What’s wrong with radio?

                                       By Jonathan (the tinkerer).

In the morning when I get up I get a big bowl of bran cereal mixed with pecan granola cereal and a big cup of mixed herb tea, Usually red clover, ginko and green tea or whatever else I have lying around. I go into my studio and turn on all of my equipment and I turn the radio on to the BBC radio (wnye 91.5) in New York City. And my other radio I turn to 92.3 k-rock and the Howard stern show.Oh by the way my studios television is on 24 hours a day usually CNN or the SCI-FI channel (even when recording).While listening to the Howard stern show I found out that New Yorks biggest and most famous rock station is going to all talk radio.This is really something to think about, because if white oriented stations are in a uproar and a cycle of change, what is going to happen to the black stations.

The legendary Frankie Crocker.

There is a digital devide between blacks and whites and I would bet that the percentage of blacks who get there music via satellite and other digital sources is way below that of whites.I hate to have to break the news to you but most black stations are owned by the same mega corporate entities that own everything else.Can we say B E T and Viacom. I think the issue runs deeper than radio, I think it involves what has rock and roll music come to in the 21^st century. I use the term rock and roll as a umbrella phrase to cover all of the forms of so called race music which started in the early fifties thru Motown and metal and punk,  disco, rap and hiphop and everything in between. Head nodding, booty shaking, music that makes you want to dance and act the fool. I don’t know about you but the music that I’ve been hearing over the radio has been sorely lacking in originality and genuine creativity and that certain spark that used to be all over the industry. Yes we do get a few gems every now and then. Once in a while some good ones do get thru, but there should be far more. This has been especially true within the last 5 years or so.

 

The music is getting stale and lacking in the fire that has made our music one of America’s greatest commodities. In the old days all of the radio stations had a record day. A day where record promoters could come in with there music and get a shot a getting played. A mom and pop small record company could get there artists played by their local am/fm station and get a local hit that could take off nationally just because radio airplay was more open. Sometimes there was payola involved, you would give a dj or programmer a couple of hundred and you would get played. I personally don’t see anything wrong with that. If that is what puts more variety in the playlist, it’s ok with me. The Problem with that is when a major label comes in giving thousands of dollars compared to you with a few hundred,  then you’re out of the game. Payola is not going anywhere. When I went to the top black station in new york and tried to get some tracks from my Love Joints cd played, they said if I bought some advertising I could get a run. So none of my cd’s have been on New York radio.

Diversity!

When you look at the stock market, every expert will tell you that you must diversify the type of stocks that you have. We are always being told that diversity is good. Radio doesn’t seem to think so. Personally I think that the rock radio death blow may have started years ago when all of the radio experts adopted the play the top 40 hits only.

At the birth of rock and roll most dj’s where playing whatever good music they could get their hands on. Remember that in the late 40’s and early fifties there was no black radio in large numbers. There was just some specialty shows that featured race music. Most of the music that we have loved over the years would never have been heard if they had constricted playlists like we have now. It’s interesting to note that there are over 10,000 radio stations but only 10 percent of them are black oriented. Black radio must take a different approach and attitude towards the music if they are going to survive.

Black radio has to compete with the same forces as every other radio station, Satellite, the internet and podcasts, and even my cable television provider. There are fewer black stations so the impact of  black radios problems have a greater affect. Many stations are switching to Latin, and that opens up so many issues for black folks. The descendents of slaves in America’s social and cultural influence is in my view in jeopardy, but that’s another issue for a whole different article.Radio should become more open to independent labels and producers.If radio depends on the major labels for product one station will sound just like the other. Everyone playing the same stale non creative product.As a independent producer I can’t even go to a major label and have them hear my product. Years ago I could walk into Atlantic records or A&M records New York office and drop off a demo tape or chat with the a&r people.  I can’t go to radio and have them play my stuff even though my recordings are sonically on par with major label recordings.The whole system is broken, that’s it in a nutshell. If radio would loosen up it’s playlist and would allow more music from more sources then you would see the music industry catch on fire.There are some great artists on myspace.com and cdbaby.com and all over the internet. The best thing radio could do is to find great music by unknown artists new artists and old favorites. The only thing radio has in it’s favor is that it is free. Radio should easily be able to out perform all subscription service type music entities but it requires people to think out of the box. Radio has gotten old and fat and lazy because for so many years they had no competition, now that it has competitors it is just jumping ship and abandoning the music. Screw the fans!

Why is any of this important?

It’s important because if mainstream radio decides that there is not enough profit in black music they can just flip a switch and your favorite black station will be Spanish or talk or country or whatever else.Radio and in particular black radio can do themselves a favor by not doing business as usual.

We’re now in the 21’st century and everything is changing, lets make sure that our music and our culture will live on forever.

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