Media

Radio's future -- global or local?

by Dan Kennedy

In the years since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, radio -- once a uniquely local medium -- has become increasingly homogenized and corporatized. By some estimates, large companies have gobbled up so many stations that the number of station owners has dropped by about 1000.

Efforts to reverse the trend by granting lower-power licenses to community groups have faltered. Overly strict FCC guidelines mean there may not even be a licensed community station in Boston (despite the best efforts of Allston-Brighton Free Radio), and the New York Times reported last week that nearly half the groups seeking licenses are churches, mainly of the Bible-thumping variety.

So you'd think anyone who cared about putting the local back in radio would be thrilled about the coming revolution in Internet audio. Already, thousands of stations are available over the Net; it's just that you need to be attached to at least $1000 worth of computer equipment in order to listen. In years to come, though, we can expect real Internet radios, portable gizmos capable of tuning in an infinite number of signals -- whether from the kids in the garage band around the corner or from a mountaintop in Nepal.

But skepticism prevails. Two recent essays, by Bill McKibben in the current Atlantic Monthly and by Michelle Goldberg on the New Republic's Web site, argue that Internet radio may lead to a further disintegration of community by catering obsessively to narrow tastes and ignoring broader concerns and interests. What will be lost, McKibben worries, is the sense of "serendipity" that radio has traditionally provided: "Maybe you'll hear something about the local schools, or the local nursing home; maybe you'll hear some zouk music before opera comes on."

Writes Goldberg: "As the Web increases the musical options available to listeners, it just as surely divides those listeners into countless tiny audiences. Radio, on the other hand, is an inherently mass medium -- it unites. At its best, radio, especially public radio, can strengthen and define geographic communities and expose people to music and news that they wouldn't seek out on their own."

Well, McKibben's and Goldberg's views are fine in theory. But in reality, radio these days sounds pretty much the same everywhere -- the same music and the same syndicated blabbers, from Howard Stern to Dr. Laura. Even McKibben and Goldberg acknowledge that their premature nostalgia is aimed mainly at public, not corporate, radio.

Certainly when Internet radio becomes widespread, there are those who will never listen to anything but that one station in Eugene, Oregon, that plays hard bop from the early 1950s. But to predict that Internet radio will mean the death of localism at a time when the medium is still in its infancy seems pessimistic in the extreme. McKibben and Goldberg have identified the danger, but not the opportunity: the chance for local, community-oriented stations to spring up everywhere and anywhere, not dependent on scarce broadcast frequencies and thus unencumbered by bureaucracy and regulations.