The end of radio as we know it...

Radio has been of great influence in American history. Since the early days airwaves have brought new forms of entertainment and new forms of music to our homes, places of work and automobiles. Since the 1920’s the radio waves have born witness to great dramas, the birth of rock and roll, international headlines, the rise and fall of radio personalities and the death of the radio star. Despite these shifts the format has remained strong over the decades… only to fall ill in these past few years; unfortunately, it is with a sickness that may prove fatal. Monotony The music libraries held by stations have always been a point of pride. The number of albums stored within stations’ walls would be the battle cry to draw in listeners. Yet, with every album acquired, the number of fresh tracks to reach the air declined. Stations who played deep tracks were quickly steamrolled by top forty pop stations whose playlists were limited to only the most popular songs at any given point. At no point was this worse than the late 90’s. As TRL would promote the same songs and the same artists day after day radio stations would do the same. Boy bands and teen idols would release songs only to have every ounce of playtime squeezed out before the next single would roll around. Radio executives became puppets to the recording industry who shoved cookie cutter crap down their throats, as they would do onto us. Artists with unique melodies and lyrics would survive underground, many to die in obscurity. Who among us could really survive on hearing the same twenty tracks every two hours? How could any of us go on letting our musical horizons be diminished by corporate conglomerates like Clear Channel? Introduction of the MP3 Player At the start of the 21st century music found revolution with the introduction of MP3 players. Products such as Apple’s iPod allowed people across the country to travel with access to thousands upon thousands of songs. While other mobile formats have since come and gone, it was the quantity and ease that would attract buyers. More and more people would find themselves listening to these devices than the radio as they could listen to their music when they wanted. Music had become more accessible than it had ever been. With a few clicks one could find new and interesting music from across the world; music that hadn’t been edited for content or run through mind numbing tune enhancements. With listeners turning to their own devices radio programmers needed a better draw, something that couldn’t be easily downloaded. Death of the Radio Personality Throughout the history of radio one of the biggest draws has been unique personalities behind the microphone. Not disk jockeys whose sole purpose is to annoy and talk over the beginning of a song, but someone who could stand out and provide something intriguing to listen to. Over the years it’s been people like news anchors and actors who bring their flair to the waves. Most recently it has been ”shock jocks” whose sense of humor and sexuality came to offend close-minded Americans. They would do battles over the years with lawyers, antiquated & hypocritical FCC regulations and even listeners who couldn’t figure out how to change the channel when they heard something they didn’t quite agree with. The grip of ignorant managers would strangle many. Forcing “shock jocks” to seek out new opportunities after being suspended, in some cases, for words and actions they did not even commit or promote. These men and women would leave behind “bat shit insane” censorship and terrestrial radio for signals beamed from the skies above. Shooting Star of Satellite Radio Satellite radio could have been the true touch of a death for terrestrial radio. It was radio featuring hundreds of channels playing music from every conceivable genre and country. Music from artists so new they weren’t even signed to tracks, so deep off of albums die hard fans had trouble recognizing them. But the best part, the one played up in every advertisement, that it all was uncensored. Of course, that was a lie. Managers still censored their content according to their own guidelines and the words of the most out of touch and ignorant lawyers. This was only part of their failure. Behind the scenes raising costs quickly trumped earnings leading to debt. The two companies that had spearheaded this revolution would quickly merge collective offerings into one giant lump of awful. As Sirius radio took over XM the managers with real talent jumped ship. Stations that once played wide ranges of music quickly had play lists slashed, and slashed again. Censorship would regain a new stronghold as channels, once filled with music, would become diseased by mindless disk jockeys and countless station tags. The aspects that once triumphantly separated satellite radio from terrestrial radio were now gone. Economic Downturn The sputtering American economy would become another nail in the coffin that is modern radio. With unique content, music variety and the destruction of vocal freedom profits fell, and fell hard. Station managers now found themselves backed into a corner. What to do? Instead of shoring up for the long run they responded with horrid knee jerk reactions. Stations that still held on to strong music play lists would find their format switched to top 40 overplayed rubbish. Show hosts would find themselves pushed away from creative and interesting idea. Even the well weathered idea of spinning tracks on the whim of the jockey vanished. Instead of fighting for the signals that would make them unique, many channels just hit shuffle and locked the door. Why would anyone listen to radio whose track lists are ever increasingly limited compared to personal media players? Not to mention punctuated by continual interruptions and commercials. Birth of a New Age If radio is to survive it is going to have to redefine itself. At the risk of using a hack phrase: think outside of the box; develop new ways of drawing in the listener. Would it be so hard to hire disk jockeys that could program interesting music selections mixing new and old songs? How about standing behind the actions of radio personalities who are responsible for causing immeasurable amounts of laughter by the average listener while on their minding-numbing commute to work; shielding those listeners from the one suck up religious type who’s out to define the world based on their views? This age of change has been on the horizon for a long time. Instead of preparing it seems many stations chose to shed a blind eye and pretend it would all just pass. Perhaps it serves them right after all these years of not adapting and catering to the ugly minority. But, really, what do I know? My company isn’t deeply in debt or firing people loyal people who’ve worked for me for the past 30 years.

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