Time to vent!

[mcamp]

Bottom line: it's all about the money and always has...but there was a point in the music industry (radio and record labels) where the people making the decisions would take a chance from time to time.
IMO, everything today feels calculated, run through focus groups, and out pops a squeaky clean product.
The powers that be are not looking for the next big thing, just another big thing to shove down our throats and tell us, "this is good"...and walk around like zombies singing Steve Miller's 'Take the Money and Run'.
It's amazing that anything with a trace of integrity even makes it to the masses.
Maybe, because there are really some music fans out there who support musical acts that aren't trendy. How about the jam band scene, and the amount of acts played good size venues that get little or no radio support. Should they have just hung it up from day one because someone told them it couldn't be done?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Maybe, because there are really some music fans out there who support musical acts that aren't trendy. How about the jam band scene, and the amount of acts played good size venues that get little or no radio support. Should they have just hung it up from day one because someone told them it couldn't be done?

No, because the more successful jam bands do very well as touring attractions, however, long jams don't translate very well to radio today. They're a concert phenomenon. They do very well filling amphitheatres with their particular fans, some who travel and catch their tours in multiple cities, but even an arena full of fans is still a very small subset of the potential radio listening audience in a major market.

Even the very popular original pioneer jam bands like the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers never got much commercial radio airplay beyond just their few hit singles once the "FM underground" progressive AOR format slowly tightened up from the mid-70's on, and mainstream hit-oriented music audiences (and the programming to serve them) migrated from AM to FM. However, those bands continued to fill arenas and stadiums for decades.

Major-market radio stations today aren't going to play long jams and risk tuning out listeners who may not be fans of that particular band being played. There are satellite channels devoted to jam bands (which are supported by sales and rentals of transponders, not as much by advertising) and many internet webcasts (some who may make some income off banner ads, and some who do it as on-line labors of love with very little income if any at all). There are also occasionally jam band shows on some non-commercial college stations, and devoted networks of fans trading recordings of those bands.

I've been a big fan of the Dead, Allmans, etc.. and also some of their more recent successors in the jam band genre for decades, though I know I'm only part of a "cult" following which may appear as though large when selling out an arena, but the music would not translate into ratings as the background for most mainstream listeners workday in the office.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Bottom line: it's all about the money and always has...but there was a point in the music industry (radio and record labels) where the people making the decisions would take a chance from time to time.
IMO, everything today feels calculated, run through focus groups, and out pops a squeaky clean product.
The powers that be are not looking for the next big thing, just another big thing to shove down our throats and tell us, "this is good"...and walk around like zombies singing Steve Miller's 'Take the Money and Run'.

The time when the decision-makers took chances was the time when radio people actually owned radio stations. They had some ideas about what constituted good radio entertainment, and the chances they took were with that in mind. Today large corporations over-saturated with stockholders and bean counters run the radio industry, and with so much pressure to produce profits, no one will take chances.

 

[mcamp]

No, because the more successful jam bands do very well as touring attractions, however, long jams don't translate very well to radio today. They're a concert phenomenon. They do very well filling amphitheatres with their particular fans, some who travel and catch their tours in multiple cities, but even an arena full of fans is still a very small subset of the potential radio listening audience in a major market.

Major markets, like Boston, is a college town.
Jam bands appeal to this crowd.
You would think that a token Gov't Mule song ,et al,might find it's way on the airwaves.
Not to mention, studio versions of many jam tunes are formated for radio (5 minutes or less).
Crossover acts like Dave Mathews have expanded this audience.
It's almost like, the powers that be envision a 'mass collective pressing the scan button' at the sound of something different. Is the entire listening audience really that narrow minded? I think they're being sold short.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

the powers that be envision a 'mass collective pressing the scan button' at the sound of something different. Is the entire listening audience really that narrow minded? I think they're being sold short.

It's not that the listening audience is narrow minded. It's that the corporations which run the radio business are that afraid. Yes, afraid. There is so much riding on their programming and sales decisions that they are literally afraid to take chances. There is so much pressure to "perform" for the stockholders that they will do anything and everything to make sure no one tunes out...and in the process they manage to kill whatever creative instincts they ever had.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Major markets, like Boston, is a college town.
Jam bands appeal to this crowd.
You would think that a token Gov't Mule song ,et al,might find it's way on the airwaves.
Not to mention, studio versions of many jam tunes are formated for radio (5 minutes or less).
Crossover acts like Dave Mathews have expanded this audience.
It's almost like, the powers that be envision a 'mass collective pressing the scan button' at the sound of something different. Is the entire listening audience really that narrow minded? I think they're being sold short.

I've heard Dave Matthews fairly often at times on "AAA" stations like WBOS and WXRV. Once in a while Government Mule too.

 

[mcamp]

the powers that be envision a 'mass collective pressing the scan button' at the sound of something different. Is the entire listening audience really that narrow minded? I think they're being sold short.

It's not that the listening audience is narrow minded. It's that the corporations which run the radio business are that afraid. Yes, afraid. There is so much riding on their programming and sales decisions that they are literally afraid to take chances. There is so much pressure to "perform" for the stockholders that they will do anything and everything to make sure no one tunes out...and in the process they manage to kill whatever creative instincts they ever had.

I'm beginning to understand....yes, I will conform!
No, on second thought, I will revert to my original statement...commercial radio sucks.
It has no redeeming value. I'd rather stick pins under my fingernails....at least that would invoke an emotion. It caters to a demographic of people: who's favorite Italian food is spaghetti and meatballs at the Olive Garden, watch American Idol, their favorite album is The Eagles Greatest Hits, and go to Disney World every year for vacation...welcome to America...

 

[CTListener]

the powers that be envision a 'mass collective pressing the scan button' at the sound of something different. Is the entire listening audience really that narrow minded? I think they're being sold short.

It's not that the listening audience is narrow minded. It's that the corporations which run the radio business are that afraid. Yes, afraid. There is so much riding on their programming and sales decisions that they are literally afraid to take chances. There is so much pressure to "perform" for the stockholders that they will do anything and everything to make sure no one tunes out...and in the process they manage to kill whatever creative instincts they ever had.

I'm beginning to understand....yes, I will conform!
No, on second thought, I will revert to my original statement...commercial radio sucks.
It has no redeeming value. I'd rather stick pins under my fingernails....at least that would invoke an emotion. It caters to a demographic of people: who's favorite Italian food is spaghetti and meatballs at the Olive Garden, watch American Idol, their favorite album is The Eagles Greatest Hits, and go to Disney World every year for vacation...welcome to America...

Listen to commercial British pop radio online sometime. Same lowest common denominator approach, and it works there just as it does here. It's not just "Welcome to America"; it's "Welcome to the current stage in the (d)evolution of **** sapiens."

 

[Research_Weenie]

"There is so much pressure to "perform" for the stockholders that they will do anything and everything to make sure no one tunes out..."

BINGO! But Greater Media is privately held - with many properties in Boston. They're the only company that can afford the risk of innovation. Unfortunetly, all of their stations are as formulaic as any of CBS, ClearChannel or Entercom's on air offerings.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

"There is so much pressure to "perform" for the stockholders that they will do anything and everything to make sure no one tunes out..."

BINGO! But Greater Media is privately held - with many properties in Boston. They're the only company that can afford the risk of innovation. Unfortunetly, all of their stations are as formulaic as any of CBS, ClearChannel or Entercom's on air offerings.

It's not all only about the stockholders either. Being privately held doesn't necessarily mean Greater Media can take more risks on unproven programming. If it fails, they lose ratings, advertisers, and income like the other conglomerates, and that's not what they're in business for.

Greater Media did try to take a chance with WROR back in 2001, adding progressive rock album tracks from the late 60's/70's FM AOR heyday to their playlist. The format was called "Timeless Rock and Roll Classics". I and a small cult of deep music afficionados enjoyed it, but their ratings took such a heavy nose dive from their prior Classic Hits format that they were forced to abandon it after two books. After switching back to their current Classic Hits format, their ratings came back up to where they've been surpassing WZLX in the 12+ for the past few years.

 

[mcamp]

Unfortunately, in the end, when our time has passed, a new generation of classic rock listeners will think that Led Zeppelin, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, The Eagles, etc...was what it was all about.
Even a smaller population of people will ever know some of the great music recorded from the 60's thru the 80's. We lived it, so we know better, but there will probably be some sort of revisionist movement that will re-define substance.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Unfortunately, in the end, when our time has passed, a new generation of classic rock listeners will think that Led Zeppelin, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, The Eagles, etc...was what it was all about.

I think that's already happened, and that's most of who Classic Rock stations are catering to. A lot of their target audience was too young to listen (or not even born yet) when that music was originally played in the 70's.