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Notes From The Future Of Radio

Will "Race to the Bottom" Sink Local Broadcasting?

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 15, 2007 

And in that 10 minutes, you're bound to hear the same five artists multiple times, and the music will generally be the most inoffensive pablum imaginable. DJs are corrupted by payola and stations are driven by the profit motive to turn as much time over to advertising as possible.

This sorry state of affairs comes just as listeners have a broad array of new options -- satellite broadcasting, the iPod-driven culture of user-created playlists, and Internet radio stations like Pandora and Last.FM, raising real doubts about whether broadcast radio will be able to pull out of its slump and find its creative spark.

Many expect it to go the way of Betamax videotapes, cassette players, and laser discs.

That was pretty much the consensus at a recent Washington, D.C., panel discussion chaired by Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher, who recently published a book detailing the evolution of modern radio from the 50's to today.

Fisher joked that as a newspaper columnist who had published a book about the current state of radio, he found himself "grounded in three declining industries." He set the tone of the panel by playing a snippet of legendary radio DJ Alan Freed, saying that modern broadcast radio no longer provides "the thrill of discovering something new."

Joining Fisher on the Washington Jewish Music Festival panel were FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Harold Feld of the Media Access Project, and Lee Abrams, longtime radio programmer and current program director of Washington-based XM Radio.

Abrams castigated conglomerates like Clear Channel for creating monopolies of content and shutting out local broadcasters.

"The industry is beset by terrible conditions creatively," Abrams said. "The whole model now is 'revenue comes first', and they're making the same mistakes AM radio made [years] ago."

Feld agreed, saying that the lack of availability of new music and artists was driving away listeners and killing the industry's business model.

"No one is listening to what [they're] playing," he said.

Feld said that the possibility of private equity firms buying out portions of the Clear Channel empire might offer potential to diversify the content on the airwaves.

The FCC's Adelstein said he thinks terrestrial radio is far from dead, with a great deal of bidding for radio station bandwith as broadcast signals switch from analog to digital.

"There's a very vibrant market out there for radio stations still," he said. But Adelstein concurred that the lack of local programming and the centralized, cookie-cutter mold of "excessive consolidation" was depriving markets of "local content that meets community needs."

The panel decried the continuing problem of payola, in which record labels bribe stations and DJs to promote particular artists and play their music.

Adelstein noted that the FCC's own investigation of payola found that the majority of payoffs were actually done in favor of "established, big-name artists, who were guaranteed to deliver hits and sales," rather than promoting new and underground musicians.

Abrams and Adelstein sidestepped the proposed merger of XM Radio with Sirius Communications, a combination that would produce the world's largest satellite radio broadcaster. Members of Congress have already looked askance at the merger, and it's doubtful the FCC is willing to take the heat that would ensure if it gave the deal a green light.

The panel also ignored the proposed new royalty system for Internet radio stations. The royalty rates are scheduled to take effect July 15, although Congress is considering legislation that would block the new rates and return to the old system.

In comments after the panel, both Feld and Fisher expressed concern about the new royalty system, saying it would effectively shut down Internet radio.

Of course, there's more to radio than music, as Feld noted when he said the Internet was the "only game in town" for those wishing to pursue careers in radio journalism, thanks to technologies such as podcasting.

"There's not much room for typical radio journalism" on the airwaves anymore, he said. "The real creative work is on the Web."

The panelists were united in their distaste for what Abrams called "junk culture," the trending of radio to "race to the bottom" with foul-mouthed DJs and controversial stunts designed to get ratings and audience share.

"I'm more worried about junk culture than terrorism," Abrams said. He pointed out that while Sirius Radio has Howard Stern and his own XM radio has "shock jocks" Opie & Anthony, both stations also have many channels devoted to higher-end cultural programming.

The group also pointed to the success of National Public Radio (NPR) as an example of a new business model that supposedly caters to more discerning tastes. But, as Feld lamented, "When every station is chasing the bottom, I don't have a choice of what I can listen to."

What's needed, the panelists agreed, is a way to diversify radio markets and strengthen local community broadcasters.

"People want vibrant local discussion of the issues that affect them, in a way that only terrestrial radio can provide," Adelstein said. "The future of radio is in localism."

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