free radio 19 march, 2002 by johnmichael patrick monty monteith

If you are like me, you are sick of the radio. Probably been sick of the radio for a long time. Perhaps you tune in every so often to just hear if there is anything new that you like, and then you turn it off. The main thing we tune into the radio for now is the morning shows. Scary thought, actually, since most of these bozos are about as entertaining as a stuffed snail. Still, compared to the music being played these days, it is a refreshing change.

This piece is not to beat up the disc jockeys, or the morning show personalities, or even the music they are playing. I just purchased the new Alanis Morissette CD, so clearly I am fueling the corporate machine as much as the next guy. I learned that I might like the CD from tuning into the Seattle radio station, KMTT, The Mountain. Perhaps one of the best radio stations anywhere at the moment. Still, it sucks.

If it is one of the best anywhere, how would I know it sucks? Well, these days I spend most of my time listening to Internet radio, or using MusicMatch to randomly select songs from our 700 CD collection all stored in MP3 format. MusicMatch has some wonderful radio stations with excellent variety, no commercials (if you pay the nominal fee), and CD quality sound. The only way I can get more variety is by tapping into my own collection of MP3 files (all legally backed up from CD, I might add.) Services like this are available through Microsoft and the Real players as well.

As more and more people discover the audio possibilities available to them through a sub $500 laptop plugged into their receiver, more and more will stop listening to airwave radio stations. The only time my family ever listens to the radio is when we are in the automobile. (As soon as we find a way to pump in our computer radio and MP3 collection into the car, we will stop listening to the radio there, too.)

Faced with this new competition, why is it that the traditional radio stations remain so god-awful? You may think it is the fault of DJ's. You would be completely wrong on that front. Outside of micro radio (pirate radio), there is not a DJ in the world that has complete control of what they play on the air. Every commercial radio station has a play list of a handful of songs they are forced to stick to.

The Mountain, the radio station with the largest musical variety in Seattle and boasts one of the largest music libraries in the country, still has a play list so small that I am regularly able to predict what song they are playing before turning it on. That is because they have a couple hundred songs they choose from placed in between a twenty song play-list. KMTT used to have a "No-Repeat Workday" gimmick they used as a way to say that they would not repeat the same song twice between 9am and 5pm. When you stop and think about it, this is hardly an amazing feat, but I was able to catch them repeating during that time frame TWICE in the little time I listen to the station. (And to think they have computers tracking what they play, and they still could not do it.) Imagine this: They play the 'hot song' of the moment at 8:59am, at 1pm, and again at 5:02pm. This is variety?

I merely use The Mountain as an example, and I repeat, as they do, that they are the best radio station in the Seattle area. Still, they also stand as an example of how awful radio is today. Their DJ's are top notch, and Marty Riemer, in particular, is fabulous. He regularly points out on the air the silliness of some of the artists he is playing (again and again and again). Despite the fact that it is clear that Marty is sick of playing the ridiculously repetitive Natalie Merchant songs, because they are on the play-list, he has no choice. That does not stop him from making fun of her, though. I suspect if he could get away with it, he would make fun of the entire play-list and company that forces him to stick to it.

Why is it that even the best of the radio stations has a primary play-list that is fourty songs or (much) less? That is because nearly all radio stations in the country are owned by less than a half dozen companies. Five companies own over eighty percent of all radio stations, nationwide. The FCC threw out provisions that kept monopolization of the airwaves from happening, thanks to the strong-arm tactics of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Do not blame the FCC, though, since they are nothing more than pawns at the mercy of one of the strongest political groups in Washington D.C. Simply put, the NAB owns the FCC.

The result has been a handful of companies owning everything you hear on the radio. One giant monopoly. In turn, that monopoly is owned, either directly or indirectly, by the recording industry. They dictate the play-list of nearly every radio station in the country. If they want to push the latest Natalie Merchant CD, then every Adult Alternative station in the country will be playing "It Just Can't Last" again, and again, and again, and again. That is why when you drive from one major metro area to the next, all of the radio stations sound the same. The names of the stations sound the same, the DJ's sound the same, the advertisements often are exactly the same. Radio has become nothing more than McDonalds. You know what you are going to get no matter where you tune in.

Thankfully, enter the Internet. There are numerous forces happening that have the potential to destroy this monopoly. First is the MusicMatch type radio stations. As more and more people get broadband in their homes, they will discover the possibilities of hooking that connection up to their stereo. When that happens, the radio monopoly has at least temporarily been killed.

The RIAA is semi-aware of this possibility. Hence the reason they have changed the rules for song playing on the Internet through different regulations from airwave play. Their goal is to control Internet radio as they do the airwaves, and they have had success. Many stations have had to shut down their online broadcasts due to the expense of broadcasting on the Internet. However, the RIAA does not want to shut down Internet radio. They simply want to control it.

ClearChannel, Viacom, Entercom and the rest of the half dozen corporations that own the airwave radio stations have followed these changes closely. They all started putting their radio signals on the air only to have advertising rules re-defined to say that more money had to be paid out to broadcast an ad on the radio and the Internet. This temporarily stalled many Internet broadcasts, or shut them down entirely. Also looming is the question of how long it will be before these companies they start to take over companies like Real and MusicMatch, or at least their Internet radio wing?

Enter our friends in the micro radio (pirate radio) business. These are community radio stations that could not get frequencies from the FCC because the government agency is controlled by the NAB monopoly who can not handle competition from small community stations. The managers of these renegade stations started their careers broadcasting illegally on the airwaves, and have since changed their focus to the Internet with a mild degree of success. Of course, they are as subject to the regulations of the RIAA for Internet broadcasting, but normally they ignore it. This may reduce their credibility, and certainly brings into question their legality, however most are finding larger audiences and more success on the Internet than their previous airwave broadcasts. Their success may be amplified if the Internet radio wing of Internet player companies end up being taken over by the media companies. Suddenly Internet radio is just another wing of broadcast radio, and many will look for an alternative. Another possibility is that all will be left to their own devices, and MusicMatch could start broadcasting these free "pirate" sources as their own, developing DJ's and programs that are more popular than broadcast stations.

Airwave radio stations are not about to go without a fight. Their business model depends on advertisements played in-between music segments, which simply can not compete with nearly advertisement-free broadcasts on the Internet. However, the convenience factor of not needing an Internet connection is the one key advantage. In the wings sits 'digital radio', which consists of digitally broadcast stations over the air. The advantages are numerous:

a. Six times the number of 'digital' stations will fit where one analog station once was.
b. Broadcasts are near-CD quality, rather than the poor signals now received on the air.
c. Less power is needed to send a digital signal even further than an analog signal could "cleanly" carry. (The key here is "cleanly" since bad analog signals will travel further.)
d. The equipment needed for a digital broadcast could ultimately be much cheaper than analog broadcast equipment.

With all of these advantages, why haven't the radio stations jumped to digital?

a. Radio stations will have to purchase new transmitters, antennas, and other equipment to simultaneously broadcast digital and analog signals.
b. More channels will mean more competition, and the possibility that the current five owners of all radio stations will lose their monopoly.
c. With wireless high speed Internet just a matter of time, a strong case could be made that it would just be replaced with Internet radio regardless.
d. Unlike European communication agencies, the FCC has not made the decisions on digital radio because their parent company (the NAB) has not made a decision.

With all of these radio issues looming, it is difficult to predict exactly how things will work out. Clearly Internet radio is here to stay, and seems poised to keep digital radio from being successful in the United States. However, whether Internet radio will release all of us from the music void happening on the current music scene remains to be - seen. There will always be renegade pirate-like broadcasts happening on the Internet, and I encourage support of these community stations since they represent a true departure from the McDonalds Radio we get on the air. Yet, despite my support, I remain skeptical they can make a dent in ClearChannel and the other monopolies. It will take companies like Microsoft, Real, and MusicMatch to use their player leverage to force changes in the broadcast scene. Still, Microsoft has made some major concessions in their player to the Recording Industry to stop 'fair use' (as well as piracy) of compact discs. This is unfortunate since Microsoft is one of the few companies in the game strong enough to stand up to these music bullies.

Stay tuned to this station folks. I have no idea what will happen, but it is going to get far more interesting before it is over.