A 1980’s pop hit by Buggles said “Video Killed The Radio Star”.  I think they have the wrong suspect.

When I got my first radio job in the early 1980’s, the radio industry was a lot like it had been for the past couple of decades previous.  The Communications Act of 1934 was the guiding regulation for AM and FM radio stations.  Ownership was tightly regulated; you could only own two stations per market, and a total of 28 nationwide.  Government rules mandated that, since the airwaves belonged to the public, stations had to be assets to their local communities.  Successful radio stations were those who both provided the entertainment their listeners wanted and served the community to which they were licensed.

All this began to change in the 1980s.  The first networks to provide 24-hour music formats began operation.  Their pitch was offering small town station owners the opportunity to provide “major market” air talent and programming for a reasonable cost, delivered via satellite to the station.  For less than it would cost to pay one disc jockey, you could have an entire staff. Economic realities in some small towns made this a very desirable deal for some owners.  Some would do their best to integrate local programming with the satellite formats, keeping one or two local DJs on the air.  Others would simply fire the whole staff,  “turn on the bird” and walk away.

Radio deregulation at first was gradual.  First, stations were allowed to sell advertising for other stations, then allowed to operate stations actually owned by other companies.  By the early 90’s, radio was suffering financially.  The broadcasting lobby, which had a lot of influence in Washington, pushed for a relaxation of ownership limits.  Then, in 1996, President Clinton, pressured by Congress, signed into law the Telecommunications Act, which essentially did away those limits.  Broadcasting companies could own as many stations as they wanted nationwide.  They were still limited to a certain percentage of stations per market, depending on market size.

This set off a frenzy of buying and selling radio stations.  You could go through several owners in a few years.  A fellow colleague of mine saw their station change hands three times in the course of a year.  When the dust settled near the turn of the century, the broadcasting industry was dominated by companies like Clear Channel, Cumulus Media, and CBS Radio.

But there was a price to pay for all this acquisition.  It takes a lot of money to buy a radio station, especially in the biggest cities of the U.S.  In order to pay for the costs, the broadcasting companies began cutting staff…and it was almost always the programming department that would get the axe first.  New digital technologies allowed for much smoother use of automation, so why, some thought, do you really need a DJ, when a machine will work for nothing?  The overnight air talent were usually the first to get fired, then part-timers on the weekend.  Before long, the night shift and the midday hosts would be replaced by Otto Mation.

Programmers at each station were having to follow the lead of vice presidents who didn’t even live in their town.  A lot of choice in what to play was taken away from the local level.  The biggest broadcasters found they had the power to make or break a record, by adding — or not adding it — to the playlist of hundreds of stations at once.

At the beginning of the big consolidation rush, company heads would say new ownership rules would bring more diversity to music formats.  Instead, you can go from one town to the next and hear pretty much the same songs wherever you go.  It’s easier to keep the shareholders happy if you stay with the “safe” choices.  Clear Channel, especially, will take formats and transplant them from one town to the next, with seemingly no thought to the differences between them.

Most radio stations don’t offer news outside of their morning shows, if they offer it at all.  Local weather?  Good luck finding it on some of the stations in our nearest rated market.  Airshifts are now voicetracked — prerecorded by people who may live across the country — or hosted by people who don’t know how to do anything but read a card with a slogan on it.  And now, the cuts that eviscerated local radio in the small towns are moving into the big cities.  Clear Channel has been cutting jobs in even New York and Los Angeles.  CBS Radio just let go even more people today.

It’s all because the focus of radio broadcasters has changed.  Dallas talk radio host Jon-David Wells said it best…

The Communications Act of 1934 mandated Service.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 eradicated all of it.  Now, an American Broadcasts licensee operates in the stockholder interest, as a fiduciary handmaiden of the New York Stock Exchange.  We traded FCC inspectors for SEC inspectors, Sponsors for Sales quotas, Responsibility for Renegade Profit, Broadcasters for Board-Ops….To the benefit of the transitory revenue spike.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 mandates Savagery.

In the meantime, radio is slowly losing market share.  Many people in their mid-30s and younger don’t even listen to radio any longer, preferring Internet radio or their I-Pods.

What killed the radio star?

Not video.

Radio killed itself.