Slashdot Mirror
Why (FM, Not XM) Radio Sucks
wemmick writes "The Washington Post has an article "Can XM Put Radio Back Together Again?" which discusses the history of marketing FM radio, how XM could be different, and about Lee Abrams -- "the man who shackled FM radio to the tyranny of mass market research" and is now program director for XM."
I don't know.... it just doesn't work to have one station that you can listen to all the time. You miss locality... and people like that. ClearChannel is trying to do an XM like setup but with FM. They own tons of radio stations which they run all under one roof.. and they are all computer run. But, while the music may be there the localities.. and personalities are not. In addition, with XM you don't have the localness that you do with DJ Bob and the morning show talking about something that happened 1 town over the previous evening.
Sooner or later ClearM (Clear Channel Radio) is going to fail as well... due to the fact that they are not marketing to the locals but the masses... they have tons of stations that all play the same ads.. and different music... just doesn't work that way.
We saw something similar happen with cable stations. As channels begin to mature, they will try to go to the widest possible audience. Remember TNN? (The Nashville Network)? it used to have country stuff, now it's all wrestling and star trek. Remember Sci Fi? it used to be THE PLACE for geeks like us. Now their canceling Farscape and such. All niche markets will go mainstream for money. It will only take a few years until the people at XM decide to axe the stations with less popularity... after all they bring in far less profit than the average Brittany Spears station. Why oh Why won't she die? (or at least do some real porn?)
Reel Big Fish made a good point in their song "sellout"
the radio plays what they want you to hear...
they tell me its cool...
i just don't believe it...
FM radio is horrible. Around here, DJs have stopped taking request (probably because they are owned by clear channel). Music selection is poor, and they over play the good song to the point that you would rather go deaf than hear that song again. I can just burn a cd with the songs i want to hear as opposed to sitting through a crappy creed song in hopes that the next song will be one that i want to listen to
Hopefully XM can save radio, before it is gone for good
[echelon]
We have already trashed one commercial band, namely, AM, when we could have easily fixed and extended it with AM stereo. (Which has some very nice qualities BTW.)
Now are we going to give up on FM as well?
I can see a lot of advantages to the satellite radio systems particularly in rural areas where you find little or no radio. So these systems have their place. However we still need local radio. Not the clear channel kind, but real local radio.
Here in the Portland area we had a nice station in the early 80's called KSKD. They were innovative. Dolby FM (Which we all should be using today.), very low key DJ's, well defined commercial blocks, and an interesting playlist were all part of this local station. Many of my early musical tastes were formed while listening to the music played on KSKD and when they went off the air, I missed them.
Listening to the radio while on trips used to be pretty interesting. As you went from place to place, the music was different. Each city seemed to have a station or two, like KSKD, that played what they thought was cool. Their listeners became loyal because the combination of music and its presentation was not to be found elsewhere.
Companies like Clear Channel have done the public a dis-service in that they have ruined local programming in all station except community and educational ones.
So for now, satellite radio is a new medium that shines right now. But will it go the way AM and FM did?
Blogging because I can...
That is preposterous. The FCC has determined that your tastes are better served by the media cartel of ClearChannel, CBS/Infinity and Viacom. If you're an urban radio fan, you have Radio One.
You're simply un-American and a terrorist sympathizer if all you want is information about your local community, or music that isn't getting airplay because of elaborate plug-n-play schemes or being pulled from the dusty archives because the station ownership is promoting the concert in the next town.
The FCC has your interests at heart. They realize that more common ownership is a good thing and is willing to take this a step further by again reducing ownership rules and even permitting television stations to own radio and newspapers.
Think of the bargains that advertisers will see when they have a one-stop-shop for all of their advertising. Imagine the benefits of unbiased uniformed reporting that you'll get from radio, TV and newsprint. Why, there won't be nary any discrepancies to the news since it'll come from the same copy writer no matter the source of your news.
The FCC knows best, trust them and you will see.
Of course, the above is sarcasm. I spent over 13 years in the broadcasting industry. I'm still taking three showers a day in an attempt to get rid of the stench.
NPR is the best thing in radio today, as far as I'm concerned. I know that most of the public radio stations in existence are classical programming, but out of Peoria and Bloomington, IL I can get a superb jazz station. Five days a week I get news during rush hour and jazz in the morning and most of the evenings, plus blues and a little more variety on the weekends. The classical NPR station nearby plays jazz programming on the weekends as well. And except during their biannual fundraising drives, they're commercial-free. It's not like XM where I have dozens of choices of formats, but at least it's the one format I enjoy the most. I'd much rather pay them my $10/month than XM, if only because they're that much more likely to be around three years from now.
During college, I spent two of my years as a minor DJ at the campus radio station, which was probably the most bizzare part of its history. College radio, as we all know, is the music snobs paradise. The students play off the wall bizzare shit, and the format is whatever the current DJ feels like playing. However, at KSU, right before I started, a graduate student took over control of the station and the first thing she did was organize it into a "modern rock" format station. For the most part, it was good. In the time I was there, the station became very highly regarded by the students, to the point that the old guard rock station in town changed formats to match us. They were stuck in the 80's rock (constant Poison!) and then suddenly started playing new bands to try and get some of their market back.
Ok, fine great. The problem was, in an effort to make the station more like a real station, the graduate student controlling this mess enforced a series of strict rules and a rigid playlist. The station is now no better than the Clear channel crap that dominates the airwaves.
Reading this article made me laugh because I witnessed this entire history of FM radio they describe over the course of my five years at school. It went from the playground of the stoners, to the perfect mix of a format guideline, but free dj's to the utter crap you hear on every station now.
Strictly formatted radio, mostly brought on by Clear channel type monoliths, is the evil that is ruining, not just radio, but all of music in america. Have a guideline for the DJ's, but let them expand out of it. Expose the listeners to something different. Play something that they haven't heard in a very long time. Throw on the Smiths just to play with someone's head.
The first thing I always did at the start of my shift was go down my playlist for the day and cross out everything by the Kottonmouth Kings. IMHO the worst thing to hit the radio in the last 5 years. I tried to fill in the crap I hated with listener requests, but on slow days, I had to fill in my own stuff.
On the off days, when students weren't around, the station would go to an automated playlist (a computer with a giant database of mp3s). Immediately, our listenership dropped like a rock. There was no life to the station, and this is why I don't see XM taking off.
Where am I going? DJ's are what's important. The listeners like having someone familiar on the air. Each DJ used to have their own flavor. Mine was a little broader, but my selection leaned to harder rocking songs. People liked the interaction with the DJ, and it got listeners. Calling in made them feel like part of it. Dj's are your friend who introduce you to this crazy new band who has a different sound. You should see them live!
I love music. I go see small live shows whenever I can (unemployment has killed this pastime unfortunately). Radio today has me very pissed off because nobody is introducing me to new stuff. I'm completely on my own.
And right now I'm listening to RL Burnside - Ass Pocket of Whiskey
Anyway, I hope that the death of FM will mean that reserving a band will become cheaper, and so more weird and interesting shit will start happening on FM. I want like 3 channels of NPR, because though most of their original content is awesome, some of the filler is too dumb to listen to. And really, how expensive is it to record and rebroadcast interviews with interesting people? That's the sort of stuff NPR does well, and they are the only reason why I would ever turn on the radio at home. I hope that some non-publically-funded radio would try to compete with NPR for this sort of turf (like the Discovery and History Channels on cable compete with PBS) but before that happens, the barriers to entry have to be lower. That's why I'm praying for the day that music gets removed from FM and space opens up for real interesting stuff.
Until then, at least there's college radio!
Formatted. Prepackaged. Spam on a toothpick. Ingenuity is gone for these people. Infact, if I may expound a little, it's exactly what's happening to the record companies. It's the total, complete and utter lack of ingenuity that keep people from caring if they live or die.
You need a FREE iPod Nano