Now I'm free. I'm no longer stuck in the corporate machine.
There's nothing that excites Seattlest quite like the firing of a local DJ and the subsequent online airing of the laundry that inevitably occurs. While we apologize for getting this to you at this late date, we enthusiastically invite you to take a peek behind the faceplate and inside the reeking mess that is corporate radio.
All of the classic components exist in the story of the firing of Matt McCart from 107.7 The End in Seattle. The idealistic young DJ enters the world of broadcasting with a love of music and the medium after spending some time in radio nirvana (college stations). Watch in horror as his illusions and preconceptions are quickly shattered at his first corporate gig! Squirm in uneasy silence as he advances rapidly through the radio ranks while rigidly adhering to the iron-clad playlist! Feel the thrill of a man being pushed too far! He's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore!
And then, of course, he's off the radio and penning diatribes on his website. Among the gems: "Something you need to know is that "Alternative Radio" is no longer "alternative," it's mainstream music, forced down your throat as Alternative, there's nothing "alternative" about it..." Hey, Matt, welcome to 1995!
The End finally fired him, according to his myspace.com pen, for dissing the playlist. Seattlest thinks he may have been onto something with the "cynical DJ" bit, but, ultimately, crap music played over and over doesn't get any less stinky if the DJ's making fun of it while he ques it up. While we can't say we've ever heard him on the radio, we are glad that he finally came around and hope that his next gig works out a bit better.
I continued to state my opinion on the air and got more adventureous with my "sells"(what it's called to tell people about the music)...Recently I was asked by numerous people, including Harms(Music Director) and Phil(Program Director) at the radio station what I thought about the band "Fall Out Boy." I told them I thought it was complete trash. I didn't think that it deserved a spot on Alternative radio since it had ALREADY BECOME MAINSTREAM(it was/is played on KISS 106).I had the dis-pleasure of playing FOB's "smash hit"...,"Sugar, We're Going Down...", one weekend afternoon and decided, after recieving an e-mail and around 7 calls wondering why I was playing this horrible music, to go on the air and be the sounding board for my listeners. I said something to the affect of:
"Ahhh(yelling kind of) it's SO poppy, make it stop! New Music On The End from Chicago's Fall Out Boy, Sugar We're going down, those guys came out of the Chicago hardcore scene...what happened to their anger?? Imagine that...a bunch of hardcore kids turned into whiny emo-boys...I know some people like it...but...uhhggg"
