Re-arranging the FM band

[redhat]

Christian religious adult contemporary (funny how you can tell that genre just by the music, even before the singer starts in, isn't it?)

I'm glad I'm not the only one that notices that!

+-RH

[BoomboxDX]

Don't blame Clear Channel (at least here in the States). Put the blame where it belongs: blame Congress and President Clinton for the Deregulation Act of 1996.  That's what started it all.

I worked in the radio industry back then. I remember all the talk, all the news of radio mergers and buyouts.... it was all over the industry magazines -- it was a regular buying frenzy.  Big radio companies buying out other smaller companies, merging like crazy, then doing their IPO and going public on Wall Street -- individual stations became parts of 'clusters' and with consolidated facilities, and then people were let go. 

When one company bought another company, the new bosses would lay off people to either cut costs outright -- or they would lay off people because they already had people in another cluster that (thanks to computer networking) could handle the extra workload.  Or they already had a division that handled that particular radio service (be it production, voice-tracking, programming, etc.), and they didn't need the redundancy.

It all started about the time of the dot com boom, and had the same kind of greed driving it: get those stock prices up, cut costs, buy another company or merge to try to make the stock look more valuable.

Over the next ten years maybe 50,000 radio personnel lost their jobs.  Those jobs ain't ever coming back.  Of course, de-reg isn't the only reason for the loss of those jobs.  The internet, technology advances, and falling listenership all contributed to it... but deregulation was probably the biggest factor in the consolidation and homogenization of radio in the U.S.

[Chanter]

... *shudders*  I say again, thank God for international, public and community radio.  Really. 

[clobdell]

But isn't the death of FM radio really due to the invention of the IPod??  iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, etc.?  All the kids I see have their earbuds plugged into their music players.
As the lyrics from the song "Very Busy People" say  ... I've got an iPod like a pirate ship
I'll sail the seas with fifty thousand songs I've never heard". I'm the only one here that listens to radio.

[cmradio]

Great point!

It depends on the market. In Vancouver, that's why cutting edge Inde rock stations can't work past one year not for lack of following, but lack of ad dollars. But in the interior where there's a more conservative mindset, there's all sorts of neat, legit low power and community stations playing anything and everything! William's Lake is a pretty good example. The little towns down the Washington state coast as well, so it's independent of national culture.

Peace!

[BoomboxDX]

I think one of the problems with radio is too many stations just don't advertise. They don't promote their station, beyond liners included their own broadcasts -- which is sort of like preaching to the choir.

CMRadio: there's also that AM station in 100 Mile House (S. of Williams Lake, I think) that plays a mix of country and Southern Rock. Very interesting mix. KTKN in SE Alaska has a very wide range of music they play. Some stations in smaller markets that are run by individual owners seem to be able to get away with unique programming.

[ka1iic]

Don't blame Clear Channel (at least here in the States). Put the blame where it belongs: blame Congress and President Clinton for the Deregulation Act of 1996.  That's what started it all.

I worked in the radio industry back then. I remember all the talk, all the news of radio mergers and buyouts.... it was all over the industry magazines -- it was a regular buying frenzy.  Big radio companies buying out other smaller companies, merging like crazy, then doing their IPO and going public on Wall Street -- individual stations became parts of 'clusters' and with consolidated facilities, and then people were let go. 

When one company bought another company, the new bosses would lay off people to either cut costs outright -- or they would lay off people because they already had people in another cluster that (thanks to computer networking) could handle the extra workload.  Or they already had a division that handled that particular radio service (be it production, voice-tracking, programming, etc.), and they didn't need the redundancy.

It all started about the time of the dot com boom, and had the same kind of greed driving it: get those stock prices up, cut costs, buy another company or merge to try to make the stock look more valuable.

Over the next ten years maybe 50,000 radio personnel lost their jobs.  Those jobs ain't ever coming back.  Of course, de-reg isn't the only reason for the loss of those jobs.  The internet, technology advances, and falling listenership all contributed to it... but deregulation was probably the biggest factor in the consolidation and homogenization of radio in the U.S.

You have a good point there BoomBox... And You are correct...
I didn't listen to local radio in Maine much and much less here in Ohio.  I did find 1 FM station I listen too here in Ohio tho... It's a Spanish station & it plays great music. 89.5 mhz.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an old buzzard 'hippie' but the Spanish tunes are really a good change for me.

The problem I am seeing is that regional culture is being lost and not just in the US but all over the world.  Finding 'native' anything is getting harder and harder with each passing day.  Sure there is different musical material world wide but a lot of it is being generated on the same tired 'formula' of US music.

Perhaps the shortwave frequencies could be turned over to the pirates... <sigh> as if that will happen.  On SW I see 'Brother S' gaining and culture losing... 

Sorry for the rant...

73 Vince
KA1IIC

[BoomboxDX]

KA1IIC, I know what you're saying. Even in the 1960's and 1970's, radio stations would push the envelope a little bit to cater to their audience. There were regional variances even in 'national' formats like Top 40 and AOR.

In today's radio climate, where there's so much amalgamation and so many clusters, individual programmers are fewer, and some of them just look at the national charts and that's what they play.  Even college stations have become more commercial in outlook and practice, with reduced airshifts, more paid professional staff, and one of the results is the difficulties for local artists getting played because of all the b.s. you have to go through. 

Increasingly, the only thing missing from these "non-commercial" stations is the commercials.

Nirvana in 1989, for example, were basically unknown, and just dropped off a 45 at the college station in Seattle - and got played the same day.  Chances of that happening today would be minimal, if not non-existent.