I was born and raised in Memphis, where some of the most important American music of the 20th century was produced. From my perspective, artists such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and many others would've never had a shot at national popularity if they were not broken first on regional radio. This is music that helped change the world as we know it, and it was radio that got the word out.

Regional music also came out of New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, Austin, Boston, San Francisco and other cities — making their musical marks with the help of DJs and music directors who operated from their own instinctive passion. During the late '60s to mid-'70s, album rock radio helped popularize the FM dial and became a voice for a whole generation of rock fans, who turned to it daily to keep a pulse on what was happening on the street. Radio was vital. But it was also becoming a big business.

In the late '70s, radio began to look like an even better buy for investors and large companies, and soon, radio's spirit seemed to suffocate under the crush of tight programming, interchangeable DJs and self-amused “morning crews.” On the music industry side, record labels enlisted armies of promotional hit men who required fortunes to deliver playlist ads for new music releases at reporting stations. Many radio program and music directors, already under pressure to deliver on an ever-rising bottom line to the corporate parent, turned to a handful of people who marketed themselves as consultants.

One of radio's legendary consulting pioneers is Lee Abrams. In 1993, Newsweek listed Abrams as one of America's “100 Cultural Elite” for his contributions in creating modern radio's feel; Radio Ink listed him as one of the 75 most important radio figures of all time.

“Research was once part of an art/science balance but ended up ruining radio, as more stations focused on Wall Street instead of Main Street,” says Abrams. “Local radio has been dead for 20 years. It's the same playlists, the same voices, the same production, same slogans — same sound everywhere. Stations used to have distinct local sounds and actually get into the community, with the exception of big AM MOR stations. Now, it's all efficient cookie-cutter radio that sounds the same in Utah as it does in Miami.”

While it is easy to blame the consultants for the current radio blandness, the real culprits are the radio station owners and programmers, most of whom lack the courage to either follow their instincts or listen to their audience. And, of course, the major influence on the way radio sounds is money, not musical quality.

In an April 3, 2003, Nashville Scene feature about payola entitled “Cash Cowed,” Epic/Monument Nashville senior VP of promotion, Larry Pareigis, said, “It costs about $300,000 to get a record generally to around 25 or 30 [on the charts], to see if it even has legs. It's an expensive proposition.” Another promotion person in the article stated that “the rule of thumb was that it costs a label $100,000 to get one of its singles to move 10 spaces up the country charts.” Even if some of this expense is not, strictly speaking, illegal payola — pay to play — it is still part of a corrupt system involving dubious promotional financing, favoritism based on economic leverage and a network of elaborate rewards and kickbacks.

Another industry insider told me, “Radio and the record labels put the ring in their noses and they allowed themselves to be led on. When I hear them whining now, I don't have any sympathy. They created this, and this is a bed they will have to lie in for a while.”

At the corporate level, the biggest change affecting commercial radio has been the deregulation by Congress and its enforcement agency, the Federal Communications Commission. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 removed the cap on the number of radio stations any one company could own nationwide, and for the first time allowed one company to own and operate multiple stations in a single market. Michael Powell (Secretary of State Colin Powell's son), the new head of the FCC, has made it clear that he is in favor of further deregulation. We now live in a radio world dominated by Clear Channel (which owns 1,238 stations nationwide and rising) and Infinity, where “branding” can make the “classic rock” station in one city sound an awful lot like the one in 10 other cities.

There are alternatives to the same ol' radio blues. But they're not likely to come from terrestrial broadcast. And they're not likely to be free.

These days, Abrams has his mind on the future of radio as a premium music, audio entertainment and information service delivered via satellite and the Internet. As the senior VP and chief programming officer for Washington, D.C.-based XM Satellite Radio, Abrams believes that enough of the public is so sick of bad radio that once people hear XM's offerings, they will drop $200 or more for the receivers and $9.99 a month for 100 channels of music, news, talk, sports and entertainment.

Larry Rebich, VP of programming and market development for the other major satellite service, New York-based Sirius, shares Abrams' enthusiasm. “With the absence of having to be concerned with advertising support on those music channels, we are free of conventional music-programming practices,” says Rebich. “The emphasis is on music experts and knowledge of the music. Our stream designers — as we call them here — are musicologists, journalists, musicians and people who have radio-programming backgrounds.”

Both Sirius and XM are designed to be more than just “radio,” but rather premium programming alternatives, similar to HBO or Showtime. The question is, can a public that is used to free radio be convinced to pay for it? Market studies conducted for XM optimistically project that as many as 49 million people will subscribe to satellite radio by 2012. To reach that kind of number, satellite services will have to greatly increase public awareness, especially among drivers.

The automobile is one of the primary places people listen to music and hear news. Both XM and Sirius have secured agreements from auto manufacturers to offer receivers. Most recently, Hertz closed a deal that provides consumers with the opportunity to experience Sirius while using their rental cars at more than 33 major airport locations, beginning in July.

“We have great support from GM, Daimler-Chrysler, Ford and BMW, and once these things are available in every new car, it is a given that this will happen,” says Rebich. “It is five years out at the very most. XM will reach a million subscribers this year, which is very good. I am completely sold that this idea is going to work, but it won't happen overnight.”

In the spirit of trying to personalize the listening experience, both XM and Sirius have made it possible for people to contact DJs and programmers with feedback and requests. “Our customers are paying us directly for the entertainment experience that we're delivering to them,” Rebich notes. “So it's really important for us to maintain customer satisfaction.”

And they are also trying to do right by the artists. On March 19, 2003, XM and Sirius reached a royalty agreement with the music industry to pay for music delivered over the services. “The royalties paid under this agreement will be an important new revenue stream for the 3,000 labels and thousands of artists we represent,” SoundExchange executive director John Simson told The Hollywood Reporter.

Satellite radio is definitely ramping up and making its push in the marketplace; but for a few years now, there has been another option: the Internet. Who hasn't tuned in to a conventional station such as NPR while at work or, better yet, listened to a favorite program on their own schedule, not the station's? Lately, there has been a rise in music services such as Nullsoft's ShoutCast, Live365.com and Yahoo's LAUNCHcast Plus, which provide users with access to thousands of music channels, allowing them to create their own “stations.” To listen, all a user has to do is sign on and start checking out the offerings. The sound on these sites isn't as high as satellite, generally streaming at 56k MP3 and offering 128k MP3 for more premium services. While a large percentage of the “channels” are amateurs that share streams of as many as 200 songs, there are signs that there is a lot of passion for music out there.

“It is funny you mention giving the radio back to the people, because that is exactly what we are in the business of doing,” remarks Raghav “Rags” Gupta, COO of Live365.com, which offers more than 15,000 stations on its site. “The best way to think about us is as the eBay of Internet radio: We provide people with the tools and server space and the infrastructure and the bandwidth and so forth, and they come on and create radio stations on our site and promote it. We've got churches streaming sermons on our site, sports teams doing games — that is what the Internet is about.”

With the evolution of GPS and wireless Internet availability for cars and cell phones, I asked the two satellite providers, “What's keeping free Internet radio from landing in your car and serving you on the go?” Abrams says, “Nothing, but it's all about the best content, which is why XM is waging a content war: FM, Internet, satellite or whatever.”

Gupta notes, “That is the promised land of Internet radio. One day, when you look out there and all the cars and these other devices can get the Internet, then it is a matter of getting them a DSP. Boom, you basically are able to play Internet radio, whether it is files you download or stream, which is probably the more likely consumption.”

As people continue to find new ways to be entertained and informed, the line between the audience and creator will continue to blur, and maybe we will get our own radio.

“We believe that the Internet IP connectivity is going to get out to mobile environments and other devices, at which point, it really becomes just like radio,” Gupta says. “You're going to have just another band on your device. Philips Electronics already has a couple of Internet radio devices out there on the market, like a boombox [that has] an Internet jack. In the future, you could be driving around in your car listening to your own station.”

Give Us Our Radio Back!
Read an essay by legendary radio DJ Redbeard