The financials of commercial radio killed off diversity decades ago. 90%+ of the stations that exist today are corporate cookie cutter stations that play it safe and largely sound the same. They don't take risks like they used to (and can't). Ironically, the last station to do that here in Minneapolis is now an EMF station (after being on the market for YEARS with no other competitive offers).Isn't it amazing how filthy rich EMF is? And all obtained from donations. Money from people on fixed incomes. people who probably could have used it themselves. Meanwhile, these guys are buying up half of the broadcast band (and accelerating the killing of the medium by killing off it's diversity).
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?
At the end of the day radio is a business and exists to make money to sustain operations (and in the case of commercial radio, to make a profit). For those that want to "save" the medium, the best path to do that is to start a non-profit, gather support, and buy stations. Exactly what EMF is doing. Commercial revenue is on the decline, and going forward we likely won't be able to sustain as many commercial stations as we do today. Sad? Very. But the audio entertainment industry has changed forever, there is more competition for a shrinking pie than ever before, and I just don't see this changing. But, if you can garner enough support to pay the bills (with a few underwriters perhaps) to support diversity, that's the best bet going forward.