[78-L] AM Radio (and the music) is now dead

[Michael Biel]

From: don ward <dward7 at earthlink.net>
> Wait till Clear Channel with over 1000 stations starts playing the same
> corporate produced programs across the board on all its stations eliminating
> 99% of local programing.... you think taped talk is bad now !!!! just wait.
> don ward 

OK guys, think back to the Golden Age of Radio, 1935-1950.  Almost all
stations were affiliated with one of the four networks, leaving very
little time for individual local station local programming.  As the
number of radio stations in the U.S. doubled in the late 40s and doubled
again in the early 50s, and as TV started stealing radio stars from the
radio networks, it was only then that localized formatted radio that you
are remembering became possible.  And that was only here in the Western
Hemisphere (some of the same things happened in South America).  Over in
Europe, most countries had only 2 or 3 national services, plus
occasional pirates in the 60s.  

While I hate Clear Channel as much as the next guy, there are a few
things to say for it.  One is that they KNOW they have overextended, and
they have been trying to dump large numbers of stations for 2 or 3
years.  They should have never been allowed to buy so many stations.  We
have Clinton to thank for that (really, it happened with his blessing,
although the Gingrich congress actively promoted the ill-conceived
changes to the Comm act.)  With it went localism, and I am proud to say
that in 1997 I personally was able to tell the FCC commissioners
face-to-face that they blew it.  One of my students was Jeff Jacobs who
was one of the sons of the owner of Jacor which owned WLW and became the
nucleus of Clear Channel.  His father was the one who found the loophole
in the law in the early 90s that allowed TWO WLWs on AM in Cinc, and
opened the door to the law change to unlimited radio station ownership. 


One of the things that Clear Channel can do when they take over a city
is provide MORE varied programming in that city than before.  With ten
owners you can have five of them wanting to program rock, and the other
five programming country.  When those ten stations are all owned by
Clear Channel they will provide ten different formats that are
un-duplicated in that city.  Getting back to my mentioning of network
radio dominating the 30s and 40s, if Clear Channel goes to national
distributed formats, wouldn't that harken back to the olden days???  Of
course back then the local owners were required to do SOME local
programming, now that is not required--which is what I bitched about in
1997 when I had my in-person confrontation with the FCC Commissioners. 
It didn't help in the long run, but it felt good to see the dismay on
their faces when I told them what was already happening in the small
towns just a year after the rule changes, and it also felt good to be
confronted by an angry group of station owners who told me I had set
back their relations with the FCC by five years.  At least I tried.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  





-----Original Message-----
>From: soundthink at aol.com
>Sent: May 10, 2009 7:42 PM
>To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>Subject: Re: [78-L] AM Radio (and the music) is now dead
>
>This could serve as a form letter for stations all across the U.S. - just replace the call letters with those of YOUR favorite station. 
>
>And, by the way, this is not limited to AM. NPR stations are even falling victim to the great American overthrow of local radio in favor of being forced to run their pre-taped talk shows and trivia/game shows, 
>
>Cary Ginell
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: agp <agp2176 at verizon.net>
>To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
>Sent: Sun, 10 May 2009 2:48 pm
>Subject: [78-L] AM Radio (and the music) is now dead
>
>
>
>This is a bit of tangential to our normal topics, but I have to post 
>it anyway -- a vent as it were. And besides, at least there is a 78 
>connected to it. Details on that at the end.
>
>Once again the music has died in Toronto. 1050 CHUM, Canada's pioneer 
>Top 40 radio station has (IMHO gone all stupid and) dropped its 
>oldies format for an all news format. In joining the radio graveyard 
>in that vast wasteland the AM has become, CTV has turned it back on, 
>and in fact, cleansed the world of one the greatest radio stations in 
>North America. CHUM became a Top 40 station 27 May 1957, and 
>dominated the airwaves during that golden era of top 40 radio. Just 
>how famous was CHUM? Let the fact that I have an opinion about CHUM 
>and its hostory even here in Pennsylvania, far outside the GTA speak 
>to that. The CHUM chart music survey was the most influential survey 
>in all of Canada. When music taste's changed, as did music radio from 
>AM to FM, CHUM moved to all oldies, and keep the good feelings alive.
>
>And then ...7 May 2001, bonehead move number 1. 1050 CHUM died and 
>became sports talk Team 1050. And it flopped as the competition from 
>The Fan 590 was too great. Of course, no one thought that even if 
>Team 1050 captured a majority of The Fan 590's audience share, they 
>still wouldn't have much more than the small share 1050 CHUM had, 
>albeit a small one.
>
>So, it was back to music, and on 27 August 2002, 1050 CHUM rose like 
>a phoenix from the ashes, and celebrated 50 years of its Top 40 
>programming in 2007.
>
>But CTVglobalmedia has killed it. Citing the poor economy (whatever 
>THAT has to do with it), and the fact that CHUM had a .6 share, they 
>unceremoniously sold 1331 Yonge Street, the home of the station, and 
>flipped the switch. With no warning and no goodbye, on 25 March 2009, 
>they slapped loyal listeners and spit in the face of Canada's musical 
>history by switching to all news -- and a phony all news format at 
>that, for they are relaying the audio of their TV news service CP24.
>
>As to wiping out history,
> even the 1050 CHUM website is gone. With it 
>goes archives of CHUM charts, and audio clips. It reminds me of the 
>way foes of the regime would be wiped out of history text books in the USSR.
>
>What purpose can be served by this? Does CTV think that they can 
>actually get a bigger share when the market has 2 all news/talk 
>stations in CFTR (680) and CFRB (1010)? CFTR already gets a 6.5. The 
>newbie whose content is a simulcast is not going to cut into that! 
>Add CBC Radio One into the mix and ask if the new CHUM can beat Metro 
>Morning, which itself beats CFRB. With the addition of the bad PR 
>generated, I can't imagine any advertiser wanting to deal with these eejits!
>
>AM radio is now truly dead. The lights are out and idiots like Jack, 
>Bob, and Sam have been left to safeguard our musical history.
>
>I feel that CHUM could have been saved if:
>
>a) they used live talent all the time, and oldies in the real Top 40 
>radio style
>b) placed it on Sirius/ XM and made it available as a format to AMers 
>in all Canada's major cities.
>c) played lots of Canadian content
>d) run it as a goodwill loss leader!
>
>On the aspect of Canadian content, I can state that when I started 
>listening to CHUM regularly in the mid 90s, I heard artists that I 
>had never heard before. And I started buying stuff -- CDs, 45s, lps, 
>and yes 78s -- of Canadian artists! There are people out there, even 
>in Canada, who don't now of great musicians like Pat Hervey, Bobby 
>Curtola, Shirley Matthews etc -- and think that Paul Anka is all they 
>had on offer. Since he buggered off to the USA, I doubt that they 
>even realise that he's Canadian!
>
>Anyway -- as I mentioned 78s -- there is at least one 78 connected 
>with CHUM. From October 1957 - Apex 76185 -- Billy Guitar and his 
>Nighhhawks with Here Come the Night. Billy Guitar was CHUM dj Hank Noble.
>
>I'm going to miss CHUM. It was my companion from Erie Pennsylvania 
>through to the Niagara Falls region as I drove to visit my fiance 
>every weekend in 2006 and 2007.
>
>Radio has died.
>
>Tony
>
>