Radio Airplay for Matt's new singles

[MatthewGoodFan101]

I'm curious as to how much airplay Matt's new singles in recent years have received. Where I live, there's 3 radio stations that would possibly play Matt's songs; CFNY-FM and CIND-FM in Toronto, and CJXY-FM in Hamilton. The last new single of Matt's that received consistent airplay on CFNY was Zero Orchestra. I never once heard CFNY play Had It Coming or All You Sons and Daughters. Sad to see that such a popular station as CFNY has ignored the new music of one of Canada's great alternative rock artists. I heard Had It Coming twice on CJXY when it was released, and one of those times was because I called and requested it. CIND seems like Matt's best shot for his new singles to get radio airplay in the area where I live. I remember they consistently played Had It Coming and Arrows of Desire when they were first released. So now Matt has released two new songs, Bad Guys Win and Decades. In my opinion, both of these songs are radio friendly and I believe these station's listeners would enjoy them. However, I have yet to hear these songs played on any of the stations I mentioned. Can anyone tell me if these songs are getting airplay on the radio stations in their local areas? Did Had It Coming and All You Sons and Daughters receive airplay? I'm very curious and I'd appreciate any information anyone would be willing to share on this topic.

Edited August 2, 2017 by MatthewGoodFan101

[andydanger85]

Indie 88 in Toronto played AYSAD relatively often; I am not listening to radio as much these days, so I don't know if Decades or Bad Guys Win got spins.

[Outtahere]

I live in Quebec so, unfortunately, they stopped playing anything new from Matt after BM. The only place to hear some MG is on CHOM 97.7FM and even they don't play anything that's not from Underdogs or BM.

 

But the Bad Guys Win video was quickly added to Stingray which is nice. I've been looking for Decades on there but nothing yet.

[Guest Idioteque]

Only "pro" viewpoint about the lack of MG content on the radio is radio in general is becoming obsolete. Technology is letting people dictate what they listen to with bluetooths, phone inputs or just plain old CDs.

 

It usually takes nearly an hour for 99.3 to play a legitimate rock & roll song.

 

Radio is dying.

 

If there weren't laws in place for Canadian radio stations to play Canadian artists a certain amount of times per day, you wouldn't hear any local bands. It would be Imagine Dragons & Mumford & Sons on repeat. It's sad to see how handicapped our own bands are when it comes to trying to get their music heard.

[andydanger85]

Only "pro" viewpoint about the lack of MG content on the radio is radio in general is becoming obsolete. Technology is letting people dictate what they listen to with bluetooths, phone inputs or just plain old CDs.

 

It usually takes nearly an hour for 99.3 to play a legitimate rock & roll song.

 

Radio is dying.

 

If there weren't laws in place for Canadian radio stations to play Canadian artists a certain amount of times per day, you wouldn't hear any local bands. It would be Imagine Dragons & Mumford & Sons on repeat. It's sad to see how handicapped our own bands are when it comes to trying to get their music heard.

 

 

The CRTC rules you're mentioning are the whole reason we know who Matthew Good is. As you rightly point out later on, it'd be ID or Mumford and Sons on repeat (or, during the early days - NSYNC and Britney Spears on Much and Staind and Papa Roach on rock radio from that time period).

 

I agree that it is now the trend to play a few Canadian artists many times (Hedley, Carly Rae, Marianas Trench et al), but with regards to Matt specifically, radio has been really good to him. I've heard him mention the loyalty of Ottawa rock radio stations multiple times in various interviews etc.

 

So, while things have changed, "sad" might not be the best way to frame it! I know about a lot of bands that I may have otherwise never heard of because of those rules!

[Outtahere]

I don't know if the sames rules apply elsewhere but in Quebec there's also a large percentage of French music that has to be played. French radio stations usually keep those for the night shift and play the (very few) most popular French songs during the day alongside the likes of Rhianna, Kesha, Imagine Dragons and such. Canada sucks when it comes to its self-promotion (because of the inferiority complex that Matt talks about sometimes)... unless you're called Drake or Bieber who, of course, very few know are Canadians (and obviously don't represent Canadian music as such). 

[Guest Idioteque]

Specifically in the 90's is where the CRTC rule helped bands, especially when it came towards TV programs like Much Music/MTV playing local videos side by side with Bon Jovi or the Backstreet Boys. The real benefit was taking down the border of "this is a british band, this is a american band etc" and you just had music. Rush for the longest time was mislabeled as rare unreleased Led Zeppelin songs because it wasn't normal for small hometown bands to share air time with multi-grammy winning artists.

 

I think today's version of the rule & how it effects radio isn't great at all, there's such a huge catalog of old Canadian music (The Hip, Neil Young, Our Lady Peace, Matthew Good etc) that most Canadian radio stations circulate Old Canadian classics & popular music from outside of this Country compared the new bands which is what had made the bands I listed famous in the first place. There's only a small % of new bands that were able to catch a break in recent years like Mother Mother, Arkells just to name a few. 

So we used to have new Canadian bands mixed in with new/old USA/British bands, now the specific airtime meant to go towards our local bands is now being overbooked by all the old Canadian rock classics.

[Curtster]

In Victoria we have The Zone which plays "modern rock", this is the most likely place to hear a new single from Matt.  We have The Q, which plays generic rock, mostly classic rock, they may play Matt's old stuff every now and then but I wouldn't expect to hear his new stuff there.

 

The Zone recently featured Decades in their "Inbox" feature for a day.  This is where they play a newly released song at several points throughout the day and then get listeners to send in their feedback as to whether they think it should go into rotation on the station.  I'm not sure if it made the cut, I haven't heard it there since, so probably not.  I don't believe Bad Guys Win has been played on the station at all.

 

All You Sons and Daughters was never played there as far as I know, along with anything from Chaotic Neutral.  This is with the exception of a clip of AYSAD being played as part of a paid commercial for his show.

 

Had It Coming was played for a brief period when it first came out, but was pulled off pretty quickly.  Arrows of Desire was also in rotation for a bit, I remember hearing it as part of their "top 20 countdown", but it wasn't long before it disappeared as well.

 

The Zone still plays Zero Orchestra randomly every now and then, I wasn't listening to the station when that was released as a single, but I suspect it may have got good play at the time.  In my opinion, Zero Orchestra is by far the strongest radio single Matt has released probably since Born Losers.  It's ironic, because I seem to recall Matt saying how that song wasn't radio-friendly when the album came out.  The most random thing I ever heard them play was a radio edit of Near Fantastica randomly once.

 

I assume the singles are chosen by the label as opposed to Matt himself, but it seems that since around the Vancouver album, the choices that have been made have been simply the safest ones.  In my opinion, since around that time, Matt's best work has become increasingly unfriendly to radio.  The songs chosen as singles have been very safe, and in some cases have actually ended up being the weakest tracks on the album in my opinion.  Zero Orchestra has really been the only more unconventional choice that has been made, which was some of Matt's best work, and it seemed to have resonated with people outside of his regular fan base.

 

On Chaotic Neutral, the strongest tracks were ones like Cold Water and Tiger by the Tail, which will obviously never be played on radio.  Although, I think Cloudbusting could have been a more unconventional single choice, and could have had some legs.

 

On Arrows of Desire, maybe a radio edit of Garden of Knives would have been a more interesting choice, and the edginess may have reminded people of the MGB days a bit.  Via Delorosa is very strong track off that record that I think may have been overlooked.

 

I think while Matt's work has became increasingly unfriendly to radio, modern rock radio has also been moving away from his style of music.  Popular music seems to include less and less rock over the last 15 years or so.  Bands like Twenty One Pilots and Imagine Dragons are dominating "modern rock" radio.  These bands produce excellent pop songs in my opinion, but it isn't really rock.  The rock stations are stretching the definition of rock in order to continue to play popular songs in my opinion.

 

Matt is a veteran of the industry now, popular music has naturally diverged from his style.  The fact that he has enjoyed longevity, is still producing albums and touring, speaks to the quality of his work.  Most acts that were popular during the period he was most popular are long gone now.  I think it may be unrealistic to expect to hear Matt played in heavy rotation on the radio these days, but that doesn't mean he isn't still relevant.

[andydanger85]

Specifically in the 90's is where the CRTC rule helped bands, especially when it came towards TV programs like Much Music/MTV playing local videos side by side with Bon Jovi or the Backstreet Boys. The real benefit was taking down the border of "this is a british band, this is a american band etc" and you just had music. Rush for the longest time was mislabeled as rare unreleased Led Zeppelin songs because it wasn't normal for small hometown bands to share air time with multi-grammy winning artists.

 

I think today's version of the rule & how it effects radio isn't great at all, there's such a huge catalog of old Canadian music (The Hip, Neil Young, Our Lady Peace, Matthew Good etc) that most Canadian radio stations circulate Old Canadian classics & popular music from outside of this Country compared the new bands which is what had made the bands I listed famous in the first place. There's only a small % of new bands that were able to catch a break in recent years like Mother Mother, Arkells just to name a few. 

 

So we used to have new Canadian bands mixed in with new/old USA/British bands, now the specific airtime meant to go towards our local bands is now being overbooked by all the old Canadian rock classics.

 

 

Yeah, but I don't think we need use the past tense ...for example:

 

In the last hour alone on Indie 88 in Toronto (I'm referencing their recently played) ....

 

Hannah Georgas

Metric

Arcade Fire (they're on heavy rotation everywhere, I know)

Tokyo Police Club

Death From Above

Tragically Hip

 

Canadian acts constitute 50% of the available playlist in the last hour; CanCon has served us well. In terms of all of the above, with the exception of the Hip, they've either required VideoFACT funding or Government of Canada grants early in their careers, or just plain benefitted from CanCon rules.

 

Obviously in general, yeah, I could do with a little less Hip/Guess Who/Hedley etc in general, but that's a pretty tasty lineup of current Canadian bands even just in the last hour. And they vastly outpace the required Canadian content directions. In a general sense, I'm typically against prescriptive rules like these ... but I think we're still hearing a lot of stuff that'd get drowned out by bigger budgets, bigger names and standard radio overplaying. 

 

Even still, I'm aware that's the Toronto market and you may not get that the further you are away from a major city. If bland/overplayed is the name of the affiliates game, may be time to invest in Sirius XM haha

[Mira Aleta]

I don't know if the sames rules apply elsewhere but in Quebec there's also a large percentage of French music that has to be played. French radio stations usually keep those for the night shift and play the (very few) most popular French songs during the day alongside the likes of Rhianna, Kesha, Imagine Dragons and such. Canada sucks when it comes to its self-promotion (because of the inferiority complex that Matt talks about sometimes)... unless you're called Drake or Bieber who, of course, very few know are Canadians (and obviously don't represent Canadian music as such). 

This is super sad!  This is a story about a recent Canada 150 compilation that completely lacks any french language music: 

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2017/07/21/oops-six-cd-canada-150-box-set-has-no-french-songs.html

 

I think it's too bad that there's not more focus Canadian music because we have some of the most consistently creative and inspired music out there, in my humble Canuck opinion.  In fact, when I look through my disc cases (yes, I still have CD's folks!) there is a huge quantity of Canadian music of all different varieties.  And if the Star were reporting on my music collection, it would also notice the dearth of french language tunes, which is really too bad as I am bilingual and love french Canadian culture!  It would be great if I heard more on the radio!

[Outtahere]

This is super sad!  This is a story about a recent Canada 150 compilation that completely lacks any french language music: 

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2017/07/21/oops-six-cd-canada-150-box-set-has-no-french-songs.html

 

I think it's too bad that there's not more focus Canadian music because we have some of the most consistently creative and inspired music out there, in my humble Canuck opinion.  In fact, when I look through my disc cases (yes, I still have CD's folks!) there is a huge quantity of Canadian music of all different varieties.  And if the Star were reporting on my music collection, it would also notice the dearth of french language tunes, which is really too bad as I am bilingual and love french Canadian culture!  It would be great if I heard more on the radio!

 

It is sad indeed. The music business in Quebec is a microcosm with the same problem as Canadian music in general. Most non-pop artists (Marie-Mai, Céline Dion and winners of La Voix) will get airplay but that's pretty much it. Then they'll generally fill their quotas with the local classics like old songs from Robert Charlebois, Beau Dommage and others of the sort. Other artists are not generally appreciated by the great public. Is it because they're not getting played or are they not played because they're not appreciated? But it's pretty much the same question as music from the rest of the country.

 

In an ideal world where our so-called bilingual country would actually be bilingual, our Canadian artists, whether they're French or English, would get airplay everywhere in the country. That would be awesome and would help stop Quebec being a world of its own, at least music wise.

[Moonlight_Graham]

Haven't hear Decades on the radio the big city i live in.  It's a relatively catchy single, I think more radio-friendly than AYSAD.  Could be that Matt's not the "it" thing anymore for radio to rely on for content, radio doesn't spin his singles like they do Mother Mother or Arkells etc. Can't remember if I heard AYSAD on radio. Zero Orchestra I heard a few times.  Had It Coming I didn't hear on radio, but not surprised as that was the worst song on that album IMO, they should have went with Arrows of Desire & Via Dolorosa.

[hoogie]

FM96 is the rock station here, and they barely play any of his new stuff.  They played Had It Coming, but nothing new since.  It's the classics of his or nothing at all.  It's pretty sad.

[patrickjnixon]

Does anyone know if his songs get much airplay on Satellite radio?  I think XM has to follow the same CRTC rules that terrestrial radio stations have to follow regarding Canadian artists.  I have never really heard MG on XM though.