Radio killed the radio star

Tue, 01 Oct 2002 19:30:00 +0000

When I learned last spring that protesters were organizing demonstrations at the September convention of the National Association of Broadcasters in Seattle, I knew I should be there. The NAB-backed deregulation of the radio industry in 1996 helped sink the small but legendary radio trade magazine I worked at earlier this year, so I had a lot of time on my hands.

And I wasn't alone. As managing editor of Gavin magazine, I knew many of the program directors, music directors, promotions directors and on-air talent who had been handed their headphones and shown the door in the last six years -- 10,000 radio-related jobs lost in total, according to one estimate.

I was angry, but not just about being laid off. The consolidation of the radio business in the hands of a very few, powerful corporate owners has devastated the quality of commercial radio. Every year, radio programming is produced with smaller and smaller budgets by fewer and fewer people with more and more smoke and mirrors: cookie-cutter music formats, overuse of syndication, tighter, more repetitive playlists filled with inferior songs, one programming staff operating a cluster of stations and commercial breaks that never seem to end.

Salon.com > Todd Spencer

Radio killed the radio star