By Mike Bell
August 7, 2014
While not a physician, I’m pretty sure that what Jann Arden suggests is a physical impossibility — perhaps even illegal in some provinces.
But it speaks to the level of anger she’s feeling that all understandings of the anatomical workings of man should be thrown out the window when it comes to the powers that be at Calgary Top 40 station AMP Radio.
After reading news on calgaryherald.com of the station’s weekend switch to a new format called QuickHitz, which features abbreviated versions of popular songs done by Vancouver company SparkNet Communications, Arden went on a Twitter tirade that lasted most of Thursday.
When reached at her home just outside the city’s limits in the late afternoon, she was still angered enough to recommend that those at AMP, er, insert things in places where no orifice normally exist.
“It’s maddening, it really is,” Arden says of the new format, calling it the “massacring of an artist’s work.”
“It happens all the time, but this is extreme.”
As explained to the Herald by Steve Jones, VP of Programming for Newcap Radio — the company that owns almost 100 stations across Canada, including AMP — the QuickHitz format cuts a song in half in order for the station to play more songs, by more artists. The rough estimate is that the new format allows for 24 songs in one hour, compared with an average of 12.
Read More HERE
Yeah, the format sounds terrible.
Speaking of extreme, how about the retouch job on that photo of Jann? Yikes.
Not a nice thing to say about Jann. Stop being a dick.
I like her brunette, but regardless… I hate the idea of quickhits, but that said, I recently bought a stereo for my car that has a function that allows you to play a predetermined amount of a song, then it segues into the next. Obviously there is a market for this sort of thing. I couldn’t stand it, but I’m not the market it’s intended for either.
Yeah!! What MonteVideo said.
Hugs, you don’t have to agree with that opinionated (but smart, funny and interesting ) entertainer, but leave off with the ad hominem comments, kay? It’s obviously a promo pic, but perhaps you’re not in the biz.
The service exists because this is how so many people consume music now.
I ain’t saying its right, and I’ll be raising my kids differently…I’ll be like, “you respect all 6 minutes and 22 seconds of “The Pot” or you can go to your room!”
oh no wait… we play a radio edit on rock radio. 6:22 is just too long!
I’m not saying I hate the format, I think it’s an interesting move, and I think there is a market for it. That market is not extended listeners.
I listened to it today for 4 hours, and tried to leave my radio bias at the door. Within the 4 hour period, I heard 1 song played 4 times, and 4 others played 3 times.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard this sort of rotation on non-quickhits station, and I understand the mentality behind the programming, but for some reason, it stuck out like a sore thumb with the shorter song format.
I like the concept, and I really want to see this station succeed, but with twice the music, they may want to think about using twice the number of songs in rotation.
I was a student at BCIT in 1981-82; Brian Antonson tried his best to teach me how to cue up a platter, but I never got the hang of it, so I never worked in a “real” radio station, now “DJs” just press a button or click a mouse, that’s why they can cut a song off halfway. Where is the art?
This is the dumbest idea that I have heard, yet, from the same radio station that brought us the burning of $ 5,000 cash, now they blindly assume that the whole audience are scatterbrains…therefore, let;s break the copryright and edit the song.
Tell me, Amp Radio, will your commercials also be cut in half, after all, we all know that people find commercials to be “boring,” as well ?
Tell me “Just A Thought”..do you enjoy giving away 10,000 every Wednesday? Playing Beat The Bank…spinning the prize wheel, putting on your “radio voice” and telling us it’s now 20 C outside? Sure you do!
CHR. It’s not classic rock, country or oldies music. It’s Kesha, Iggy whatever her name is, Pit Bull and Calvin Harris. Do we REALLY REALLLYYY notice that these songs are edited? I sure as hell don’t, and I am a real passive listener. At the end of the day, radio is trying to compete with 5000 different mediums playing music. It’s a $hitty situation.
If Amp Radio had DJs doing mix downs and edits all damn day long, would you still take a stand? Probably not. Editing has been happening forever in music, only this time there is not a EDM beat in the background weaving every single song together at 128BPM.
It’s just a sign of the times. More CHR stations will go this way, eventually. It might not happen tomorrow, but it will happen. It’s cookie cutter music for people that get stuck in traffic, wanna hear a popular song, and move on with their day. They are not invested into it. They don’t care. There’s no loyalty for this music. It’s just what ever is popular. Like that cute dog video that goes viral and is then forgotten the next day. Time, temp, station name, celeb gossip, or someone winning 100 bucks via some brutal contesting. Who gives a flying ***k. If I want info on that, I’ll go to the source for gossip, sports and weather. Not some half assed radio station. Give me a lot of music, keep me engaged with social content, and say the hell with commercials! I’ll hang around.
With all this chatter since it first went down, how many new listeners does Amp have now? Same with the burning 5k. I know who’s winning in this situation…
Tell me “Just A Thought”..do you enjoy giving away 10,000 every Wednesday? Playing Beat The Bank…spinning the prize wheel, putting on your “radio voice” and telling us it’s now 20 C outside? Sure you do!
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Jann Arden is 100 percent within her rights to scream like hell.
This is about serious copyright infringement of personal musical works.
Third parties should not be able to monkey with copyrighted works of art.
What about DJs in clubs, radio and various EDM artists that remove, edit and totally mess with artists music? If this is the case, copy right infringement should be yelled at this group as well.