That Which Was Cool Is Now Lame: CFNY

My formative years were spent listening to Toronto radio station 102.1 CFNY FM, better known as The Edge. It's mandate is "new rock" which was always a nice alternate to cock-rock, spray bands, classic crap, and Top 40 producerama.

When I first heard Nickelback's "Photograph" grace its airwaves I almost crashed my car with uncontrollable laughter. You know those laughs when people fall down on the floor clutching their stomachs and can't stop for 20 minutes? To be honest after the lines, "How did our eyes get so red / And what the hell is on Joey's head?" are uncorked in the first verse, I haven't been able to hear much more of the song over the sounds of my own laughter mixed with intense gagging.

The Edge is now running a contest on their lunch time request show. In order to win the prize of an Apple iPod Video, you must send in a picture that "represents" your request. A good idea, but you have to see the pictures that have been in the running. For example, do a google image search for a forest fire, and you get your image for Franz Ferdinand's "Fire"; search for iron lung will get you your image for Radiohead's "My Iron Lung". These were yesterday and today's winners! These image thieves have turned their idiocy into a $500 mp3 player!

Now, I much prefer the person who showed some lateral thinking when they requested Coldplay's "Fix You" by showing an operation. It's not brilliant but its a step in the right direction. No prize for them, though.

The station has also fallen into the trap of playing a limited set of songs. The morning show plays the same top 20 songs every single day, and then throughout the day you're likely to hear the same tracks at least a half a dozen times. I remember, as a boy, hating Top 40 stations because they would repeat songs over and over during the day. With all the great new music that's being made, there is no excuse for a station to play a song more than once a day-- for that matter, even once a week.

If a radio station's mandate is "new rock" that's great, but I would not consider new rock to be music that you would hear on mainstream radio station. The fact that The Edge is playing Green Day, Nickelback, and U2 should be a good indication that something is wrong. I've never heard them play anything drastically "independent" apart from the occasional Broken Social Scene. With so much great music being made, a station that claims to be alternative should play alternative music.

The whole thing is very disappointing. One thing that I really missed about living in Montreal and Saskatoon was decent radio. I listen to the radio a lot and I really enjoy it. I had hoped that I would return to Toronto and enjoy The Edge as much as I had as a teenager, but sadly, it was-- and is (if things remain the same)-- not to be.

Still, I will enter their Video iPod contest, and lose. My hope is that I win, but I really hope that I don't make the final two and to the number one google image search of a doorbell to "represent" the White Stripes' "My Doorbell".