3 ms·

> Corporate Radio™ as brought about by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 What happened with that? I'm not familiar with this.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996 Under the heading “Later criticism” there is a bit of an explanation; I guess the ownership rules changed so stations were consolidated to fewer owners. > The legislation eliminated a cap on nationwide radio station ownership and allowed an entity to own up to four stations in a single market. Within five years of the act's signing, radio station ownership dropped from approximately 5100 owners to 3800. Today, iHeartMedia is the largest corporation with over 860 radio stations under its name across the nation.
kibwen 3y ago
Clear Channel happened, or as they're called these days, iHeartMedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHeartMedia#Market_share https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHeartMedia#Market_share
nwallin 3y ago
The Communications Act of 1934 stipulated that one entity could own one and only one radio station. Every radio station was an independent business. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated this limit, and instead stipulated that one entity was limited to owning four radio stations in any given market. It brought about massive consolidation. Prior to 1996 every single radio station was its own independent company; since then, there are huge corporations that own a shitload of radio stations. And they will have 2-4 programs; they play their hiphop program on their 300 hiphop stations, country on their 100 country stations, rock on their 150 rock stations, and talk radio on their 200 talk stations. And that's it. You have those 4 stations. For the most part, prior to 1996, at any given radio station there was just some idiot kid who was just playing what he wanted to play. And sometimes he put on something that was...out there. It was at least interesting. After 1996, for the most part, music on radio stations is organized by market research groups that picks what to play based on some sort of wide consensus. You'll never get an interesting radio station that just plays weird random interesting shit. Everything has to be approved by a boardroom full of old rich people. Radio is dull as dishwater these days. I mean it's always been bad, but at least sometimes it was interesting.
- nerdponx 3y ago
  I had no idea, I always wondered why radio was so bad compared to what my parents seemed to have had growing up. Great example of industry consolidation hurting consumers, thanks.
  - squarefoot 3y ago
    Today the best music centered radio stations are all online. Frequencies, transmitters and repeaters cost a lot more than servers and bandwidth, so most online-only radios can still air what they want without being forced to surrender their play schedule to record labels.
- tptacek 3y ago
  If Clear Channel hadn't consolidated AOR and Modern Rock radio, would you still be listening to linear radio today, and not Spotify or Apple Music? And that because you don't have linear radio, and primarily because of that, have you switched from rock to hip-hop or to not listening to music?
  - soylentcola 3y ago
    Probably? Because now I listen to a few streaming "radio" stations when I am in the car or doing work around the house. They are "linear" and human-programmed. Some pay for licensing and some likely do not. My current go-to was called Devil's Night Radio but they now stream under the name KPJK (a Twin Peaks ref) in addition to running a quirky cabin rental place in CA. Lots of garage rock, punk, classic Americana, old country/western, TV and movie soundtrack stuff...it's an odd mix but I love it. I use Youtube Music to look something up if I am on the road and I really just want to hear something I uploaded from my personal collection, but for discovery and just letting someone else take the reins, streaming "radio" is still my fave.
  - randomdata 3y ago
    Who stopped? > have you switched from rock to hip-hop or to not listening to music? Less music, at least. I moved on to informational radio once the rock stations became unlistenable. The local public broadcaster produces some wonderful content about science, technology, and business. These days, I do subscribe to a number of podcasts recorded from out-of-market radio stations that still have decent musical content. While, granted, distribution to me is no longer linear, these programs are originally produced for linear radio play. If I could readily tune in to those stations without the technical encumberments, I probably would. I also use Spotify from time to time, but it replaced CDs, not the radio. That's an entirely different ballgame. I don't see it scratching the same itch.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996 Under the heading “Later criticism” there is a bit of an explanation; I guess the ownership rules changed so stations were consolidated to fewer owners. > The legislation eliminated a cap on nationwide radio station ownership and allowed an entity to own up to four stations in a single market. Within five years of the act's signing, radio station ownership dropped from approximately 5100 owners to 3800. Today, iHeartMedia is the largest corporation with over 860 radio stations under its name across the nation.

kibwen 3y ago

Clear Channel happened, or as they're called these days, iHeartMedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHeartMedia#Market_share https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHeartMedia#Market_share

nwallin 3y ago

The Communications Act of 1934 stipulated that one entity could own one and only one radio station. Every radio station was an independent business. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated this limit, and instead stipulated that one entity was limited to owning four radio stations in any given market. It brought about massive consolidation. Prior to 1996 every single radio station was its own independent company; since then, there are huge corporations that own a shitload of radio stations. And they will have 2-4 programs; they play their hiphop program on their 300 hiphop stations, country on their 100 country stations, rock on their 150 rock stations, and talk radio on their 200 talk stations. And that's it. You have those 4 stations. For the most part, prior to 1996, at any given radio station there was just some idiot kid who was just playing what he wanted to play. And sometimes he put on something that was...out there. It was at least interesting. After 1996, for the most part, music on radio stations is organized by market research groups that picks what to play based on some sort of wide consensus. You'll never get an interesting radio station that just plays weird random interesting shit. Everything has to be approved by a boardroom full of old rich people. Radio is dull as dishwater these days. I mean it's always been bad, but at least sometimes it was interesting.

nerdponx 3y ago
I had no idea, I always wondered why radio was so bad compared to what my parents seemed to have had growing up. Great example of industry consolidation hurting consumers, thanks.
- squarefoot 3y ago
  Today the best music centered radio stations are all online. Frequencies, transmitters and repeaters cost a lot more than servers and bandwidth, so most online-only radios can still air what they want without being forced to surrender their play schedule to record labels.
tptacek 3y ago
If Clear Channel hadn't consolidated AOR and Modern Rock radio, would you still be listening to linear radio today, and not Spotify or Apple Music? And that because you don't have linear radio, and primarily because of that, have you switched from rock to hip-hop or to not listening to music?
- soylentcola 3y ago
  Probably? Because now I listen to a few streaming "radio" stations when I am in the car or doing work around the house. They are "linear" and human-programmed. Some pay for licensing and some likely do not. My current go-to was called Devil's Night Radio but they now stream under the name KPJK (a Twin Peaks ref) in addition to running a quirky cabin rental place in CA. Lots of garage rock, punk, classic Americana, old country/western, TV and movie soundtrack stuff...it's an odd mix but I love it. I use Youtube Music to look something up if I am on the road and I really just want to hear something I uploaded from my personal collection, but for discovery and just letting someone else take the reins, streaming "radio" is still my fave.
- randomdata 3y ago
  Who stopped? > have you switched from rock to hip-hop or to not listening to music? Less music, at least. I moved on to informational radio once the rock stations became unlistenable. The local public broadcaster produces some wonderful content about science, technology, and business. These days, I do subscribe to a number of podcasts recorded from out-of-market radio stations that still have decent musical content. While, granted, distribution to me is no longer linear, these programs are originally produced for linear radio play. If I could readily tune in to those stations without the technical encumberments, I probably would. I also use Spotify from time to time, but it replaced CDs, not the radio. That's an entirely different ballgame. I don't see it scratching the same itch.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]