We note that the Infinity moron cited in our earlier piece claims that "people are emotionally involved with local radio."
Maybe they once were. Certainly I once was.
But that was back when individuals were free to express their personalities on local radio. Growing up in New York over 20 years ago, WNEW and WPLJ wer the big rock stations. And you knew the people who worked there. Carol Miller was the Springsteen fan, Dave Hermann (whose daughter went to high school with me) had his own unique morning personality and classical rock mix, Scott Muni was the "old sage" of Rock and Roll Radio, others had their own personalities and played the music that "fit." If you wanted to listen to something else, you switched the station. In any event, you look at the lineups from those days and you see a list of people with definitive musical tastes of their own, who you could get emotionally invoved with. Or ignore completely if they didn't resonate with you. Your choice.
DJs moved when they couldn't play what they wanted. I remember that Miller quit WPLJ on the very day they changed to a top 40 format. She got picked up by 'NEW. Others followed, as did the fans.
Today, most corporate owned stations work from a playlist of 300-1000 songs. The ability of any "on air personality" to be different is limited to the pathetic jokes they tell, and I'm told that even much of their on-air banter is censored and scripted. Certainly they can't really resonate with their audience or achieve any "emotional involvement" with them.
In fact, it's the national personalities who can achieve that kind of connection to their fans. Stern, Leykis, Limbaugh and others resonate strongly. In today's world, the only way to be different or independent is to have a big national following. Then, and only then, you can dictate your terms. Then, and only then, can you have a sufficiently strong personality to resonate with some of your listeners. It has nothing to do with "local" and everything to do with "interesting and different."
But as mainstream radio gets better and better at shutting out any originality, they are killing off the potential new crop of big draws. Those will come from elsewhere, and "big radio" will continue to be a mind-numbing bunch of insipid morons playing scripted playlists while the real business of providing music and emotional attachment to the customers will continue to develop elsewhere.
