Andrew Wiseman at DCist makes a plea for better listener-supported D.C. radio, along the lines of New York’s excellent WFMU noting:
Demand clearly isn’t an issue, and as Marc Fisher points out, 3/4 of all Americans still listen to the radio, even with iPods, internet and satellite radio, and repetitive dreck from terrestrial stations. And the D.C. area is wealthy, so listener contributions shouldn’t be too tough to obtain
The key question is: What are Americans still listening to on terrestrial radio, as opposed to their iPods, XM recievers, Internet radio, and so on? Because I still listen to the radio occasionally, but only for news, talk, weather, and the like. These are areas where a physically anchored broadcaster is still likely to do a good job, because they’re niches where (1) large numbers of people in the same region are going to want more or less the same content, and (2) they’re somewhat area specific, insofar as a BBC podcast is unlikely to have great coverage of D.C.-specific issues.
But Andrew seems to be talking about music stations. But here there’s a lot more variety in taste, and no clear advantage to listening to the selections put together by someone around the corner, as opposed to someone on the other side of the globe. No station is going to match my taste as well as the contents of my iPod, and even if I’m looking for someone to expose me to new music, what are the odds that one of the (lets be insanely generous) ten local broadcasters trying to fill that niche are going to outdo the top one percent of the thousands of stations streaming on the net. Or, for that matter, the download recommendations I can get from iTunes, or by scanning Pitchfork and sampling a few of a band’s tracks on MySpace? Not great. And the wealthy folk Andrew’s counting on to fund the station he’s dreaming of are precisely those most likely to have access to all the alternatives, and so least likely to need terrestrial radio. Broadcast as a music-delivery model is dead. Don’t mourn, organize (your playlist)!
4 responses so far ↓
1 tom // Feb 6, 2007 at 5:36 pm
But here there’s a lot more variety in taste, and no clear advantage to listening to the selections put together by someone around the corner, as opposed to someone on the other side of the globe.
I think there are some real advantages to a local radio station — it can serve to highlight local musicians, promote touring acts with in-studio appearances, organize concerts, occasionally participate in local advocacy actions and generally provide some regional flavor. Radio can’t compete with the internet as a way to find new music, but at its best it can serve a community function.
But thanks to consolidation the radio industry has pretty much abandoned that role, so it’s hardly even worth mentioning. I can imagine that some other genres might still offer these advantages, but the last time I heard a DC rock radio station promoting a local band was while I was still in middle school.
2 marc w. // Feb 6, 2007 at 6:10 pm
A GOOD local radio station is amazing. In general, I’m with you all the way, Julian. It’s highly unlikely that any station can expose you to new music that’s sort of pre-screened to meet your tastes/preferences as well as an internet station can.
But I can tell you as someone who lived for one blissful year in the range of Seattle station (and internet giant) KEXP, ‘perfect’ tailoring isn’t what you end up wanting. KEXP was arresting (seriously, I remember sitting bolt upright in bed after hearing some song when I used to wake up to the station) not necessarily because of its indie rock stuff, but because they’d play things that I’d never thought I’d like. There’s no list of influences or ‘if you like X then you may like Y’ type things that would make me voluntarily check out some of the things I ended up loving.
In general, you’re right. But I can’t tell you how much I miss turning on the radio and knowing there was a good chance I’d like what I heard. Then, they stopped broadcasting in the South Sound, and I haven’t listened to music on the radio since. Perhaps I’m idealizing that year, but man, I think I bought and listened to more music then than any other period in my life.
3 Travis // Feb 7, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I agree that KEXP seattle is quite awesome. The only downside is that they have obnoxious pledge drives twice a year.
My opinion is that stations like that are a rariety not because of lack of interest, but mostly through lack of funding and artificial barriers to entry. If you were to lower the bar to entry, I think you’d see low power member supported radio stations pop up in cities all over the country.
4 Jesse Walker // Feb 10, 2007 at 9:06 pm
KEXP was better when it was KCMU.
-old fart