Radio finds new way to be irrelevant

It's almost as if the broadcast industry today is intentionally trying to relieve itself of what little relevancy radio had remaining.

Twenty years ago, even stations that mostly aired music seemed to know the community around them. If they didn't have a full news feature, they had community events and public interest features.

These days, serving the community is a dirty word on almost any music or talk format. Music radio declined into a narrow set of tracks preapproved by national executives and big record labels. Talk radio became nearly synonymous with right-wing diatribes - usually syndicated, with no local interest.

This process was enabled largely by the rogue 1996 Telecommunications Act (a dogmatic law that nobody dares to criticize).

Some said there was a glimmer of hope around the middle of the current decade when major broadcasters agreed to air music from independent labels again - following a lawsuit over the industry shutting out indies. But I knew there'd be not a shred of compliance. And I was right.

I've noticed lately though that the industry has found a nifty way around that ruling: Just change your stations (even big FM signals) to a right-wing talk or sports format, so you don't have to worry about music at all.

Fact is, America has seen very, very few successful FM talk stations. And probably just as few successful sports talk stations on either AM or FM. Most of the sports talk outlets just rebroadcast a national feed where the hosts gripe about things Pete Rose did 30 years ago, so their ratings are as dismal as you'd expect.

Yet sports and right-wing talk on major FM signals are starting to proliferate wildly - just so radio can continue to shut out indie music. Today, it was discovered that powerful FM music stations in San Antonio and Grand Rapids are switching to talk or sports - following similar switches in other markets. The new talk station in San Antonio will include all nationally syndicated hosts - with no local programming whatsoever.

I don't think anyone in the U.S. and A. still relies on radio as an arbiter of new music. Radio has allowed itself to be completely left in the dust by the Internet and other venues. And I think the industry likes it fine that way.

What an amazing decline of a medium that had so much potential!