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BANDS: Punk
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Problems
With & Alternatives To Commercial Radio Its no
secret that a large number of avid music fans are extremely disgruntled with
whats become of American radio recently.
History tends to repeat itself cyclically in the music industry, and the
current state of radio is the epitome of such a cycle.
Radio in the 1980s was marked by a surge of pop musicfrom Michael
Jackson to Paula Abdul to New Kids On The Blockthat obscured the budding
local, DIY underground scenes popping up all around the country: a situation
similar to today. The early
80s also marked the federal governments deregulation of radio frequencies,
and for the first time commercial radio stations began to employ consultants for
selecting programming schedules. Following
deregulation (as is typical in almost any industry) corporate consolidation
occurred, and conglomerates began to buy up smaller, local stations, which had
been important avenues for getting local music to the mainstream. Radio
programming became the output of a formula, uniquely designed to identify and
play songs/artists geared toward specific markets, in turn enticing advertisers
who hoped to gain access to these markets.
It was a money-making machine for the business conglomerates; no regard
was given to the fact that playlists were shrinking, musical diversity was
diminishing, and most tragically, local scenes were ignored.
The backlash came in 1991 with the breakout of the grunge scene, and
alternative music began to rule the airwaves. But music fans had even had enough of that by the
mid-nineties when grunge, itself, became commercial and clich. The problem
with commercial radio is its purpose: to secure advertisers, which are the
revenue source for the station. By
securing more advertisers, revenues rise, and in turn, profits rise as long as
expenses are controlled. In a
system such as this one, it is clear that the power lies with the advertisers.
An advertiser can easily choose to pull its ads if it believes that the
type of music a station is playing does not fit its demographic.
Of course, advertisers tend to view statistics in the aggregate.
There is no room for flexibility, and there is a constant tendency to
jump on the latest bandwagon. There
is no room for exploring new musical genres.
And worst of all, there is no concern for what the listeners actually want
to hear, as opposed to what the advertisers think they want to hear. So where is
the unaffected radio to be found? The
answer largely lies in public radio. Public
radio does not work within the same corporate confines as commercial radio; it
is non-profit, meaning that advertising revenues are not a priority. The
priority is instead the quality of the broadcasted music/talk/news etc. The main concern is to sustain the stations ability to
stay on air by covering operating costs. This
is usually done through listener-supported campaigns, where listeners pledge to
pay a certain amount to help keep the station on air. It is actually to the advantage of public radio stations to
diversify its format. By doing
this, the station broadens its listening base, gaining more paying listeners.
Some stations also secure underwriters, something altogether different
from advertisers. In most cases, the public radio stations simply tell the
potential underwriters the format of the station, and in a take it or leave it
fashion, the business will decide whether or not to become an underwriter.
In public radio, the power lies with the station to choose a format that
the listeners will enjoy. And since
the stations are usually comprised of music fans turned volunteers (read:
non-paid), the people programming the music have a better feel for the listening
audiences musical tastes. Fortunately,
in todays music world, public radio is not the only alternative to commercial
radio. Technology has provided many
avenues for fans to gain access to good music, the number one method being
Internet radio. The size and
ubiquity of the web allows for an endless number of stations, at a low price, to
be broadcast to countless listeners all over the world. And because Internet
radio is a relatively new concept, it has not yet been completely invaded by
advertisers, aiming at their piece of the pie.
Virtually anyone could start his or her own radio station via the
Internet. This provides spectacular
opportunity for growing artists to break out of their local scenes. The
latest and greatest innovation in radio is XM Satellite Radio, the first
digital satellite radio service in the US.
It encompasses 100 digital channels of music, news, sports, comedy and
talk, from coast to coast. XM Radio
has been marketing itself by claiming you can drive from New York to Los
Angeles without ever changing the channel.
Is that really so appealing? One
of the things I enjoy most about travelling by car is discovering some neat, new
local station in a random place that I never would have known about otherwise.
Furthermore, XM radio attempts to appear global, but with only 100
channels, thorough coverage is completely out of reach.
Only one station is devoted to unsigned bands.
While the program director of this station is the music-savvy Pat Dinizio
of the Smithereens, how can one station give fair coverage to the massive number
of unsigned artists in the US? One
good aspect of XM Radio is that thirty of the stations will be non-commercial. If it stays that way, advertisers will not influence the
music on at least those thirty stations. Still,
who knows what kind of corporate behemoth lurks behind XM Radio, influencing
playlists and limiting station flexibility. Music is an
art form, and radio is an important way of relaying that art form to the public.
When money and profit enter the picture, music loses its place as the
number-one priority. Motives and intentions change.
Pleasing an aggregate audience begins to take precedence over pleasing
differing groups of individual music listeners. And sadly, deserving artists are left without access to
appreciative audiences.
Visit the LEFT OFF THE DIAL Radio page for more information on specific Internet Radio stations and applications. What do you think? - I will post all responses to this article. Related articles and
websites: In Praise of Non-Commercialism from Unpop.com Why
Radio Today Sounds So Bad from The New Orleans Radio Shrine Background to the UK Radio Industry (The UK perspective) About LOTD Contact/Staff Advertise Home All content © LEFT OFF THE DIAL 2001-2005. All rights reserved. |
