Why I Still Listen To Radio

  Sanyo Transistor Clock Radio, 1960's 
  Originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures.

I was going through my email yesterday morning in the kitchen listening to WEHM over the Internet (via our Sonos system) and came across an email from Tony Alva with a link to Bob Lefsetz' Radio Last post.

The Lefsetz post really isn't about radio, it's about how to market music in the world we live in today. And Bob argues that breaking a band on radio is the worst thing you can do if you want a long career. I totally agree with Bob. Radio isn't where discovery happens in today's world. It happens largely on the Net. But I also agree with Bob that radio is still the place to go if you want to hear popular music. As Bob says:

In other words, radio comes last.  It’s the icing on the cake.  It’s the victory lap.  It’s the seal on stardom.  IT’S NO LONGER THE BEGINNING!

I turned on WEHM yesterday morning when I could have played any one of thousands of records we have in our digital music system, or when I could have played any of one the millions of songs available on Rhapsody, or when I could have played neighbor radio from last.fm or popular tracks from the hypemachine. I did it because I felt like listening to WEHM.

WEHM has a vibe. It's laid back, it's mostly well worn music you love. It's got a beachy thing because its east hampton long island. And there are artists that get played on WEHM that don't get much play elsewhere. In a nutshell, when you tune into WEHM, you know what you are going to get. And it delivered for me yesterday morning.

Later on in our car headed uptown, we could have listened to our iPod. In fact, Josh and I were doing that earlier in the morning going to and from basketball practice (Tapes N Tapes - The Loon - great record). But heading uptown, The Gotham Gal and I had on WFUV and heard a great run of songs we know and love.

I agree with Bob. Radio isn't breaking any new ground these days. I'll go to the hypemachine and last.fm to discover new music. But when you want to sit back and listen to music you know and love, you still can't beat radio.

UPDATE: I've cross posted this at Newcritics where you can find a lot more stuff like this.

Comments

[Bruce Barber]

Fred,

I'm a guy who spent 20 years doing morning radio on mainstream rock stations, and I think you've nailed this one.

Years ago, the great DJs could play anything they wanted, and they turned you on to excellent new music.

These days, playlists are tightly controlled, with most stations doing extensive research on every new track.

As you mentioned, the Internet has produced BRILLIANT sites like Last.fm, which provide an excellent way to discover new music based on what you like now.

On the other hand, there are still stations like FUV and EHM that remind us what can happen when you put the programming decisions back into the hands of creative people with a passion for great music.

[Pandora Man]

Have you already blogged about Pandora?

[Jamie]

I think musical discovery happens on the net, less because of the net, but more because of the decisions radio has made. We've seen this before, when a good portion of the discovery happening was coming from the Mexican Border Blasters "heard it on the X". The market is simply working around the blocks that radio has put in place, which is a good sign because this implies people are demanding quality music instead of rubbish.

I would argue that the "important" discovery still happens on the radio. Stations like KCRW, WDST (though to a lesser degree today) and The Point out of VT all have real DJs who actually pick out the music. Bands like Coldplay, Dido, and Franz Ferdinand were all heard on Harcourt's program. Local radio stations, which are locally owned with local advertising, are still some of the best places for a young artist to get noticed. In this way, I see radio as playing the opposite roll of what Bob says.

Viral marketing is great, but you still need the germ.

My problem with sites like Last.FM is they play right in to the entire clearchannelization of the radio and other music. Someone, maybe the artist, maybe not, needs to make a decision in what category they feel their music should belong. This gives an incentive for artists to create music that fits into one of the pre-existing molds. Further, it limits the exposure any user might have to good music in genres they may not have been exposed to. The old excuse of: I know what I like, but I can't describe it.

Like in wine, some people will always drink a cab because they like it. They might like Sauvignon Blanc just as much or better, but they will never find out because they are "filtering" out all of the Sauvignon Blanc.

One of my favorite radio stations is a Hebrew station out of Israel
http://www.106fm.co.il/

[Stephen L. McKay]

Fred,

Basically, this compares very closely to the question you posed the other day regarding fame on YT vs. major (network/broadcast) media, which, like radio, still offers a few really good quality program choices that I don’t think the small independent production companies will be able to compete with for some time.

In both cases, the internet is an excellent launching pad, and will only become an even better one with time.

[Tony Alva]

"But when you want to sit back and listen to music you know and love, you still can’t beat radio.”

Unfortunately, this must be a NYC thing because I’ve not found a whole lot of stations outside of the big three “classic rock” play lists that are worth tuning into. On the West Coast I’ve tuned into a couple of stations that I would lock into my station list, but that’s about it.

While Bob talks about breaking new acts in his post, he’s also talking about the medium in general and how far it’s fallen. You’re a big fan of finding and discovering new music, but for guys like me and many others (it think Bob is a member of this group too), we like to get invested in a band and are far more selective. I really don’t think much new music is all that good, and would much rather listen to deep cuts off the millions of existing records that have stood the test of time than listen to whatever the Arctic Monkey’s have to offer, or chase down whomever next 15 minute pop star will be. That’s just my preference, but there are a LOT of us out there that would make up quite a dedicated listening audience for a radio station who had the guts to program such music. As for the new stuff, if it really is any good I’ll hear it in time perhaps sandwiched in between the deeper cuts from a Neil Young record. Radio used to have a home for us dedicated fans, now it doesn’t.

No, radio isn’t a place t break bands anymore, and it’s because the big three see it as a risk to “steady” advertising revenue these tired and worn out play lists bring in, but it could be again with an infusion of FCC directed competition. A redistribution of the wealth by auctioning licenses vs. giving them away to the big three. It’ll be through the success of satellite radio who seem to know much better how to make radio listenable again like it once was. I take my family to local pizza place where they have Sirius piped through the house speakers and we sit there well after we’re done eating just listening to all the great “old” music that we haven’t heard in a long time. THAT’s what I’m talking about. There are millions of people who want this and we’re not a buch of nostalgists either.

We both agree that music “pushed” to us is often fun to listen to, it’s WHAT’s being pushed to us that will make the difference as to whether radio will ever regain it’s relevancy in my opinion.

[Ethan Bauley]

That clock radio pic is awesome.

Commercial radio has so much untapped value it makes me sick.

How many services are there that

a)have built-in access to EVERY home and car in the country
b) totally suck
c) everyone in the country desperately wants to be better?

"Music discovery" is overrated. Like Umair's contract theory analysis says, the listener's trusted agents [labels/radio] haven't delivered on their side of the bargain [filtering talent], so the listener will take on massive search costs...

"Music grazing/discovery" is how you mitigate the risk of listening to something you don't like.

If radio was playing great shit all the time, only a tiny percentage would be spending hours combing Last.fm

[simon]

radios awesome and still very useful .. i work for australias largest talk back radio network ... radio never tires ...

[ventureblogalist]

its also hard for the radio to treat you wrong. meanwhile, look at a site like emusic (www.emusic.com) where you pay for monthly access but then get no rollovers if you dont use your monthly download quota.

amie st has some of the best music i have seen anywhere but browsing music on this site should be as easy as it is on last.fm.

[Geoff Hickman]

I think your generally right. But there are still a few great gems in radioland. Shows that explore new, quirky, and usually unsigned artists. Shows like Mary Anne Hobbs and Rob Da Bank on BBC Radio 1. To a lesser extent, KCRW here in LA.

[carl rahn griffith]

whilst we also have a couple of hundred internet radio stations available in our home (albeit via a rather heath-robinson/mickey mouse set-up using a cheap netgear wifi media server and a spare laptop - no sexy sonos, sadly) and so thus also have access to a few thousand music tracks loaded onto our various pc's scattered around the house, i often find myself tuning into 'traditional' local radio (on a wireless!) at times for local news matters and especially to learn about the local music scene - this also means i learn of the latest dire performance of my football team, regrettably - the once great now lamentable, sheffield wednesday fc.

what i am saying is it is all too easy to tend to listen to far-away music sources because they implicitly have more glamour to them (eg, i regulalrly try and catch jonesy's jukebox on the excellent on indie 103.1.fm) rather than what is on one's own doorstep.

as a case in point: i came across the arctic monkeys a couple of years ago not via viral/guerilla marketing on myspace/web downloads, or via an indie web radio station - no, but on good old bbc radio sheffield's regular local new-music scene program. this same 'old' medium also catalysed the careers of other sheffield notables such as the comsat angels, pulp, human league and currently - for example (as there are so many) - little man tate.

act global, think local?

[JEiden]

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....

A Japanese Transistor Radio."

- Bobby Sherman

Seeing that pic reminded me of that Parody song. I agree with you about music. But I wonder if HD Radio might change that a little.