“All hail the death of Radio,” proclaims another piece of editorial flim-flam disguised as journalism. This time the culprit is SF Gate, which seems to have some relationship to the more prestigious San Francisco Chronicle – but not so much relationship as to actually have this particular writer earn a Chronicle byline.
Nevertheless, the article is so full of bile and vitriol one wonders whether the author is capable of getting up on a side of his bed which is anything but the wrong one.
Our fearless truth-seeker writes: “Clear Channel, that nasty and adorably soulless megacorporate owner of roughly 1 billion preprogrammed radio Dumpsters across the nation….”
Sounds to me like somebody didn’t get that DJ job he applied for, doesn’t it?
He goes on: “Live 105, was playing a new song by a red-hot band called Kasabian. And I was all, whoa, this is good, followed by hey wait, this is on the radio, followed by wow, radio actually introduced me to an excellent piece of new music I’ve never heard, followed by the realization that this hasn’t happened since about, oh, 1996.”
How is it that someone whose music tastes are far outside the mainstream presumes in any way to speak for the masses?
Don’t blame Radio if listeners prefer Eric Clapton to Kasabian. Blame the listeners. Nobody has as much incentive to please the audience as a broadcaster does. That’s why they call it “broad”casting, not “pod”casting.
But it’s easier to tear down a corporate behemoth than it is to acknowledge what this writer really fears most: That the vast, unwashed audience disagrees with him.
Completely.
Radio does not owe any writer with a chip on his shoulder its playlist when the great majority of our listeners prefer something else.
Your band didn’t make it. That DJ job didn’t come through. And the SF Chronicle won’t lend you its byline.
Deal.