Here Today... Gone To Hell!

How come no radio stations play Chinese democracy? Live in DC and haven't heard it once...

its because they're all bastards.

the radio station here that i listen to doesn't play'em that much either, they'll play Better and Chinese Democracy maybe once or twice in a 48 hour time period (at least thats about how many times i hear them) but on the other hand they'll butcher that song by theory of a dead man at least 3 to 4 times a day :confused: i'm starting to hate that song too.

Here's my theory - GNR/GNR mgmt had a falling out/argument with Clear Channel.  Clear Channel practically has a monopoly on radio stations in the US at least.  Again, just a theory.  If I remember correctly, Clear Channel sponsored the ill-fated 2002 tour.

They do play the recent singles on the radio.

They were on the radio charts!


Your question should be "Why don't they play new GN'R on my radio station?" and that's something you need to ask them.




/jarmo

They barely play the new songs in MD, but it doesn't matter I havent used the radio stations since CD came out.  Fuck them, WE HAVE CD !!!!

K-Rock over here in NYC/NJ plays "Better" and "Chinese Democracy" quite often...not as much as the new Metallica or AC/DC, but still a decent amount of time...actually when the radio promos list bands that they play, "Chinese Democracy" is the song used when they mention Guns N Roses...92.3 K-Rock also played "Chinese Democracy" in FULL 2 nights in a row the 2 days before the record came out, and a new GNR song every hour at the top of the hour for the whole weekend when it came out...

I never listen to the radio so I could care less seriously lol.

They play what there is a demand for. For example, you will always hear WTTJ,PC,SCOM,YCBM,NR etc. because those songs are amazingly popular and the demand is there. This is like when people ask, "why are our mass email campaigns not working?" Well, radio stations in LA don't care that someone in Poland wants to hear ChiDem, why? because that person does not affect their ratings/advertisers. Anyway, if there is a demand for these songs from the general public, they will be played more, simple as that. It is not a Clear Channel conspiracy or a result of stations only wanting to play Nickelback.

Here in St. Louis, the new G n' R is actually getting some decent airplay.  We have two rock stations locally.  KSHE 95 is a mainstream rock station that has been around since 1967.  They have a HUGE playlist including all mainstream hard rock from the 60s to today.  Even still, "Chinese Democracy" is played about 2-3 times daily, along with many classic GnR songs.  105.7 the Point (whose tagline is "Everything Alternative") is a typical modern rock station.  They play popular rock tunes from the 90s to today.  "Chinese Democracy" clocked in at #105 on their top 105 songs of 2008, and it is currently #16 in their regular rotation.  I also heard "Better" played on this station several days back.  

Considering the lack of a tour, promotion, interviews, videos, etc....I think it is pretty cool how both of our local rock stations (with different target audiences) are still finding GnR to be relevant.  Hopefully 2009 will be the year that this album opens the eyes of mainstream American audiences!

I don't get this either. WRIF in Detroit plays the title track alot but they rarely play Better.

I don't get the impression that "Better" has been officially released to rock radio stations as a single yet.

I'm in Ohio and I rarely if ever hear songs off of CD on the radio.  I am shocked that Better isn't on 24/7 like Daughtry's singles have been

We have two rock stations in Las Vegas.  One of them plays both Better and CD on the regular. 

See they are both in the top 20
http://xtremeradio.com/pages/2721260.php?

the other station here only plays the old stuff... so you know which one I'm supporting and listening to.

Better gets a ton of airplay here in Ontario,Canada on 97.7 hitz fm...and they play it and CD on 102.1 TheEdge frequently as well...

I haven't heard Better on the radio yet, but I hear CD quite a bit.    Maybe they just have lame-ass radio stations in DC.   :D

I heard Better on the radio the other day at 2:30 in the morning.
I'm sure that raised awareness that GnR is still around.

I haven't heard Better on Australian radio yet,
but then again the single isn't being officially released till later this month (and hopefully the music vid)
so fingers are still crossed.

I heard Chineese Democracy twice when it first came out and have not heard Better. However, they do play a shitload of the old stuff. I can't explain it either. They don't even mention that they have an album out. Unreal!

All I listen to is the CD, so I can't tell you what's going on with Chicago radio stations.

I gave up listening to the radio years ago. I am thinking there are a lot of people out there just like me. I wouldn't even know where to turn the dial to find new music.

Maybe cause they're busy playing shit like Rihanna and other music for cunts.

I hear the new singles rather frequently if I go to the right station.

single Chinese Democracy was played on my radio station(s) when it was launched... it was also in the charts (was nr. 6 on its best) ...but the single better I haven't heard yet on the radio. It seems  this song is not yet officially released as a single in Belgium.
(or at least nobody knows it here in Belgium)

E-mail your radio stations and ask!





/jarmo

I flip thru the channels all the time, and I haven't heard one new GNR song at all here. they hate Axl and probably wants his carreer to rot.

Your probaly gonna half to go to a rock station to hear them ! just a thought.

I have been calling and bitching to my local Phoenix rock stations, 93.3 KDKB and 97.9 KUPD. 93.3 actually started playing some tracks, however KUPD's DJs seem to hate GnR and laugh when I call... pricks!

Maybe you can e-mail another DJ on the station...

Not all of them are pricks....




/jarmo

Why? It's a bit strange we should ask these kind of things to our radio stations. One should expect that a new single is announced, it is played on a 'normal' rock station. The questions is: is the single 'better' already officially released?

as of 5th of January.

Is it? Great!! Then we'll hear it probably soon on every respectable radio station! Hopefully a single with a video this time.

edit: where did you get this information?

i hear chinese democracy all the time on 92.3 krock and q104.3 here in new york

Why?

You expect us to know why your radio station doesn't play GN'R?

You think there's an universal answer to that question?




Radio stations play what they think will get listeners so they can sell ads.





/jarmo

i emailed my dj many times for days in a row.  finally he wrote back and told me they wouldn't play it because i was the only person requesting it.  i don't know if he was lying or not, but probably.

 :hihi:

isn't it a bit strange that some ask the third persons for guess work rather than ask these kind of things to the radio stations that know the truth?

I heard Street Of Dreams on the radio recently and TWAT on the day that CD came out. I also heard SR on Kerrang radio the other day too. Strangely, I've never heard CD or Better played....

I guess it depends what kind of listeners the station has....

and what kind of station you listen to.....

either way asking any station for cd songs, esp better this time, is the way to make them play new gnr on the radio.

In case anyone missed this little suggestion  : ok:

Better is catchy. it touches your heartstrings.

should be heard.

This album needs promotion. I thought azoff is really good, but something is wrong. Without promotion, it won't succeed and it will be remembered like a flop. I hope better vid will be there really soon.

I live in LA and I've stopped listening to stations like KROQ, KLOS and 98.7 during my morning/afternoon drives because they don't ever play new GNR.

The only mentions I've heard is from KROQs Kevin and Bean show.  And all they ever do is make fun of Axl.

I really don't understand why KROQ rarely plays GNR and seems to want no part of mentioning/playing them.  I guess replaying Cold Play, Foo Fighters and Nirvana ad nauseum is their agenda.

I've yet to hear "Better" on the radio in Toronto. When do they play it? 3AM?

I've heard "Chinese Democracy" a few times, but not lately.

KROQ is an alternative rock station. They do have GNR on their playlist since Inland Invasion, and Ive heard SCOM a couple of times. But you shouldnt expect them to play GNR.  KROQ Djs used to laugh at people who requested Metallica also. But now they are in the rotation.

That's bull.
My radio stations play GN'R, they just don't play 'Better' and even 'Chinese Democracy' isn't played much. I do not have to ask them why. There is no sort of 'conspiracy' against (new) GN'R....
There is just a lack of promo for the new material or a lack in officially announcing and releasing new singles. According to me, the radio stations don't play it because they do not even know 'Better' is a single in the first place (ok: this is maybe something I can ask, but fuck that, i know they will play it when they have it). Heck, are we (GN'R fans) even sure it is released a single (officially)? It is not because some radio stations elsewhere in the world play it, that it is a single as some also play other new GN'R stuff and even played new stuff before the release of CD...

And some extra info: my radio station doesn't need ads, it's a public station. GN'R is rather popular band for its listeners... (CD was voted nr. 6 in an 'important' rock chart without real promo).

Is it?

You just proved the point. It's hard for us to guess why your station doesn't play the new tracks or GN'R at all.




Yeah, and the track has charted on US radio station charts.

So according to you stations that don't know the song exists are playing it?  :P





As I said, there's no universal answer.

Many radio stations do rely on revenue from ads.



And I still don't know why it's weird for fans to request songs or ask why their favorite band isn't played on their radio station that they listen to. Unless they listen a country station....




/jarmo

I wouldn't be making fun of country at the moment they are doing pretty well with the teen market.

When GNR release The Blues they will get more air play.  Stations were risking playing that song before it was released.  Change the name back and give them what they want.

i emailed the dj at my classic rock station (kz106) a bunch of times like mysteron suggested.  after sending requests for a solid hour, we got into a pretty heated argument about chinese democracy.  this guy was a predictable mullet-head slash whoreshiper who said he didn't like the new music very much and that it wasn't getting a good reaction from listeners.  i pointed out how he and all the 'listeners'  probably didn't have the intelligence to appreciate music that's this complex and meaningful since he can only like a song with three chords and lyrics about cars and fucking.  after a while, he stopped answering my emails/requests but i kept sending them.  still no plays of better that i've heard.  but i honestly don't know how much harder i can request it.

There's really no need to be an obnoxious jerk....

It's not increasing your chances of hearing the song on the station.




/jarmo

i know, man.  i really do.  but i didn't start it.  i was being positive, but then he started hating.  what's a guy to do?  my days of sitting back and passively taking abuse are over. 

some people flat-out refuse to even consider liking the new album because they can't get over the past.  what are you supposed to do then?  if you just ignore it, then chinese democracy doesn't have a chance. 

Hi at all gunners!!! :) If there are italian fans, I have a little list of radio e-mail and cell.number :

radio 101 : 347.80.90.101 - infor101@r101.it
radio deejay: diretta@deejay.it
radio 105: diretta@105.net
rtl 102.5 : 349.34.91.025
radio rai2 : radio2@rai.it
radio kiss kiss: info@kisskissnetwork.it
radionorba: 333.64.44.410
radio manbassa: 333.43.43.378 - diretta@manbassa.it

who wants sends e-mail can write in italian:
Ciao! Sono (your name) e vorrei richiedere il nuovo singolo Better del nuovo bellissimo album Chinese Democracy dei Guns n'Roses. Grazie!!

Did he abuse you? How did he do that? Telling you that he doesn't like GNR and neither does his listeners, is hardly abusing you, neither is it abusing GNR.

 

try country stations  :P  modern/alternative rock ones there shouldn't be a slash worshipper incognito.

you don't help GN'R acting like that  ;). Be cool, if they don't want to play GN'R , well Fine... try an another radio

look, i know that.  it's just that this particular situation was different.  i did exactly what mysteron wanted and emailed requests from several different email addresses.  the smart assed dj said he could tell they were coming from the same person, so he started making fun of me and saying that gnr sucks without slash.  we all know that's bullshit, so what are you going to do?  sit back and take it?  i tried to politely tell him he was wrong and that this music is just more challenging, but he just kept up with teh slash stuff.  so i had to put him in  his place.  any sensible loyal fan would do the same.

Saying GnR sucks without Slash isn't really bullshit, it's an opinion.  Just because people like you and me don't agree with that opinion doesn't make it any less valid (or any less widely held).

record companies act very "mafia like" nowadays, so if "your" radio station isn't playing "Better" is because there is no pressure from Universal for it to be played.
Radios aren't given albums anymore, they have promo cd singles or downloads so that they'll play that nickelback song the record company is trying to put down you throat and not the dj's favorite track of their album. Then they (record co.) can persuade every station to play whatever they want by giving away merch, travelling come dj's for a show of their fav band, promising exclusive premieres for some future releases on the label, etc...
that's one side of the story.
the other is that most playlist managers send like 30 to 40 songs to some market statistic company, where they hire a bunch of average joes to come in and listen do 30 sec clips of each song and get them to vote on the songs they knew, the one's they liked, etc... then they send the radio station a chart with the "most popular" songs and thta's what gets on the playlist. so it takes a while before a song is playing on most radios, since it will take a while for those average joes to recognise it. that's why you're still listening to the ac/dc single or coldplay's viva la vida.
damn, this post made me sad. i miss the old radio days, actually this was the reason why i quited being a radio dj 4 years ago.
 

Correct, but I finally decided to email them, and as expected my guess was correct: they don't have the single! They don't know there is a new single out from GN'R.



I didn't mean that. What I meant was, that there are radio stations (like the typical well known US stations) playing new GN'R stuff without having an official released single. Meaning, they can also play (or could have played in the 90's) for example 'The shotgun blues', this was also never released as a single by my knowledge.... (also not saying radio stations actually played that song)

But if you say it's charting, then 'Better' must probably be released (in the US), but over here nobody knows....



As said, they do play GN'R.... it's weird because I expect them to play the new singles from popular bands (like GN'R), like they do without asking . I never see fans of other popular rockbands complaining (AC/DC; Metallica; Foo Fighters; Red Hot Chilli Peppers; whatever...) 'bout the fact radio stations do not air new stuff. (and with that I mean the released singles by those bands).
Maybe, it's just hard to be a guns fan  :-\

Simple, Interscope isn't paying for GN'R to be played. Actually, Interscope is doing shit! Neither is Best Buy. What a campaign!!! What a crock of shit.

They already invested enough maybe in the making of CD?  ;)  ;D

There's definitely something weird going on when you hear Street Of Dreams at Virgin Megastore but not at Best Buy....




/jarmo

Well Best Buy at first had three covers listed (Dexter also said there are another 2 covers, right?) and then they were removed because, probably, Interscope just used the not so finished one and pressed CD's. Axl was not happy about it so he decided to keep silent (remember that it was planned that Axl makes an annoucement about CD, but later was quickly denied).

Best Buy has bought XX amount of CD's and couldn't be happy with the situation (hoping there will be more of Axl's and Interscope's support) and decided not to promote it also.

So it is kind of complicated situation that according to Dexter only recently started to clear itself up. Hopefully it will be all sorted soon and things will be keep moving.

Just my thoughts!




-velimir

i would say 99% of radio stations buy these "industry" cd's (they used to be called "hit disc" but i know they changed the name and i can't remember it right now), that are like weekly compilations from each gender with the singles released every week. I know "chinese democracy" and "better" were on those compilations on the week of their release. So almost every radio station in the world has the singles.

If that's the case, then it's strange they don't play the song and say to me they don't have the single...
is this the case all over the world or only the States?

i'm from Portugal, even regional stations here get those cd's, cause that's the easiest way to get (legally) music to play on their stations.

Considering GNR has two singles on the radio now, when you add up how much each song is getting played, both songs total enough to be in the top ten in total spins, so the new GNR songs are being played.  The problem is I think some markets are playing the hell out of the songs, some markets play the songs once in a while, and some may not play them at all or much at all.    For instance, I always hear Better and CD being played in the Minneapolis market, so from my perspective, it is getting decent airplay.  Plus having two singles out at the same time gives you diminishing returns for spins in comparison to lets say Better being the first and only single. Granted, I would love to see both songs in the top ten for spins and wish Better was being played more, but it is not like no one is playing the tunes. 

Below is the most recent USA today airplay chart. Better was played 732 times, Chin Dem 605 times for a total of  1337 spins.



1 1 SHINEDOWN  Second Chance 2040
 
2 2 DISTURBED Indestructible 1957
 
3 3 MUDVAYNE Do What You Do 1816
 
4 4 APOCALYPTICA I Don't Care f/Adam Gontier 1813
 
5 5 SEETHER  Breakdown 1650
 
6 6 NICKELBACK Something In Your Mouth 1499
 
7 7 SAVING ABEL 18 Days 1366
 
8 8 AC/DC Rock 'n Roll Train 1362
 
10 9 THEORY OF A DEADMAN  Bad Girlfriend 1210
 
9 10 HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD Undead 1192
 
12 11 SLIPKNOT Dead Memories 1149
 
11 12 OFFSPRING You're Gonna Go Far, Kid 1124
 
13 13 AVENGED SEVENFOLD  Scream 985
 
15 14 METALLICA The Day That Never Comes 938
 
14 15 SALIVA Family Reunion 920
 
18 16 METALLICA Cyanide 911
 
16 17 FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH Stranger Than Fiction 882
 
17 18 THEORY OF A DEADMAN  Hate My Life 850
 
19 19 GUNS N' ROSES Better 732  
21 20 DROWNING POOL 37 Stitches 699
 
20 21 RISE AGAINST ReEducation (Through Labor) 682
 
23 22 GUNS N' ROSES Chinese Democracy 605
 
24 23 ALL THAT REMAINS  Two Weeks 586
 
25 24 BUCKCHERRY Rescue Me 560
 
27 25 POP EVIL 100 In A 55 502
 
28 26 REV THEORY Light It Up 495
 
26 27 HOOBASTANK My Turn 488
 
29 28 ROB ZOMBIE War Zone 419
 
30 29 10 YEARS So Long, Good-bye 405
 
33 30 3 DOORS DOWN Citizen Soldier 366
 

That is the Active Rock airplay chart.  For Mainstream Rock, "Chinese Democracy" is still at #8 with increased spins over last week, and "Better" moved up three slots to #15 with increased spins over last week.

Ali

^ Even better then!  :beer: