Originally when the FCC granted radio station licenses to a company to broadcast in your area, one of the founding notions of that license is that the radio station must broadcast for the local good.
Then, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 made two key changes. First, it eliminated the cap on the number of radio stations companies could own nationally. And two, it raised the limit on the number of stations that could be owned in local markets. Those two changes set off an unprecedented wave of consolidation that has dramatically reshaped the radio industry. Nationally, over a third of all radio stations have changed hands since 1996, and many of them have gone to one company. And even though the number of stations has increased slightly, the number of locally run stations has dropped dramatically.
The ugly company in all this is Clear Channel. Clear Channel comes in and buys up local radio stations. That alone would not be a problem IF they kept them local. But they do not. Clear Channel (and other big companies) does something that they would rather you did not know about: They have large, computer controlled play list managers in central areas of the US, and those central play list managers control and choose what you hear. Sure, they toss in local adds, and a few local spots to satisfy the local need and to make it sound local, but believe me, it is not local.
So, instead of hearing music that is more suited to the tastes of your local audience, you get the same crap that everyone else is listening to.
Used to be that you could drive into an city, town, or rural area and know it by the music that is played. But today, a majority of the stations are playing the exact same crap, and it is impossible to tell from the radio station where you are.
Just recently, Clear Channel, the owner of a LOCAL Jazz station in San Francisco closed it, and replaced it with something they call “The Band.” The Band is yet another computer controlled rock station like the other 10 to 15 in the Bay Area, all broadcasting a national play list that has as much to do with San Francisco as it does with Cleveland or Chicago. The station claims that their decision was based on detailed market research, but we all know this is total corporate BS. Their decision was based on taking a local station off the air, that cost more money to run than playing music from the computer run central studios that they play everywhere else. And so one more local station with local DJs disappears, and we get yet another generic rock station, more local personalities loose their jobs, and the new station offers little “local good” if any at all.
As a side note, the old station is still broadcasting on the web and an HD-radio station, which tells you that The Band did not even need the studio.
I for one just find this one more reason to own an iPod and turn off the radio all together. (Or, go Satellite Radio. Might as well, you get the EXACT same music you get locally now, and you can have your station with you all the time.)
Check out your so called local stations and see who owns them. Then consider boycotting Clear Channel radio and their sponsors. Send a message that you want local radio back, and not some homogenized national crap.
For more info on this, read the remarks of FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani way back in 1998, where she saw this problem coming even then.
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