Rambling About Radio

Is radio dead?

I don’t know but Houston surely is doing its best to kill the medium. My car’s radio simply keeps the FM presets at four stations (KUHF, KPFT, KTRU, and KTSU). That is a pretty narrow selection of stations for such a huge market and one of those, KTRU, is currently threatened with being killed off unilaterally by a paternalistic and contemptuous Rice Administration.

One thing I’ve noticed in all this KTRU business is the attitude of younger music listeners to radio and my gut tells me they aren’t that enamored with the format. They have satellite radio, smart phones, and computers to deliver what they want, when they want it, and where they want it; radio is just not the first choice and it’s likely the last. And why should it? Commercial radio has sucked so bad for so long that hyping its value is the equivalent of saying they should go out an buy the next Van Halen album. A 2007 Arbitron commissioned survey seemed to agree:

“Radio is often relegated to a secondary media choice…In some of the interviews, radio is a nonfactor until the required trip to the car. Radio’s lack of CVC (control, variety, and choice), combined with perceptions of excessive commercials and being “old school”—often drops its status among other media. … Portability has been usurped by personal MP3 players, in-home radio listenership is overshadowed by myriad gadgets, and even in-car listening is being challenged by current and future MP3 connectivity.”

Whose fault is that? Part of it is technology but a large part of it is radio itself. Commercial Radio has long relied on consultants at the expense of real Disc Jockeys and today they are reaping their rewards. Freeform DJ’s used to be what bloggers are now – they would cull through music and play whatever they wanted and get you to some good stuff that reflected their tastes. Perhaps that still happens in other markets but here in Houston DJs are merely there as a bumper between the music and the commercials or the traffic reports – their connection with the music is incidental. Compare Commercial Radio to KTRU’s Blues in Hi-Fi or the Mutant Hardcore Flower Hour and you will see the difference. One is corporate and cold and the other still has a soul. Not that all commercial radio is devoid of soul – you can hear it in Little Steven’s Underground Garage but that’s more a fluke because soul isn’t something you can poll.  Instead, research shows that people want Katy Perry and the Beeb.

You can almost hear them bragging, “Research baby! It’s all in the research. We know what we’re doing, we did the numbers! How else would you explain crap like the Buzz still operating in 2010? No real DJ would play that playlist. That’s Bob – he’s our statistician. Kind of quiet but, whoa, you should have seen him at the Christmas party….”

So, will the “kids” come back to broadcast radio? I don’t know, but having real DJ’s may be a start and sadly one of the last bastions of real DJs in Houston is fighting for its life. Until then enjoy this Justin Bieber video.