Public Radio Killed The Radio Star

Public Radio Killed The Radio Star

This past weekend two long time influencal radio shows came to an end. KCRW's night time programing of Metropolis (7:30-10pm) hosted by Jason Bentley and his weekend moonlighting gig at KROQ Saturdays from midnight to 3am both came to an end.

KCRW promoted him to music director when current music director superstar and Morning becomes eclectic host Nic harcourt stepped down from his role at KCRW causing all sorts of schedule changes. Many aren't that pleased with this move. Metropolis was a soundscape that resembles the L.A. evening skyline: angular, futuristic and pulsing with nocturnal energy. Mixed with a rich trance/electronic/club mix. Morning becomes eclectic is good to start your day with. It's mellow and nonthreatening. You'll hear indie bands there but you'll also get your know favorites like Beck, Travis and Moby.



For the past 13 years I've been listening to Jason Bentley on KROQ. I've been a fan of him on KCRW for the past 15 of the 16 years he hosted Metropolis. To say that he hasn't been influential on how my music interest was shaped would be an understatement. It's bittersweet. I don't listen to morning becomes eclectic much. Mainly because I'm far from a morning person. But since it is an entirely different beast, I don't expect to hear Underworld, Chemical brothers or Daft Punk in the morning slot.

This weekend a part of me... I wouldn't say died, but I would say that there's a lot of change coming around the corner. I grasped on to radio for a long time because unlike others, I saw that there was good music still there hiding behind the mainstream pop sound. My avenues are shrinking as to where I can find good music that I enjoy.



It's not the end of the world. I remember my favorite KROQ DJ Doug The Slug/Sluggo/ Roberts packed it up and left for New York leaving Carson Daily to replace him during weekday nights. It was awful. He later came back and does random shifts now. It's the nature of the beast. People move to different towns or different stations to climb the ladder. I fully understand.

The only down fall is that it seems that more and more of my radio attention in the car is now focused on Talk Radio. Perhaps I'm getting old. Perhaps I just don't find 90% of the music played on most radio stations even remotely interesting anymore. It could very well be all those above. Either way, it's hard to see Jason Bentley go to the morning hours but I wish him the best of luck. Hopefully they wont castrate him too much considering I'm already hearing mocking tones from those pretentious ones wanting to change the name to Morning Becomes Monotonous ...

For all endings to have a new beginning.