Jepthah

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/200...ess/index.html

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/200...eye/index.html

New articles about the current sad state of virtually all major radio stations in this country.

I hope C.C. gets the smackdown. I don't even bother listening to several major stations in the Los Angeles market anymore because they have become so stale, predictable and grating.

The major labels, RIAA and Congress who deregulated the cable and radio industries in the worst possible way, are now paying for the demons they spawned. There are going to be major changes in the music industry in the near future whether they like it or not.

Giantrobo

YEP!!

I hate to say it but I have little sympathy for either side

atlantamoi

Thanks for this link Jepthah. Before reading the Salon piece I was thinking, "I hate the way radio is today, but somebody obviously likes this horrible music on the air or it wouldn't be successful." That's true to a point, but I was amazed how big and expensive this pay-for-play is. If I was working in radio now because I love music, I would be very disillusioned. I hope they can chip away at this scheme.

mllefoo

I keep taking these stupid radio music surveys over the phone. These are the ones where they play 36 clips and ask if you "like", "don't like", Never heard of, tired of, etc.

Almost every single time my answer to their clips is "Never liked, please don't play it ever again or I will have to burn down your radio station."

I guess I'm in the minority because those songs I complain about keep getting played. Maybe they *want* me to burn down their radio stations.

Johnny Zhivago

I'll listen to the local college stations every so often but other than that I haven't tuned in any of the corporate FM stations in years... It was ALL crapola the last time I checked and I'm sure that has changed very little... Every band sounded the same and that band sucked.

B5Erik

Radio sucks. We all know that.

Corporate giants like Clear Channel are mostly responsible for all radio stations of any particular format sounding the same. No local progam/music directors have any real leeway in what they will play.

Here in San Diego there was once a GREAT Hard Rock/Metal station called KIOZ (102.1). Then they were bought out by Clear Channel's predecessor, the format and call letters moved to 105.3, and the station became more corporate (fewer "cool" stuff played - and NO local bands anymore, which was one of the cool things that 102.1 did a lot). Now the station is a joke. Corporate radio at it's worst.

I got so fed up I started my own Internet Radio Show (see my sig at the bottom). It's what radio used to be like.

Can radio ever be fixed? Who knows?

KnightLerxst

I refuse to comment in this thread on the grounds I may incriminate myself....

vman69

The only time the radio is on in my truck is when I'm changing out CD's.

Giantrobo

I hear ya brother.....

atlantamoi

Ah, c'mon, go ahead! I work for CNN which is owned by AOL and I think AOL is.... uh, I refuse to comment in this thread on grounds I may incriminate myself.

Heat

Besides programming issues, there are the number of commercials. Basically the number of minutes of commercials per hour has kept increasing and now averages ~ 18 minutes/hour (including, I believe, ads for their own shows).

The only station I find myself listening to on a regular basis is NPR, for the news. If I want music I listen to my CDs, I just can't get over how bad radio is these days.

And for Clear channel, I listened to a clear channel version of what used to be a great station (WTAO in Carbondale, Illinois), now it is a clone of all other "alternative" stations, playing the same songs over and over.

KnightLerxst

I will just say this. People buy the songs that are played. I don't know why, I think people are honestly brainwashed. I swear. We run a new song, ask for people's opinions, and if it is a superstar the response is "Oh that song is wonderful" It could be Britney burping the alphabet and people will still love it...I just don't get it.

I think part of the problem is that the majority of society just wants a song they can tap their foot too. That frustrates me, since I don't want that, I want good friggin music, not Creed My Own Prison volume 3...

Giantrobo

you can thank HOWARD STERN for that BS!!!!


An article came out about 2 years ago in a Radio Trade Mag bragging about how The Stern Show proved people will sit through more and more spots and how stations should take advantage of this.

The spot loads all over radio went up after that..... At my main station gig (non Clear Channel) we jam spotsets so that the regular shows start late. We even TIMESQUEEZE our spotsets at one of our stations like they do in TV.

It's like we play programs/music between the spots...not the other way around

But I guess the spots pay my salary...not that I go to see any more money form the increased spot load

Spicollidriver1

Our Top 40 station is clear channel and it is horrible, and a terible morning show also. Then we have like 3 or 4 "classic 80's rock" but it is mostly pop with some cool songs mixed in. I mostly find myself listening to the classic rock station that was one before it was cool to be one around here, and there morning show. Or I listen to the Rock/Metal station it replays a lot of songs, but it is also not afraid to doll out some old stuff, and b sides once in awhile. It has one night a week of local bands, one "extreme metal shop", and sunday nights it has a taped concert which is usually cool. What is funny is that a year or 2 ago I would rarely listen to these stations unless everything was on commercials, and now I listen to them all the time because of the rest of the tripe on the radio, and there morning shows are really good (better then Stern not that he is around here anymore)also.

POWERBOMB

Having done a little traveling it is odd how stations in different cities "sound" similar to the ones in my hometown. Although I do enjoy the familiarity, I know that people will eventually turn against this form of radio.

I don't like the "nationwide contest" that is the norm now. I had a hard enough time just being the local 25th caller.

And I don't like the power that C. C. has over the music. I've noticed that a few artists who were played heavily now are absent from the radio playlist. When pressed it usually invovles the artist not haveing their tour "sponsered" or "supported" by C. C. promotions division. (When was the last time you heard Britney Spears on a Clear Channel station?)

mllefoo

ClearChannel is the Devil. It bought the 80s station in the Bay Area and turned it into a quagmire of "Adult Power Contemporary", which means they play LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of Alanis Morrissette clones, Enrique Iglesias, and Smashmouth up the wazoo. Does anyone seriously *like* Smashmouth? I mean, really.

And the only 80s they play anymore is bad Cher (isn't it all?), horrible Heart, and an occasional round of Come on Eileen just to appease the new wavers out here. As if.

ClearChannel = 666

Alyoshka

I love ClearChannel.

It gives me further validation that spending hundreds of dollars on cds a year is well worth it. Whenever I happen to flip through radio channels, I'm overjoyed that I can just pop in a cd instead.

Jepthah

Yesterday Tom Leykis actually took a break from woman-bashing to devote a segment to the evils of C.C. and discussed with callers how nearly every station now is 5-10 songs on repeat--how people were just burning and ripping CDs in de facto protest. He loves C.C. too, because as he explains, it drives frustrated and apathetic listeners to all-talk formats like his beloved 97.1 KLSX.