A Rant by Orren Merton

As a 12-year old latch-key kid, my best friend--after my Miniature Schnauzer--was a radio station called "The Mighty 690" at 690AM--that's right folks, AM Radio--on the dial. And you know what? It was THE BEST! Sure, everything came through in really awful mono, but at 12 I was not the audiophile I am today, and The Mighty 690 really did play *everything*--I remember hearing Rush, The Police, Bananarama, Twisted Sister, Duran Duran, RATT, Depeche Mode, you name it. Soon I discovered FM radio, and fell in love with another spectacular station: KMET--"The Mighty MET" as they were called, at 94.7FM. It was rock and roll, but included everything from heavy metal to pop. And so began my love affair with rock and roll--and with the radio.

But then something happened. KMET wasn't making enough money...and it died. Currently there is a new age/light jazz station at KMET's old dial location (The Wave). That was my first rude awakening to the reality of radio--it did not exist to be my friend, to expose me to a brave new world, to comfort me through the cold harsh world...it was a business. And businesses that are not profitable, do not survive.

As I grew up, I still looked to the radio as my main source for comfort, inspiration, new music, comfort. A succession of stations--The Edge, MARRS, a couple Pirate Radios--all came and went. All of them were great. All of them offered a breadth of styles, a uniqueness, that you couldn't find anywhere else. The reward for their daring, style, taste, and boldness was always the same--failure.

But some survived. KROQ (106.7 FM) was a truly innovative, cutting edge station. They played AC/DC before anyone else did. And they were the first to embrace New Wave and Modern Rock before anyone else. In the early and mid-80s KROQ really *did* break new bands, and expose everyone to a brave new world. Today's KROQ is a much different beast. It is a successful subcompany of Infinity broadcasting, making substancial profits for their corporate owners by playing the top 20 alternative rock tracks for the teenage market. Ironically, many current listeners of KROQ WERE NOT EVEN BORN when

KROQ 's hayday was happening...so they'd never know what they are missing.

On the one hand, I find it a tragedy that KROQ changed. They were the first to break most of the British New Wave bands, the first to play synth pop, electronic music before it was "electronica," etc. But then again, lets look at the reality of it. The road is littered with the corpses of excellent radio stations that died. I'm sure KROQ would have been another one of those, fighting the good fight until the end, but ultimately losing to the reality of the business world.

And that's the bottom line--I don't blame KROQ for becoming a corporate whore any more than I praise them for surviving; business is business, and they managed to stay in business. It's as simple--and as cold--as that.

Regardless of the alleged or exposed Payola of the major labels (Limp Bizkit buying radio play in Oregon, anyone?), the main income of all radio stations is advertising revenue. The advertisers only pay them for commercial time if the Aribitron Ratings that poll listeners prove that lots of people are listening. So how do the radio stations get listeners? By bribing them with money, trips, and gifts--and by making sure that they play songs that the maximum number of listeners will like at any given moment.

The thing is, it's *always* been this way--So why has radio become so sterile now? I think because these days, with more money in music distribution and sales, the radio stations need to make more money in order to be viable. I also think that because of the massive sales campaigns of the majors, more people are exposed to the same thing, and get sucked into the glitter their machine creates. Since more people become fixated on the same thing, more stations have to play the same song in order to seduce/keep their listeners. Whereas in the old days with less money on marketing a station like KROQ could keep listeners by promising new music, now they have to keep them by promising more of the same. And so they do. And they survive.

Many cities have better radio than Los Angeles. In fact, for all I know, MOST cities have better radio than LA! I remember as a student in Berkeley, 105.5 "Live 105" was the San Francisco Bay Area's modern rock radio, and like KROQ, you could hear them playing everything under the sun that was modern and cutting edge. On a recent trip back to the bay area, although Live 105 did have much of the same "Alternative" music as everyone else is forced to play, the station was *still* much more like the old cutting edge station it was than today's KROQ is. The bay area also has Rock stations that play everything from modern to classic rock, unlike LA. Why is LA radio so pathetic, then? You'd think that since LA is the home of the industry--and perhaps the most competitive market--it would have the best radio, not the worst!

In fact, I think it is *because* LA is perhaps the most competitive market, I believe the radio is so bad. The majors put *more* money into marketing machines, videos, payola, advertising, etc. so that the local stations are under even *more* pressure to play the same stable of just a few songs to keep listeners and earn advertiser dollars. In other cities not seen as "crucial" to marketing executives, perhaps this is not so. Or perhaps in other cities, radio programmers are able to survive without being as "in the pocket" of the majors. Either way, I think it's a tragedy that the area which spawns so many excellent bands won't even play those same bands! Take TOOL for example. When Aenima was released, they still couldn't get more than occasional play here in LA...but they are a huge band, and did very well with their album...and got radio play elsewhere.

I find it very sad that I can't listen to my old friend the radio anymore. I don't hear anything fresh or exciting. These days I stick to CDs I buy, and rely on the internet, friends, word of mouth, and mp3s to find new music. I feel especially bad for those who never had the experience of truly revolutionary radio--there is still college radio, but you need to live close to the receiver, and there is internet radio, but not everyone has the high bandwidth connections that these stations require. I wish that those younger than me could still feel that same rush of experiencing something completely unique that you can only hear on the radio, instead the radio being just another place to hear the same old same old. Maybe with time, changing listening patterns, and the help of competition, the current emphasis on mass marketing will change. Some of us certainly hope so.