Since the beginning of radio, people have been bitching about how much radio sucks. Seriously. After the very first test of his system, Guglielmo Marconi's wife was heard to say, "Ehi, vede se niente è altro su!"* This is why I declined to comment last week on Clear Channel's announcement that they will no longer accept money from independent promoters. After all, anything the Ultimate Evil does has to be bad, right? Even if it seems like a good thing?
This article from the Boston Globe says much of what I would have said, but more clearly and professionally:
"There was a good deal of static in the radio industry last week when industry giant Clear Channel announced that it would not renew contracts with independent record promoters after they expire this summer.
Some called the severing of those longstanding relationships a step toward cleaning up borderline practices in the industry - the so-called ''pay for play'' that translates dollars directly into on-air spins and has become the modern version of payola. And independent promoters (several were contacted and refused to comment) may find themselves working harder for a dwindling amount of record company money.
But radio listeners aren't likely to hear much improvement. In fact, say some industry insiders, the range of music broadcast may become even more narrow as the indie promoters are phased out."
Yup. That's exactly what's going to happen. Now, I'm not about to defend the shady and corrupt world of radio promotions, but they do perform a necessary and potentially honorable service. How would I know? Well, I know the King of Radio Promotions, though he is self-styled and lives in New Jersey (hey... everyone has their drawbacks).
What is this potentially honorable service that indies do?. Essentially, they are hired to call as many radio stations as possible to talk up new records, because record labels don't have the time to do all the work on their own. Indies are hired for their Rolodexes, and how well they know the peopel in them. There is nothing-- nothing-- wrong with that, at the basic level.
The trouble comes when two things happen: 1) The big dogs hire the big dogs. If Sony hires Bill McGathy to work their new rock record, it has a MUCH bigger chance of becoming a hit than if they were to hire a less well-known promoter. But, Bill isn't cheap. Most can't afford him, and big stations won't return calls from the little guys. 2) Fat bags of cash exchange hands. Usually, it's not as blatant as all that, but let's face it. Sometimes when you're working a dog of a record, just a terrible slab of music, you need to thow' in a li'l extra to seal the deal. Everyone does it! You need a band to play your Christmas show? Great! Samplers? Sure! Trip for your Programming Director? Um... lemme check with legal... ok. Again, this skews the focus of the radio promotions game away from good music, to whatever pays.
But, big radio is driven by what people like. The positive side of cutting indies out of the deal is, radio stations will pay more attention to call-out research (they call people, play them 15 seconds of a song, ask what they think) and phone requests. The negative side is also that stations will pay attention to call-outs and requests. Study after study shows that people want to hear what they've already heard. If you are Joe Normal, searching the car radio for driving tunes, you are, unscientifically, 99% more likely to stop on AC/DC than on some Built to Spill b-side that, though it might be the greatest song ever, has never passed Mr. Normals ear-holes before. Furthermore, since radio stations only add a couple songs to their playlists every couple weeks, only the guaranteed hits, which will pull in guaranteed ad revenue, get a listen. There is no room for the new Tsar single when Audioslave's single dropped last week, Kid Rock's and Korn's drop this week, and next week is Creed and Puddle of Mudd.
All in all, this means that corporate-owned radio stations, who dominate the radio market, tend to narrow their playlists to include only the familiar. The new and strange barely has a chance. Without the mean, nasty, eeevil indies to man the phones on behalf of non-guaranteed hits, the new and strange, and even the new and derivative, has NO chance.
*Approximately, "See if anything else is on." I don't speak Italian. I barely speak English.
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