First Wave (Sirius XM Radio Station)

[Satchmo Distel]

This is a little niche but I feel it needs a thread. The remit is "classic alternative" from circa 1976-91* but that is both broad and narrow. The broadness is that genre is all over the place: Bryan Ferry and Peter Gabriel alongside The Clash, etc. The narrowness is that you guarantee that certain acts will definitely appear in most morning segments: The Smiths, Duran Duran, The Cure, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, New Order, The Police, U2**. You won't hear numerous acts whom I would have regarded essential to the era: Cocteau Twins, The Fall, Jesus and Mary Chain.

The DJs (I only listen in the mornings or drivetime) are generally OK. They are all student radio veterans of the era AFAIK.

I find it to be enjoyable car listening in the main but would not listen at home because there are clearly better options on Youtube, Spotify or from lifting down a CD.

*I think they clearly distinguish this from "indie" so they can play major label stuff on an equal par with Rough Trade, etc.

**U2 because they are clearly required to plug U2's dedicated station.

Link (not sure if it will work outside North America): https://www.siriusxm.com/channels/1st-wave

[WOM]

As previously discussed, it's my default station and L's is the Springsteen station. Agree with most of the above. Richard Blade gets right on my tits and Swedish Eagle is just mildly irritating.

The whole U2 cross-plugging is driving me mental. Nobody needs an all-U2 station, but whatever. They ain't 'first wave' no how.

Agree about the oddly narrow programming, and also the US-centric choices at times. I mean....The Replacements again?

[San Bernardhinault]

When I used to have Sirius it was one of the defaults. But it was very narrow, it was about as safe a definition of "Indie" as you could find. And it always felt strange that stuff from the 90s crept into the definition of basically "New Wave"/"Utterly Unthreatening Post Punk"

[Satchmo Distel]

I assume there might be legal reasons or PR reasons why they don't play Dead Kennedys. They did play a Police album track containing the word 'cunt' but I assume that was an oversight.

[Gangster Octopus]

The word or a person?

[Jah Womble]

‘Alternative’ looks to be doing a predictable amount of heavy lifting here. But this is what radio stations do, unfortunately: on the one hand, they’re terrified of playing anything at all that might alienate their core listenership; on the other, the majority of programmers aren’t likely to be aware of half the artists that they arguably ‘should’ be playing anyway. So one kind of knows how it’s going to play out.

But personally I’d not really want to be spending too much time on a station that doesn’t play new stuff in any case.

I assume there might be legal reasons or PR reasons why they don't play Dead Kennedys. They did play a Police album track containing the word 'cunt' but I assume that was an oversight.

The Police recorded a track featuring the c-word? Jesus, how tacky is that?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I assume there might be legal reasons or PR reasons why they don't play Dead Kennedys. They did play a Police album track containing the word 'cunt' but I assume that was an oversight.

Looks like that link doesn't get you far without being a subscriber, but I had a look on their Facebook and one of the first things that came up was a ad for more specialist (but still relatively mainstream) punk show which did actually mention the Dead Kennedys as one of its attractions.

I'm surprised there still so many radio stations managing to survive really.

Without turning it into yet another 6 Music thread, they had a 90s day today, which wasn't exactly a radical departure from the norm, particularly for Steve Lamacq.

[Satchmo Distel]

The Police recorded a track featuring the c-word? Jesus, how tacky is that?

Mitigation would be that it's a song about the NF:

https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/the...anize-yourself

[Jah Womble]

Okay, yes, fair shout. (Ditto that Jarvis Cocker track from a few years back.)

[Satchmo Distel]

I've migrated from First Wave to Sirius XMU (channel 35) in the last couple of weeks. Jenny Eliscu, in particular, is a terrific presenter and I rarely hear something that makes me think I'm listening to landfill, unlike 6 Music.