To Every Season, Churn, Churn, Churn
And so it goes. WRXP, the last attempt at reviving some sort of rock radio format in NYC is soon to be no more. At least our Matt Pinfield has managed to land nicely on his feet back at MTV with the new 120 Minutes. Let's hope it LASTS more than 120 minutes. This is the perfect vehicle for Matt, our beloved hero of new and cutting edge music. I look forward to not knowing a single band he plays, and how refreshing that will be.
As thrilled as I was to hear Matt on WRXP three years ago, it's a relief to have it all ending. RXP had become a sad joke, a bad parody of an obsolete format forever stuck in 1991. At best unlistenable, at worst downright pathetic. Dead air would have been more stimulating.
Rock radio is dead, and has been for a long time. The legacy of the juggernaut days of 70's rock stations weighs like a lodestone around the neck of anyone attempting to revive it. Let it go, please let it go.
The fallout from all the radio consolidation unleashed by the loosening of regulations in 1996 is still falling. Corporations and flip artists are still trying to find some way to use text book capitalist business theory and make big radio profitable, but year after year they fail. More ads, more homogeneity, less creativity, less risk taking, more consolidation.
The result? The least common denominator of quality--talk radio, and top 40. I'm not sure the current model can profitably support any other format to be honest. It might be another 10 years before all the radio conglomerates finally fail and sell off all the stations to small investors who will hopefully restart the process and revitalize the airwaves. Or not, maybe free radio is simply obsolete.
And speaking of churn, there's been other local radio turmoil recently. NJN got sold and is no longer NJN. I can't comment on it's true value to NJ residents, but I'm sure it was more than nothing. I'll guess it's a net loss.
On 101.5 Casey and Rossi got canned from what I assumed was their popular 2-7 slot. I found them fairly entertaining on the ride home from work every night, and I must admit I'll miss them. They certainly had an impact on politics in NJ.
And so it continues.
As thrilled as I was to hear Matt on WRXP three years ago, it's a relief to have it all ending. RXP had become a sad joke, a bad parody of an obsolete format forever stuck in 1991. At best unlistenable, at worst downright pathetic. Dead air would have been more stimulating.
Rock radio is dead, and has been for a long time. The legacy of the juggernaut days of 70's rock stations weighs like a lodestone around the neck of anyone attempting to revive it. Let it go, please let it go.
The fallout from all the radio consolidation unleashed by the loosening of regulations in 1996 is still falling. Corporations and flip artists are still trying to find some way to use text book capitalist business theory and make big radio profitable, but year after year they fail. More ads, more homogeneity, less creativity, less risk taking, more consolidation.
The result? The least common denominator of quality--talk radio, and top 40. I'm not sure the current model can profitably support any other format to be honest. It might be another 10 years before all the radio conglomerates finally fail and sell off all the stations to small investors who will hopefully restart the process and revitalize the airwaves. Or not, maybe free radio is simply obsolete.
And speaking of churn, there's been other local radio turmoil recently. NJN got sold and is no longer NJN. I can't comment on it's true value to NJ residents, but I'm sure it was more than nothing. I'll guess it's a net loss.
On 101.5 Casey and Rossi got canned from what I assumed was their popular 2-7 slot. I found them fairly entertaining on the ride home from work every night, and I must admit I'll miss them. They certainly had an impact on politics in NJ.
And so it continues.
posted 7/12/2011 09:27:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home