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0 pointsmiah_1y ago0 comments

Clearchannel (which became IheartRadio) owns most radio stations (>850) in the US. They fired hundreds of DJ's in ~2011.

https://archive.nytimes.com/mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2...

When I was a kid in the 1980's I used to call the DJ and request songs A LOT. When I was a teen I used to call in to win contests. Now when I listen to a 'I<3Radio' station in the garage, its clear all the DJ segments are pre-recorded and everything is automated. Its all soundbites. Its all garbage. Its all advertisements. Its the same ~30 songs on rotation.

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HeyLaughingBoy1y ago

In the early 80's living in Brooklyn, I would tune into WKTU at 6:00PM every night just to hear

"Hello. This is Rosko. WKTU, New York." And then he'd segue into "Always and Forever" by Heatwave.

It was so scripted that at one point I started listening closely to see if it was recorded, but there were enough intonation and pacing changes that it was obvious he was doing it live.

Haven't lived in NYC in over 30 years but I miss that station.

musicale1y ago

I guess Clearchannel/IheartRadio is sort of a private equity "success" story because it is still operating.

goosejuice1y ago

Sure but there's so many internet and college radio stations out there. Even with mainstream consolidation I would find it surprising that there are less overall now than ever before.

I mean just look at boiler room and club culture in general. The amount of tastemaking DJs out there is pretty vast.

Retric1y ago

Internet DJ’s can’t feed off each other to produce regional music. It’s all one big blob available anywhere which drowns diversity in a sea of mediocrity.

College radio stations aren’t dramatically increasing to make up for the vast consolidation that removed something like 80-90% of radio DJ’s.

40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s flowed into each other but the stuff was all very distinct in a way that 2000’s vs 2010’s isn’t.

PaulDavisThe1st1y ago

> It’s all one big blob available anywhere which drowns diversity in a sea of mediocrity.

I'm not interested in regional music or a regional scene.

The music on any given SomaFM station is not "a sea of mediocrity". It's generally excellent genre-specific stuff (old and new), and I love it (if I'm somewhat into the genre).

I can appreciate that others may not, but please don't over-generalize or assert that your preferences are the only ones out there.

goosejuice1y ago

So the problem is globalization? What do you mean by regional music?

Genres span borders now. Look at the Midwest emo / mathrock scene and how it made its way to Japan and Taiwan.

We can romanticise the old days of radio but local scenes aren't dead and these little genres are still going and new ones are popping up.

Retric1y ago

> Local scenes aren’t dead.

I might just be out of touch, so show me the innovation.

Rap simply didn’t exist in the 60’s. What’s around today that wasn’t in the late 90’s? Not just minor evolution but new ideas. It’s been 25 years any other stretch of that length since 1900 had several radical new ideas.

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HeyLaughingBoy1y ago

In the early 80's living in Brooklyn, I would tune into WKTU at 6:00PM every night just to hear

"Hello. This is Rosko. WKTU, New York." And then he'd segue into "Always and Forever" by Heatwave.

It was so scripted that at one point I started listening closely to see if it was recorded, but there were enough intonation and pacing changes that it was obvious he was doing it live.

Haven't lived in NYC in over 30 years but I miss that station.

musicale1y ago

I guess Clearchannel/IheartRadio is sort of a private equity "success" story because it is still operating.

goosejuice1y ago

Sure but there's so many internet and college radio stations out there. Even with mainstream consolidation I would find it surprising that there are less overall now than ever before.

I mean just look at boiler room and club culture in general. The amount of tastemaking DJs out there is pretty vast.

Retric1y ago

Internet DJ’s can’t feed off each other to produce regional music. It’s all one big blob available anywhere which drowns diversity in a sea of mediocrity.

College radio stations aren’t dramatically increasing to make up for the vast consolidation that removed something like 80-90% of radio DJ’s.

40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s flowed into each other but the stuff was all very distinct in a way that 2000’s vs 2010’s isn’t.

PaulDavisThe1st1y ago

> It’s all one big blob available anywhere which drowns diversity in a sea of mediocrity.

I'm not interested in regional music or a regional scene.

The music on any given SomaFM station is not "a sea of mediocrity". It's generally excellent genre-specific stuff (old and new), and I love it (if I'm somewhat into the genre).

I can appreciate that others may not, but please don't over-generalize or assert that your preferences are the only ones out there.

goosejuice1y ago

So the problem is globalization? What do you mean by regional music?

Genres span borders now. Look at the Midwest emo / mathrock scene and how it made its way to Japan and Taiwan.

We can romanticise the old days of radio but local scenes aren't dead and these little genres are still going and new ones are popping up.

Retric1y ago

> Local scenes aren’t dead.

I might just be out of touch, so show me the innovation.

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