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By Marc Fisher Don't worry, the big radio companies promised, everything will be fine. The more stations we buy, the more we can experiment, the more diversity the listener will hear. That's what they said during those frenzied months when a handful of companies -- taking advantage of Congress's 1996 decision to loosen restrictions on the number of stations anyone could own -- were grabbing up about 4,000 of the nation's 10,000 radio stations. Something like $32 billion has changed hands, and the dust has not yet settled. What's already clear is that the listener is the loser. In recent months, I have asked executives at several big radio companies to cite examples of the new diversity of programming they had promised. Not a one came up with anything but slight variations on the standard, bland "adult contemporary" music formats that dominate the dial. Now, listeners across the country are registering their displeasure. Not only is the number of people who turn on their radios in decline, but in city after city, listeners are fighting the loss of creative programming. When an alternative rock station in Hawaii shut down, and when a progressive music station in Minneapolis was bought and switched to a heavy-metal format, listeners formed protest groups. Listener rebellions occasionally persuade owners to restore beloved formats, but now, thousands of listeners have come together in Americans for Radio Diversity, which aims to revive the local feel of radio in an era of distant owners and nationally syndicated programming. Jeremy Wilker, a graphic designer in Minneapolis, co-founded the group out of a passion for Rev 105, a progressive station that Disney bought and flipped first to a heavy-metal format and then, when listeners failed to respond, to "modern rock." "The old Rev didn't treat their listeners like they were dumb," Wilker recalls. "It wasn't all the same. Patsy Cline, Smashing Pumpkins, anything good, they played." Wilker's favorite station was a throwback to the days before focus groups and dial tests determined what goes on the air. Actual people with actual ideas made programming decisions, and they played James Brown, Patti Smith, Husker Du and Soul Coughing, even if that meant appealing -- horrors! -- to more than one narrow demographic slice. Americans for Radio Diversity has just released the first of three planned benefit albums. Called "Teleconned: We Want the Airwaves," the disc protests the deregulation that "turned the playground of radio stations over to the bullies." The CD features 16 songs -- some new, some old songs reworked -- by the likes of Ben Folds Five, Ani DiFranco and Nicole Blackman. Receipts from the disc "will go to support independent stations around the country, and give them a support system to continue broadcasting spirited, irreverent, unusual radio," Blackman says. Wilker is under no illusion that listeners can roll back the power of Chancellor, CBS, ABC, Jacor and other large radio owners. He hopes to bring back the better days of radio by creating an alternative broadcast universe, a nationwide system of low-power microstations serving areas of perhaps 10 miles in diameter. Proposals now before the FCC would legalize low-power stations, serving urban neighborhoods or individual suburbs with ultra-local programming ranging from ethnic music to school board coverage. A relative handful of illegal pirate stations around the country are attracting attention, particularly from law enforcement agencies. But Wilker and others want to legalize the small stations, which they would limit to one per owner. Naturally, the National Association of Broadcasters is dead set against microbroadcasting. But the FCC seems open to considering the concept, and there are no longer technical barriers to the idea. "The illegal stations are an act of civil disobedience," Wilker says. "The FCC has lost the public's trust. Micropower stations can build a sense of community. It's real public service." They might even make money, just as community weeklies coexist with metropolitan newspapers. If listeners tilting at corporate windmills seems quixotic, consider that in addition to listeners, consolidation has created another class of losers -- the advertisers who are the lifeblood of any commercial medium. Now that one company often dominates a city's radio dial -- in Washington, for example, Chancellor Media owns eight stations and accounts for one-third of local radio revenues -- radio companies can jack up ad rates. Advertisers would love to find a way around such behemoths. While the FCC has largely abdicated its role in protecting the public's stake,
Chairman William Kennard has made vague statements lamenting the impact of consolidation
on minority ownership of broadcast stations. He called diverse ownership in broadcasting
"vital to the democratic process." Whether he'll do anything about it is
another question. © Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company |