Happy New Year! (How do you listen to music?)

Radio?!! We don't need no stinkin' radio!!

According to Radio And Internet Newsletter, fully two-thirds of consumers partake of "consumer generated media" (CGM) as a part of their general listening habits. Most consumers polled cited no specific reason for the change except that they found CGM to be "more entertaining" than traditional media outlets. The full article is available here:

Does this mean that "terrestrial" radio is dead? Not really, but it will slowly lose influence as a means of communicating much the same way that newspapers did with the emergence of electronic media. The corporate powers are trying desperately to hold on to their cash cows but it is a losing battle as inevitable as the passage of time.

So, what are you listening to? Is talk and sports the only reason to listen to your car radio now? Let me know.

Radio says: "Help us from ourselves!"

A funny story came across the Web the other day when one of the V.P.'s of the major radio consolidators stated that new rules needed to be written regarding the number of stations that any one consolidator would be allowed to own. For those who may be unaware, the face of radio essentially changed forever when Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed any one entity (read "corporation"), to own more stations in a single market than they had previously. Ever wonder why your radio sounds the same no matter where you go? Thank Congress. Without the diversity of multiple ownership that we had for since radio was conceived, you basically wind up with the same formulaic, predictable programming nationwide. Corporations loved it because they thought it would allow them to control all music outlets and essentially have a monopoly on what the public could listen to. Apparently, it's not working out quite as the big consolidators had planned and they are losing money :-(

So, now the consolidators are going back to Congress to try and get the rules changed to adding even MORE stations to the number they can own in any one market; up to 12 stations in markets with more than 75 signals and 10 stations in markets with 60 to 74 signals. Essentially, they want to increase the monopoly and further limit the choices you will have as far as free commercial radio. (And maximize their profits as well).

So why doesn't commercial radio make money? Turn it on and listen! There's very little effort to draw an audience with new artists, new musical genres or anything that is even remotely cutting edge...It doesn't fit into the "formula", the focus group-based system that the radio stations use to program nation-wide with few variations, this corporate structured programming allows for very few variations system-wide, the result being top 40, Adult Contemporary, Urban, Oldies, and Country among others that sound exactly the same no matter where you are in the country.

So what happened? The American public stuck their heads out of the window and screamed, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Of course, technology helped out with iPod's, downloadable mp3's, satellite radio and podcasting/webcasting in all of it's forms, but radio is equally culpable by taking a medium for artistic expression and turning it into a corporate loss leader. The public listened, and responded with the big middle finger to the radio stations. And now they say they are losing money, go figure.

Can radio come back? Quite frankly I think the horse is already out of the barn and it would be very difficult to get them back. I am certain that the solution is not in more radio consolidation, I think enough damage has been done in that area. The stations need to be brought back to the levels of the artists and the DJ's who tap into local talent and who know a good sounding group when they hear one. Eric Clapton once said, "When we wrote songs we wrote music we liked, we didn't care whether it sold 1 million units or not we just wrote songs we liked to hear", that's the attitude that "new" radio would have to develop, play the music that on-air talent enjoys and eventually people will tune in.

Personally, I feel the corporate entities will get their wish and then the airways will get real quiet as the corporations fail to learn any lessons from past history.

Welcome!

Hello all! And welcome to my blog titled "It's all about Soul". The title refers to a late night radio show I hosted on Friday nights from Midnight 'til 6am. It developed quite a following, as it's blend of 50's Doo Wop, 60's Motown and 70's Funk and Soul music was something you just don't hear too often on radio anymore. I am hoping to resurrect the program as a webcast by the beginning of 2008, along with some other radio partners and we are very excited about the prospects for the future.

As a part of the program, and hopefully as a part of this blog, I hope to share some tidbits about the music, the artists and the history of what has been called alternately, Race music, Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Black, and now call it whatever you like!! I hope you will enjoy reading my musings on the direction of music, the radio industry and whatever happens to strike my fancy at the time.