| WHO ( STILL ) LISTENS
TO THE RADIO?
Back in 1979 when The Buggles sang Video Killed
The Radio Star, the first video to be aired on MTV incidentally,
it celebrated the supposed death of radio & it’s replacement
by another medium. But guess what? There are now more radio stations
than there were then & the average American family still owns
an average of 6 radios per household.
It wasn’t the first time that radio had
been supposedly down for the count, 2 decades earlier with the advent
of television, radio was predicted to be as extinct as a dodo. What
happened? Radio changed, it went from a variety format, quiz shows,
talent quests etc… to playing music & then along came
rock n roll & the rest is history.
The radio moved from the loungeroom, to the bedroom,
the bathroom & even to the car. It became ambient, radio was
everywhere. And yet again, with the cyber explosion once again radio
is being eyed at like a soon to be deceased relative at a family
christmas party. People don’t know exactly what’s going
to happen, but they assume that it’s not going to be good
news for radio. A quick reflection on it’s chequered &
ever mutating history would indicate that although radio may change
which box or headphones we listen to it on, it will almost in spite
of itself continue to survive & flourish.
I grew up in an era when 6 radio stations in Melbourne
were all targeted at my teenage ears, I ran home from school excitedly,
not to listen to my record collection, but to hear the legendary
Stan Rofe on the radio weave his enthusiastic magic. And late on
a Sunday night I would listen under the blankets to Peter Manne
(who set up the only esoteric record shop in Melbourne at the time
Discurio ) when on 3AW of all stations he would play everything
from Tibetan chantings to the gutbucket acoustic blues of people
like Bill Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry & Brownie Mc Gee etc.
Unfortunately around this time an American radio
station owner was sitting in his usual diner one day & thought
to himself, “What if we found out the the most popular songs
on this jukebox & played them over & over on the radio?
Wouldn’t people like to listen? “ And from that innocent
idea came the notion of Top 40 radio that spread like a cancer &
contaminated the broadcasting world, with the same songs repeated
over & over 24/7, turning off listeners with the seemingly endless
repetition. The playlist ruled & announcers were told to keep
it lean & mean.
Hope for radio was rekindled with the opening
of the FM band, strange to think that the first commercial FM station
in Melbourne, EONFM now known as MMM began as a free form album
track playing, slightly stoned sounding laidback announcing style
of a station that failed dismally in the ratings & was jettisoned
for a bought commercial format from America that paid the bills.
Since then sadly the radio dial has become polluted & fragmented
by stale formats, buy the listeners competitions, “ personalities”,
hits & memories & now random play! Even they can’t
be bothered anymore!
The arrival of public/community radio stations
offered welcome relief for disillusioned listeners offering variety
excitement & risk, thankfully free of playlists generated by
computers & button counters, making radio human again, talking
to & with the audience rather than at them, bringing back the
magic. It’s now the sleeping giant of broadcasting, burgeoning
to over 100 radio stations nationwide supported by their avid listeners
& although seen as cutting edge by comparison with the government
& commercial stations, are often new traditionalists harking
back to radio’s earlier days featuring individual shows on
various topics of interest & music shows presented enthusiastically
by fans unencumbered by playlists & demographics.
The first radio station on the FM frequency in
Melbourne was actually RRR FM a public station which recently held
it’s annual radiothon & received over 10,000 paid subscriptions
for something that people can get for nothing! And that’s
just counting the payers! Obviously the passion on both sides of
the microphone indicates that although the medium may digitise,
minituarise or otherwise mutate, the essentially human relationship
between broadcaster & listener will inevitably be at the core
of it’s longevity & adaptability. Tune in. Turn on.
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