Stranger Than Paradise

The Spirit of Radio Archives + Marsden + RadioSteven on the air



Physical State: creaky
Mental State: sleepy
Music: Dave Marsden - Spirit of Radio on Pulver Radio (Sundays)
Fashion sense: blue t-shirt, sweats


I've discovered a couple of cool things for the fan of great radio. Toronto's CFNY was once the venerable home of all great British, new wave and esoteric music (a commercial station that was run like a college station). It has since become a bit of a run of the mill modern rock station (still has great retro stuff on Sundays with Martin Streek though, where else can you hear Front Line Assembly and ABC in the same show). Well if you were a fan of CFNY in it's glory days they have added a 24/7 internet stream that runs old shows from the CFNY archives. This is great news for anyone wanting to hear what this station was like in the 80s. Click on th banner above for a link to the site (and also a tribute to CFNY as well is found on it's main page at spiritofradio.ca)

David Marsden (probably CFNY's most respected DJ from back in the day) also has a show on Pulver Radio Tuesday afternoons from 3-7pm (repeated Wed. 7-11pm, Sat. 8-midnight and Sun. from noon-4pm). This is one of the examples of radio that was incredibly diverse and classic in every sense of the word (he is definitely a dying breed of radio dj). You can also catch him Thursday and Friday nights 7-midnight broadcasting on the radio dial at Oshawa radio station 94.9 The Rock which also has online streaming for you people outside the listening area.

While we're on the topic of radio. I also wanted to announce the inaugural debut of my own personal Live365 radio station, RadioSteven. You can listen via WinAmp or i-tunes (or download their own Radio365 player free for 35 hours). You can specify in the listening settings how you would like listen to the show (with their downloadable Radio365 player or i-tunes/winamp). In order to listen all you have to do is sign
up and it's FREE. If you wish to listen to Live 365 in cd quality and without ads you can pay their $5/mth subscription cost.

My show up right now has almost 7 hours of music. I have not added any station id or vocal breaks but you can see what the song is in the player window. Feel free to send me your feedback on it. Rock on!

Finally a new post + WOXY R.I.P.


Physical State: achey
Mental State: drowsy
Music: Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway ep
Fashion sense: black t-shirt, sweats



Another great indie music voice seems to be going silent as of this Friday. The venerable WOXY of Cincinnati, Ohio due to lack of funds, like so many great indie rock radio stations on the net, can't afford to keep it up. Barring some insightful and amazing rich donor, the station will be no more. Started out as a real radio station and one of the best in Cincinatti, WOXY (originally called 97X) moved permanently to the internet a few years ago and proved to be a force to be reckoned with. Their host Barb was even voted by NPR as one of Cincinnati's best radio hosts. It really bugs me when a station that plays great music and displays a true passion for music and it's core of fans can't sustain itself without selling out. My respect for WOXY is broadened when I realize they'd rather go down fighting than sell out to the Clear Channels of this world. I will truly miss you and I wish there was something I could do. R.I.P. WOXY, you were a true friend to the music fan.


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If you were interested to check out my radio demo you can find it here: Steven's Humber Demo. My absence of the past few months (few? try 4) has been legendary. After moving out of Toronto back home for a few months and becoming innundated with large amounts of school work, I've let this blog seriously slide. I started thinking that it's time I got back to it. I have no more radioindierock.com show, I have hardly any work going on and I'm waiting to get a radio internship so I have no excuses not to write. So here I am again. It's been hard thinking of ways to marry both my love of indie music and commercial radio. I keep telling myself that the industry is just in a low point and that the music I love will come back to being a large trend. It seems weird to think that when so many big businesses own the music. I met a girl named Michelle who was telling me about the Virgin Music Festival and how she found it just one big commercial and that the bands that got notorioty were a bit lacklustre (Flaming Lips played 3 songs...does that seem worth it?).

I haven't been listening to a lot of indie music over the past little while but it's starting to creep back in again with listening to the new Radio Dept. album Pet Grief and the new album from DNTEL/Postal Service guy Jimmy Tamborello who has released another fine electropop record a la Human League under his James Figurine moniker (now opting for James ahead of the previous band name Figurine proper). Not bad. Lately my ears have been checking out a lot of country music as I've tried to secure an internship out of Toronto at a country station which I think has a lot of charm and great talent. Not to mention it's near my cottage which could come in handy for free rent (I'm pretty shameless). I've also been listening a lot more to Coast To Coast every night. Some of the guests have been truly great. This form of radio seems to be a dying breed.

I was down in Kensington yesterday and it pains me at times how much I miss being downtown. Richmond Hill is just so boring and I can't just decide on a whim that I want to take a walk through Kensington or High Park. I feel often that my life is in some kind of limbo, like I'm between stations or something. We'll see what happens.

I can't believe that it's been 5 years since 9/11, seems like it wasn't that long ago. Weird.

One last thing that's bugging me is the way that Myspace is letting all these 19 year stripper-type girls contact me asking to be my friend. I think it's one a-hole who's doing it all trying some scam through myspace. I guess it's to be expected when things like it get big. But hell...My Myspace Page.