The current state of AM/FM radio is a lot different than what I was accustomed to growing up in the 70s and 80s. Back then you could hear new music on the top 40 stations while deejays talked between songs. Older music was relegated to the oldies stations; it was unheard of to hear older songs from the 50s and 60s outside of the oldies station or an old movie. You could switch on the rock station and hear a whole album played front to back. At certain times of the week, you might catch a Dr. Demento show, which played odd novelty songs, or Rock Over London, which played current hits from Great Britain. And who could miss Casey Kasem counting down the top hits of the week on his show, American Top 40. Radio was everything in my teenage life (along with MTV when they still played music videos.)
The format of radio began to change in the 90s with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The goal of the bill was to deregulate the broadcasting markets. The result has been the consolidation of media ownership by only a handful of corporations. The effects on the broadcast radio industry has been detrimental, with changes in policies and formats that have left radio listeners turning to satellite subscription services such as SiriusXM or streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.
Part of what has made me turn away from listening to radio is that lack of a personal connection that I used to feel as a teen. I no longer here the familiar voice of a local deejay announcing the names of songs in between the music. We now have automated stations that are programmed by a computer to play music and advertisements. Radio is also no longer my place to go to discover new music. In fact, on my local alternative rock station, ALT 94.7 FM KKDO, out if the last twenty songs played live, over half were older than two tears old, with some spanning back to the 90s. Which brings me to what I said earlier about not hearing anything 20-30 years old on the radio unless you were listening to the oldies station.
The issues with modern broadcast radio go beyond just the monopoly on station ownership and formatting changes. In the last couple of months there have been developments that are troubling. Country stations are coming under fire (Rolling Stone) for not playing enough female artists and iHeart Media is laying off 1000 on-air personalities (Rolling Stone). Media is starting to take notice that one of our oldest broadcast media channels is struggling to stay afloat. I still have a difficult time finding relevant news articles about this subject, but my goal for this blog is to find what I can and see how it measures up.
