MISCmedia for 5/3/01
Plugfest 2001, Part 2

LAST TIME, we ran some short reviews of sites various people (usually their own operators) have asked me to plug.

Today, one more.

The day we ran a piece about the demise and (possible) resurrection of the great Net-radio station Luxuria Music, Simone Seikaly wrote to suggest checking out the outfit for which she works, TheDial:

"We are an entertainment company (based in Seattle) which creates timely and topical news/parody/comedy every day, and you can hear what we create interpersed between music in any one of our 20 music formats. Or, you can forego music and just listen to fresh content in our daily show, The Daily Dial, hosted by Brian Gregory."

I wanted so much to be able to recommend TheDial's audio streams. Not only is it a local outfit, but it employs some nice people. The aforementioned Gregory is not only a local radio vet, but the son of a longtime MISCmedia print-mag subscriber. Company programming VP Matt Bruno is a great power pop singer-songwriter.

And, unlike the currently dormant Luxuria, TheDial has a business plan, albeit an anything-for-a-buck business plan. Its site's chock full of offers selling commercials, corporate custom-audio streams, and "investment opportunities."

My problem with TheDial, though, lies at the heart of its programming concept. It's a company led by folk from modern radio management, and run strictly according to the principles of modern radio--principles which, in my humble opinion, suck.

The comedy segments are loud, ultra-aggressive, overflowing with capital-A Attitude, and almost stupefyingly unfunny. They're streamed on all 20 music formats, which means listeners to (f'r instance) the "Women in Rock" channel are apparently expected to guffaw out loud over such bits as "Showdown at the D-Cup Corral" (in which a male narrator describes a fight to the death between Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, using instantly-inflatable bosoms as weapons).

The music streams, from all I've been able to hear of them, are strictly defined, built around only their genre's biggest (i.e., most overplayed) hits, and crafted not for artistic effect but for the accumulation of desirable demographics. It's the sort of programming philosophy in which "Alternative" is just another formula genre.

I want online radio to be an alternative to the corporate stupidity of today's commercial broadcast stations, not just an extension of it. And I continue to believe it can become that. Luxuria (despite its fiscal shortcomings and its demise at the hands of Clear Channel, the biggest and stupidest radio chain of them all) proved a great online station could be made by treating one's listeners with intelligence and respect.

Most all the people I've met who've worked at stupid radio stations were personally capable of much better and more creative work than their bosses permitted. I'm sure the same's true of TheDial's personnel.

Here's hoping they can move beyond the straitjacket of their current structure and get the chance to really prove themselves.

NEXT: Saving the light-rail plan from its planners.

ELSEWHERE:

• Another viewpoint on Luxuria Music's fate....

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