The Fall of Radio
Am I the only one who is disgusted by the music that gets played on the radio today? Free radio in Kansas City has become a shameless advertisement for music that is being pushed on us by outsiders from New York and Los Angeles. Not only do record companies have the capacity to tell you what you can and can't buy at a record store (and for how much), they also have the power to tell you what you should and shouldn't like by what they force radio stations to play in order to sell advertising. So, by going to your local record store and buying something you heard on the radio you're contributing to a stagnating fascist enterprise run by executives at 'Big Record'. How far will free radio's market share drop before they realize that it doesn't pay to have 3-7 radio stations in the same market that have the same programming.
I know that, unlike your humble narrator, many of the readers of this blog are not big fans of country music. I still have to comment on a recent passing in our area. We used to have a country radio station in town (WDAF 610 AM - 61 Country) that played music based on quality rather than what sells commercial time. Of course they had to play the new stuff that was in the record stores, but they mixed it with good amounts of classic country. A couple years ago they 'moved' to FM trying to increase market share. In the process of doing this they got rid of many of their existing on-air personalities and really cut down on the quality music they played. A couple weeks ago that station had a 'format change' in which it dropped all connection with the old quality radio station and changed into a corporate pawn like the other country radio stations in town. Disappointing.
The silver lining in this cloud is the rise of pay radio and alternative music formats as well as small market radio that continues to strive for quality rather than advertising money. Aside from talk radio (980 KMBZ) there are only two radio stations I listen to anymore - 106.9 KTPK in Topeka, and 92.9 KOMG in the Ozarks.
Labels: music review, pirate radio, rant
posted by Aaron at 3/27/2007
6 Comments:
Another downside, as the Scissor Sisters put it.."you can't see tits on the radio". Personally, I never listen to the radio unless I have no other option. I also don't like the concept of pay per radio, although I'm sure they have better variety there. I just can't see paying for it. I can barely stand to pay for my cable tv. There are two last bastions of good "free" new music left...college radio and internent radio. I wish I could listen to internet radio at work as Jade tells me that it's usually pretty good stuff. As far as finding good new music, I stick to word of mouth, amazon recomendations based off what I already like, and trial and error. Over the course of 10-15 years I figure my succes rate in finding new music I like is about 80-90%. I do still pick up the occaisional dud though.
By the way, I might be in town Friday night. A buddy of mine's birthday is on Saturday. Still haven't decided if I'm coming up Friday or Saturday yet.
P.S. I saw Allison Krauss on Austin City Limits...that girl can sing. Union Station was excellent as well. I can see how you made this one of your top concerts.
I'm glad you can appreciate her voice, it's calm and soothing while being assertive and articulate.
We can't listen to Internet radio at work, but I did it at NC. I agree that it's head and shoulders above free radio, but it does fall into the category of pay radio because you have to have Internet access.
I say we all bring back pirate radio! Everybody should pick a standardized nationwide frequency to broadcast whatever they may want to broadcast. I'm all for those little white oval stickers on your window to identify what frequency you're broadcasting at.
I probably won't be in town on Friday night, and I'll be playing softball on Saturday. Call me Saturday night if you want to.
radio blows. i usually only listen to CU station 1190 am and "Martini on the Rocks" which is all the old lounge stuff. Occasionaly they'll have some newer stuff in there - but I agree. Radio blows. How can they play the same 20 songs over and over - and no one gets mad and says anything?
internet college radio for anyone who wants to check it out
Radio 1190 is da BOMB!!!
Technically, I'm not supposed to listen to it at work, either. About a year ago, they sent around an email saying it was taking up too much bandwith and installed software to block us from it. So, I started bringing CDs and eventually tried listening again. Some, like Yahoo music, are blocked, while others are not. I now listen to www.KEXP.org from U. of Washington in Seattle. They have an updated playlist so you always know what is playing, plus live performances and a music blog. Jason would be happy to know I recently heard a remix of Young Pony Club's "I can Give You What you Want' song from their EP.
Didn't I hear that XM and Sirius satellite radio recently had to merge? That tells me that not enough people are buying into pay radio, or at least not enough to allow for competition.
~Jade
All of these still fall under the category of pay radio, along with radio delivered over satellite, cable or anything other than... well.. radio.
Sirius bought XM in order to eliminate competition. It won't be long before the big boys get into the satellite radio bag. It's only a service that you can subscribe to, it's not like Sirius has a global network of dedicated satellites. They have to buy bandwidth on existing satellites just like everybody else. Competition will return to the satellite radio market as long as people keep subscribing.
` That's sad. Kinda like when the local show Ghoulardi was replaced with the Big Chuck and Little John show, who are soooo pathetic (at least they are nowadays) while Ghoulardi went off to be a TV announcer (huh?).
` As for radio, that is something I reserve for my car, because it does not have a CD player (while TV is something I reserve for being at other people's houses), though I don't really have favorite stations, I just scan around for something good.
` Oh, and... BOOKS RULE!!!! (Not to mention computers and the internet....)
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