Remember that song on MTV “Video Killed the Radio Star?” Turns out that was wishful thinking. There was a group much worse waiting in the wings to kill the radio star: Accountants.
Radio has been declared dead many times over the last 80 years or so.
First off, the great depression was supposed to kill radio. And some stations died but a good many prospered. Turns out that the entertainment value of radio was just what the nation needed, in many cases, to forget their collective troubles.
Then TV was supposed kill radio, but the problem with TV was it was not very portable. Radio re-invented itself to go in cars and lived on, stronger than ever.
MTV came out in 1978 and you could watch endless music videos, one after another. The first music videos were more or less live shows. It was exciting, at first, to see a some of the videos. Then bands began making videos to tell specific stories with their songs. Sort of a visual interpretation of their music. What we mainly saw was self indulgent whining. Yawn.
Radio lived on. Satellite radio was then the last nail in the coffin. Except that satellite radio audio is barely listenable, especially the music channels. I listened to Sirius’ Jazz channel for about a half an hour in a rental car once, ended up with a splitting headache. XM’s audio was a little better but still full of digital hash. It made AM radio sound good.
Radio still lived on. Then came consolidation. With it, big time non-radio type owners attempting to make stacks of cash. To do this, they got rid of most of the air staffs, installed computers to replace them, did away with any local content and or community service, and launched blended un-entertaining bland formats that are safer than attending a church service. For a while, they made lots of money with very few expenses.
The public: they didn’t buy into it so much. When radio stopped being entertaining, most everyone began buying I-pods. Webcasters sprung up and began offering internet only content, some of which is pretty good. The real telling thing, however, is National Public Radio took off. They used to make fun of NPR on Saturday Night live. No more, NPR is probably one of the last places to get reliable news from.
And what a way to go, death of a thousand cuts as it were. The formula is thus: Take anything that is fun, successful, and entertaining and put a bunch of up tight, stiff white guys in charge of it.
Radio is not dead yet, but the prognosis is not good. The bankers and accountants… They are on there way to the next money making venture.
Replace “video” with “accountants” Oh, oh…
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