Reel, not only isn't it 1968 anymore, it's not even 2008 anymore.
During those four recent years, while the rest of the country went about coping with their own separate fields and pursuits, people with radio in their blood understandably have, on a hundred forums worth of reaction, managed, consistently, to represent a microcosm of the 99 Percenters.
On the day after the president's State Of The Union Address, Rush Limbaugh inadvertently defined the speech and the mood in no uncertain terms. He referred to it as 'The Occupy Wall Street Address', the 'Class Warfare Address' and the '99-Percenters' Address'
If that's the distinction he's drawing to illuminate the sentiment of the country (which includes the spectrum sliver called radio) then it's about time.
NYC has no effective Jazz signal. It doesn't even have a Smooth Jazz signal of worth. Country has been exiled to reservations in suburbia. The only Standards available are for a month's worth of Holiday tunes. Pre-Beatles Oldies have been book-burned as though they were piano rolls. Even Sixties oldies are being shown to the city limits. The -- what to call it -- Progressive Dance genre that Tony Santiago supports was replaced because management, not the listeners, screwed up. Greatest Hits stations and Classic Rockers are beginning to sound as though they share half each other's playlists. And if there's any difference between modern A/C and rap-free CHR, I can't hear it. I can't and won't evaluate the Spanish stations in the market. But on a guess, I'd propose that they, along with a dozen other huge signals, are aiming for that slice of the available audience between 30 and 40.
All of THAT has not been going on since 1968. All of that piling on and restructuring and skewing has been heard on metro NYC radio in just the past few years. That's far from ancient history.
