Lamenting the Death of Radio

John Macy · From: Rockport TX/Denver CO

June 8, 2003, NY Times
Driving Down the Highway, Mourning the Death of American Radio
By BRENT STAPLES

Brooklynites who park their cars on the streets sometimes
post signs — "nothing of value" and my favorite, "no radio,
no nothing" — pleading with thieves not to break in. The
smash and grabs are less frequent than they once were. But
those of us who live here are no longer surprised by the
pools of shattered glass — known as "sidewalk diamonds" —
left by the thieves who make off with air bags, radios and
anything else they can carry.

My aging Volvo will be parked safely in a garage after
getting the new compact disc player that I hope to install
by summer's end. Burglar magnet that it is, the CD player
symbolizes my despair that commercial radio in New York —
and most other major markets — has become so bad as to be
unlistenable and is unlikely to improve anytime soon. I
listen religiously to the public radio station WBGO in
Newark, the best jazz station in the country. Man does not
live by jazz alone. If you want decent pop, rock or country,
you pretty much have to spin it yourself.

Commercial stations in New York are too expensive to be
anything but bland, repetitive and laden with ads and
promotions. A station that could be had for a pittance 30
years ago can go for more than $100 million in a big market
like New York. Congress increased the value of the stations
in 1996, when it raised the cap on the number of stations
that a single company could own; now, three corporate
entities control nearly half of the radio listenership in
the country.

I grew up glued to radio and was present at the creation of
legendary album-format stations like WMMR in Philadelphia
and WXRT in Chicago. These stations played rich blends of
rock, pop and jazz, and sometimes featured local bands.
(This wide-ranging format enriched the collective musical
taste and paid dividends by producing ever more varied
strains of popular music.) Commercials were typically kept
to between 8 and 12 minutes per hour, and 20 minutes or more
could pass before the announcer broke in to give the
station's call letters.

This format was profitable, but not on the money-raining
scale required since Wall Street got wise to the radio game.
Faced with pressure from investors and more corporate debt
than some nations, the megacompanies that acquire a hundred
stations each must squeeze every cent out of every link in
the chain. They do this by dismissing the local staff and
loading up squalling commercials and promotional spots that
can take up as much as 30 minutes per hour during morning
"drive time."

The corporate owners then put pressure on their remaining
rivals — and often force them to sell out — by promoting
national advertising packages that allow commercials to be
broadcast on several stations, or all over the country, at
once. Disc jockeys are often declared expendable and let go.
Where they remain in place, they are figureheads who spin a
narrow and mind-numbing list of songs that have been
market-tested to death, leaving stations that sound the same
from coast to coast.

Critics have focused on the way corporatized radio fails to
cover local news and on free-speech issues, like the one
that emerged when a country band, the Dixie Chicks, was
booted from corporate air for criticizing the president over
the war in Iraq. If the stations find the Dixie Chicks too
challenging to tolerate, it's easy to imagine them
marginalizing genuinely controversial news and programming.

Corporate radio's treatment of the Dixie Chicks argues
against those who wish to remove all remaining federal
limits on corporate ownership — not just of radio, but of
television as well. The dangers posed by concentrated
ownership go beyond news and censorship issues, to the heart
of popular culture itself. By standardizing music and voices
around the country, radio is slowly killing off local
musical cultures, along with the diverse bodies of music
that enriched the national popular culture.

Independent radio even 25 years ago was as important to a
civic landscape as city hall or the local sports star who
made good. The disc jockeys (or "on-air personalities," as
they came to be called) embodied local radio to the public.
You could hear their distinctive influences when you drove
into Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis or Wheeling, W.Va.;
radio stations could be identified not just by the call
letters but from the unique blend of music that was played
in each place.

Pre-corporate radio commonly played established, nationally
known musicians along with unknown locals and traveling
bands. In town for a show, a young, unknown Elvis could
swivel-hip down to the local station for airplay and some
chat. This sort of thing was still possible in the early
1980's, when an unclassifiable band out of Athens, Ga.,
called R.E.M. became hugely popular while barnstorming the
country in a truck. R.E.M. forced itself onto the air
without conceding its weirdness and became one of the most
influential bands of the late 20th century.

Radio stations where unknown bands might once have come
knocking at the door no longer even have doors. They have
become drone stations, where a once multifarious body of
music has been pared down and segmented in bland formats,
overlaid with commercials. As record companies scramble to
replicate the music that gets airplay, pop music is turning
in on itself and flattening out.

Those of us who are breaking with radio are saddened to
leave the community of listeners to which we have belonged
for most of our lives. But we realize as well that the
vitality of the medium, like youth, is lost and forever
behind us.

Al Marcus · From: Cedar Springs,MI USA (deceased)

Boy, there is a lot of truth in that article....wheew!...I rarely listen to the Radio anymore or watch network Tv either. I don't mind some commercials but they are overdoing it now...my 2 cents....al

Ron Randall · From: Dallas, Texas, USA

Great post. Sad but true.

Try XM satellite radio. Six country channels all different. blue grass.
Seven or so jazz channels. Over 100 channels total. about 99% commercial free.
Sound quality is superior to FM. You will hear stuff that will never be played on FM.

Hour long Interviews by Bill Anderson. One featured steel players weeks ago.

check it out.

Dave Birkett · From: Oxnard, CA, USA

One facet of radio that is probably lost forever is a local act getting play on a local station.

Dave Boothroyd · From: Staffordshire Moorlands

"While we celebrate mediocrity,
the boys upstairs want to see,
How much you'll pay
for what you used to get for free"
From "There goes the last DJ" by Tom Petty.
And they want to let Clear Channel operate in the UK!
Comiserations Fellers.
Cheers
Dave

Pat Burns · From: Branchville, N.J. USA

...there are still options....I listen to WNTI, a college station in Hackettstown, N.J, or the one out of William Patterson College...there's dozens of others out there, and nothing commercial about them..SUPPORT PUBLIC BROADCASTING...

Tony LaCroix · From: Austin, Texas, USA

"One facet of radio that is probably lost forever is a local act getting play on a local station"

Not in Austin! I'm playing on the radio twice next month. And I'm perty local

Pat Burns · From: Branchville, N.J. USA

...and they also have local acts, very good local acts, on the public stations...

...complaining about Clear Channel is kinda like frequenting a whorehouse and then complaining that there's nothing but whores there...

Ray Jenkins · From: Gold Canyon Az. U.S.A.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

It's my own opinion that the recent growth of talk radio has been brought about, not by the sudden "enlightenment" of the masses, but rather their complete dissatisfaction with most of the music being played. The totally monotonous musical styles, and the minimal variety available, force the listeners to turn the dial. I suspect, though, that few others have made the same corelation.

There are a few country stars that do have something different (sound-wise) to offer than the typical country acts, such as the Chicks, Yoakum, and Scaggs. But the vast majority of "Hats and Belly-Buttons" being purveyed have an almost universal sameness to their sound, style, and delivery.

In much the same way as America finally tired of the "British music invasion" in the '70s, so too are the same Americans finally tiring of "Uptown-Country". Unfortunately, most of the recording industry moguls think that more exposed skin, muscles, and big boobs, are all they need to keep the ball rolling.

Go figure.

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