I have to say, I think The Buggles had it wrong.  It’s not the video that is killing the radio star, it’s the radio.  If not radio, then at least the listening audience.  Radio, unfortunately, is a business.  Businesses exist to make money.  Since you as a listener aren’t charged for the time you spend listening, then other means of revenue must be found.  So, in comes the sponsors.  This takes much of the power away from the people who lend their ears to the air wave borne magic, and places it in the hands of the advertisers.

Take the Imus situation for example  Don Imus is a long time morning quasi-political talk show host.  His show has always centered around current events, political ideology, big name guests, irreverent humor and candid talk.  All of which has a leftward leaning slant.  Boil that down, and it means he’s an issues based entertainer.  His job was to make people laugh in the morning.  So when an irreverent humor based entertainer makes an off colour joke, it should be taken as par for the course.  It wasn’t.  The sponsors for Imus in the Morning were inundated with letters and faxes and phone calls from a very small coalition of people who live to be offended.  And since their life goal is to be pissed off and hurt by and for others (since the subjects of the “nappy head hoes,” comment neither heard it till much later, nor complained.), they became vocal.  They told everyone that would listen (sponsors, the FCC, the press).  Advertisers became scared, which is understandable when you consider the lack of speaking out by those who either support him or just don’t care.  So the business of radio had to abandon its own product and audience to appease companies like ‘Staples’ and protect their revenue stream.

Don’t me wrong.  I was never a fan of his, but I have been a fan of free speech.

I’m also a fan of originality and creativity.  Which brings me to the next thing radio has done: syndication.  It saddens me to hear the same select shows in every city on every radio.  There was a time when each town had their radio stars.  When one could travel to 200 different cities and hear 200 different voices, all more creative and representative of the people they spoke to.  Now, one could got to 200 cities and hear Ryan Seacrest, Elvis Duran, or Rush Limbaugh.  Why?  There’s a few reasons for it actually, but the most important ones revolve around the money.  It is cheaper for a station to pay a syndication fee than to actually hire local talent that comes complete with producers and engineers.  A radio station doesn’t have to pay overtime or health insurance to the satellite feed.  Next, sponsors can see well that show does in other similar markets to inform their decision of supporting the station.  And last, but not least, these shows are safe.  A show with a national audience is far less likely to grab for audience in a risque manner.  This makes the business of radio happy for not having to pay fines or comfort advertisers.  Sounds good right?  And all that safety cost was any chance at variety or interesting content.

I want you to remember something, the business of radio doesn’t produce content for the listeners.  It produces listeners for the sponsors.  We, the audience, are the commodity being traded; bought and sold like cattle out at auction.  It’s because of this that the radio listenership dwindles, why iPod sales continue to rise, satellite and internet radio become more popular and true creativity is to be found out of the mainstream.

Radio killed the radio star.