41 44 LINKIN PARK Waiting For The End 7 8 -1 0.0571
30 45 FOO FIGHTERS Walk 6 19 -13 0.0444
40 46 SKRILLEX Bangarang 6 10 -4 0.0242
46 47 THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS This Is War 6 4 2 0.053
47 48 MUSE Resistance 5 3 2 0.021
43 49 MUSE Undisclosed Desires 5 7 -2 0.0431
45 50 WEEZER I Want To 5 5 0 0.0295
Listening to them makes one appreciate KFOG more...pre-or-post DC (depending on one's prerogative.) The top three songs have over 60 spins apiece, the next two are ~50. Compare that to KFOG's top 5, which have around 33-37 (and even that's gone up. It used to be right at 30.) Then, #s six through twelve all have 30+ spins.
That block of songs from #19-28 is particularly troublesome, considering the newest ones are Raindance Maggie or Pumped Up Kicks but they still have at least 20 spins. Everything else is at least one year old. Heck, some of those are
two years old.
Such as "1901," "Lisztomania"...and why the heck are they still playing both of those? "Little Lion Man" & "The Cave" aren't far behind, and their newer song "Roll Away Your Stone" is nowhere to be found. On a related note, "Panic Switch," which is also about two years old, is still at #13. They've had a number of singles since them, which Live 105 played for a few weeks and then dropped (including "Broken Bottles," which is
still charting on alternative) all while holding onto "Panic Switch."
There are a few bright spots, like seeing Gotye at #1. It's probably going to stay on their playlist for the next 14 years, but at least 64 spins are being used up by a band that doesn't have any other songs that sound exactly like it already on their playlist
yet. Ditto with M83 at #4. It's also nice to see Avicii, Skrillex and Example. And The Naked And Famous, too although it's annoying that they're only
now playing "Punching in a Dream," which is about to go recurrent, while "Young Blood" is a year old and still in ~30ish rotation.
The main problem is...it's becoming so difficult to sit through all the rest of the nonsense to hear something worth hearing. This really used to be a good station. The only times it's good are their new music program, Soundcheck on Sun. nites from 7-10 (but it's the same time as all the other good programs on the other stations), and their electro program, Subsonic, on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings from 12-3. I'm usually not up then. I might as well put in a CD...or better yet, download the MP3. (Oh, and since it took Live 105 so long, I'm lobbying DC to add "Punching in a Dream" so I won't have to listen to Live 105 to hear it. Bwahaha.)
What isn't shown is their recurrents, which are even more intolerable. They're still playing the most overplayed RedHotStoneTempleFooNirvanaRiseAgainstthesoundgardenSublimeFighterPilotNirvanaCakeMachine hits from the past 20 years, almost all of which from their respective artists, and in some cases from different artists too, sound the same.
Alice is exactly like this too, just replace RedHotStoneTempleFooNirvanaRiseAgainstthesoundgardenSublimeFighterPilotNirvanaCakeMachine with KatyJasonLadyGooGooGagaLifehouseKellyScriptJohnTrainClarksonPerryGreenPinkDayMayerMrazDolls.
