Why does radio suck?

[Lopaka]

I think radio sucks because of deregulation and some short sighted programming decisions. With deregulation you lost a LOT of live talent meaning immediacy and connection to community and relevance. You got the kind of uniformity we used to laugh about in the old eastern bloc countries. One decision maker is one decision maker, whether he be a commie or a Texan, after all. Music has gone downhill too. In fact the whole culture has. Stations that used to make modest profits doing classical and automatically improving the culture by doing so are now covering the all important 12 to 12 1/2 female market for a wealthy monopoly in Texas.

Programming for niches like right wing talk radio does is indeed great business. Yet it is repellent to everybody (like me) who finds it offensive to be labeled an enemy of the state simply because I disagree with Limbaugh or Hannity et al. I avoid all right wing radio stations like the plague. I mean, really, what other reaction could you expect. And about 1/3 of adults are Democrats like me. So, knowing I will hear nothing I am interested in on a.m. the only stations I avoid the entire band except for KNX for news and XEPRS for sports. Period. Radio with competition was an art form. Yes it was. Talented people competed with each other to provide a product that actually ATTRACTED listeners. In business today you can see all kinds of stupid executive decisions that might look good in the short run but are long run suicide. Too many programming decisions today follow that trend. The country really needs to get back to ownership rules that foster honest to God Capitalist competition in radio, not uniformity.

 

[TheBigA]

I think radio sucks because of deregulation and some short sighted programming decisions. With deregulation you lost a LOT of live talent meaning immediacy and connection to community and relevance.

This is absolutely not true. It took a long time between 1996 and the changes in live talent, so there's no real connection. In fact, in the years following deregulation, there was an increase in money spent on talent and programming. Local talent working for bigger companies saw their salaries rise, their staffing increase, and their facilities improve. It really wasn't until the advertising collapse of 2004-5 that companies started looking to cut costs. The voicetracking thing began several years before deregulation, so there's no connection there. As far as decision-makers, most of the big companies are very decentralized. Especially Clear Channel. If you're a successful CC station, and you're making your numbers every year, no one from corporate is telling you what to do. If, on the other hand, you're not meeting your numbers, you're getting a lot of pressure. But that would have been the case even before deregulation.

I agree with your comment that the music sucks. We're all focused on investment in radio talent, but it's really more noticable when you look at the music industry. They aren't creating stars the way they once did. The artists they sign aren't going to be selling out arenas or stadiums like the stars of the past. They barely can sell out small clubs! If the music radio plays can't attract a large audience, they won't help radio attract advertisers. That means the future of music radio is in jeopardy. Couple that with the demand of the recording industry to get a royalty for airplay, and that will kill music on free radio. The owners can see it too, and it's why they're not investing as much in music radio as they are in news, talk, and sports.

With regards to "short-sighted programming decisions," the fact is that in a competitive media environment, if you're not an instant success, you're dead. The public makes its mind up pretty quickly about everything. If a radio station isn't on target on day one, they're not going to change people's opinions down the road. People have become very judgemental about everything. It wasn't that way years ago. This topic would never have been discussed in the 70s, not because radio didn't suck (because it did), but because people were less judgemental, and not so quick to be critical.

We've become more selfish and more demanding as people, and radio hasn't changed to suit that kind of audience. The audience wants to have input in programming, they want customized radio services that only play songs they like, and talent that interacts with them personally and individually. That's what the public wants. Radio is still operating like a mass medium, the way it always has, and that's why, in the view of the public, radio sucks. So get to work and fix it!

 

[TheBigA]

The country really needs to get back to ownership rules that foster honest to God Capitalist competition in radio, not uniformity.

To put it simply, that's not going to happen. You want competition? Compete with Pandora. How's that working out for you? You want competition? Be a radio station competing against an artist-owned internet station, which offers exclusives that you don't have access to, like backstage meet & greets or front row seats at concerts in your local market. THAT is what radio is competing with.

Radio as an industry can't compete in a "divide and conquor" marketplace. What I mean is that bigger companies and stations have more power to attract the big promotions and the big talent. Small companies simply can't do that. They couldn't in the 60s and they can't now. If they could, the WMCA Good Guys would have been able to compete with the WABC All Americans.

To put it simply, radio is losing because it's too small. It's being killed by bigger companies like Comcast, AT&T, Apple, and Time Warner. What deregulation did was create radio-only companies. In the old days, radio stations were owned by electronics manufacturers, TV networks, insurance companies, newspapers, and car dealers. When deregulation came, the biggest stations became part of radio-only companies like Clear Channel, Cumulus, and Citadel. Today, the only diversified media company that still owns radio stations is CBS. That's not good. Radio needs funding and synergies from other industries in order to work. It CAN"T exist by itself. It simply isn't big enough.

And I know that isn't a popular view. People will point to the last five years and say this is why radio needs to be re-regulated, and companies need to be forced to divest stations. But this is the wrong approach. Radio needs to be bought by better owners. Radio would benefit by being combined with companies like Apple, Google, or AT&T. Radio would benefit by being combined with local newspapers. But that isn't going to happen unless the rules change. Putting limitations on radio, and putting new regulations on radio, won't help it grow or do the things it needs to do in order to survive. I understand that some people are worried about concentration of ownership, and what that means for free speech and diversity. They should be more worried about the complete financial collapse of ad-supported media, and the potential for government-run radio and newspapers, because that is a very real possibility. Which do you fear most? Big corporations or big government? That's the choice, folks.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

To put it simply, radio is losing because it's too small. It's being killed by bigger companies like Comcast, AT&T, Apple, and Time Warner. What deregulation did was create radio-only companies. In the old days, radio stations were owned by electronics manufacturers, TV networks, insurance companies, newspapers, and car dealers. When deregulation came, the biggest stations became part of radio-only companies like Clear Channel, Cumulus, and Citadel. Today, the only diversified media company that still owns radio stations is CBS. That's not good. Radio needs funding and synergies from other industries in order to work. It CAN"T exist by itself. It simply isn't big enough.

And I know that isn't a popular view. People will point to the last five years and say this is why radio needs to be re-regulated, and companies need to be forced to divest stations. But this is the wrong approach. Radio needs to be bought by better owners. Radio would benefit by being combined with companies like Apple, Google, or AT&T. Radio would benefit by being combined with local newspapers. But that isn't going to happen unless the rules change.

You make a very compelling argument. You propose an answer that many of us wish could be answered otherwise.

I maintain that mom-and-pop retailers... if they are smart, creative and industrious can actually locate certain small shops in the WalMart neighborhood and thrive. (Not-so-smart, not-so-creative, not-so-industrious merchants will fail, and of course, blame it all on Sam Walton.)

I wish we could paint a picture that includes a place for mom-and-pop radio operators operating just down the street from the well-endowed operators you have pictured as the answer for radio to thrive. If that is to be, they will probably have to be smarter-than-smart, more than creative, and as has always been true, more industrious than a Calvinist clock-maker.

 

[OC Radio Geek]

The issue of whether radio sucks or not merely lies in the ear of the beholder.

Honestly, I believe that the problem with radio is that it's an old technology that most people these days, with their incredibly busy lives and all their whiz-bang tech gadgets that entertain them in a variety of ways and do everything for them, don't pay much attention to. Radio connoisseurs, geeks, nerds, and snobs like us are experienced enough to know what we want from radio and the way that we like our radio is not necessarily the way that our current radio market is wanting to present. Unfortunately, radio is about money. Yeah I know, the truth hurts for those who still think that radio is supposed to be entertainment. There are hardly any stations who are owned by an individual anymore. Since they are owned by huge, greedy corporations, they will continue to do whatever it takes to be profitable. And if that means not be entertaining and not play good music, then that is what they will do.

Feel free to flame me, it's okay, I've got thick skin. 8)

 

[TheBigA]

I wish we could paint a picture that includes a place for mom-and-pop radio operators operating just down the street from the well-endowed operators you have pictured as the answer for radio to thrive.

I'm not saying mom & pops will go away. What I'm saying is that changing ownership rules so that all of radio to become mom & pops is a bad idea. The fact is that right now, less than 30% of all 14,000 radio stations are corporate owned. Yet because radio corporations own a lot of the big stations in the big markets, the impression is that they're all that exists. Diversity means having big and small co-exist, along with commercial and non-commercial, which is what we have now. The fact is that there are lots of small operators, even in big cities like LA. And that's not going to change. But someone needs to lead the industry, and right now the biggest radio companies are being dwarfed by other media.

 

[TheBigA]

Honestly, I believe that the problem with radio is that it's an old technology

In a way, you're right. But the fact is that the phone is historically older than the radio.

However, the cell phone is a more exciting gadget than the radio, and the only way to really update the radio is for a radio manufacturer to combine it with an exciting gadget.

As far as huge, greedy corporations, the radio companies pale in comparison to telecom, cable, and ISPs. They are far greedier, far bigger, and yet also far more profitable.

 

[Uncle Rob]

One thing is that some stations (like KLOS for instance) play the same 12 songs by the same 10 artists. In the '80's I worked in a warehouse. They would have KLSX on the radio. After one week of listening it got to the point that we could either (long e) guess the next song or band they would play with 70% accuracy (7 of every 10 songs)

Another thing is the "manufactured music" (aka "American Idol" et. al.) That's all the rage nowadays. I've also listened to Loveline and most of the bands they have on that show you've never heard of before and will never hear from again. And don't get me started on the idiotic record companies .......

 

[Ger]

gift of the gab is need there on Usa ststion , try irish man , radio in the 80s was much nice and better two liten to , then now WTF

 

[Uncle Rob]

There's no imagination in radio anymore.

 

[Radio4Righteous]

- commercials
- strangled, repeptive playlist
- commercials
- no community

 

[OC Radio Geek]

There's no imagination in radio anymore.

sooooooo true! The radio bubble has burst and now it must reinvent itself.