Sound and Fury

part 2

by Dan Kennedy

Morning is when radio's pulse beats the loudest. Whether it's on a student's radio-alarm clock or in a commuter's car, radio is how most of us orient ourselves to the new day.

In Boston, as elsewhere, that experience has deteriorated considerably over the past few years. Where once there were a number of vibrant local options, today the choices amount to little more than titillation and syndication.

On American Radio Systems' WRKO (AM 680), the pointed but polite political talk of Janet Jeghelian and Ted O'Brien has been replaced by Clapprood & Company, with host Marjorie Clapprood cracking jokes about diarrhea and menstruation, with her current sidekick, WFNX morning guy Tai.

On Westinghouse's WBCN (104.1 FM), the legendary Charles Laquidara, a '60s veteran who years ago was nearly fired for berating an advertiser's role in the manufacture of Agent Orange, has given way to syndicated host Howard Stern, whose idea of controversy is to slobber over women's breasts. (Laquidara has found a new home at Westinghouse's WZLX, 100.7 FM -- at least as long as his ratings hold or he isn't let go because of his age or high salary.)

WEEI (AM 850), once a CBS-owned all-news station, is now an all-sports station owned by American Radio Systems. The morning guy is Don Imus, who's funny, talented -- and from New York. The news fix is now provided by WBZ, though not in the depth or with the breadth that 'EEI used to offer.

As for the rest of the dial, there's not a niche left unserved -- provided your taste in music fits into one of the predetermined, advertiser-friendly, artificial genres into which music has been sliced and diced, such as "contemporary hit radio/rhythm," "contemporary hit radio/pop," "alternative," "adult alternative," "hot adult alternative," "urban adult contemporary," "rock," and "classic rock."

For the megacorporations that dominate radio, these are the best of times. A WAVE OF BUYOUTS HAS RADIO INDUSTRY BEAMING WITH SUCCESS read a lead in a recent Wall Street Journal story announcing that radio stocks are up about 80 percent for the year, well ahead of the stock-market average. Best of all, radio's share of the advertising market has increased from 7 percent to 10 percent over the past several years.

For radio listeners, though, these are in many ways the worst of times.

Radio executives claim they're giving the public what it wants. But it ain't necessarily so. Julian Breen, a radio consultant based in Pennington, New Jersey, conducted a study that showed the amount of time people spend listening to the radio has declined by 5.5 percent since 1990. "Radio stations have gotten so good at niche marketing, at identifying niches that are appealing to advertisers, that a lot of people are left out of the niche," he explains.

In turning away from commercial radio, people are tuning in public stations; in Boston, the leader is WBUR (90.9 FM), a 24-hour news and talk oriented station with some popular special programming that is operated by Boston University and doesn't show up in the standard Arbitron ratings, but places in the top 10 in other surveys. Or WGBH (89.7 FM), a public station that broadcasts news, classical music, and jazz. Or the innovative music programming that's played on college stations.

And no doubt some have simply given up. Snickers Republican political consultant Charles Manning: "All you have to do is listen to the radio stations in Boston, and you know why everybody's got CD players in their cars."

Indeed, with its restrictive formatting and increasing reliance on syndicated material, corporate radio is devouring itself, failing to develop new talent, play new music, or foster new ideas. Since chains can now load up their stations with cheap, nationally syndicated shows that they already own (Stern and Imus, for instance, were both part of Infinity founder Mel Karmazin's Westwood One syndication service, which he brought with him to Westinghouse), young performers now have fewer and fewer opportunities.

"There is a huge financial incentive to replace local staff with national stuff. If you own it, it's like you get paid twice," says Jim Naureckas, editor of Extra!, a progressive media-watch magazine published by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

Whether you like Stern or not, what you hear on the radio every morning is the result of years he spent honing his act. Today, though, there are no fledgling Sterns at stations in the hinterlands, slowly improving and hoping for a shot at the big time. After all, those stations are already carrying Stern.

"If Howard Stern were to be ambushed by Martians tomorrow, who would do his show?" asks Boston-based radio consultant Donna Halper, an instructor at Emerson College.

Back to part 1 - On to part 3

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Dan Kennedy's work can be accessed from his Web site: http://www1.shore.net/~dkennedy/

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Dan Kennedy can be reached at dkennedy[a]phx.com

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Articles from July 24, 1997 & before can be accessed here

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