What's New Pussycat?

June 29, 2022 7:34 PM

This morning, a soft rock station in Vancouver, Canada, played Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine. And then again. And again. They're taking calls for requests!
posted by Pronoiac (50 comments total)

Here's that Twitter thread on Nitter.

I'm not usually a fan of the band, but I have to admit it's scratching an itch.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:37 PM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I played Killing in the Name on the radio once, but it wasn’t the censored version. Fortunately, it was college radio (cable radio even!) and no one even called to complain. I can remember staring at the speakers, thinking that something had gone seriously wrong since it hadn’t even been flagged by the station as explicit.
posted by saintjoe at 7:46 PM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Reminds me of this classic radio format change: WKRP
posted by ashbury at 7:49 PM on June 29, 2022 [8 favorites]

Just turned on the radio here in Victoria. Yup, Killing in The Name is playing. I used to hate KISS FM with a passion, whelp, not any longer.
posted by hoodrich at 7:58 PM on June 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

BOOOGER!
posted by MrGuilt at 8:02 PM on June 29, 2022 [12 favorites]

I approve this message.
posted by swift at 8:04 PM on June 29, 2022

omg the hosts have changed over.

Someone called in asking for Slayer.

the host: "Slayer? I hardly know her!"

then "Killing In the Name" started again

Reading this, I snort-laughed so hard I think I did something to a sinus membrane.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:22 PM on June 29, 2022 [16 favorites]

I'm also enjoying that fact that someone has called for intercession by the Kids in the Hall:

"@DaveSFoley @KITHOnline couldn’t you just intervene and lend them your Brand New Key 45?"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:39 PM on June 29, 2022 [12 favorites]

Well, huh. Still going.

It really does loop seamlessly. I have no idea how many iterations I've listened to so far.
posted by phooky at 8:58 PM on June 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

It's been widely speculated, including in the Guardian article, that it's all a marketing stunt in advance of a format change, which would line up with several of the station's key personalities departing suddenly as well.

Plus there's the fact that they were playing the radio edit and all the call-in requests sounded super canned. And then there was the response from a spokesperson saying that they'd have more details on future plans for the station tomorrow.
posted by chrominance at 9:02 PM on June 29, 2022 [14 favorites]

Stunt or not, I appreciate commitment to a bit. It's the same reason I like performances of Satie's "Vexations". For now, it's the Sideshow Bob Stepping on Rakes Endlessly of radio.
posted by phooky at 9:07 PM on June 29, 2022 [6 favorites]

Reminds me of going to Lollapalooza in 93. Camping in the parking lot the night before, you could hear this song playing from several different directions, out of sync of course, all night long. I had liked the song before, but that kind of ruined it for me.
posted by rodlymight at 9:10 PM on June 29, 2022 [5 favorites]

Hanif Abdurraquib: "what local radio station will be brave enough to let me do this but with Whitney Houston's 1987 chart topping hit I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:21 PM on June 29, 2022 [17 favorites]

I have to boost the Brass Against version of the song, they're amazing and Sophia Urista is a standout vocalist.
posted by CrystalDave at 11:47 PM on June 29, 2022 [11 favorites]

I prefer the Richard Cheese version myself.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:07 AM on June 30, 2022 [7 favorites]

I, for one, am doing what they tell me
posted by chavenet at 12:40 AM on June 30, 2022 [4 favorites]

I envisage a disgruntled-dj-barricades-homeself-in-studio-and-commandeers-playlist situation such as described in Mark Germino's Rex Bob Lowenstein.
posted by rongorongo at 1:15 AM on June 30, 2022

Have they mixed in “Bulls on Parade” once before going right back to “Killing in the Name”?
posted by graymouser at 2:19 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

It was either MTV or VH1 back on New Year’s Eve 1999 played Prince’s “Party like its 1999” in a loop for the full 24 hours until the ball dropped.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:21 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

audrey or GTFO
posted by Shepherd at 2:33 AM on June 30, 2022 [10 favorites]

Nicely done on the post title.
posted by Optamystic at 3:46 AM on June 30, 2022 [5 favorites]

Heh, still going. Nice handle on the zeitgeist, corporation.

Next someone do Radio, Radio.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:33 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

Very much a stunt. No Rogers station ever takes risks.

Hope they bother to pay royalties
posted by scruss at 4:35 AM on June 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

They haven’t really committed to the bit unless they throw in a random “Bulls on Parade” before going back to “Killing in the Name” again.
posted by wabbittwax at 4:35 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

Well, it’s not New Year’s Eve, but i’ll take any excuse to post “Ballad of the Sandman” by Mike Agranoff (1983).
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:43 AM on June 30, 2022

You haven’t had this song ruined until you’ve seen an Army band play it for dancing police in front of a Bathurst 1000 crowd.

I’m not messing about. This video is one of my own outer-limits-of-good-taste pieces of content. Watch and be warned.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:13 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

In Dallas in the late 90s, one of the DJs lost her shit, locked herself in the booth, and played the Barbie Song on repeat for an hour. That turned out to be her last day.
posted by nushustu at 5:15 AM on June 30, 2022

I love this. ❤️
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:25 AM on June 30, 2022

(Fits the rage of my current zeitgeist. That it's a soft rock station, even better)
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:25 AM on June 30, 2022

I dunno… seems like they’re tryin’ ta tire me, tire me
posted by infinitewindow at 5:49 AM on June 30, 2022

Just finished.

After 30 ish hours. Impressive.
posted by Faintdreams at 6:12 AM on June 30, 2022 [4 favorites]

107.9 ("The End") in Cleveland did something similar when it shut down in 1999 - REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" for 24 h.
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 6:29 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

Very much a stunt. No Rogers station ever takes risks.

The last time I recall something like this happening on the Vancouver airwaves (almost half a century ago), it was job action ...

The Day Led Zeppelin Became Part of the Union
posted by philip-random at 6:35 AM on June 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

a very long time ago "traveling band" by ccr was a big hit and one evening i managed to get wabc out of new york city and for whatever reason the dj decided to play that song about 10 or 11 times in a row

60s radio could be really, really weird
posted by pyramid termite at 6:53 AM on June 30, 2022

audrey or GTFO

Thank you, Shepherd. I was trying to remember her name to look that up.
posted by bcd at 7:19 AM on June 30, 2022

I am slightly disappointed that this was not a marketing stunt announcing their shift to a 24/7 Killing In The Name format
posted by phooky at 7:20 AM on June 30, 2022 [13 favorites]

This is actually somewhat common. Limp Bizkit paid a station called KUFO in Portland to play their song Counterfeit 50 times.

Format changes are often proceeded by playing the same song over and over.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:33 AM on June 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

In 1992, when Cleveland's top-40 station WPHR Power 108 became alternative station WENZ 107.9 The End, they played 'It's the End of the World as We Know It' for 24 hours straight.

The requests bits are a nice addition.
posted by box at 7:37 AM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

Back in 1999, the greater Boston area was treated to Tone Loc’s Wild Thing on repeat.

For a whole week.
posted by Ruki at 8:50 AM on June 30, 2022 [4 favorites]

Dallas's classic rock station KRQX played hundreds of cover versions of Louie, Louie on its final day before a format change in the mid/late 1980s.
posted by neuron at 8:51 AM on June 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can't for the life of me find mention of it online, but I know that at some point in the early 2000s there was some kind of fundraiser in Toronto where people got pledges for participating in a full-day/night lock-in at a bar where "Ace of Spades" was played nonstop on repeat.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:21 AM on June 30, 2022

shoutout for the John Mulaney ref in the fpp title
posted by Ahmad Khani at 9:21 AM on June 30, 2022 [3 favorites]

The Lost Art of the Radio Stunt (story focuses mostly on when WNIB became WDRV in Chicago)
posted by eckeric at 9:30 AM on June 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

These people have nothing on my fraternity brothers who during hell week played The Pina Colada song by Rupert Holmes on repeat for 4 straight days. That song is now like "Niagara Falls" in the old Abbot and Costello routine. Whenever I hear it, I feel like, "Slowly I turned, step by step..." 24 hours? Meh. Easy listening.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:41 AM on June 30, 2022

Yeah Rocky 104.9 in Central PA played anything with Rocky in it, so Bullwinkle, Balboa, whatever. for the whole. weekend. They're still on that format so it was a good move.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 11:50 AM on June 30, 2022

This isn't going to help their CanCon numbers.
posted by mmb5 at 3:44 PM on June 30, 2022 [4 favorites]

I was listening (along with Faintdreams it seems) when the DJ announced the new station branding, played Killing in the Name one more time, and then started in with their new playlist. And later gave away some Rage Against the Machine tickets.

So it seems pretty certain it was a rebranding stunt, alas.

That said, I am a sucker who did keep listening for a bit and heard the new Metric single All Comes Crashing, which I quite like and hadn't heard yet.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:14 PM on June 30, 2022

So what is the new format? Adult contemporary? R&B?

(Jaded former radio industry person here who was 100000000% certain this was a format change stunt.)
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:15 PM on June 30, 2022 [2 favorites]

In the 80s one of our alternative radio stations went off the air, then spent 24 hours playing This is what you want, This is what you get alternating with a reading of Psalms 22:15 before launching a new station. So I immediately figured this was something similar.
posted by mmoncur at 7:51 PM on June 30, 2022

So what is the new format? Adult contemporary? R&B?

Considering they played a 30+ year old RATM song on repeat, it's 'alternative' per the primroses were over's link, or classic rock for gen X.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:35 AM on July 1, 2022 [2 favorites]