Community Vs Corporate Radio Media

Not so long ago, as Tom Petty well knows, community radio was one of the great joys of the legendary American cross-country drive. While driving across the country, you could hear the accents and musical preferences change with the landscape outside your car window. Today it doesn't matter if you are in Springfield, Missouri, or Springfield, Massachusetts. The music, the voices, and even most of the ads are the same. As more and more radio stations have become part of large corporations, standardized formats can be found repeatedly throughout the United States in most metropolitan areas. By now, most commercial radio stations lack any personality. Programming for hundreds of stations is dictated from company headquarters and by consultants. Indeed, in many cases, the corporate owners of radio stations rely exclusively on playlists that are developed by a handful of consultants. The result is that whether you are in New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, or Minneapolis, you will listen to the exact same music (and sometimes the same DJs, thanks to satellite feeds). Corporate stations keep claiming that they know what's best for the consumer through skewed surveys. In reality, they rarely take into account the interests of the public and have managed to prevent whole generations from accessing anything that is not mainstream pop culture (DiCola).

For six decades there were limits on how many stations any single company could own, nationwide or in any given market. This kept radio locally based and relatively accessible, at least compared to network-dominated television. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 repealed all limits on station ownership (Diddlebock). Of the approximately 11,000 stations in the country, over 2,100 stations changed hands in 1996 alone. The largest four parent companies in almost every geographic market control a 70 percent share (or greater) of listeners and revenue which essentially means that local musicians across the U.S. may have more trouble getting on the air than they used to (DiCola). Clear Channel is the Wal-Mart and McDonald's of radio monopolization. Since 1996, the Clear Channel chain has grown from 43 stations to over 1,200 (Clear Channel). Meanwhile, in any given week, between 80 and 100 percent of the songs on the various radio charts (pop, r&b, country, rock, etc.) are released by only five major record companies (DiCola).

As a result, there is simply no more room in America's cultural mainstream for local, innovative, or original human voices. Many chain stations, in fact, carry the same programming, with the same announcers, from coast to coast. Local programming has fallen by the wayside as Clear Channel sets up region-wide "cyber-jocking" to save the cash on local DJ jobs. Radio used to be the most local of media. It was where you turned for high school basketball games, farm-market reports, and local church broadcasts. In this ratings-driven climate, radio that actively meets the needs of the community - whether it be public-affairs shows or programming featuring local artists - has fallen by the wayside. The net result is that the average listener has fewer choices, especially when it comes to hearing local music (DiCola).

However, in our locality, we have the community radio station KVMR FM, Nevada City. They are often described as follows: "Applying the slogan "Music of the World, Voice of the Community," KVMR is a not-for-profit entity operating under the auspices of the Nevada City Broadcast Group. KVMR's broad range of music programming includes many genres not available elsewhere. The station serves its community of listeners with public affairs programming, interesting and educational interviews, local and international news and alternative points of view on profound topics of interest to listeners, including nationally syndicated Democracy Now!. KVMR has over 150 volunteer broadcasters with wide ranging tastes and expertise, a large cadre of event and office volunteers and a small staff. Funding for KVMR's operation comes from listeners, underwriters, events, and grants." Concurrent with their designation as a community radio station, they regularly demonstrate that KVMR serves the community. They achieve this through Public Service Announcements, providing airtime to community organizations, and covering issues of local concern. They are also, in fact, the official emergency broadcast outlet in Nevada County(KVMR website). KVMR does not attempt to play every genre of music and present every point-of-view on every issue, since it is impossible to please everybody, but they do strive to please many people as often as possible by granting access to an alternative to the mainstream: a thoughtful, diverse, and interesting blend of music and public affairs programming that appeals to the community's extremely varied listening audience. The stations broadcasters represent an amazing range of ages, backgrounds, points of view, musical tastes, and modes of expression. Concisely, KVMR attempts to provide material neglected by other media, including coverage of local issues (Baker).

An exclusively unique aspect of community radio is its multiple venues of including listeners directly in the process of programming radio. KVMR welcomes any willing member of the community to join the Board of Directors, the Program Committee, become a volunteer in the business office or at KVMR events, or become a volunteer broadcaster. KVMRs philosophy is centered around the idea that active participation by members of the community best insures that the community's wishes are well represented. Without a dedicated base of volunteers, a community radio station like KVMR could not exist or function. Every aspect of the station including assistance with office administration, event production, music library maintenance, fundraising, board and committee representation and of course, on-air broadcasting, is managed by volunteers. Conservative estimates suggest that over four hundred individuals volunteer for KVMR each year (Broadcaster Handbook). Many influential people have been inspired to be involved with KVMR like Michael Moore who, during the last day of their most recent pledge drive, offered to match ever donation made to the station until they reached their goal of $100,000, which they exceeded by $300. (KVMR website)

Another characteristic that sets KVMR and other stations like it apart, instead of taking up copious amounts of air time with commercial advertisements, is its underwriting system. The underwriting system has been used since KVMRs conception and is an effective way of marketing for local businesses. Radio is pervasive and subliminal; even when you are not actively listening, you are hearing, and the information is being absorbed. Radio should be an integral part of any well-designed marketing plan. KVMRs listeners know that the breaks are short, and the messages will not be loud and annoying, so they are a lot less likely to tune out. An underwriting message gets heard, not lost in the clutter and hype heard in advertisements on Corporate stations. Underwriting messages contain the name of the underwriter and a brief description of their business or activity, along with location and contact information. Well-educated people do not want to hear exaggerated claims, just the pertinent facts, and they will be more likely to support the business underwriting. For the cost of a one-time ad in a local paper, businesses can have announcements on KVMR all year long, and reach a highly desirable target market, which is why underwriting is so effective. Not long ago, Clear Channel moved to reduce their commercial load to 12 minutes per hour, from highs of as much as 20 minutes. Even with the reduction, commercials still make up 20% of their programming, which leads commercial radio listeners to do a lot of button pushing (Underwriting).

From a corporate perspective, it's easier to streamline playlists from media market to media market than to develop entirely separate charts for each station playing a particular format. Yet a playlist for a commercial station can contain as few as 50 songs, almost 50% of which overlap onto other supposedly different playlist formats. This approach often leaves listeners and artists alike grumbling about the exclusion of local or independent talent. In this ratings-driven climate, radio that actively meets the needs of the community - whether it be public-affairs shows or programming featuring local artists - has fallen by the wayside. The net result is that the average listener has fewer choices, especially when it comes to hearing local music. National playlists and a reliance on market research have made DJs little more than button-pushers with limited say in what records get aired (DiCola). Clear Channel operates around 1,200 US radio stations, owns or programs 41 television stations, has about 875,000 outdoor advertising display faces internationally, boasts over 110 million listeners, represents roughly 9% of all radio stations (including nonprofit), employs approximately 32,000 people, and reaches 45% of all people ages 18-49 in the U.S. on daily basis (Clear Channel; Penzner). They have the ability to censor their playlists at any time as they have done several times in recent history. After Natalie Mains of the Dixie Chicks expressed shame over President Bush's willingness towards war, Clear Channel stations across the country stopped playing songs by the group. Clear Channel officials denied a company-wide mandate had been issued, but they didn't demand that the Dixie Chicks be placed back on the playlist in an effort to prove that narrow kind of political culture didn't exist within the company.(Staples) These are the types of strategies corporations use to influence and sway public opinion.

Talk radio is also a major force of manipulation through use of propaganda and arrogant, radical, biased, narrow-minded talk-show hosts that are broadcast all across the country. Its conservative hosts rule AM radio and the moving force behind the new Republican majority; one survey showed that hard-core listeners to the format voted 3-to-1 Republican.(Talkers) As could be expected, the hosts showed little interest in criticizing the G.O.P. Rush Limbaughs talk show alone is attended by 20 million people a week on 660 stations (Corliss). Four in ten Americans listen to talk radio on a fairly frequent basis and Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to report listening to talk radio on a regular basis (Vocal Minority). More than 1,000 talk stations (up from 200 ten years ago), and hundreds more with Evangelical Christian commentators, deliver hot chat to a devoted constituency. About half of all American adults listen to the format at least once a week for at least an hour, according to Talkers magazine (Talkers; Corliss). In a 1993 poll by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press, 44% of Americans named talk radio as their chief source of political information (Vocal Minortiy). Listeners tend to be white, male and help to support conservative ideas -- just the audience the Republicans wanted to mobilize. During the last presidential election campaigns, conservatives like Rush Limbaugh urged Republicans in the open primary states of Ohio and Texas to cross party lines and vote for Hillary Clinton, intentionally attempting to increase the chances of what they consider to be a bad candidate winning in the hope they may slightly increase their candidate's chances (Graham).

Adversely, since Rush Limbaugh established himself as a radio phenomenon in the 1990s and spawned a new genre of political talk (including Air America), the country has elected two Democrats to the U.S. presidency in three of the past five elections. Financed by some, but clearly not enough, liberal fat cats hoping to provide a counter-voice to right-wing radio, Air America lurched to life amid chaos and suspicious bookkeeping that nearly sank the network in its first few months. Flouting received radio wisdom that one strong host creates the strongest listener identity, Air America began with teams in each three-hour time slot, typically pairing a comedian (Marc Maron, Lizz Winstead, Al Franken) with a radio veteran (Mark Riley, Rachel Maddow, Katherine Lanpher). Evenings, radio novices Garofalo and Seder held a yearlong, on-the-air school of self-taught broadcasting. Nobody in charge realized that talking every weekday on the radio is a learned art. Standup comics - who hone their material into 10-minute bits rather than letting it sail for hours on end, and need to be wired, not radio-relaxed - are not necessarily cut out for this job. By 2005, Air America had seemed a growing, if not going, concern (Hinckley). Its audience's average age (48, compared with the typical talk show's 60) and gender-graphics (48% male, vs. Limbaugh's 40%) made the network theoretically attractive to advertisers. Franken occasionally beat Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly in some markets (Corliss). Unfortunately, Air America went bankrupt from lack of know-how in the radio industry. Some of their major mistakes include underestimating the skill needed to be an entertaining radio host, overestimating their funding, and their lack of exposure. Air America did, however, launch the political and news careers of Al Franken, who announced his candidacy for Senator of Minnesota on the stations final day of broadcasting February 14, 2007 which he won, and Rachel Maddow who now has her own popular show on MSNBC (Hinckely).

In summary, the radio industry has changed from a locally oriented system, to being conglomerated. The corporatization of radio matters because it's destroying a uniquely intimate medium, replacing real community voices, people with a sense of place and purpose, with the same sound-a-like shows in city after city, town after town. Now, most DJs merely play music from the same computer printouts, repeating the same genre-driven tunes. Unfortunately, it's highly profitable.. The formats may change every once in a while, but, in general, there are just a handful of them. Most are old formats with new names: CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio), Soft Rock, Urban (R&B & hip hop), Country, Oldies, Classic Rock, and Smooth Jazz. Community radio stations like KVMR make it their priority to ensure that the community it serves community is well informed and involved, embraces diversity, respectfully shares opinions and fosters economic and social justice. KVMR builds community by bringing people together to mutually appreciate and preserve the music of the world and give voice to the community, long neglected by corporation operated stations.

Article name: Community Vs Corporate Radio Media essay, research paper, dissertation