U2 on the radio

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Carmanah

The Fly
Joined
Apr 15, 2001
Messages
134
Location
Vancouver, BC, Canada
I'm curious what kind of U2 coverage your local radio stations have. I remember back in the early 90's, practically any kind of U2 song would be played on the radio... unfortunately I don't hear the same kind of range in U2 songs anymore.

Saying that, in this past week while flipping through the radio stations, I heard:

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Mysterious Ways
Red Hill Mining Town
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Bad

Mysterious Ways, EBTTRT and ISHFWILF are very typical to hear on the radio here... but to hear Bad on a popular mainstream rock station and Red Hill Mining Town? I couldn't believe my luck! :D

How many others get that bizarre thrill of hearing U2 songs on the radio that aren't typically the latest single? And what kind of U2 songs do you hear on your local radio stations? I'm wondering if certain regions favour one U2 sound more than others...
 
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Well, I live in the Chicago area, and I hear U2 on the radio fairly frequently. In the last week I've heard Elevation, EBTTRT, ISHFWILF, Streets, Unforgettable Fire, and SBS. Those plus BD, NYD, WOWY, and Pride are the usual songs that are played (well, not UF).

Occasionally a station will give me a nice surprise and play something off Boy or UF- it's always exciting to hear a "rarer" song. I've never heard a Zooropa song on the radio, and I haven't heard one from Pop since 1997. Hearing something from October is pretty rare too, but I know I've heard the song October at least once.

Edited to add that today I heard Dancing Barefoot on the radio. That was quite a surprise!
 
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San Francisco area..

Mysterious Ways
Pride
ISHFWILF
WTSHNN
Desire
Beautiful Day
Stuck
With or Without You

I heard Red Hill one morning when I woke up.. I thought I was still dreaming. :D
 
'Round here, there's Pride and Sunday Bloody Sunday, and Pride and Sunday Bloody Sunday, and Pride, and, um, Sunday Bloody Sunday. Sometimes, for a treat, they'll play Pride, or even Sunday Bloody Sunday.
 
New York area....

I've heard:

Beautiful Day
Everlasting Love
Pride
Still Haven't Found...
Walk On
Stuck In A Moment (acoustic version also)
Where The Streets Have No Name
With Or Without You
One

Lately I've been hearing Everlasting Love and although not a U2 song, When The Stars Go Blue- Bono w/ The Corrs.

That's all I could think of right now, looking at this list I would have expected some more U2 songs. It's probably because I listen to the radio at a certain time.
 
What's funny is, there's a radio station here in Vancouver that does a "retro lunch hour" between noon and 1pm. Of course, it was during that retro lunch hour that they played Bad, Mysterious Ways and Red Hill Mining Town.

The good thing, I guess, is that I can always turn on that station during lunch and I'll probably hear an old U2 song.

Or I can tune into the "classic rock" station and listen to 80's or 90's U2.

:p
 
Here in Germany the radio stations I know often just play ISHFWILF. An uninformed listener could think that U2 is just a
"one hit wonder".:no:

Sometimes I have heard:

Sweetest Thing
With or Without You
Pride
Mysterious Ways
Stuck

They played the songs from Pop and ATYCLB only directly after they were released as singles.
Stuck is the only song that still becomes a bit airplay.

I never heard songs from Zooropa on the radio.:mad:
 
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In NW Iowa there only a few radio stations that have been playing much U2 lately, and when they do it's:

ISHFWILF
Streets
Stuck In A Moment
Desire

It's all because of Clear Channel and their mandatory playlists. Those radio-wave clogging bastards! Clear Channel is the devil!! :macdevil:

There is, however, a kick ass college station where you hear at least two U2 songs a day. Over the past week I've heard:

Bullet the Blue Sky
Two Hearts Beat As One
I Will Follow
Discoteque
Unforgettable Fire
:yes: Needless to say, this is the station that I listen to 24/7.
 
Hey, Kariatari! I used to live in northwest Iowa and I remember the college station you are talking about. The funny thing is I didn't appreciate it when I had it. Now I live in north central Iowa where ALL the radio stations suck. The Top 40 stations only play U2 when they have a current hit, like Beautiful Day and Elevation. We have a "classic rock" station that sometimes plays New Years Day, but it kind of feels strange to hear it amid all the Journey, Foreigner and Styx they normally play. But my cable system has Digital Music Express, which includes a great channel that plays LOTS of U2 - Bad, Red Hill Mining Town, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, the live version of Please, Beautiful Day, One, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Stay. They also play a lot of REM, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Travis and other artists you almost never hear on the pathetic radio stations around here.
 
RADIO IO, bay-bee!!!! (yes, I'm plugging this for all it's worth)

Carmanah, if you have Windows Media Player on your computer, go to the "radio tuner" button/tab, and chose "Radio IO - Intelligent Rock". Not only do they play a GREAT assortment of non-mainstream music, but they play decent amounts of U2, and it's not just the regular stuff - they play lots of their more "obscure" stuff too.

you can't travel with the station, but anywhere there's a PC, you should be able to get it....plus on their website (radioio.com, natch), you can email them with requests (as long as it's not Britney or Kylie, etc.)

happy listening.... :)
 
Carmanah said:

How many others get that bizarre thrill of hearing U2 songs on the radio that aren't typically the latest single?

*Raises hand* ME! ME! ME! *Falls of chair.* :tongue:
I get so excited when U2 songs come on the radio. I start clapping and smiling like an idiot.
ISHFWILF gets played alllll the time on our classic rock stations..I heard I Will Follow last week. Walk On gets played a lot too. And Elevation. But I never get goodies like Red Hill Mining Town, sadly.
 
Today I was able to receive a bunch of radio stations from Vancouver Island (a LARGE mountainous island to the west of Vancouver)... well, I discovered a new radio station there, and what were they playing?

In A Little While!!!!

I couldn't believe it, so I turned it up loud and sang along. :D

And I'm also happy because that station plays more retro stuff, and less "alterna-Nickelback-Default-Staind-yadayada". (They were playing Depeche Mode and the Pixies, which are more of my style).

I actually rarely listen to the radio in my own car because the antenna fell off last year while driving down the freeway (don't ask how - I just remember seeing it fly off, and that was it, lol!)

But my dad's van has great radio reception, so now I have access to all these quirky unknown stations I wouldn't get if I were to drive my own car.

saying that, I'll check out that online radio station.

And for those of you who really want something unique, me and my sister tend to listen to a Belgian radio station called "Studio Brussel" at http://www.stubru.be

Not only to they play U2, but they play all kinds of songs you just don't hear (at least in North America) - ie: dEUS, Hooverphonic, etc. It's a great station if you want to listen to something unique.
 
Well reporting in here from 'Mountainous Vancouver Island' I am happy to say that our local radio station plays copious amounts of U2. In an average work day they'll play around 2-4 U2 songs.

The range is pretty good. Having heard songs lately (as in the last 6 months) such as:

Mick Jagger's Joy (w/ Bono of course) *This is getting huge play right now.
When Stars Go Blue (Bono and the Corrs)
BD
Walk On
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bad
I Will Follow
Angel of Harlem
Desire
Where the Streets Have No Name
Ground Beneath Her Feet
In God's Country
Sweetest Thing
Kite
Elevation
ISHFWILF
Bullet the Blue Sky
Mysterious Ways
Stuck In A Moment
When Love Comes to Town
One

During the tour they used to play Live tracks from Irving plaza--> BD and Elevation. That was always exciting.

I must say that they play Bad a lot. Unfortunately, other than the strong U2 content, this radio station is waaaaaaay too old rock for me, but it's the only one with good reception here at work. Oh, and to answer your question re. Excitement when U2 is on the radio--> I am officially permitted by my boss to crank the radio when U2's on! :D It helps that those around me like them too.
 
Angel said:
Well reporting in here from 'Mountainous Vancouver Island'.

Hehe... I guess what I meant by "mountainous Vancouver Island" was, while I can get 100.3 The Q alright, I discovered the Zone quite by accident... and I guess they're both being broadcast in Victoria, which is strange why I can usually get one station and not the other... but, sometimes it's just the mountains that block the waves. ;) But I guess I should have elaborated, hehe...

Angel - which station were you referring to? I remember The Q playing all kinds of U2 songs :p
 
I heard Last Night On Earth when I was shopping for groceries here in North Carolina. I also heard it about a year ago when I was working out in a gym in South Florida. I don't listen to the radio much around here, but there is a station that plays U2 on a daily basis. The songs I've heard are: NYD, BTBS, MW, Bad, SBS, WOWY, BD, SIAM, AOH, Pride, and ISHFWILF
 
Carmanah said:

... but, sometimes it's just the mountains that block the waves. ;) But I guess I should have elaborated, hehe...

Angel - which station were you referring to? I remember The Q playing all kinds of U2 songs :p

Oh hey, I didn't mean anything bad by it, I thought it was cute. Anyway, I was referring to the Q. I know Rick Everett is a big U2 fan so he tends to play them alot.
The Zone is great actually. They sponserred a huge U2 gathering at the IMAX to preview the Boston DVD and gave away a ton of prizes. I should check their station out more, I keep forgetting they exist. :|
 
[color=royal blue]MD.....with most stations comin in from DC

There is one station, Z104, that switched formats a few months ago bc they used to just play stuff like NSync all the time.....since the switch they have been playing a lot more U2, even AIWIY and WGRYWH and SATS which before then I had never heard on the radio before. So that's cool. Every now and then IWF comes on. They've even starting playing the acoustic version of Stuck which is AWESOME to hear on the radio. Even the ppl who work there seem to love U2 bc they always share U2 related news, like Eli's bday and Edge's wedding o_O It's very cool.

Other stations play 'em every now and then, but mostly it's the newer stuff.

DC101 will play the live version of "Bad" sometimes......and they mostly do the newer stuff and JT stuff....every now and then EBTTRT or MW too.

WHFS played a live version of Bullet once......

98 rock I've only heard play WOWY...

Wow now that I think about it we got a lot more than I thought....

When the Stars Go Blue has been getting a decent amount of airplay, too.
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May I add that I have been at work for just over four hours and so far my radio station have played BD, WOWY and now Joy with Bono and Mick Jagger.

Ahhhhhhhhhh Love the U2 content. :heart:
 
I reallly don't listen to the radio that much but when I do this is what I hear: Beautiful Day, Elevation, SBS, Pride......a bit from Elevation, a bit from the '80's, not much from the '90's.
 
I've been late to work because I've been sitting in the car listening to a U2 song on the radio.....never mind that I've got the darn thing at home. :laugh: :laugh:
 
Angel said:
May I add that I have been at work for just over four hours and so far my radio station have played BD, WOWY and now Joy with Bono and Mick Jagger.

Ahhhhhhhhhh Love the U2 content. :heart:


Alright! That's it! I'm now going to forever have 100.3 The Q set as my default radio station. However, as soon as I stepped into the van today and turned on the radio, the Zone was playing Beautiful Day, haha...
 
just heard bad and beautiful day.

also, not a u2 song, but i just heard big empty by stp. god i love that song!

Incredible lyrics especially these lines:

To much walkin', shoes worn thin
To much trippin' and my souls worn thin
 
I heard Beautiful Day at 3am this morning...

but the strangest thing was last evening while dining at a trendy seafood restaurant... they were playing all kinds of songs over their speakers, and while it was too noisy to figure out what the songs were, part way through my meal I could recognize the bassline to Until The End of the World. It's really quite an original bassline - hard to mistake it for any other. I don't think I've ever heard that song in a restaurant before! So I was highly amused.... :p
 
In Seattle...

96.5 (the Point) - 80s format - SBS, NYD, ISHFWILF, WTSHNN, WOWY, IWF, Pride

99.9 - KISW - Rock format - WTSHNN, BTBS, Desire

101.5 - Star - Pop format - BD, Elevation, Stuck, JT hits

102.5 - KZOK - Classic rock format - JT hits, BTBS, OTH, War hits, UF, Bad, AB hits

103.7 - KMTT - Classic/Contemporary Folk - JT hits, OTH, AB hits, TGBHF, SATS, ATYCLB hits
 
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