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The Nation's Pulse
Who Killed Rock Radio?
When corporations kill local radio, they occasionally remind listeners how they’re killing an entire industry.
Another rock radio station bites the dust.
Boston’s 29-year-old WFNX, a left-of-the-dial station out of place in the middle at 101.7, plays its last song, probably a Smiths or Cure number, tonight. The sound of a venerable rock station signing off is by now a familiar one. New York’s K-Rock, Baltimore-Washington’s WHFS, Chicago’s Q101, and Los Angeles’ Indie 103 are a few of the more celebrated stations silenced in recent years.
One format’s loss is another’s gain: Spanish-language, FM talk, top-40, and all-sports are among the beneficiaries of rock radio’s decline. And that decline has as much to do with rock as with radio.
The labels “alternative” and “indie” prefixing “rock” suggest a too-cool-for-school art form shunning mainstream acceptance. Prior to this year’s monster hits “We Are Young” by fun. and “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye, no song that could conceivably be labeled “rock” had claimed the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 since 2008. Larger-than-life lion-maned madmen in tassels once commanded everyone’s attention. Now anonymous shoe-gazers shy away from the spotlight. “Rock star” has become a contradiction in terms.
If “alternative rock” works as a redundancy, it also works as an oxymoron, too. Corporate entities playing stale songs on heavy rotation by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, and Pearl Jam — rock brands as much as rock bands at this point — as though they are the latest pop acts is enough to make anyone with a pulse turn the dial. And it’s not very alternative, is it?
So stale has rock music become that back catalogue has overtaken recent releases in sales and a Beatles compilation became the bestselling album of the last decade.
If rock has made it hard for radio, radio has reciprocated.
Corporate behemoths that swallow up stations impose one-size-fits-all philosophies that ignore what works locally. DJ-by-market-research leads to oft-repeated playlists and pink slips for live-and-local talent to make way for piped-in hosts. It’s impersonal, distant, and sounds like everything else. Like Starbucks, Walmart, and Applebee’s, homogenization makes your town like every other town. Homogenization not only operates under the assumption that Chicago is Sacramento is Detroit is Savannah, but it brings that assumption closer to reality.
Diversity and distinction yield to conformity and blah.
When gray-haired guys in grayer suits effectively become the DJ, they effectively force listeners into do-it-yourself-DJ mode. Pandora, iTunes, and YouTube have democratized listening. But this isn’t all for the good. The disc jockey, who presumably gained his position by superior musical knowledge, is an authoritarian whose overthrow has hurt his subjects.
King Radio is now computer algorithms and opinion research. It’s hard enough for the listener to connect to an automaton pretending to be a DJ. The listener certainly can’t connect to a voiceless computer program determining tracks. The playlist is to radio what “press 7 for…” is to customer service.
When corporations kill local radio, they occasionally remind listeners how they’re killing an entire industry. WFNX on its death-bed has proved unpredictable, lively, free-form—everything that corporate radio isn’t. Untethered from parental controls, on-air-talent said and played what they wanted to say and play. Listeners became DJs and the ghosts of DJs past haunted the airwaves again. Everything from Frank Turner’s rollicking new “I Still Believe” to LCD Soundsystem’s “Daft Punk Is Playing in My House” to Mission of Burma’s “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver” could be heard. DJ T.J. Connelly says of his last broadcast, “All I can promise is no repeats and no Red Hot Chili Peppers.”
If only rock radio always delivered on that promise.
“We have an audience who never grew up on great radio,” music industry insider Bob Lefsetz of the Lefsetz Letter observes. “We all remember great radio. All across America there were great FM stations. Kids today under 20 never grew up with that…. They’re not building for a future, they’re not sure there is a future.”
There was a moment in the 1950s when Dragnet, Gunsmoke, and other popular radio series began appearing on television too. Listeners may not have realized that radio storytelling was in its death throes, but it was. Rock radio is already dead. But in a world of seven-second delays, it’s taking some time for reality to set in.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The War on Football: Saving America’s Game, blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 7.20.12 @ 6:20AM
With the internet you can download and buy any song within seconds if that is your desire.
With my I-Pad I can listen to a 50's channel in the safety and security of my inner sanctum, and often with little advertising. I can listen to talk radio from around the country with little trouble.
Corporations are just responding to the fact that many youngsters had I-Pods or even their I-Pads which can store what their desires.
Ironically, talk radio has thrived and grown during this time as the alternative, television news, has been perceived by the consumer as a failed product.
Within the next five years I don't see how many stations will survive just playing music. It's no longer necessary.
Bob Grant| 7.20.12 @ 10:50AM
Bill,
Wait 'til the first computer algorithm/opinion research-generated talk radio host is born?
Can you imagine tuning into Algorithm Limbaugh for witty political commentary?
I'm sure Google is working on that as we speak.
scotchieguy| 7.20.12 @ 11:54AM
Not true at all, Bill. There will always be a market for cheap crap, and most of what gets played on the radio is cheap crap, old Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Loggins and Messina that is a call for nostalgia you hear in dentist's offices and at the Home Depot. What the author mourns is the death of the underground FM format that was big in the 1970's in every city, where it played anything and everthing, but mostly new music that was not big hits or top40 But it is not all dead. Here in Mpls, there is a very good FM station, 89.3 the Current which only plays new stuff, Lucinda Williams, Death Cab for Cutie, McMurtry, Spoon, etc....no ads, public station. There is also a local genius who has a very unorthodox style, Tommie Mischke, who does a talk show on AM at 10:00 PM where he will talk about anything from politics to bears up north to Dylan to microbreweries. Often he will have a half a minute of dead silence, then start singing made up lyrics and playing the drums with his fingers on the desk. There is still good radio out there, but it is hard to find. Corporate money hasn't ruined everything yet.
OP4| 7.20.12 @ 7:20AM
I agree with every word of this article. Corporate suits have killed rock radio. I switched to satellite radio almost a decade ago. The suits have pretty well killed that medium now too. Other than a few shows and channels (i.e. Deep Tracks), you just have a wider choice of corporate playlists to chose from.
I don't understand why the corporate radio people are so stupid they can't recognize the mistakes they are making.
scotchieguy| 7.20.12 @ 11:56AM
Simple, it doesn't make them any money. The most profitable radio is recycled trash from the 70s and 80s you hear at the doctor's office. Nostalgia sells. There are about a half a dozen stations in most any market that are entirely interchangeable.
Bob Grant| 7.20.12 @ 12:08PM
You're referring to the "Bob" stations?
OP4| 7.20.12 @ 1:46PM
Aren't these the stations that are going under? WBCN is long gone.
allanius | 7.20.12 @ 7:35AM
"Corporate behemoths" killed rock? Hmmm. The genre is 60 years old. Maybe it's just worn out.
jaytrain| 7.20.12 @ 7:56AM
This has been a phenomenon in pop music since there has been pop music : periods of drought and then sudden eruptions of many good bands withe much to say . I came to the pop world enduring Paul & Paula to get to Same & Dave -the early 60's was a wasteland even on WABC and WINS and WMCA . After the excesses of Layla , what was there to listen to during the 70's ? Then comes the early 80's and we get Talking Heads , Blondie and The Clash and then nothing . Nothing for 20 years unless we count angry loud and distorted Grunge and the smell of teen spirit was rot , self indulgent rot . And then another flowering in the early oughtie oughts , everything from Lucinda and alt country to snappy little ditties from The Shins and the hyper prolific Ryan Adams So over the long run , pop/rock comes and then it goes and then it comes back again . And in the meantime , one can go play I am a Walrus backwards and contemplate one's navel or whatever .
OP4| 7.20.12 @ 8:28AM
Read the article - this has nothing to do with the availability of music. DJ's aren't allowed to play music that isn't on the corporate playlist.
Many of the great bands got their "break" when a DJ threw on their record and the listeners responded (with requests to hear it again, and buying their record).
Rush got their break when a Cleveland DJ played "Working Man". It just wouldn't happen today.
RCV| 7.20.12 @ 11:54AM
The Internet is making DJs and record promoters obsolete. The current generation discovers new artists directly on the web.
OP4| 7.20.12 @ 1:48PM
Sure - but the DJ's were already gone. People have to discover music online because the chance of hearing something new on the radio is zero (unless you are listening to college radio).
Occam's Tool| 7.20.12 @ 5:22PM
And Styx caught a break on WLS, as well.
squalis| 7.24.12 @ 9:56AM
What was there to listen to in the 70"s? Are you kidding?! Just to name a few small bands, there was Pink Floyd, Yes,and my all time favorite, Genesis. Listen to "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". It will take time to fully appreciate the complexity of layering, time signatures, musicianship, and storytelling, but it is time well spent.
JimH| 7.20.12 @ 7:56AM
There is also Sirius/XM which offers a channel for just about every taste. I like listening to their 80’s new wave channel. They have some old DJs from WLIR/WDRE on Long Island.
Bill84728| 7.20.12 @ 9:30AM
Sadly, somehow rock music drove out all other varieties of music and all that has been left to hear for the past two or three decades has been rock or classical on the radio.
Rock music has shot its bolt long ago. I'm surprised that the normal social desire for popular music has sustained it for as long past its day as it has.
Now is the time for some new musical expression in popular music to make its appearance. I hope there's enough non-rock musical creativity out there to sustain a new musical art form.
Chef Schnauzer| 7.20.12 @ 10:09AM
I abandoned music radio because of Rock Radio. I'm 50 y/o I tried to find something redeeming, inspiring, constructive, or beautiful in rock and roll. Nada, nyet, zip. I couldn't and now I don't even try. Fly me to the moon, let me sing amongst the stars, let me see what Spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.... in other words - hold my hand. To better days, my friends, to better days.
Stormzeye| 7.20.12 @ 10:53AM
Schnauzer, try some Steely Dan for great lyrics and people who can really play real instruments. It's not "rock", it's better.
Bob Grant| 7.20.12 @ 11:21AM
Or Frank Zappa.
It's all about appreciating the talent involved in playing an ANALOGUE musical instrument, writing ORIGINAL lyrics and musics, or having a great voice, and NOT about one's ability to enhance these qualities as is the case today.
scotchieguy| 7.20.12 @ 12:00PM
Even they got old and stale after Gaucho. For a treat, just turn off the lights and listen to Boddhisatva, or Your Gold Teeth.
Occam's Tool| 7.20.12 @ 5:21PM
scotchie: I love "razorboy" and THE best post apocalyptic song ever, "King of the World."
scotchieguy| 7.21.12 @ 2:32AM
"How many friends must I have to begin with to make you laugh?" Cynicism knows no bounds with the Dan.
astorian| 7.20.12 @ 10:59AM
Anybody rememeber Paul Simon's induction speech at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
In that speech, he thanked Alan Freed, whom he credited for much of his success. back when young Simon and Art Garfunkel were performing as Tom and Jerry, they played their new record, "Hey Schoolgirl," for Freed. He told them "Pay me $500 and I'll put this song in heavy rotation for two weeks." They scraped together the money, Freed played the song, and Simon & Garfunkel had their first hit.
After telling that story, Simon added wistfully, "I wish it was still that way today."
And, crazy as it sounds, for all his corruption, Freed put on a MUCH better radio show than any current "honest" DJ!
OP4| 7.20.12 @ 1:50PM
I thought most of them would spin new records for booze and coke.
astorian| 7.20.12 @ 10:59AM
Not long before he died, I read a newspaper inter view with DJ Bob "Wolfman Jack" Smith. The interviewer noted how formulaic and corporate the radio buisiness had gotten, and the Wolfman said sadly, "Guy, as bad as you THINK things are, they're even worse than that."
At the time, the Wolfman had his own syndicated radio show dedicated to oldies. The Wolfman acknowledged that oldies is a very limited, conservative genre by definition, but within those limits, you'd THINK a DJ as prominent as the Wolfman would have SOME freedom, right? You'd THINK the world's most famous DJ could play just about any song by Elvis or Chuck Berry, right? Wrong there were exactly six Elvis songs and three Chuck Berry songs that the corporate consultants allowed the Wolfman was allowed to play!
By the end of his life, the Wolfman was rich and famous... but he sadly admitted that he had FAR more freedom when he was a young unknown!
Bob Grant| 7.20.12 @ 11:12AM
I'm to the point where my musical preferences are strictly based on the organic quality of the work.
If I can't truly listen to the voice of the singer, I will not listen.
The same goes for musical instruments. If I cannot truly get a sense of the fingers working the instrument, I won't listen...NO enhancements.
No cover songs as well. I only want to hear the original, performed by the original artists and preferably from the original recordings.
I want to listen to bands/artists who struggled the hard way: performing year after year in small venues, honing their craft/developing their style, AND NOT winners of some banal "talent show".
I mean really, what would you prefer to listen to: a 1974 live version of Take it Easy performed by The Eagles (with guests Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne) or the latest from (fill in a talentless artist of today)? ...an original performance by Miles Davis or (fill in a talentless artist of today)...Vivaldi or (...)?
These are my criteria for choosing what to listen to so it eliminates, by default, practically anything produced the last 15 to 20 years.
If radio stations can't deliver this to me then I'll get it on my own via the internet.
scotchieguy| 7.21.12 @ 2:42AM
There are some great artists out there today. Check out Austin City Limits for starters. You have to really SEARCH for them because creative radio has been killed by corporations, as much as I believe in free enterprise--Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, James McMurtry, Wilco, Spoon, Derek Trucks, Soul Coughing (Mike Doughty), Drive-by Truckers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Trampled by Turtles, etc., just to name a few. They are all great, great songwriters, and fortunately you can see them in all their glory in small venues, something corporations have not ruined like the big, mega-concerts with huge video screen productions that passes as music today. Yuck. I am sounding like a lefty, but I am a working musician as well as a conservative business owner. What can I say? .
Kevin Gutzman | 7.20.12 @ 11:50AM
The ongoing homogenization of America is sad.
The death of rock music is sadder.
It's not that kids get their new rock online; it's that they don't know any new rock at all.
Bob Grant| 7.20.12 @ 12:17PM
"it's that they don't know any new rock at all."
It's because musicianship is a dying breed. Young kids, namely males, have no interest in picking up a guitar and becoming the next Jimmy Page or Jimmy Hendrix.
Jimmy Who? ...is that that old guy on my Guitar Hero 14 playlist?
They'd rather play a virtual guitar than the real one itself. They don't care about the history of rock, the craftsmanship of a well-made guitar, or sound technology.
The sad fact is middle-aged people wont usher in the next great rock era, young people will, and by all evidence have no interest in doing so.
wolf| 7.20.12 @ 2:17PM
i teach guitar..blues..jazz..fusion..some of the kids want to learn how to play 'fast'..others want to play songs of bands i never heard of .. hardly any of them has any interest in "music"..scales? chords? .. should i play a jazz standard for them..in a chord melody form..it does not spark a bit of interest...but when i play some super fast fusion licks...and then they want to learn "modes"..they have no idea what they are but they want to learn them..
Stormzeye| 7.20.12 @ 5:28PM
Instant gratification is the bane of this generation. No patience, no work ethic. Virtual guitar, virtual golf, virtual sex, virtual lives.
scotchieguy| 7.21.12 @ 2:48AM
It's not that bad, trust me. I am an old fashioned blues guitarist in my 50's. When I stuff myself towards the front row of any blues monster at a blues club, most of those other wannabes surrounding me are way younger than I am. Think of how much cheezy bubble-gum music was being produced when Hendrix and Cream were playing in '67...
Yes, most of music is dominated by garbage, but you just have to search out the good stuff. Like movies, the gems are still there, you just have to find them.
Bill84728| 7.20.12 @ 11:54AM
Lady Gaga will NEVER be the equivalent of Blossom Dearie.
Ronsch| 7.20.12 @ 12:32PM
Sadly, I DJ on an NPR affiliate (yes, I HATE NPR's political stance, even though they claim they have none...Yeah, right!), and I hate that the station on it's Facebook page promotes the Occupy crap, but it is the only local station that let's we DJs pick the music we want to play. There is some auto-programming when there is not a volunteer (like me) or paid DJ on....With that said, I try to play rock that is fun, entertaining and stresses parties, beer, chicks, guitars...All without the BS messages of Bob Dylan, et al....I play rock like it was meant to be...
Not to toot my own horn, but tune in via computer live streaming at kxll.org at 1600 hours (4:00 pm) on Saturdays (Alaska Standard Time) for the "Rock And Roll Radio Show" you might be surprised how much fun rock can be...Stale, old, so what? Rock and Roll is not this new crap being played from the alleged Top 40....
Occam's Tool| 7.20.12 @ 5:17PM
Podcast?
james wilson| 7.20.12 @ 1:21PM
Bemoaning the loss of quality radio in any form is like complaining about the newspaper industry, which is dying for similar reasons. The sooner it dies, the better. Soon the only market left to radio will be the technologically illiterate.
lcdlover | 7.20.12 @ 2:57PM
WFNX: Steven Mindich's wholly owned stepchild whom I mentioned in this rebuttal piece I wrote against a Boston Phoenix (another part of the Mindich empire) slam job vs Boston cops. I thought you guys might be interested.
I don't think American kids like rock anymore - not ONE rock band in my daughter's high school. Actually, sad to say, the rock best bands are out of Moscow and places like that. For example Messer Chups.
http://erroneouslyconfident.bl.....-your.html
Occam's Tool| 7.20.12 @ 5:20PM
I listen to Sirius and the Grateful Dead Channel a lot.
I also like the new record "Titanium" sung by Sia.
I also like Boz Scaggs and Steely Dan. I couldn't care less about the "death" of rock radio. The music is always available for download.
rightasrain| 7.20.12 @ 6:37PM
Decemberists, White Stripes, Hold Steady, Death Cab For Cutie, Gomez, Arcade Fire, Spoon, Delta Spirit, The National. There's lots of good rock bands out there. You just neeed to know where to listen. Try wfuv.org. They play everyone from Louis Armstrong to The Shins.
scotchieguy| 7.21.12 @ 2:52AM
Try 89.3 The Current. It is a publicly owned station but so what? They play all that stuff you mentioned, and a ton on Wilco to boot.
Leeonious Marvonious| 7.20.12 @ 7:05PM
WHFS Radio in Bethesda MD becoming a HISPANIC radio station,,,,say it isn't so. Break anyone else heart out there??????
KenFromBaltimore| 7.20.12 @ 7:22PM
The author mentioned the great 99.1 WHFS in Annapolis. There is a new WHFS on the air now, more in the Baltimore area, 97.5, It has some of the old HFS people manning the microphones and it has somewhat of a harder edge than the old HFS. Annapolis has an HFS type station, WRNR, 103.1. A few years ago, it was more free form, but has seemed to become more corporate, with a lot of repetition in it's playlist. But, it still plays a wide variety, lots of new progressive, lots of classics, a nice station. They do need to get their Tine Genie fixed.
The best station in the Baltimore are is Towson University's WTMD, 89.7. A great mix of just about everything.
Arimathean | 7.23.12 @ 2:01AM
Yeah, I also listen to WTMD. When I was in seminary in the NYC area I listened to the very similar WFUV (which was mentioned in another comment here). Both of these stations are in the mold of Philadelphia's WXPN: a listener-funded mix of different sorts of rock, with some folk and blues. The public radio model is showing that it can deliver the music that is fading away on commercial radio.
I wonder . . . is this the model we conservatives should be looking to as our alternative to the mainstream media? To some extent, we are already doing that when we make contributions to The Amerian Spectator. But we need more than just conservative commentary. We need an alternative to WashingtonPost.com that doesn't censor the stories that would make liberals look bad.
scotchieguy| 7.21.12 @ 4:32AM
As much as I love music and as much as I love sports, there is simply nothing more tasteless or obnoxious than the playing of rock and roll music, esp hackneyed garbage like "We Will Rock You," at sporting events between innings, before the faceoff, etc. I simply can no longer attend sporting events. I would prefer to watch them in hi-def w/ no commercials, and listen to really good music on my stereo or headphones.
topcat52| 7.21.12 @ 11:36AM
In the late 1960s and early 1970s no one knew what music would sell. Therefore, virtually anyone with a guitar could record music and it would be played. It either became a good seller and kept being played and the artist became famous, or it didn't with the obvious results. Once the record companies figured out what would sell, well - read the article. This has been a steady downward spiral since at least the late 1970s or early 1980s. But musical styles have historically changed - is anyone listening to big band music any more? Jazz radio died completely in New York over a decade ago. Rock's roots are in jazz and blues - where are those radio stations? The "problem" is not that Rock is being replaced on the radio, the problem is what it is being replace with. Like all generations, those of us who grew up with the Beachboys, Beatles, Band, Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield (just to name a few of the "Bs") do not like the current style of music (did your parents like Pink Floyd?). Get over it. The ipod makes the radio musically obsolete.
Ronald54321| 7.21.12 @ 2:40PM
Yeah. I remember stations like WHFS. They were all whorehouses advocating free sex and drugs for adolescents. if Flynn is a conservative, so is Timothy Leary ans Larry Flnt.
Ronald54321| 7.21.12 @ 3:01PM
Sorry about spelling "and" as "ans." The stations you like so much destroyed the family and turned America into the sewer it is today. I hope you are happy about all the lovely drug peddlers and pimps you seem to equate as good Capitalists.
DougieFresh| 7.21.12 @ 4:08PM
Jon Lord, one of The greatest most impactful rock musicians in the past 40 years died this week. The local media had nothing to say. The national media had nothing to say. That idiot Jann Wenner and his hypocritical limp wristed RRHOF committee surely have nothing to say or they would have already said it by inducting the late great Lord and the band HE founded -- Deep Purple --into the Hall.
rightasrain| 7.21.12 @ 6:43PM
My NY station celebrated Jon Lord, Kitty Wells and Bob Babbitt. Now that's eclectic.
JohnS| 7.22.12 @ 8:17PM
Whether or not rock music is dead is an open question. The quality of music is one subject, the death of radio is another. What has happened is that technology has upended the music industry, and everybody is still trying to figure out where things go from here.
If radio is a dead technology, so be it. Get with the times, get an iPod/iPhone/etc. No big deal.
The perceived lack of good music is partly a consequence of the technological changes. The music industry has become ridiculously cautious in the face of declining profits. With a million options online, nobody has yet figured out exactly how to find good new music.
On the flip side, almost anybody can now afford technology that allows them to produce their own records and distribute them worldwide via the internet.
At some point all of this will shake out and a whole new paradigm will emerge. Rock as a genre may or may not have a future. Who knows. What is certain is that the cookie cutter pop music that is now the only product of the traditional music industry cannot be the only option forever.
Bob Grant| 7.22.12 @ 11:41PM
"At some point all of this will shake out and a whole new paradigm will emerge"...
----
And because the making and distributing of quality music will be affordable to all, and due to the fact that this music will be practically free who any one want's to listen to it, music will have come full circle. Musician's livelyhood will mainly derive from the generosity of others. People who choose to pay for their music. It will be the equivalent of musicians playing in a virtual bar relying on their tip jar.
JohnS| 7.23.12 @ 12:51PM
On the other hand, the "virtual bar" is big enough to potentially include the entire planet. Piracy is slowly being factored in and dealt with, and people are more willing to pay for music than they were a few years ago. But figuring out how musicians (or even record companies) can make a living or turn a profit is the central question right now. And that has a lot to do with what kind of music is getting out there and receiving mass exposure.
PsychoDad| 7.23.12 @ 3:12PM
I hadn't listened to any "new" rock or music for decades. I'd usually keep classical on the radio. Then yes the internet came along and I discovered whole new genres I'd never heard of before that grabbed me tight - in my mid-40s! There's a whole universe out there of heavy, heavy, metal, symphonic, doom, power, gothic, all kinds of awesome stuff. There's a band that does concept albums based on history and legend like the Knights Templar, King Arthur, the Battle of Bannockburn, even the Last Supper! There are bands whose vocalists are classically trained operatic singers, bands that play with entire symphony orchestras as backup. It's waaaaaay beyond Stone Temple Pilots, kiddies.